Wallpaper Stripping Done!

The Spouse and I finally removed the last of the wallpaper this Saturday. The Spouse is overjoyed as he hated this task apparently. Think he's going to hate stripping paint more. Ah well, I'll surprise him with that when we return from our well earned break in Grenada. This is where we are going (sorry!)
Thanks to Clough who did a fabulous job on taming the garden for us, if we had left it at the rate it was growing we would never have found the greenhouse again.

Malcolm the Bright Sparky and his Crew are starting first fix electrics on Wednesday. The roof still hasn't been replaced yet, but we are keeping our fingers crossed it happens whilst we're away. I'm really looking forward to seeing great progress on our return.

Kitchen Ceiling, Joists and Lintel

Rob the Builder, can he fix it? Yes he can!

Rob created the opening for a much larger window in the ensuite last week and virtually rebuilt the very knackered wall. The ensuite is really taking shape - we almost have walls!

Ensuite is Taking Shape!

Bedrooms 3 & 4 and Hole for New Bathroom

Roof Space and Bedroom 3

2nd Floor Landing & Loft Access

July Photos: 1st Floor Landing & View through the loft space to the 1st Floor Bathroom

July Photos: Dressing Room & 1st Floor Bedroom

July Photos: 1st Floor Landing & Master Bedroom

July Photos: Hall & Lounge

Loft Space and Ensuite

Destruction is finally coming to an end (until the extension plans are approved at least) and construction has begun. In addtion to the unplanned bathroom on the second floor we also asked them to remove a precarious chimney breast they uncovered in the old shower room. This will give us an additional foot of space in the new family bathroom.

The builders have been putting concrete lintels in everywhere. The photo above shows the new access to the loft space, the top left hand corner is daylight, they were rushing to finish laying the bricks before it rained (again!). We will eventually board out that space and use it for storage. You can also see where the bathroom ceiling will be.

The second photo shows the new access from the master bedroom into the ensuite. The small window in the ensuite will be replaced with a slightly larger window under which the loo will go. All of the joists in the ceiling are being replaced in this section as they are rotten. this also provides the opportunity to higher the ceiling as we need to raise the floor level in the ensuite to reuce the number of steps down to it and and to conceal the underfloor shower tray.

Spouse and I are at the house for a long day tommorow as we are having sunday off, so will get lots more photos.

July Progress

The builders are making progress. Scaffolding started going up last week and is now complete. The roofer is a little delayed on other jobs due to the miserable weather we've been experiencing.

The Spouse and I are there every weekend stripping wallpaper, we have reached the ground floor already but the ceilings here are proving a lot more difficult than the others. Any assistance with stripping in the next couple of weeks much appreciated. We were both a little shocked last saturday when we went up to the first floor to find a huge landing where the bathroom, shower room and loo used to be. The ripping out is an immense and filthy job, we are onto our second skip and the rubble just keeps coming. 1metre of plaster and render has been hacked off on the ground floor in preparation for the damp proof course. The existing kitchen ceiling has come down revealing a lack of lintel above the window and the bathroom floor is like a wooden trampoline. The builder assures me this isn't a huge problem though.. gulp!

The Spouse and I have made a decision to put another bathroom on the top floor to service the 2 bedrooms up there. this wasn't part of our original plan but while the place is a building site it makes sense. We are also considering replacing the window in the current dining room, which is to become the study, with hard wood french doors (watch this space). The builder assures me that they will stop destroying the house by the end of this week and start putting it back together.

We have approved the plans from the architects and these are now with the planners. We are keeping everything crossed that this all runs smoothly and no one objects. If you're interested take a look at the plans:
1ST FLOOR
GROUND FLOOR
SIDE ELEVATION
REAR ELEVATION
SECTION