I need help with my house I’ve found something that could cost a fortune to restore

[JustPaintOverIt]

Sadly we bought the most ridiculous period property. It’s a terraced house built in 1760 listed on the exterior for reasons we didn’t understand.

We were first time buyers and extremely naive! We did a survey but it wasn’t worth the paper it was written on.

So we moved in 3 days before lockdown so we did a lot of decorating ourselves or mainly DH as I worked in icu. We fitted a muti fuel stove in the front room and painted everywhere.

We discovered the house’s original bannister and spindles from basement to landing, they’d covered them up with wood chip over the spindles, we found original beams, we found the original Thomas crapper flushing toilet and the letter asking to install it in our outhouse (now shed), we also found an original window plssterboarded up inside and outside

We have an open fire in the dining room that works we just don’t use it.

last week directly underneath the open fire we found an original fireplace, when we moved in we found a Victorian (ish) cast iron range in the gas meter cupboard and we were going to fit it to the wall in the basement as the previous owners had the basement tanked and converted then we needed a socket fixing and long story short the electrician found the fireplace.

can we use the restored cast iron range in the fireplace if we get it lined?

or would you put a big eco multi fuel stove in there to be a bit more modern? The basement renovation is our next project so ignore the mould because it will all be sorted. The photo of the stairs is what was previously boxed in & the range is an example of what we have.

Or would you just pretend you didn’t find it and hide it again 🤣

Have you measured it up to see if it will fit? The AI mockup in the last picture has the fireplace height too high compared to the fireplace you have uncovered. Also, with the range, are there any functional considerations such as rust or fixtures that need replacing due to age/wear and tear? If it's a big restoration project I'd be tempted to just buy a new one.

Oh my goodness - I am so jealous! I would go for restoring everything, and even the range thing looks in very good nick...

I guess it is up to you and your partner though - not us jealous randoms on t'internet.

My uncle boxed one of those in 30 years ago when putting in a modern kitchen in his mid 1700s house. It had been owned by a lady in her mid 90s who’d lived there all her life and was completely unmodernised. I think it’s a thing of beauty but it’s not really practical.

You could use it though, I dread to think how long it’d take to heat up. I sort of think it’s only feasible if you are going to have a servant to tend it or rely or central heating and just have it for show.

ah yes we took the exact measurements of what it would look like fully assembled so we could make sure that it would A. Fit on wall we wanted it to and B get down the stairs of the basement.

It Fits perfectly into the hole we now have so that’s fine and the lovely company we’ve sent it to be restored by is aware it needs to be assembled downstairs and will never leave the basement once assembled (requires a bit of welding so we’ve already factored in that cost)

Hi OP in answer to your question yes.
here is a company whom do
what your looking for.
https://www.thevictorianemporium.com
I have a Victorian house and been looking for a new or reproduction fire place .

You are incredible thank you!!

We have decided recently that instead of removing the crazy paving feature wall we have on the dining room wall around the open fire we are just going to clad it in bricks and I know that sounds like a cop out when renovating a house but I genuinely dread to think how much taking that wall down and then plastering over it, so we’re going to just pretend it never existed (sorry to our buyers if they hate it at some point if we ever sell) I hate it so much!

no help with your question but you should know if your house is listed, it is all listed, inside and out, nice old parts, ugly newer additions.

https://historicengland.org.uk/advice/your-home/owning-historic-property/listed-building/

Yeah I didn’t add that much of 2020 was spent with dealing with heritage England dealing with consent to essentially restore the property. After 4 conversations they came and inspected the property and found the previous owners had broken a lot of laws but I wasn’t sure if a stud wall counts as making changes ? If it does then I’ll speak to them asap and make sure we are all on the same page

If your range is half as good as the picture example, the wow, that is an amazing find.

I guess my thoughts are:

1. How long do you intend to stay in the property?
2. How do you intend to use the room that the range will be put in?

I imagine it will be costly to restore and install, but will look amazing! If you're planning on staying for a long time and will be making good use of the room, then I'd say get it installed. But if you think you'll be moving in the near future, perhaps consider the cost. It would be a wonderful feature that would definitely help sell the house, but would you realistically recoup your money?

Yeah it is basically the same, it’s honestly lovely looking and we have sent it off to be properly restored so it will look even better when it comes back. The front room of the basement is a cinema room and it’s separated from the room with the range in it (if we do it) by an original barn door in that the top bit is separate from the bottom. It’s an odd property but also we love it. We have 2 children but not planning any more (and actively preventing). We could upgrade to a bigger house at some point but right now we are mortgage free (my mum died and we used inheritance) so we have no plans for at least 10 years of we’re totally honest!

OP, if the previous owners made changes that were not approved, will you be responsible for restoring that aspect then claim the costs back?

If you have a Victorian range in a basement will you have ventilation / carbon monoxide problems?

Are you getting listed building consent for all these works? Even if the property listing only mentions the outside of the house the WHOLE house is listed and many of these changes you’ve described doing / done would like listed building consent

Just commenting to say your house sounds amazing! You could start an insta account on the restoration!

I can’t edit my original post but yes we have consent for the works because it’s restoring it back to what should never have been removed. The previous owners have been taken to court to pay for the repairs needed to be done to the house. The newly found fireplace that was boxed off has been reported to the correct authority and no doubt they will want to inspect it and tell us what we need to do but I’d just love to make it work

Honestly if money is a concern just cover the wall and pretend it was never found.

However
The newly found fireplace that was boxed off has been reported to the correct authority and no doubt they will want to inspect it and tell us what we need to do but I’d just love to make it work

You surely just need to wait for them then???

Can you shoe us the pics of the other finds? 🤩

Any thing you are doing unless it is a like for like repair needs listed building consent, even removing awful crap that the previous owners have out in like stud walls unless you already have listed buildings consent for it. It's a pain in the ass but worth doing properly.

That crazy paved wall does NOT look original!

It’s not your decision, it’s up to your conservation officer. Contact them before you do further work. If you have “found” this now, what work were you actually doing and what has been approved?

Comments from OP explain that they have this

This was my first thought, I would be very nervous about trying to actually use a Victorian range like this. Restored for visual purposes doesn’t mean restored to safe modern usable standards.

If you're in the South of England, this company is brilliant for helping with old, especially listed buildings www.heritagerevival.uk

I’d definitely use it but it might just be decorative, under the clean air rules it wouldn’t comply but even as a feature it would be amazing