Upstairs bathroom, painted

That's two rooms in two days ticked off the list for painting. The upstairs bathroom still needs flooring, toilet and bath plumbing in, but that's in other people's hands now. So, my work there is done (apart from skirting and architraves!) Another late night in the Dransfield house.

Utility room

Sun room and lounge from kitchen

our new bedroom - now ready for carpet

Upstairs bathroom this week

Upstairs bathroom 2

Upstairs bathroom

Downstairs bathroom this week

Downstairs bathroom last week

My boy, helping out

A week later

It's been a week since my last post, a busy week! More painting for me and now the front bedroom which we're moving into is done. We had a shocker with the laminate flooring in the kitchen and sun room. It had been laid too soon and started to absorb the moisture from the screed. It bubbled and warped in places and had to be taken up this weekend just gone. That was a bit of a setback and has meant that we have delayed the fitting of the carpet in the lounge, for the same reason.

Bathrooms upstairs and down are being fitted. the tiler was here over the weekend and so was Alex, fitting the shower panels. Today Andy has been fitting the sinks and taps upstairs and down. Tomorrow, I will be painting the upstairs bathroom.

Ben has been shipped off to his Gran's for the week to give Anne and I a chance to crack on. The poor boy was being neglected here and we were struggling to get much done. Jenny has been our saviour this week. What would we do without her?

Photos to come..l

Utility room - done!

Another late night painting the utility room. Finished at 12 midnight, emptied the trugs of water due to there being no soffits, fascias or guttering outside. Filled a few vestibules with water from the outside tap, so I could brush teeth and have a cuppa in the morning. Oh, the joys of property renovation. On the positive side, we're getting there.

Weekend shift over

Well, that's another weekend shift done. Just finished now and locked away the hens. natural calico done on the lounge ceiling. The whole thing has now been whited out. Tomorrow it's the utility room. The aim is for 2 coats of full fat white, one am and one pm. That will then be done and ready for plumbing. After that, it's the sunroom. More photos tomorrow.

Flooring through to sun room

Kitchen flooring

Ben, painting the lounge wall

Alex, fitting the flooring

Anne, Bump and Ben

Anne and Ben, busy at work

First coat - ceiling in the lounge

First coat in the sun room

Kitchen floor space before

Weekend work update

There's been more progress this weekend, the laminate flooring has been started and is now complete through the kitchen and utility. There is a stretch which still needs doing going into the sun room. Skirting board is also on throughout the lounge. I've first coated the lounge, sun room and utility with Anne's help edging. We also spent Fri evening cleaning the velux windows in the utility and cleaning the door. For the last few nights we've worked until about 10pm. This morning I'll be second coating the lounge ceiling and this afternoon I'll put a coat of colour on. It needs to be ready for tomorrow when the sparkles come to fit the lights. The utility needs to be done for Tues, so that will be the next priority!

This week the sparkles will second fix, Alex will be sorting the upstairs bathroom out, the plasterers will be coming to do the downstairs and upstairs bathrooms and Andy the plumber will be finishing his stuff off. We're hoping to have at least a temporary kitchen for Christmas.

Week 17 - midweek report

Well, this is my first week off work to concentrate on getting things sorted for Christmas and to help Anne where I can. Things seem to have progressed reasonably well this week after a big disappointment over the weekend with the plasterers not turning up, then when one did, he had to leave because his son was ill. After that, Anne made a few calls to find out what was happening and then we hear from Alex that they won't be returning to the site. Alex managed to call in a couple of lads who've done a brilliant job getting things sorted. If they hadn't have turned up, the installation of the stove would have been postponed.

My job has been concentrating on getting the kitchen whited out. So far I've done 3 coats on the ceiling and 2 on the walls. I am hint that the ceiling will be ok now and that I'll just have to give the walls one more, but I'll see in the morning.

The lads from hotbox have been on site all day and the stove in nearly installed and the flu sprayed.

Alex h been working on bits and bobs, mainly upstairs. The skylight is now in the bathroom and the room has been opened up into what was the storage area.

All in all, it feels like it has been a productive day.

Fitting the stove - cutting a hole in our new ceiling!

plastering out the utility room

Kitchen where door goes through to dining room

Kitchen 2nd coat of white

Kitchen 2nd coat goes on

Stove being fitted in the lounge

Utility room toilet partition wall

New door frame marked out

This will knock through into the dining room, then we really will be in trouble!

Partition wall in kitchen

This is what the kitchen units will sit up against and then worktop will run along, with cupboards and dishwasher under and sink on top. On the other side we'll have a family dining table and the settle up against the wall.

Week 16 - start of the week post

Here we are, week 16 of the project. Anne and I spent the weekend painting the downstairs bedroom and hallway. They've had 3 coats of white on the walls and ceilings. The colour coat will go on when al the tradesmen have left, but we did manage to put some colour around the radiator brackets, behind where the rads will sit. That took us pretty much all Sat and last night until about 9pm to finish. I was on roller coverage and Anne was on edging and paintwork.

This week we should get the radiators fixed in place downstairs and the under floor heating activated. Soffits and fascias should be done this week as well, with a bit of luck. We've also got some more plaster boarding to get done in the lounge and utility, then get that skimmed over.

Alex started building a timber partition wall in the kitchen last week, which is where the sink, dishwasher etc will fit. So I expect he'll be finishing that off too.

This is my last week in work before I take annual leave until after Christmas, so I can concentrate on getting work done in the house. Feeling optimistic at the moment about being warm and comfortable for Christmas, but there's still a lot to do!

Video update

Both pitched roofs from the garden

Lounge view from outside

here you can see it bricked up from the outside.

Lounge, screed and bricked up

Well, here it is. This is the view of the lounge from the doorway. The screed is down and you can now see the bricked up apex. The view down the garden is still great and there's plenty of light in the room from the other windows. On balance, I think it's been the right decision.

Screed in sun room

Sun room under floor heating

Lounge under floor heating

Kitchen under floor heating

Lounge drying out

this is a picture from the window in the lounge, looking back towards the main house. The plaster is drying nicely. Should be able to get cracking with the paint in a couple of weeks when I finish work.

Kingspan under the floor in the lounge

Sun room floor

Kitchen and sun room

Cement has been put down to level things off and cover channels.

Cement down for the floor in the utility

Utility room

Drainage has now been connected for the utility room toilet.

Our bedroom downstairs

Totally re-skimmed, skirting and door frames sanded down. It's nearly dry and will be ready for painting this weekend.

Hallway

Delph racks have been removed. The whole thing has been skimmed over. Door frames have been sanded down. We'll be painting it this weekend coming.

Week 15 - update

Fifteen weeks, to actually write it down really brings it home; that's nearly 4 months!

When I came home on Fri night, Ben and Anne were in the bedroom sponging the wood floor. Apparently Ben had been at it for an hour. When I went to lock the hens up I was having a look round what had been done and through the chipboard which is blocking entry to the main house, I heard him say, "That was a big job Mummy, I'm tired now." What a grafter. Anne and I are determined to do nice things with him during weekends, after all this is over.

Anyway, this weekend Anne and I (& Ben) got the hallway and our downstairs bedroom prepared by sanding all the skirting and architrives. We killed the sander in the process, but it had had a good life. The plaster should have dried by the end of the week, so we can get on with painting and undercoating the wood. The final layer of colour on the walls and gloss on the wood, will go on when everyone has buggered off.

On Saturday morning, Alex, Lee and Simon came and barrowed through some concrete to the sun room and utility. Kingspan was also laid throughout the lounge. Andy the plumber came later and put the 'tails' in place for the underfloor heating and connected up the manifold.

Today, the underfloor heating pipes should get laid and hopefully Alex will brick up the end apex in the lounge (might take him Mon-Wed to do this).

Tomorrow, the screed is going down over the underfloor heating.

There are lots of little finishing off jobs to be done, like soffits and fascias, utility boarding and skimming other areas which have been left etc. Then of course, we have second fix plumbing and electrics to get done.

I got some updated pictures yesterday and will post them this week.

View from the outside

Things are moving much more quickly and taking shape now. Still 5 weeks left until Christmas, so we're hoping that things will stay on track.

The screed will now be going in next Tuesday, rather than Fri this week. That means that Ben and I will be on gardening duty all weekend, clearing leaves and maybe chopping wood.

Our new bedroom and the hallway should be plastered by the end of the week, so might be ready for painting early next week.

Lounge window frame

Alex has put the window frame in place, so we can see what it would look like. however, as discussed in a previous post, we will still be blocking up to the apex, despite how nice it looks.

View of lounge and sun room windows

Sun room window frames in place

Side passage utility room door

Utility room window in place

Week 14 - Monday update

Good start to the day, there were 5 lads on site before 8am! Mike the plasterer, Stan and Robbie the roofers, Keith and Johnny, 2 more plasterers. Simon and Alex will also be around today.

It should be a pretty busy week this week with all that's going on:

Mon/Tues the windows should arrive and get put in. (Simon & Alex)

Plastering front bedroom and hallway (Keith & Johnny)

Ridge tiles and pointing on the roof finished off (Stan and Robbie)

Mon - finishing off skimming in the kitchen and maybe boarding out some of the other areas (utility and sun room - Mike).

Next Wed, we have the kitchen fitter (Trevor Kettlewell) coming to get his measurements so he can go off and build the kitchen. We hope to have that fitted the week before Xmas.

Thurs, screed goes down to level the whole area (kitchen, utility, sun room, lounge)

Updates to follow during the week...

kingspan in the utility room

Spent a lot of the day yesterday and all day last Friday getting the insulation in place in the sun room and the utility room. It's pretty much all done now.

Kitchen skimmed walls