Week 19: lots of ‘stuff’

We’ve gotten a lot of deliveries of ‘stuff’.  I know it’s made it difficult for the builders due to the issues from the previous weeks.  But at least it has arrived, ready to be put in place.  They have continued to work on the walls on the ground floor and once that’s done (hopefully by tomorrow afternoon), they can start on the underfloor heating.  In addition, we finally got the bi-folding doors in, and they are fabulous!  So much light.

The steel beams have been covered. Including the beam above the side door!

As you can see, there is more to cover.

Kitchen stuff being stored in the master bedroom

This is the colour of the cabinet carcasses

The rendering beginning to be put on the front of the house

I’m looking forward to our next steps.  Things are going to move at a quick pace, I think.

Week 18: slow moving

It has been a frustrating few weeks since I last posted.  We had building control come to do an inspection and they decided we needed a new steel lintel above a doorway (side garden).  That meant working with our structural engineer, who is not great at responding quickly.  He finally did get in touch and so the steel will be put in this week.  That meant that the flooring, underfloor and wood, had to be put off as well as finishing the plasterboard and plastering.  Unfortunately, our kitchen furniture and appliances are being delivered this week which will further complicate everything.  But, that’s life in renovations.

One thing that has happened is that a lot of final plastering and priming has been done on the 1st and 2nd floors (2nd and 3rd floors for you Americans out there).  It does look very nice.  We’ve picked out our paint colours for these rooms and look forward to seeing them painted.

My mother-in-law’s bedroom

The guest bedroom

We have received our wood flooring, which will need to be sanded and waxed once it’s laid.

Our bi-folding door is at the house and just needs to be put in (as the opening was fixed to fit it correctly).

While it is frustrating to have work keep getting pushed back, we can see it all come together.  It’s great to see how much space we’ll have under the staircase, for example:

We’ll have doors put on so we can access this area (dog food & our vacuum will fit).

The plastering has begun around the living room, ground floor hallway and kitchen/diner.

So – lots of plastering yet to happen, painting to come, flooring to put in, etc, etc.  It will happen.

  

Week 16: prepped and ready

Nothing too exciting to report this week.  Basically, it’s a waiting game until items arrive.  So the guys have been prepping things in anticipation.

The flooring is ready in the ground floor for the underfloor heating to be laid.

The walls in the living room have been prepped for plastering.

And the outside of the house has begun to be plastered so that they can put the final surface on it (very awesome protective stuff).  It’s a silicone rendering which will help protect the house.  We’ve chosen this colour:

 

The week ahead will bring the underfloor heating being put into the ground floor and the walls being prepped and plastered.  The week after is when things get exciting – bi-folding doors put in, oak flooring being put in and waxed…wahoo!

Week Nine – more plastering, decisions on hold

A few small changes have happened as we’ve finished week nine.  Basically, plastering, electrics and plumbing have continued.  It’s not glamorous or pretty, but it’s a good step in the right direction.

The floors are still coming up in the kitchen area, but we haven’t been able to move to begin the extension as we have to make some changes and our architect is on holiday for two weeks (and the structural engineer doesn’t seem to want to return calls).  At least there is plenty for our contractor to do in the other floors.  This will push back the finishing time a bit.  Oh, well!

The wall has gone up in one of the doorways to the kitchen.  It’s going to make a huge difference.  We’ll now be able to do laundry without worrying about getting a door in the back.  Yay!

They installed the skylight into the loft bathroom and have figured out where the toilet, etc, will be placed.

We’re going to be making some changes to the front of the house.  With the installation of the windows, the plaster/pebble-dashing came off in chunks.  So we’re going to have the contractor remove all the plaster (YAY – it’s ugly), put new smooth plaster on and paint it white, which will go nicely with the red brick.

Week Seven – small changes

This week brings with it a few small changes and a few concerns and possibilities.

Possibility: to be able to lower the floor so that we have higher ceilings.  Most of the 1920s houses in London seem to have very high ceilings.  Our house doesn’t really.  But there is a LOT of space under the house so we can move the floors down (which is good, especially as we’re doing underfloor heating in the entire ground floor).  This will be a great thing.  You can see below all the space under the kitchen that exists:

Concerns:

Can we fit in the bi-folding doors that we want?  Can we fit the kitchen furniture that we ordered? TBD.

The little changes – they have begun to plaster a bit and rip things off the walls.  The master bedroom has been pretty much stripped.  Lighting and electrics are being laid.

Main bathroom – ready for lights & plastering.

No more pine cladding or ceilings or plastered walls in the master bedroom

Plastering has begun in the office and in the loft bedroom.

We can see that things are coming together a bit more but it also means there are more questions.  We shall see what comes over the next few weeks.  I’ll post again in two weeks.

Ch..ch..ch..changes

I was finally able to get in and take some photos…plus bought a new USB cable for the phone so I could download them.  I’m going to try to put some before and after images in so you can really see some of the big changes that have taken place…

Plastering is what’s going on a lot right now.  Basically EVERY single room is having its walls re-plastered.

 

This is the upstairs where the old chimney was located…now ripped out, concreted and plastered:

From this:   To this:    

They are reworking some of the wiring and put in a new box for us:

 

And this will make me feel much safer!  At least I’ll know how to move a switch with this box if I trip it!

Another before and after is in regards to the kitchen & downstair bathroom areas…

 

This is the old kitchen, with a doorway looking into the extension (which had a downstairs bathroom within it)…and here’s what the area looks like now:

 

A wall is being put in place for the downstairs 1/2 bath and the doorway has been totally taken out.  The extension is completely opened up:

  <—-there used to be a doorway here extending into this space and now it is no more!

Due to the idiocy of the original builders of the extension, two metal beams have been put in place where the old doorway was located:

And you can see in the background the new doors to the back garden, which will be put in place, as well as the other building materials. 

So that’s it as of Monday, 10th November.  I’ll be back at the house taking more pics this weekend…and hopefully the lights will be back on…there’s been no electricity/lights as they continue to work on this system.