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.

Sunday, 31st May 2009 -DIY Demolition Day 2

Sunday, 31st May 2009 - DIY Demolition Day 2

Ok, so we slept really well Saturday night! I haven't needed a shower that badly since 1998, when I volunteered during my sophomore year of college at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, MN after the tornado hit the campus and town, destroying many homes, farms and parts of the Gustavus campus. I was seriously stinky & dirty Saturday night when we got home and my hair could have been a nest for pigeons it was so dusty, nappy and altogether gross. I washed it 4 times that night, just to get the dirt and grime out. I desperately need a bandana, but I left all of my old ones back in the States, assuming they haven't been thrown out by now. Note to self: find a couple of bandanas before this project proceeds much further, or I'll find myself balding before I realize it.

I digress...

So, Saturday night we slept really well due to sheer exhaustion and partially to our wonderfully hot showers! We woke up early Sunday, at around 8:30am, dressed, ate a quick breakfast and packed our lunches up. Sunday we knew we had to complete the removal of the doors from the house and ensure that the majority of the kitchen on the LGL was removed and tossed out. We had an appointment that afternoon at the house with a few guys who are not only builders, but serious property investors in London, so that was a key part of our day. Before the men arrived, we managed to get all of the carpets and doors taken out of the house and neatly organized in the front garden. We needed a skip badly at this point because it was nearly impossible to enter or exit the front garden from the sidewalk and you couldn't even see over the rubbish out front to the passers-by on the sidewalk. We did manage to accomplish a decent amount of the work before the men arrived.

They arrived after lunch, had a look around and gave us some interesting ideas for the place, but something untimely reared its ugly head. There was mention that the house may not be listed with the local council as a "residential" (privately owned) property, but instead as an HMO (house of multiple occupancy), due to its past conversions. This was not good news, and it was never raised or flagged by the Council when our solicitors/lawyers carried out their Land Registry search. The builders (one funnily enough being named Bob) advised us to stop our demolition of the LGL because if this house was still listed as an HMO we could essentially be dealing with some nasty things (like an illegally dug out LGL, illegal LGL front entrance door, illegal lean-to in the back garden, etc.).

I think I mentioned previously about how this whole process had already been a steep learning curve. Well, obviously, we've not completed the upward slope. A major difficulty for us here is the simple fact that we don't know or we're not aware of the various building categories or the various building regulations when it comes to properties here in the UK. The property laws in the UK are very archaic and nothing like those in either the United States or Italy. I am not arguing that these laws are necessarily good or bad, but simply reiterating that it is difficult to wrap one's head around all of the regulations & requirements just to get things accomplished. This is and probably will continue to be a constant struggle for us when trying to iron out the designs, drawings and plans for the renovation works & extensions in this project.

By the end of midday, the very nice man, Bob the Builder, and his mates/business partner(s) left us with many things to think about, ideas and items to be researched thoroughly by Monday morning. We needed answers and we needed them fast!!

Our builders were scheduled to begin working on the house Monday, June 15th because we are scheduled to move into the top floor by August 22nd. The lease on the house we're currently letting is up on August 27th. Although, now if what Bob told us was true and our house was not listed as a private residence, then we were looking at unknown & unexpected costs to convert it's status! Some serious phone calls would have to be made to our solicitors about any possible negligence on their part in handling the Land Registry enquiries, if this ends up being the case. When one brings up legal issues anywhere near my husband, his ears perk up like a hunting dog catching the scent of a fox. It is something funny to watch, if not intimidating, but I'd not like to be on the receiving end if he's caught the scent of something that doesn't sit well with him. It appears that either the Council &/or the solicitors will be getting the Avvocato Amelia grilling by phone Monday morning.

We headed home around 6pm that evening. The day had been productive, but also very unsettling. I'll keep you posted on the outcome.

No matter what happened that day, we enjoyed ourselves immensely and look forward to the next stage -> REAL demolition days!!!!

Saturday, 30 May 2009 - DIY Demolition Day 1

Saturday, 30th May 2009 - DIY Demolition Day 1

Today was our first day to do DIY demolition!  Wow!  The weather was beautiful and it was a lot of fun!  We armed ourselves in old jeans, t-shirts, sweatshirts, shoes, thick rubber gloves, goggles and face masks.  

The sheer smell of ripping out those blue carpets was enough to knock out an elephant!  I think Antonio had too much fun with his sledge hammer, but then he's a guy so what do I expect? Men and their toys!!!  In his past life he must have been a laborer because he swung that thing like a pro!   

We split the work up between us.  I unscrewed all 17 fire doors (by hand) and removed them from their hinges.  I ripped up the foul-smelling carpets; rolled them into sausage-like rolls; tugged, dragged, wrestled and screamed them outside to the front garden of the house.  I did likewise with the fire doors.   :)  Let's just say my arms were burning from the sheer weight of carrying & dragging the fire doors down two flights of stairs and up, but who knew old smelly carpets could weigh so much?!?!   While I was working on the upper levels for the most part of the day, Antonio was outside in the front garden destroying the front brick/cement block garden wall, horrible 70s wrought iron fencing and the large kitchen in the lower ground level (LGL).  

It was a fully rewarding day, but as the saying goes, "it's only a drop in the bucket" of what's to come.  

An example of the horrendous fire doors in this house! 

The doors really create a lovely mental health clinic feel to 

the building, wouldn't you agree?

You can't even begin to imagine the smell these two bathrooms 

have created on this level of the house.

This third toilet could quite possibly be 

THE worst bathroom I have ever seen or smelled in my

life.  The worst part of all of this is knowing that only a couple 

of months ago people were actually still using this place as 

a dwelling. (Just can't bring myself to use the H word.)

He loves his new toy!

The forever famous smelly blue carpet.

A bit of before and then after ...

As soon as we placed our offer on the house, and it was accepted, we began to take photos of the house. We wouldn't want to miss a single step during this renovation process, so we've begun snapping. 

There are only two original features left in the house that we will focus on preserving and/or replacing.  The first is any cornicing that remains, though it is

 limited.  The craftsmanship that will have to go into the restoration and replacement of the original cornicing will be a project unto itself.  Hopefully we can find the right person!  The second feature is our staircase banister. The spindles are currently boarded up and we will keep them that way until the work is com

pleted, just to ensure there is no further damage done. 

The house is not only derelict, but has a horrific, nose-burning stench that is imbedded in the old, blue and well-soiled wall-to-wall carpets.  The roof experienced major water infiltration over what appears to have been a long period of time,

 therefore all of the ceilings in the house must be replaced.  The windows are indescribably foul!  The old 70s fire doors must go; all 17 of them.  The radiators are pathetic and rusted. Those will have to be replaced with original, refurbished Victorian cast iron radiators.  The original floorboards are still a mystery.  It's likely we'll have to replace them too.  In a week or so we should know more once things are removed and the house is taken back to its skeleton status.

I've posted a few photos so you can see the cornicing and various other things, like our wonderfully unruly garden!