Strip Out

Like many homes, quite a bit of 'undoing' work is required before one can make improvements.
We were well aware of this when we bought the house and are quite happy with the progress so far.
The rooms that required this treatment were the kitchen, toilet, bathroom and basement and of these the basement had the biggest challenge - The old heating system.

The red boiler unit stands over six feet tall and the oil tank (The blue thing on the right) lived in it own block work 'drip tray'.
Thankfully, our good friend Trevor had told his neighbour of our wish to remove the old system and he jumped at the chance to take it away. Out of interest, the associated radiators that served the house weighed over 100kg each. It was fun throwing them out of the upper floor windows into the garden though.

The existing toilet was a classic piece of French decoration:

...Trev, being a plumber in a previous life had this out in a flash (Pun intended) and the room will become a utility room eventually. Access to the basement is via this room too.

The kitchen was next and my 'helper' friend Mark and I decided to remove it one evening. In a nutshell, Trev told us off for not maximising the time over there and said that every hour counts. As usual, he was right, so Mark and I made the 15 minute trip back to the house from Trev's.
Within an hour, it was out.

The wall paper and tiles were removed too and it's quite a good space for our new kitchen (2018 for that work though).