We Started Restoring Our Original Windows

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:38]Something.

[00:01:02]I don't know if you can see, but I've just noticed we have our first rose.

[00:01:35]Excuse the outfit. I'm wearing Scotland refer. Does it have a number on the bag?

[00:01:40]>> No, it just says Scotland.

[00:01:43]>> Um, but what we have done, I thought I'd update you cuz I haven't been on camera.

[00:01:47]We've completely skimmed this wall and then we've added these two Devol lights which are really, really beautiful. If you're looking for kitchen lights, we are obsessed with them. They're really beautiful. Um, but we've got the two heirloom task lights and I've got the Philips Hue bulbs because we put the normal sort of filament bulbs in yesterday and because you can see the bulb, it's a bit too bright. So, I thought it'd be nice. We have Philips H bulbs everywhere else in the house. So, I thought it would be nice to sort of have these and then I can dim them through an app. And then also two little details on these devol lamps. They come with little wooden plugs to hide the screws. And if you can see, it sort of finishes the lamp off or the light off and makes it look quite cottagey. And I think that's really pretty.

[00:02:38]Good morning everybody. Welcome back to another week of renovating an old house.

[00:02:42]As you can see from the background, it's a bit of a mess in the house right now.

[00:02:46]And that's because this week is hopefully going to be quite a productive week in terms of finishing bits off in the house. You can probably tell in the kitchen that I've moved everything away from the walls because a couple of things are going on in the kitchen.

[00:02:58]We're going to get all of our sockets replaced. It is a bit too soon to do sockets all over the kitchen, but I thought I might as well get someone in to do it now because my dad didn't have time to finish them off the other day.

[00:03:06]So, we're going to get all the sockets changed over from the plastic ones you'll be able to see down here to some really beautiful ones from Coren. They are brass obviously. So, I'll show you them in a second. I'm then going to prep this wall and paint it in a lime wash finish to sort of compare between that and then the raw plaster that we have on the other wall. We then need to fix these windows and the shutters. I've ordered the epoxy uh that Kyle used on the front door. If you didn't see it a few weeks ago, Kyle basically completely restored our front door, sanded it all back, and then painted it, and it looks absolutely beautiful. So, I'm effectively going to be trying to do the same thing on the shutters and the windows and the paneling in the sitting room, and I'm going to be taking you with us to do that as well. I've got some new window hardware. So, there's a lot going on. It might be easier to show you around the kitchen really quickly, show you the new sockets, the old sockets, what we're changing, um, and then we can carry on with this video.

[00:03:59]So, let me start in the kitchen and show you around. So, as you can see, the kitchen wall has been completely skimmed and replastered. We've then fixed all the bits where all the shelves were in the walls. And then, as you can see, the piesta resistance. The lights are in.

[00:04:12]They are gorgeous. They are really beautiful. They're solid brass in like a kind of orange finish. Uh the light bulb that I have at the moment is coming across as a bit too orange. I'll turn them on in a sec so I can show you. But so so happy with the lights. I think they look absolutely beautiful. And this is what we're left with down here. So, we have the old original, not original, but the old plastic sockets that are just free from the wall at the moment.

[00:04:35]They're just cheap plastic ones that we will be taking out today. Uh we have actually got new ones from Cen.

[00:04:43]They come in two parts. So you get the component in one of these boxes which is that and then I've opted for the kitchen ones. We've got one all the way over here in this corner and then two sockets here which will be UV sorry what are they called? USBC type um plug socket so you can easily charge your phone and devices on the countertop. So I've opted for these three to be like this and then they finished off with this beautiful brass finish which I think is going to look stunning. So we've got three of those for here. We've then got one to go in down here on the wall. And then this whole corner needs to be completely rejigged. We need to take out the BT uh phone line that's been left in there since the old days. I'm not even sure how old that is. And then we have a 5 amp light switch plug socket, which if you didn't know, you can plug in table lamps to you have to change obviously the end of this, but you can plug table lamps in and then control it with the switch that you'd normally turn your ceiling or your wall lights on. So, we've got the exact same replica in the brass finish from Coen that we're going to change this one. And then I've also got a double switch with a USBC type plug as well, so that when you're sat on the sofa, you can easily plug this one in. But I'm not going to get the guy coming today to change this. I'll get my dad to do it in a few weeks time. So, this one is going to be changed. And then as Chad is starting, well, he's actually finished on the hallways, we've decided to change this one. And then there's one downstairs in the other hallway just because it looks quite cheap. And this will look beautiful when it's flushed to the wall and in a brass finish. So, yeah, that's the update. So, I'm just re-jigging everything in the kitchen now, trying to make everything more accessible and easier for the electrician to come and do that. And then hopefully it will look a lot prettier. So, I'll give you updates when he comes. I'm then going to once he's finished prep this whole wall with the undercoat primer for what you're meant to use for line wash. So, I'm going to completely make all of this one color. I think it's then going to give it a texture. I'm not too sure. I need to do a bit research before I do it. And then I'm going to apply the sample that is actually on the ball here. It's the color wheat by Bark. It looks really good. I did a really good job here actually. But what I'm going to do is do the whole thing again. Start fresh. And then I'm going to get you guys to help us choose because I am very much leaning towards lime wash and Chad is very much leaning towards plaster. So I'm going to get a good sample on the wall so we can properly compare them and hopefully you guys will help us make a decision. So this is the prep coat that was recommended on Bowwork's website. I did a bit of research online washes and Bowwork did come up on top in terms of like the finish, the color choices. So I'll show you the color in a second, but this is the prep coat. I'm not sure if this is textured or if it has some form of like I don't know sort of substrate in it. I'm not too sure, but it says it can be painted by rolling or spraying.

[00:07:32]Start at the window and paint away from the light. So, I'd assume it has some form of either texture or something to it. Um, but this is going to go on this part of the wall here. I'm probably going to do up to the cabinet, the pantry, kitchen, what they called the fridge door. Um, up to the door frame.

[00:07:47]cover all of that where the old white is painted and then it will give you a better show of what this color will look like on this wall. If you've never seen a lime wash before, you can kind of see on the lid that it's got a really funny texture to it. So, you need to mix this really really well and then you apply it in sort of brush strokes in a cloud form and it gives you this really subtle but pretty sort of differentiation in light and strokes. I did do some samples here, but for some reason it didn't come out very well, and you can really see the like texture of the brush strokes, which isn't exactly what I wanted. So, this one here is giving a more accurate depiction of what it eventually will look like. But yeah, I'm going to get started prepping this wall, and I will show you the finished result.

[00:09:05]So, as you can see, the left hand side is drying still and the right hand side was where I painted first. So, it is a bit drier there. You can already see the lime effect. So, the brush strokes really soften and you get this sort of alteration between um where you've sort of made a cloud shape. So, it does look really lovely. I'm going to let it dry.

[00:09:27]This is only its first coat and it will it obviously dries um lighter, but it will get more patchy the more coats you give it. I've only got a little bit left of the tester. So, I'm going to try and give it a second coat after this is dry, and then we'll try and make our decision from then on. Another room I need to give you a really quick update on is what Chad and I are coining the boot room. So, this room down here, I would have shown it in the house tour, but this used to have there was actually nothing in here, but we've just had our like shoe cupboard in here and then little bits like this is all the tile um for our kitchen and then all the brass rail and stuff. So, this has all just been sat here for the past few weeks since we've moved in. And this little area, we're going to transform into a big room. So, along this wall here, we used to have a massive coat rack. And this is our front door. So, when you open this door, the coats were just in the way. Whereas, we're going to relocate them to over here. I'm going to put some really beautiful I want to do some form of paneling, but obviously we need to tie in the paneling to what we're going to do in the hallways. But this little room is going to have sort of coat racks and paneling up here with some form of maybe an upholstered bench or maybe something a bit more freestanding. I'm not too sure. But in the meantime, Chad has painted this in a really beautiful green color from Far and Ball called Dber. It's a really muddy green. It's dark, but it's not as dark as the other greens we've used previously in our old houses. You can see we've put one picture frame just on one of the old hooks that were in the wall. Um, and it goes really nicely. So, I'm really happy with this. I think Chad loves it as well. We've just gone to pick up some more paint to finish this room because this was actually just done on like the really really small pots from Faren Ball. So, I'm going to have to move all of this away from the wall.

[00:11:09]I can get down behind it. But, it's looking really lovely. This isn't a dead flat finish. It's got no sheen to it at all. So, it's completely matte. If I can pop in some images of what it looked like before, then I will. The arcaves or the door moldings are all painted in all white by far. Just need to touch up this little bit here, which is the old blue color that was in here. And then, as you can see, the hallways are looking really good. They are again painted in old white, which I just need to touch up the ceiling up there. Eventually, we'll have to change the light fixture up there. We want to look for something more of like a Victorianesque pendant. Um, something more glass, more crystal that drops a bit lower. We're going to remove all these shelves. And I think a nice piece of art up there will look good because obviously the shelves are too high to access for normal use and the previous owners just had books up there. We don't really read that many books. I have a Kindle so it's a bit of a waste of space. So I think a nice maybe picture um I haven't really thought about it but something up there would look really pretty. The original cornering up here as you can tell probably on camera. I'm not sure if it comes across but it's had quite a few coats of paint. So we're not going to touch that at all. We are considering stripping it back. But again, if you've ever seen anyone uh strip back original coing, it's it's quite difficult. Uh there's lots of really decorative little flower bits.

[00:12:28]So, it is quite time laborsome and it is quite fiddly. So, I'm not sure whether we'll just leave it for now and then tackle that maybe in the future or whether we'll strip it. But, we're definitely not painting it. But, we are going to paint the ceiling, which I think Chad's going to do very soon. I don't think he's done that yet. But all the hallway downstairs is all painted.

[00:12:45]It's quite dark down there now because it's not very bright outside. Yeah, looking really good. Oh, and then also I have updated all of the sockets in the house. I need to hoover. We had the electrician come out, so I need to hover all of that and then touch up around it.

[00:12:58]But these look so much better. They're so much smarter. They are flush with the wall. Obviously, we are looking to get paneling in. So, we can just sort of pull it out a little bit and put on top of the paneling. But again, looking really good. And then we need to change these light switches as well. And then another room that I've not really featured at all is this little toilet that we have upstairs. This is basically our guest um bathroom on the ground floor. It needs to be completely renovated. We're thinking of doing quite a funky wallpaper in here because the wallpaper in here, you know, is a bit aged. It's not really our taste and it is quite damaged from what we think to be a previous damp um issue. But again, it is just sort of peeling off the wall.

[00:13:36]So, that's going to be really easy to take off. No one tell Chad that I just did that. Uh but this is going to be really funky. I think we're thinking some form of funky wallpaper. Chad loves the idea of having a mulbury.

[00:13:49]>> That striped one from Malbury was quite nice.

[00:13:51]>> In our old house, we used a tester sample once of wallpaper that was like a really small I'll try and find a picture of it. Really small. Is it a red stripe?

[00:14:02]>> Yeah, >> I think there's either a brown or a red stripe. It's from Malbury Home. Um but it's a really lovely It's kind of like a fabric wallpaper that would look really nice in here. That would give it sort of a bit of pop against the green. But I think it would be really cool. Whatever we do in here, that's going to be a funky little room. And then out here is going to be um more of a boot room. I do like the idea of having a curtain as well, a curtain pole across here. Maybe some form of drapery because again this is the garden is overlooked slightly. So when we want to come upstairs, it might be a bit nicer to have some privacy there. Uh but I think a curtain would look really lovely. I do love curtains for doors. But I am now going to tackle the window in the living room. We've got this repair care dry flex one twoin- one which is an epoxy. This is what KL used on our front door. I mentioned I'd be buying some. So I've got two of these.

[00:14:54]You have to basically mix it on a plate and then it will go from red to a yellow color. And then once it's the yellow color, you can then use it to fill all of the gaps, all of the holes on the woodwork. So I'm going to pop you up on a tripod and get to filling this window.

[00:15:08]This is my first time doing woodwork filling on a proper scale. So, very excited to see how this turns out.

[00:15:15]And then if Chad will let me film him painting that little room at the end, the boot room, I'll show you what it looks like when it's finished. But yeah, I need to get to work. So, I'm going to pop you down and get to filling. So, the time has finally come for us to tackle the windows and the shutters in the sitting room. If you have been watching for a while, you will know that a few weeks ago, we got our paint and decorator in to strip completely back to the wood are nearly 200-y old shutters.

[00:15:41]This house was built between 1838 and 1845. And we believe that these shutters would have been here the entire time, including the whole windows. Every single thing you see here would have been here from the original building date because we are in a grade two stylisted house. So, that comes with its challenges. It was covered in layers and layers of paint. And we decided that what we needed to do whilst we living here was to completely strip back to the wood and restore them because that's what we should be doing for a house this old for them to last another 200 years.

[00:16:11]If you have watched the past few episodes, then you would know that we detected lead paint in the paint around the windows. Lead paint was typically what they use back in the day. It has tiny bits of lead within it and it's quite dangerous when it gets airborne.

[00:16:23]So you have to be quite careful and quite um smart with how you remove the paint from the windows. Basically when you sand lead paint, the particles from the lead get into the air and if they are inhaled, you can get some form of lung disease. So that obviously meant we needed to tackle it in a different way instead of just sanding it completely back. So we actually got our painter and decorator Kyle to come around a few weeks ago. And we basically used a an acid chemical that went all across the windows. I believe it was called peel away. Uh we then put a sheet on top of it. waited a couple of days and then scraped everything off. When I say we, Kyle did all of it. He worked incredibly hard. And I think it took him around a week, I want to say, to do it all. It was a very, very difficult job because all of these shutters actually come out.

[00:17:06]So, there was a lot of wood to strip, but he did a really good job and we are very, very happy with how they came out.

[00:17:13]We have lived with them for a while in their raw pine um form. We were debating whether to keep it like this. We asked you guys. There was a massive divide between whether you thought we should keep them wood or whether we should paint them. But the time has come for us to fill them, restore them. And we have decided to paint them. We have decided that traditionally they wouldn't have been raw pine. Pine is and was quite an affordable type of wood, which is why most Victorian houses, Georgian houses would have used pine in their floorboards. um in most of the construction house, shutters, windows, it was more affordable than using woods like oak, all that sort of stuff. So, they're not the most beautiful type of wood, which is why we don't really mind that much painting them again, but traditionally they would have been painted. So, we think to give the house the really traditional feel and to go with the sort of elegance of this room.

[00:18:06]I'm not sure if you can see the ceiling if you haven't seen it before. We've got a really beautiful pitch ceiling with the most beautiful moldings. Um, so we really wanted this room to feel quite I don't want to say regal, but but quite smart. And we think that one of the ways to do that is to paint these shutters.

[00:18:23]So the task for today is to fill in all the nooks and crannies that have been revealed over the years and years of maintenance for these windows. All of the little white bits you'll see throughout the window, mostly in the center frame where there's been lots of repairs, is wood filler. Now, the issue with wood filler is it doesn't really expand and contract with wood.

[00:18:45]Obviously, wood is a natural material, so when it gets hot, it expands, and when it gets cooler, it contracts. And what happens with the filler is it can crack and cause a really ugly finish when you paint on top of it. So, what we're going to do today is to use a type of epoxy that we're going to use as a really good base layer that gives the wood a really good finish before you paint over it, and it's going to make it nice and smooth and effectively look brand new. This is the exact same um epoxy that we used on our front door when Kyle did it a few weeks ago, and it's given the most incredible finish.

[00:19:16]It literally looks like a mirror. So hopefully, this is my first time using it. Hopefully I can do the windows justice. But it really doesn't look that difficult. All we have to do is squeegee this out onto a board, mix it all up, and then apply it, and then sand it slightly before we paint.

[00:20:30]about these things.

[00:21:50]Okay, so this is definitely a a learning process for me. I've never done this before, but I'm actually quite proud.

[00:21:57]It's very messy, but I need to sand it all back and then do another coat probably. But I this pieces like this were completely missing um wood. So, what I've done is I've given it first fill all the way across, sanded it lightly, and then what I'll do is I'll go over everything again um with another layer and then make it look pretty. This isn't going to look pretty regardless because it is the basically the undercoat for when we paint. But even here, all of this was missing wood. It was completely warped. So, now I've made it a lot straighter. Hopefully, it's coming across on camera. But I'm actually quite proud of that. Even all of this, this whole hinge was missing.

[00:22:38]So, without any tools, I've just filled it in and tried to make my best right angle. Uh, it doesn't look amazing. I've just drilled two holes for the new window hardware. I'm going to pop them around here, which is just below the central glazing bar for the windows. But yeah, this side on the left is still drying. This side on the right is pretty much dry, and it's pretty much completely solid. So, it's looking good.

[00:23:02]I'm probably going to spend the whole entire night filling in all the little bits at the top. Every single piece has to be filled before it's painted.

[00:23:10]Otherwise, you'll see here I've given this just a first coat of primer. And that's what it looks like without being filled. You can see here as well, this needs to be filled with the epoxy. Um, it's a massive gap that's just been well, that's just the wood that's cracked in furnace, but you can see the old filler that was used to fill it, which is also cracked. So, once we get the epoxy in there, it's going to look great. But this is what it looks like when it's painted. Hence why this all needs to be done before priming it and then painting it. So here at the top is a really good example of what the filler looks like when it's come out. So this was all filled with wood filler. This here is wood filler as well. And then as you work your way down, you can see where I've sort of started to get rid of all the filler here. But this is what needs to be chipped out because it just cracks. And that's what cracks your paintwork and gives it the really bad finish. So, this is what the kitchen wall is looking behind where the Welsh dresser usually is. It's had one coat of the lime wash paint by Bowwork. This is the color wheat. And I think both Chad and I have decided we hate it. Chad, do you hate it?

[00:24:14]>> I hate it.

[00:24:16]>> It's Chad used the word earlier to describe it as very teaaggy. And I think that sums this up perfectly. Obviously, it has only had one coat, but I think what we've realized is I don't think we like lime wash. It's sort of like a faux plaster. And I believe what we've decided to do is if we're going to go for plaster, we just do proper plaster.

[00:24:35]Um because this is basically an imitation. It's what you would do to sort of get the plaster effect without plastering the wall. Let me know your thoughts down below. But Chad is very much in love with this plaster. It does look a bit orange from that light, but as it's drying, it looks nicer than it did. Chad, let me know your thoughts.

[00:24:58]Yeah, I just think it's um >> it's too soon to tell.

[00:25:01]>> I think it's too soon to tell, but I think >> it's a lot lighter than how it's coming across on camera. Um it's quite chalky.

[00:25:09]I think when you add the tiles to it, it won't be as in your face.

[00:25:13]>> Yeah.

[00:25:13]>> Um the tiles will break it out.

[00:25:15]>> Yeah.

[00:25:16]>> Um and I also think the color pink, obviously, we know light shades of pink go well with preference red, >> so the color scheme works as well. I think it's just a question of do we go with a traditional pinky gypson plaster or do we maybe opt for more of a lime plaster or a Roman plaster. Um >> yeah, obviously we're going to, if you've seen the plans before, we're going to tile up to sort of around here with a cream tile. So, it's really going to break up most of the wall. I think the feedback we're getting from most people when I've shared it online is it looks unfinished and maybe potentially a bit dirty and like we're living in a building site. But it it will look very different because the tiles below will be very pristine and proper. So it is very much a trust the process process.

[00:25:58]Uh but I think what we're going to do is we're going to live with this wall now.

[00:26:01]Potentially paint the lime wash again to a white color so it sort of blends in with the wall and then just see how we get on. But I think out of the two we're leaning more towards the raw plaster look over the lime wash. Chad's just mentioned we've completely forgot to talk about one of our favorite things that we've had put in this house. Again, this is fully Chad and I like to compete. This is fully a Chad decision.

[00:26:21]Chad found the product. Um, it wasn't on our list. Look how happy he is. It wasn't on our list of things to do, but can you go ring it for me?

[00:26:30]>> Yeah. So, basically, this is an old the doorbell we had before was very much a buzzing noise.

[00:26:36]>> So, it was like a and it wasn't very nice. So, in many of these traditional Georgian houses, you would have had rope pull bells. We didn't want to go to that extent. So, this is an electric version, but essentially instead of having a ringing, buzzing noise now, uh, we have a traditional Victorian bell.

[00:26:54]>> Yeah.

[00:26:54]>> Um, >> I'll show it to you in one second.

[00:26:56]>> Let me go ring it.

[00:26:56]>> So, like Chad mentioned before, there was just a sort of buzzer bell at the top, but now it's this lovely bell that makes this lovely noise.

[00:27:08]It hasn't got annoying just yet, but it does sound like we have a shop. Okay, so we're a few hours on. I'm absolutely covered in dust. Um, I've managed to fill pretty much half of the I'd say half of the window frame. I haven't even touched the shutters and the paneling.

[00:27:26]I've done just all the way around the windows where I've scored out all of the old filler. This is going to take me a really long time, mainly because I'm trying to not be a perfectionist, but I'm trying to do it properly. So, I'm taking my time doing it, filling it how I think it should be filled, and it's taking a very, very long time. And also, I'm going through so much of the product. The first tube of the epoxy I very much wasted because I didn't really know what I was doing with it. Now, I've got the hang of it, and this one did stretch quite far. However, I have run out and all of the shops, all the decorator shops around here, most of them don't have it, and they're all closed now until Monday. So, it's kind of annoying. I don't think I can get online in time anyway for this weekend for this video to go live. So, I'll show you what I've done so far, but I think next week I will also pick up showing you these windows. Hopefully, I can get this finished by like Tuesday and then I can start priming it, painting it. But it is taking me a lot longer than I thought. I'm not sure why I thought it would take me a day, 2 days. It's very time consuming. So, let me spin you around, show you what I've done so far.

[00:28:30]Um, and try not to judge because this is my first time doing anything like this, so it might look a little bit messy.

[00:28:36]Hopefully, you'll be able to see that all the way around these windows, I chipped out all of the filler down these parts earlier, and I've managed to get the epoxy to go all the way around, both in the window joint and the corner where the window meets the shutters. I've done it all the way around this window here, all the way up on this bit. I need to still get all of these parts up here.

[00:29:01]But I've managed to sort of messily do this bit up here. These are obviously the two open windows. So, I'm not going to do the tops of those. But again, where the window meets the like joinery at the top, that all needs to be filled.

[00:29:12]I've then, you can see where I've run out. Um, I've done the epoxy up to here.

[00:29:16]I've run out, so I can't do all of these bits, but again, I've done it all the way down the center. And then I've missed out parts of the right. So, quite a lot of it is done. I will show you this bit down here. I've lightly sanded this so you can sort of see the shape come together. It does look quite scruffy.

[00:29:34]And this is still the first coat, so I will need to go over this, fix all the imperfections, and then this will be a flush um sort of shape so that when you paint over it, it's just going to be nice and pristine. And then up here, hopefully you can tell. This is looking really good. It also feels really good.

[00:29:51]This section here as well looks really good. Again, I need to give it a second coat. This is still just its first, but this was missing completely. So, I'm really happy with the sort of near right angle that I've got going here. It does feel quite soft, but you can see all the imperfections still. And if I step back and show you, this is what the windows are looking like currently. I don't know if it's just me because I've been staring at these windows for the past 2 days, but um they're looking a lot softer already. I think getting rid of the white has really helped it.

[00:30:18]Obviously, the epoxy that I'm using is setting in like a yellow color which blends with the wood a little bit better. It's not as striking to the eye as the white was. So, for the time being, I think I'm just going to tidy this house because it's an absolute tip.

[00:30:31]I am going to try and see if I can get some more of the epoxy. And if I can, then I will include some more clips and I will try and finish these windows in this video. But if not, then you will have to wait until next week to see how how we get on. If you have any tips or tricks for these windows, they'd be greatly appreciated. I shouldn't have finished them by the time this video goes live. So, I will be able to read them hopefully and then if you guys have any words of wisdom, I should be able to apply those teachings. So, thank you in advance. If I don't speak to you again, then I'm going to leave this video here.

[00:30:59]Thank you so much for watching. I hope it's been a good video for you. There's been lots of renovation content this week, so hopefully you've enjoyed. But I shall see you next week for another video. Have a lovely weekend and I shall see you very