Photos & dates to bring the blog up-to-date

Photos below: August 19th, 2009 - Ground Floor & entrance hallway - new joists with ply floor laid. All walls removed and original plaster ceilings demolished and rubble removed.

Below: First floor - new insulation & plaster boarding

top - (from hallway looking into Master bedroom) New insulation (I did that myself - super itchy job!)

bottom - Second bedroom (looking from inside the bedroom into hallway & Master bedroom door)

below: 1st floor - Insulation

Photo top: 1st floor landing & corridor (looking into bathroom and down into bedroom 3)

Photo bottom: 1st floor bathroom

Photo below: 1st floor - 3rd bedroom --> new insulation & plaster boards

Photos below: August 20th, 2009

Photo top: Master bedroom stripped of original floorboards

Photo bottom: 1st floor 2nd bedroom new plaster boarded ceiling

Photos below: new plasterboards

Photo top: looking at 1st floor landing & Master bedroom entrance (centre right) & 2nd bedroom (left)

Photo bottom: looking into 1st floor 3rd bedroom & bathroom to the right


Mezzanine level - Guest bedroom 1 (at the time of the photo is served well as a storage room)

Photos below: August 21st, 2009

1st Floor Master bedroom: New plaster!!!!!!!!

That's Wayne, one of our amazing plasterers! He can turn plaster into a mirror of glass!!

Photos below:

top: 1st floor landing - plasterboarding the bathroom and bonding the wall to the right in preparation for plaster and skim.

bottom: Carpenter beginning to open the original window in the 1st floor bathroom.

Mezzanine level: Opening of new window in Mezz. bathroom (left)

Looking left, note the green poles (acros), they were used to support joists we opened on of the original windows. This window is directly below the 1st floor window (photo above). This area to the left is to become the Mezzanine level bathroom.

Photos below: August 21st, 2009

1st floor Master bedroom

top photo: Master bedroom

bottom photo: Second bedroom (water damaged wall & blown brickwork)

below: Mezzanine bedroom and right side is the soon-to-become new bathroom

After demolition of ceiling cornicing & new windows!!

After demolishing the ground floor ceilings (as shown in the video footage)

(above: ground floor entrance corridor, reception & dining room)



(above: looking up into first floor, from ground floor - after demolition of ceiling lava plaster)

Windows: We had all 13 windows hand-made by a local artisan carpenter, with weights and pulleys, just like the original old English sash windows would have been. The main difference is that these new ones have all been double glazed for energy-saving purposes. This was such a GREAT day for us because the windows in this house were all PVC plastic or metal aluminum which had to have been installed back in the 80s. We love our new windows!!

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Lower Ground Level - It's progress from July - October 17th, 2009

We fired our builder at the beginning of August (August 10th to be precise) when we realized he was obviously taking us for a ride and unaware of many things regarding UK building regulations. I won't go into details, but let's just say we have learned our lesson and we are roughly two months behind on our build due to repairing damages and changing builder and team.

The following photos are of the LGL area to show the progress of this particular level. Each new post will be dedicated to a floor and it's history of progression.

LGL:

Stages of change & improvement

(below) The old joists before they were removed

(below) photos taken immediately after the ground floor joists were removed

Joists were removed from ground level (the reception)

(photos below taken Oct. 17th, 2009)

New joists were put in two months ago. The LGL has now been plaster boarded, wired with electricity and it's own alarm system, new & improved larger windows & new plumbing. We have decided that the LGL will be turned into a one bedroom flat that we will rent out. The house is too big for just the two of us, so we might as well make the most of it in terms of its investment potential. The flat will have an open-plan living room and kitchen (wall in center of flat is missing because of continued movement of materials on site), new bathroom, utility room, a bedroom and small study area with large skylight at the back of the flat for extra natural light. The space in the flat is roughly 62 square meters.

Demolition - August 11th, 2009

After removing the original wood floor planks (12 feet long) we decided to finally get rid of the original ground floor cornicing that seemed unsalvageable. It was a pity to lose it, but it was too difficult to save it after it had been so badly damaged by the builder (who we fired a few days prior to this video).

These are two small clips of the demolition that took place on August 11th. We were demolishing the ground floor ceiling from the 1st floor. An extremely dusty process, but quite therapeutic at the time.