Progress - Lightwell

June 2014

While the Lightwell renovations will be one of the final jobs to be completed, preparations commenced in June with some work around the old window to the Lightwell (at left below), which will eventually become the door to the Lightwell platform (at right below). Eventually, the external bricks in the bottom of the door opening will be removed, and one step will be placed inside the door, with the remaining steps outside leading up to the Lightwell platform.

July 2014

While the Lightwell platform will not be built until after the band tour finishes, the door to the Lightwell has been already installed. This view, from the Loft, shows the door which will have one step up inside the house and then a few more inside the Lightwell to get up the platform level.

This new door is located behind the boarded-up window facing out into the Lightwell.

November 2014

The original purpose of the Lightwell in the old house was to provide ventilation and light to rooms that would otherwise have no direct contact with the “outside world”. Some of this function will remain in the new house, such as the windows from the stairwell looking out into the Lightwell. Like all other external windows in the new house, these will be double-glazed versions of the original window designs. Although the toilet rooms will still have small windows facing into the Lightwell, their function is now purely cosmetic, with the ventilation now handled by the new VMC system. For the next stage of work on the Lightwell, it was necessary to install a scaffolding system, as seen through the stairwell window (at right) and in more detail from above (below). Since this scaffolding is being hired, the intention was to complete all the work requiring the scaffolding in one go to minimise hiring costs. This includes stripping off the existing render which is in very poor condition after many years of exposure to the weather and the pigeons, re-rendering the internal walls and building the flooring for the glass-floored room at the 2nd Floor level. The glass roof over this room and the triangular window will then be built using the 2nd Floor room as the work area and platform.

The view up the Lightwell from the ground floor now showed clear sky above (with the old corrugated perspex roof removed from above the ground floor), the scaffolding, and Nico’s head peering through the Stairwell window.

December 2014

High up in the Lightwell, Nico was starting work on a structure, which was to become a signature-style in several other parts of the renovation as well. Nico particularly likes traditional French styles of carpentry, with minimal (or zero) use of nails and others means of fixing. Instead, he likes to work with mortice and tenon joints, with wooden pegs to hold timber structures together. This heavy wooden arch was being constructed to support the flooring of a top floor in the Lightwell which was to feature a special surprise. It can be seen that all the old render has been removed, and the transverse and lateral beams have been installed. The iron hoop in the wall at the left, just under the opening for the triangular window, is a remnant of the chimney that used to come up from the ground floor. Perhaps it will be left as a support for a side table on that wall.

While the platform beams themselves are impressive, it is the sub-structure supporting those beams that is the real eye-catcher. Using the same curved motif as on the Garage superstructure, the supporting arches add an amazing architectural touch to the Lightwell. The contrast between the solidity of these timbers and the apparent frailty of the glass floor will be a highlight, whether looking up or down in the Lightwell.

A close-up of the supporting arch makes it look like it has been snowing in the Lightwell (maybe it will later in the Winter!). But in reality it is just the accumulated sawdust from the sanding done on the timbers. The wooden pegs used instead of nails or bolts are clearly apparent (these will be trimmed off eventually), while the detail in the pyramid shape of the bottom of the junction pole and the rebating indicate a high level of attention to detail, so typical of Nico. I look forward to further pictures as the Lightwell approaches completion, to see what extra surprises Nico has in store for us. Nico appeared to be most content with his work when letting his imagination and skills work on the design and construction of such magnificent structures.

The first thing that needed to be done to install the scaffolding was to remove the “temporary” asbestos-cement and perspex roof at the ground floor level. The view below, out of the Stairwell window on the 1st Floor, shows the clear view down to the ground floor with the roof removed, with the door to the Kitchen on the left and the door to the Storeroom out to the right. The old chimney up the outside wall is already in process of removal.

January 2015

Seen from the ground floor, after the scaffolding was removed, the structure seems to hover in the air beneath an azure blue sky (but this was really just a blue tarpaulin to keep the work area dry in the changeable weather conditions). One feature left in the Lightwell is what looks like a set of "climbing rungs" going up the outside wall; these are actually the hoops that used to hold an exhaust flue in place, and they have been retained because (a) they were too difficult to remove and (b) they provide an interesting link back to the previous history of the house.

A somewhat different view up the Lightwell (at right) shows the windows from the Stairwell on each floor. It also shows the wall of the Lightwell after the old rendering had been removed. I rather liked this look, as it highlighted the age of the building, and looked great with an up-light casting shadows on the brickwork. But because the old brickwork was starting to crumble, it was decided to cover the brickwork with a new coat of cement render. The view from the top of the Lightwell was equally as dramatic as the view from the bottom.

The arch mentioned above provides the support for the floor of a small room to be located at the top of the Lightwell. This room is reached by a short staircase (at left below) leading from what used to be a window from the “maids quarters” located on the top floor. Because we wanted to retain the dramatic view down the Lightwell, the floor of this room will be thick plate glass on a substantial timber framework (the chipboard in the photo below is just a temporary work surface).

The purpose of this room, at the moment, is somewhat indeterminate; in times gone by, this room would be known as “a Folly”, constructed purely for its architectural merit. However, it does serve a couple of practical purposes. Firstly, the roof of this room will also be glass (previously it had been open to the elements, and the pigeons), and so the glass floor enables light to penetrate to the bottom of the Lightwell (as was its previous purpose). In winter, this room will provide a warm place to sit in the sun, no matter what the air temperature is outside. Thirdly, it is adjacent to the laundry on the top floor in the old maids quarters, and will provide a useful solar drying room for clothes just washed. But mostly, it’s for guests to look up at from the ground floor and say “Wow!”, and for guests to look down from the top floor and say ”Oh!”. Unfortunately, the room was not finished when the band arrived in August, so they only got the chance to look at it from the ground floor.

February 2015

In February, the cement rendering was applied to the walls of the Lightwell. While the "olde worlde" look that I liked now disappeared, the Lightwell was now much brighter, and will be even more so when the blue tarpaulin is replaced with the glass roof.

March 2015

As noted earlier, the Lightwell room contains a triangular window between the roofline and what was the top of the Lightwell wall in the past. The view of this new room, captured from the roof of a neighbour's house, clearly shows the window. Here Nico, and young son Massa, admire the view from the window out over downtown Moissac.

This is the view they saw.

April 2015

The final work to be done in April at the top of the Lightwell was the installation of the glass roofing above the room, and the laying of the glass floor below the room. The construction of the glass roof made the Lightwell room even more sun-drenched. This made this room very warm in summer (great for drying clothes) and nicely warm in winter (great for sitting with a glass of wine and reading book.

And if you get tired of reading the book, and want a bit more excitement, you can always look down through the glass floor to the abyss below, and say hello to the family!