Blog No 7: Behind the Walls

This past week has been focusing on upgrading the unseen things behind the walls. The electrician has been on the premises for the past week working on re-wiring the whole house. This means digging into the bricks to bury the wires inside special electrical grade PVC pipes to prevent moisture from seeping through. When first were planning the renovations, we really under-estimated the importance of this step. We knew the sellers had done something along these lines in the recent 2004 renovation of the house, but they used sub-par materials…basically the cheapest things they could find. As a result, some of the connecting hinges of the PVC piping had become loose and some had been forgotten altogether.

There are also several other problems popping up from their penurious renovations. For instance, they used a thick paper board under the trim on an exterior facing wall which now has mold growing at an alarming rate. We have to replace it with a carbon fiber material that repels moisture. Remember the hanging chimney? This is still haunting us since it causes structural problems with supporting beams if we remove the bricks entirely (see photo below). It’s such a headache at this point. We are also applying a thick foam insulation throughout the third floor ceiling to prevent heat loss in the winter.

Insulation & hanging chimney of doom with attached supporting wood beam.

Acrobat Contractor

Since the electrician is fitting the wires, we need to choose which type of switch plates to use. While we are still several months away from the finishing details, he needs to know what type of box fitting to put behind the switch plate inside the wall. It’s a seemingly minor aesthetic preference, but it’s amazing how one can become obsessive about the little details when embarking on this type of project. When I went to look at the locally available options, everything is too modern to fit in an old house. It will be so anachronistic to have the typical plastic rocker switches, yet it’s very difficult to find the old bakelite switch plates- especially in modern configurations for multiple switches. In the end, we have decided to import reproduction antique brass switch plates from the US. In addition, we will also have to import the black bakelite toggle switches since the ones available in Shanghai are long narrow rocker switches.

Flooring in the entrance foyer has also been a bit of a headache. Ideally, I would love to use the ubiquitous old Shanghai style hexagonal ceramic tiles since this is appropriate to the time period our house was built. It’s easy to find the newly manufactured version of the tiles, but the look is just not quite right. I’m searching for the old ones to use in the bathrooms and the foyer. The problem is that these are difficult to salvage from buildings that demolished since they are often destroyed in the process. Apparently, there is also not a huge demand for them, so it’s hardly worth the effort to meticulously dislodge 2.5 cm tiles from 70 year old concrete grouting. I have consulted several sources that all confirm that they can’t be found, but I refuse to give up so easily …anyone with ideas where to find about 12 square meters of these tiles in decent condition????

Old Shanghai Tiles

On the upside, the master bedroom closet/bathroom expansion has been completed and it looks great. We were really concerned about the allocation of space in each room, but it seems that it is coming together in perfect proportion. The first floor foyer expansion is much better now that the bathroom has been demolished. The contractors were even able to move the exterior window to the left about half a meter to center it on the wall. This seemed like a huge project when first explained to me, but they did it in an afternoon with minimal intrusion. They also rounded the corners to the newly expanded doorway to the living room to lend an Art Deco stylization that fits with the original design.

Rounding the Corners

Melanie