Saving the Manor EP02 - The Secret Stairway

Episode 2 we think really settles into the groove of things. With Episode One it was actually really hard to squeeze so much content in. So resultantly a lot of stuff got cut out. I mean, in Episode One it introduces us and our story, the completion of the Caretakers, completing the Servants Quarters and then completing three brand new spaces… it was a LOT. We actually asked if it could be split into two episodes or be a longer first episode but I think in the end it worked out well ripping the band aid off and just running through it all to get people caught up.

The Secret Stairway episode seems a little less chaotic as we focus on solely the servants stairs and the boot room and guest toilet which will eventually serve the main manor house. I mean seems less but my god it was an exhausting task!

When we knew we were going to film a tv series we never changed our approach to the restoration of this place and the stairs, as you know, if you follow us on instagram was a project we had already started. Through our instagram we began restoring the exterior elements as we worked our way into the inside.

Ok, we restored the stables as part of the show which wasn’t part of the plan but we are so glad we did it… but thats to talk about another time.

The Servants passage

The servants stairs we have always said is the hub of the estate but also it was the root cause of all the problems when we bought the place. A downpipe was clogged just above the boot room roof on the side of the manor house and years went by where the water overflowed and run down the side of the house. This then created a perfect environment for vegetation to grow. A tree started to take route in the roof of the boot room and by the time we bought the estate it was an established tree with roots growing through the plasterwork inside. The water from the clogged downpipes was feeding it perfectly as well as the wet rot that spread through the servants stairs and down to the cellar. It also spread through the boot room and toilet leaving little left to be salvaged and also passing through the wall into the grand room destroying the ground floor timbers and the first floor timbers.

Luckily we were able to restore the first floor timbers but we lost the majority of the ground floor in the grand room of the manor house, 12 steps of the servants stairs, the windows on the stairs, the roof of the boot room and all the timbers and plasterwork within. Seems awful but this is the area we knew about from the outset so we were prepared for the works!

In fact it became very apparent on the second viewing of the estate when we showed our family around and my dad fell through one of the rotten steps on the stairs and broke his ribs.

As a result of the rotten roof we spent over a year with a leaky roof and a downpipe that we had temporarily running into the toilet.. so fancy!

Borja repositioning all the tread details

The Stairs

The stairs themselves cover 4 floors from the cellar which ascends to the ground floor as brick steps then from the ground floor up to the second floor as timber stairs. The steps themselves had a quirky detail. They had a a moulded detail on the lip of the tread which was raised slightly so that a piece of vinyl could be fitted on each tread. We found that this vinyl had asbestos in it and it was crumbling so we had to get this professionally removed. This left us with this little lip on the tread of every stair where the vinyl used to be. The option was either fill it in with something or move the tread.. we decided moving the tread was the lesser of the two evils. It was a nightmare to do (isn’t every job that we do a nightmare? ha) we needed to replicated the same bullnose detail for the new steps and luckily the guys at skirting world managed to do just that, they replicated that moulded detail so we could add it back onto the new steps we had to fit from the ones we lost.

THE VISION

We had a very clear vision all along for the servants staircase, we wanted it very understated, we wanted to bring back simplicity, so we did the backbreaking work of stripping all the paint from the woodwork, and we sanded and stained it, we wanted to bring the warmth of the wood and we stained it to make it look aged and worn.

When stripping the wallpaper (well.. lining paper) from the walls, we toyed with the idea of leaving the walls showing its patina. But that patina just wasn’t consistent on the entire stairs. It had been patched repaired in a number of places and some areas the plaster had come away from the wall which needed further fixings. We can photo the old walls and they look stunning but in reality is another thing. Thats the terrifying thing about the show, a photo can hide a thousand sins but a video shows everything! We just had to reskim the walls with a new layer of lime plaster.

Oz the blacksmith prepping for the handrail

Working with lime plaster is messy, maybe because I am not a profesional but it takes time! The lime takes SO much longer to cure, so for a long time if you poked the wall it would have made a dent. This was not ideal, TV works on tight deadlines so using an old material that takes weeks to cure is not what tv crews would choose but they were totally on board as we always said we do things how they should be done. The big issue that we had is that the interview room was set up in the attic of the Manor (the old Nannys Quarters), so the crew and the gear had to go up and down the servants stairs constantly with the freshly plastered walls… We lived with anxiety for weeks, but everyone was very good and careful, we also asked them to remove their shoes as they walked on the freshly painted stairs (conscious of the curing period of paint). Hey, we were not doing a Madonna giving them demands! haha we just were working on average 18 hour days so we didn’t want any set backs after doing the work… no one wants to repeat stuff!

When you think of Servants areas what do you think? utilitarian right? here is where we saw the potential to bring our whole scheme toegther. We wanted to introduce a handrail and wanted something very simple and utilitarian, yet we designed small details on how we wanted the handrail to be fixed onto the wall, we wanted something seamless, we were also very keen that the touch felt nice and smooth, so we knew we needed someone that was good and at the same time understood exactly what we wanted.

We are always extremely thankful to have a social media with many people that follow our journey. It is true, we do try to help as much as we can when asked but at the same time we have access instantly to a lot of advice from people, a lot of recommendations, so in November 2021 we asked for recommendations of blacksmiths… remember finding the right people is key. We had hundreds of recommendations, we were actually shocked to see how many blacksmiths are around! How do you go through all the people, how do you choose? We got a sign… well we took it as a sign. It turns out the other half of our new friend OZ the blacksmith follows us on instagram and instead of messaging us with a recommendation she said to him why don’t you send them a message and introduce yourself? Well he did just that, and with him being the only one that contact us himself we thought he would be efficient and get the job done… and thats what we needed. We checked his website, we knew he had great experience having worked in incredible projects on some well known landmarks in the country. I called him immediately we got on so great and he got going on our job!

The very few times we get people in we love when nothing is a problem, when there is always a solution, when they truly understand the assignment! Oz was our guy he was just that, although for him he had the added pressure of knowing how detail orientated we are, plus having a tight deadline of several weeks to create something that to date I still think is a piece of art! He really delivered! thanks Oz.

The boot room and WC

We can not express the relief the we felt when we finally put the roof back on the boot room, if only we could describe the feeling… finally being secure again from the weathers.

Although we had some design disagreements about panelling (I, Borja, still think I was right about adding the extra panelling) we went with Dean’s idea, mainly because Dean is much more strong headed than I am and it gets to a point that for me its not worth pressing it anymore, therefore he tends to get his way, even if he regrets afterwards…

One of the very first days of recording the series we uncovered an incredible wallpaper in the Manor House behind a radiator! it was hand painted and at some point they just painted over it with magnolia (yes, I know), so it was incredible that we manage to get an almost intact extract. That day we had the very talented team Danika and Kim from Sand & Sushi, which we adore! they managed yet again to surpass our expectations in replicating the wallpaper identically! Our minds were blown when we watched the episode and had a real peek on how the wallpaper is replicated! Now if you haven’t watched the episode, go and watch and tell us how talented are they? We felt embarrassed for only using it in the guest toilet!!

Being honest, we never have been wallpaper people, however we have been converted! We wanted to introduce that wallpaper as a subtle trip back into memory lane of the Manor House, and as the WC will be the guest bathroom for the Manor House it just made sense! Dean did NOT enjoy wallpapering he actually hated it with a passion… he cut himself several times, used far more wallpaper than what was really needed but he ended up doing a brilliant job I think. … A little behind the scenes… When I went to see how Dean was getting on it looked like he was finished but in fact he had to finish the wall the door was on, that you couldn’t see on camera… he just wanted to spend his own time doing it right after… there is a lot of pressure when someone is watching you haha.

Mum’s reaction was so worth it when she saw the reveal, even though she helped us for weeks with the stripping of the paint when she came back and saw it all changed it was a reminder of the insane amount of hours spent over several weeks and how the spaces could transform so dramatically… we all felt emotional, happy and relieved that we manage to deliver what we wanted in the time frame… we were putting final details minutes before mum arrived from the airport!

The servants stairs are also the most used space on the estate, so to finish this area really felt like we were getting there! We finally were water tight, had heat and had lighting!