Great DIY disasters - a late entry

[Anna Kettle]

Oh ... only those things that are holding the house up ... thats all right then :)

I suppose there was a tie beam at inconvenient height between the two bedrooms so he got rid of it so the walls fell in

If he lived in St Edmundsbury (he doesn't though I expect Didcot rules are similar) then he should have informed the council seven days before starting any structural stuff with the timber frame so the council can send round an inspector if they deem it necessary. Probably he never put in for listed building consent though so he doesn't know this

Anna

~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England |""""| ~ Lime plaster repairs / ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc |____|

01359 230642

[brugnospamsia]

that's easy for you Photoshop wallahs to say - my low res attempt was awful

:-)

Jeremy

[Mary Fisher]

I bet he's feeling very embarrassed ...

Mary

[Bob Mannix]

No, but the poor lady who lives in the *other half* of the pair of cottages did (she was on the local news). Seemed quite chipper in the circumstances!

[Mary Fisher]

She'll probably come out quite well when the insurance coughs up!

Mary

[John Stumbles]

The Gimp is free and does pretty much what photoshop does, give or take some.

[brugnospamsia]

what I should have said was that though I can get photoshop for free as a uni techie, I'm way too lazy to learn how to use it ;-)

I've just downloaded Gimp though to have a look - thanks...

Google's Picassa looks quite interesting too - though I haven't played with it much yet

[Christian McArdle]

I heard that it might not have been the expected have-a-go bodger. There was a quote from the conservation officer that implied that they were aware of the work being implemented prior to the event.

The work so far had been to remove some hardboard partitions, before the structural work began. I suspect that the house was being held up by the hardboard...

Christian.

[quisquiliae]

In the Times report it said "two-bedroom Grade II listed property in Oxfordshire for a price believed to be £180,000" which seems absurdly cheap to me. (Sell shoebox in Great Wen and buy cottage in Oxon and have change, I wish). So perhaps it was known to be in a fragile condition.

[John Rumm]

Try photoshop elephants 3 then.... much of the oomph, but quicker to learn...

[Rob Morley]

You don't need something that complicated for image optimisation - have a go with IrfanView.