Kitchen Renovation, Week 1 Feb 13, 2016 (full size gallery)
The kitchen renovation began on Feb. 8, 2016 and is a full makeover of the room. $15,000 of the funds came from a UTO Grant in 2015 but is only a portion of the funds needed. The work is expected to take several months.
The pictures show the complete breakdown and which occurred in the first week. After church on Sunday, Feb. 7 the appliances and items in the cupboards were taken out. We have 3 pictures that show before an after from Sunday through the end of this week.
The Parish Hall was built in two sections. The newer part, which people enter at the front door, was added to the original about 1840. The section at the back of the house was erected about 1740 and includes the kithen and above it the Godly Play room. This building predated the establishment of Port Royal.
The original kitchen was outside the building of course. The current kitchen was constructed some time in the last century. Under this section is a full bricked in cellar with hand-hewn beams marked with Roman numerals.
In the dining room next to the kitchen a fire destroyed the external end chimney and a new interior end chimney was constructed in 1936. At that time the date 1740 was seen inscribed in die in the original brick. The foundation of the fireplace was uncovered during this renovation near where a refrigerator was placed.
Besides the before and after picture, other pictures show the original work on the walls. Lath and plaster was a building process used to finish mainly interior walls and ceilings until the late 1950’s. After the 1950s, drywall began to replace the lath and plaster process and which we use today
You can see the wood laths in the later picture. The wall or ceiling finishing process begins with wood laths. These are narrow strips of wood, or split boards, are nailed horizontally across the wall studs or ceiling joists. Each wall frame is covered in lath, tacked at the studs. The lath is typically about one inch wide by four feet long by 1⁄4 inch thick. Each horizontal course of lath is spaced about 3⁄8 inch away from its neighboring courses.
Plaster is then applied in up to 3 coats typically using a wooden board as the application tool. You can see horsehair in one of the pictures. Traditional lime based mortar/plaster often incorporated horsehair which reinforces the plasterwork, thereby helping to prevent the keys from breaking away.