Preparation...

A trouble with old houses is that very often the floorboards have been lifted many times over the years and so become slightly tatty. The benefit is that one can lift them again without worrying about spoiling their appearance any further! What's more, when I've lifted them myself in the past, they're always screwed down rather than nailed, which makes re-lifting them very easy and avoids causing more damage each time. (The majority of these were lifted by "professionals" before I ever got my hands on them, so some damage had already been done.)

Anyway it's several years since I lifted these, but I'm busy working out a route for some new pipework which we're having installed in 2-3 weeks' time, to provide water to the boxroom-to-shower room conversion which will be taking place (I'm not attempting that myself!). This landing is one possible route but as you can see it's already quite congested so I now have another possible route in mind.

Of course I had to lift the carpet to explore under the floor but as it's very old and soon to be replaced that didn't bother me (or, more important, didn't bother my Editor either!).