Utility Room
July 2006
This small room contains an old oil boiler which will eventually go removed as we aim to convert our heating to a more environmentally friendly option.
January 2008
We found that behind the wallpaper in this room are tiles, yes, they papered over tiles. This meant that the grill over the air vent was only loosely stuck in place and the tea towel that the previous owners had stuffed into the vent was a perfect invitation for rodents! In January a rat found it's way into the house via this vent so once that was dealt with I removed the tea towel and properly secured the vent using that amazing invention... screws!
September 2011
I drained the now un-usable oil boiler, disconnected the pipes and dismantled it to get it outside. This of course revealed that the floor has two layers of tiles as you would expect in this place. Jason removed the flue outside and Michael bricked up the hole. What was also interesting is that when the flue was fitted they used newspaper to plug the hole around it which was crispy and darkened by the intense heat over the years! Also behind the wall in the cavity were some old electrics all connected to a junction box. These were on the old "kitchen socket" circuit so I thought I would use them to wire in a temporary socket for the washing machine because the existing sockets in this room were disconnected a few months ago. Unfortunately this didn't work because although the cables were live they only produced about 3 volts so there must be a serious loose connection somewhere. Eventually this circuit will be replaced anyway.