Friday 28 February 2014

Room with a view. Almost.



Many months ago we had a dining room and a kitchen. Although south facing the dining room was a little dark and the kitchen in need of modernisation. Not ideal for a cook and baker such as Jay.

Even with the sun full on, not too bright
Not a lot of light coming through there
Porch not helping much.
The car port really didn't help
We're getting there. The porch is now a proper extension, with a nice sized velux. The steels have gone in. A T, which the architects had to be told to do! Who wants a column in the middle of your kitchen? And the walls are down.

The extension. Looking a little dark, but it is an evening in February. The window to the right will be French windows. Probably next week. The window goes in tomorrow.














Not really giving you a full idea of the size. French windows to the left, and the dining area. Kitchen under the window and down the right wall. About 3 metres of floor to ceiling units, 2.8 metres high. And a 2 - 3 metre long island coming this way.

Seating area to the right.

Going to be a good sized room to live in.





And the knock through to the utility begins.














Saturday 22 February 2014

Life and building goes on





Sadly on Monday Buffy went to have her final sleep. After 15 very happy years for her and Jay and latterly me, Buffy's ailments got to much for her.

She's left a big hole in our lives. No dog walking, no feeding, no tail wagging. And no dog on the mat snoozing of an evening.


She had a long happy life.








Although the world appeared to have stopped in this house, the other house has continued to evolve.


We have shiny new windows. At the front anyway. Door's not been replaced, yet, that'll be done when the builders have finished.


This means that the windowed walls can now be finished. That had been plasterboarded and insulated, but needed the windows in before they could be finished off. Which has now been done.










Dean the Decorator is on the job. Colours have been picked for the 1st and 2nd floors and the colour is going on. Apart from putting the wrong colour up in one room, it's going well.

We have internal doors! John the chippy isn't exactly thrilled with them. Building regs have said fire doors throughout. Guess what. They are very heavy, so not the easiest thing to hang. And there are eight of them.











Steels have been paid for and should be going in next week. So walls will be coming down. Then we will got to see the full scale of our live-in kitchen.

The kitchen company has been picked. Having been to a very nice independent company, quoted 8k over budget, a high street company, just within budget, but without appliances. We happened to discover Daniel the local fitted wardrobe man (third of the price of a national wardrobe company) can also do us a kitchen, within budget including all of the appliances. Seen a lot of his work and it does look like it's the bees knees. He has his own factory to manufacture the units, so can be any shape, size or colour we desire. Totally bespoke.

So looking like we could be in during April. Sadly Buff won't be there to love - because she would have - the underfloor heating.

RIP Buff x

Saturday 8 February 2014

DIY SOS....

.... or the more extravagant American version - Extreme Makeover. If you've ever seen one of these shows with different workmen everywhere you look, all tripping over each other in a small space, then you can picture what it's been like at the house this week!



We've had two builders outside working on the second extension, two joiners making doorframes inside, and roof battens outside, two electricians, a plumber, a plasterer, and a decorator. Not to mention occasional visitors such as Daniel who came to do the second measuring for the fitted wardrobes, and the two window fitters who've been there today!

It's been a very busy and very chaotic week, but at the end of it, things have really moved on. We now have lights on the top two floors - including a bathroom mirror with a remote control, and many different colour settings on the flourescent lights down each side (bathroom disco anyone?) I'm sure it didn't mention that on the website when I ordered it!

We've had quite a bit of decorating done by Dean - although there was a slight miscommunication about the colour in our bedroom, which was dark grey briefly midweek! Now corrected. We have new windows in the front of the house - cream woodgrain effect ones, which look so much better than the old leaded white uPVC ones. All the new bathroom fixtures have been delivered, so we need the plumber to come and make a start on that as soon as he can, and hopefully the roofers will be on site this week to put the slates on the extension at the back.

We still have a very long way to go, but it now seems that things are moving really quickly, which is great! More photos to come soon.

Jay

Saturday 1 February 2014

A Tale of Two Bathrooms

We're really seeing progress now, and it's exciting! The en-suite in the loft is almost finished - the new pipes outside need to be fitted, which means that nothing in the room actually works, but inside, all the fixtures and fittings (almost) are in place, so we can see the room - and I love it!
One of the main reasons for doing the loft conversion was to get a big walk in shower for me - when my joints are bad I struggle with an over the bath shower, and a small shower cubicle isn't much better. There wasn't enough room to fit one in the house bathroom without losing the bath, and the other alternative would have been to create a new bathroom or ensuite in one of the bedrooms, which would have left us with a two bedroomed house, with massive living space downstairs. That would have been so unbalanced, that if we ever wanted to sell, I think we'd have really struggled, so we decided to move into the loft, giving us more bedrooms than we need, but a better balanced living/sleeping ratio.

I'm thrilled with our bathroom up there. It's not a massive space, but I really think we've made the best of it. The shower is nearly a metre long, with a big rainfall head as well as a standard riser rail for when I don't want to wash my hair!

The controls are all outside so you can turn it on without getting a damp arm. The room's fully tiled in two shades of pale grey - I really couldn't be happier with the way it's turned out!

In contrast, we've not started the main house bathroom yet, so that will be the next big project - I've been talking to the plumber this week, and pretty much decided what I want - most of which has been ordered and will be delivered next week! Although we don't have a bath in the en-suite, I do like a good soak, especially when my joints are really sore, so I want to make sure the room is relaxing, and the bath is comfy! I've decided to go for a double ended bath, and instead of taps in the middle, it will fill from the overflow. I want it to be set in a tiled frame too, so I have somewhere to rest my book and a cup of tea or a glass of wine!



It's quite hard to imagine at the moment, but I'm really hoping we get a finish as fabulous as we have in the en-suite.












The updates seem to be coming thick and fast now - things are really moving, and I'm starting to believe we may be in within a few months. I can't wait!

Jay.