June 26th, 2009 - Surprises!

I haven't included all of the photos I'd like to because I really don't have the time it takes to do so. Between work, packing up our house, managing 4 cats & keeping up with basic housework I am exhausted at the end of each day. Unfortunately I only manage to get to the new house twice or three times a week, whereas Antonio goes everyday. I work on the west side of London and Antonio is centrally located so the travel time involved to get to the new house is also an issue. These days it seems Antonio and I only have one or two hours in the evening to actually see each other before we go to bed at night. The house and renovation project is definitely consuming our lives. I will keep posting as much as I can. I don't know if anyone even looks at this beyond ourselves and a few family members, but it has been fun to create a diary of memories for this project! It is certainly a good way to log our progress.

Update:

Thanks to the builders, Antonio, our architect & engineers we have a 50% green light to move on things.

1. Our planning application for the extension has been officially filed with the borough council. We have to wait up to 8 weeks for word on that. We don't think it will be a problem because our neighbors have been given the green light for their extension and ours is far less complex and roughly the same size externally.
   
2. The raising of the joists will begin mid-week this coming week (July 7th-12th).
3. The decades of accumulated nails in the original wood floors have been removed 100%.
4. The copper piping and plastic piping throughout the house is in the midst of being removed.
5. Once the joists are raised (which should take between 7-10 days) the plumbers, electrician and carpenters can all come in and begin their jobs.
6. The windows have been measured and ordered. We've put a rush on the 5 windows on the top floor so that they arrive before September. We can not plaster the bedrooms upstairs until the new windows have been installed.
7. The chimney sweeper will be coming in soon to clean and line all of the chimneys. This should take up to 14 days. We have 9 fireplaces, 4 of which we have decided to open for complete use during winter months. The remaining 5 fireplaces will be sealed so we do not lose heat from them during the winter months.

I'm preparing another post with photos taken recently (July 3rd). I know I am writing this retrospectively, but it comes down to time. It seems the weekends are the only days I have time to do this properly.

Enjoy!

Main staircase from mezzanine raised ground floor level (M-RGL) leading up to top floor

Stairs leading to top floor

looking into master bedroom

Bedroom 2 (water damaged ceiling)

Bedroom 2, to left of landing - Water damaged ceiling & partially poorly constructed

partition wall between bed 2 & master bed)

Landing in background - This photo was taken from inside the master bedroom. The chair is located within bedroom 2

Landing of top floor (home to top floor bathroom & bedrooms 2, 3 & Master)

Master bedroom (bedroom 2 in background left)

The view from the window in bedroom 2 out into the gardens. The lean-to below will be demolished in a couple of weeks time to make room for the extension out back.

Looking from entrance of bedroom 2 into old entrance into master bedroom

Top floor landing & bedroom 2 window to the right in the background (photo taken from inside master bedroom)

hallway to top floor mezzanine bathroom & bedroom 4

Far left: hallway to bedroom 4 & bathroom 3; Right: Stairs leading down to M-RGL

The little platform over the staircase was once a closet for a water tank for the house's heating system. We have opened it to leave empty because if/when we decide to extend up into the attic to add a bathroom and bedroom, we will need to add onto our staircase. That platform would serve as the landing for the staircase leading up to the loft. We haven't decided what to do with that little area for the immediate future though. We've thought about making a temporary cupboard with simply plasterboards or putting a piece of furniture there, but we're still not sure.

entrance to bedroom 4

entrance to bedroom 4

Apologies for the quality of the photos. The guys had just taken down the ceiling plaster boards and the dust and plaster was in the air, thus the particles that have disturbed the camera lense.

Above: Top Floor --> Bedroom 4 - on Saturday, June 26th the ceiling was removed. The ceiling is now 4m in height. We would like to keep the ceiling open as much as possible, but it will depend upon a few factors.

Bedroom 4 - view from landing on top floor & stairs leading down to M-RGL

Inside bedroom 4, looking towards the entrance doorway

Photo take from inside bedroom 4 looking at chimney & window that overlooks the gardens at back

Photo taken inside bedroom 4 looking at the original beams (dating back to 1860s ca.) and ceiling of house. The largest beam is the main supporting beam of that angled roof. The chimney breast & column will be sandblasted to expose the brick work and then lime white washed to create a clean look & feel to the room.

The view outside bedroom 4 window

Bedroom 4 --> Note the white plaster on the walls and specifically the line where it finishes on the wall. That line designates where the ceiling used to be. The amount of space we've gained by taking down the ceiling and raising it will be dramatic, when finished.

Another noteworthy piece of information, is the large top main beam running the length of the room. That is the original beam and surprisingly in really good shape. We'll be installing the new ceiling directly up to that beam (following the angle of the roof) and then taking it across horizontally from that beam to the chimney breast.

Ok, that's all I've got for now. I'll begin working on my next post. Make sure you check back soon because the transformations from this week of photos to the photos of July 3rd are simply shocking! The work has been moving along so quickly! FYI, demolition is just about over too, which is what you'll see in the next post!

Have a good weekend!

Demolition - Week 2 - June 24, 2009

Oh my goodness!!! These days and weeks are flying by so fast! I can't keep up! Everyday the guys manage to destroy and remove more stuff from the house and it just keeps coming. We are already filling up the front of the house for skip #4! We thought we'd have maybe 3 skips in total, at the maximum, and this 4th skip won't even be the last one! Our builder, Nano, thinks we'll fill possibly 7 skips before demolition and removal is all completed.

Updates:

The status of the house has been resolved. We are officially homeowners of a residential home. This was music to our ears, but again one issue resolved and another pops up around the corner.

GOOD NEWS: We've decided to raise the joists on the ground floor level in order to create more head height for the LGL.

BAD NEWS: Unfortunately it is an engineering & joinery job that will require galvanized steel brackets or a steel beam (1 0r 2 RSJs), thus requiring us to enter into a British "Third Party Wall Agreement". This is making things incredibly messy because we've had to draw up additional legal docs to have the neighbors sign giving their consent to this type of work since it will technically involve touching a portion of the shared wall between our properties. This means not one neighbor's consent, not even two, but THREE neighbors must give consent to this!!!!! The house to the right of us is split into two flats, so 2 owners.

The house to the left is one entire house, so one owner. All of this additional mess because we are a "terraced" house which shares two adjoining walls with other people and because our joists go horizontally! We feel completely at their mercy. We've been weeding through the legalities of it all since last week and we're hoping to reach some kind of agreement with everyone, but we're not in the clear. In the meanwhile we've requested our engineer & builder to think of an alternative method of raising the joists that won't involve the "interference" of third parties. Who knew that this process could get so complicated so early on?

The house looks fabulous, or more like a nightmare to those unfamiliar with it. The stinky toilets have officially been removed, except one for the use of the builders. I think they're crazy to attempt to use the remaining one, but if you've gotta go, you've gotta go. Let's face it, males have it

far easier than females when it comes to things like that.

Again, things are moving along much faster than we had expected, but will we be able to move in mid-August?

Today I contacted all of the glass companies for the extension out back. I'd like a wall of seamless glass that opens with a sliding door motion, but it isn't easy to find thermally sound external glass walls & patio doors, within our budget. We're looking at a few Norwegian, Swedish & German companies to see what's on the market outside of the UK, so hopefully in a week or so I should have a few good quotes to choose from.

The fireplaces have all been opened up. Last weekend I purchased two original Victorian fireplace surrounds from 1840 from a salvage yard in Wales. They're made of cast iron and perfect for the two small bedrooms. It's our first official purchase for the interior of the house (not incl. tiles, sanitary units, doors, etc.). They should arrive on the 15th of August.

This weekend we're off to Canterbury to visit an architectural salvage

yard to find two large marble fireplace surrounds for the main reception

and dining rooms. This should be fun!

The bedrooms are looking enormous now! We've pulled the ceiling down in the smallest bedroom on the top floor (see photos on next post). The rafters are so high, so once the guys are able to put up the insulation and new plasterboard we will have a much higher ceiling in that one bedroom, making it appear larger. We spoke with Nano today about possibly putting in a skylight, but we'll see what the benefits will be with & w/o before making a final decision.

That's it for now, but I will post more photos tomorrow because Antonio and I have taken a day off of work to clear out the garden and meet with our architect and builder to go over our plans. I'll definitely put up more photos by Saturday! Enjoy!

These photos are of the hallway on the way up to the upper floors. Note the wood flooring. We're hoping to be able to take them up, relay, sand, lacquer and seal them.

These photos are of the dining room. We are having a specialized craftsman who focuses on plaster cornicing come and take a molding of the existing cornicing to ensure that if it falls and separates from the ceiling we will be replacing it with the identical stuff, or as close as possible

The ugly wiring coming out of the ceiling in the dining area is similar to the amount of copper piping we're having removed from under the floorboards and in the walls. Tedious work for those doing it, I'm sure.