Getting there?

So, we're at the halfway stage of our time in the rented flat. Today we chose the kitchen, and I will order the appliances soon. We also chose carpet for our new bedroom, upstairs landing and stairs. The builders have started putting down the wood floor we chose for the downstairs areas. It's looking good (although hard to see from these pics!):

And here's another couple of pics of the kitchen/dining room, now ready for the floor to be laid and then for the new kitchen to be fitted. Exciting!

Work continues and we move out!

So we have decamped to a temporary home for a month. We're in a nice, clean and DUST-FREE flat. It's not huge but it's fine for a while.  

No sooner had we moved out than the builders started knocking down walls between the kitchen and dining room!  Here are some pics:

Dining room before

And after the walls are down!

So we're hoping working continues apace so that it'll be more or less ready for us when we move back in on 30 November!

Work continues ...

It's been a while since I posted, partly due to laziness and partly due to the fact that whilst a lot of work was happening, not much of it could be seen. There was a lot of effort ongoing with drainage and other such things. Building Control got a bit picky about the drains tests but finally they've passed so the massive trenches everywhere can start being filled in. 

This means that it's now full steam ahead, and last Friday the floor of the 'cinema' room was boarded and Adrian has been busy with all the cabling for the projector etc. He had to go under the house for some of this, and enlisted a small (and very willing!) helper to get into the smaller spaces under there!

Meanwhile, we've also spent a couple of weekends stripping wallpaper - the hall and upstairs landing were NOT FUN!  The living room much easier as it all came off quite well. My Dad was roped in to help with the living room, and he assisted in removing a built in cupboard on one side of the fireplace. We also discovered there's a backboiler in the fire place (damn!) so that will have to come out. 

Oh, and the roof tiles finally arrived (national shortage apparently) and the roof is now done.

View of the back of the house, with lots of people working on the roof

So, that's it for now. In less than two weeks we will move out for a month so the builders can really go for it - knocking down two walls and putting up a steel beam, complete rewire, fitting kitchen, knocking through to new downstairs toilet, putting in new boiler and radiators, and finishing it all off. Blimey, that's still quite a lot, innit??

Our Bedroom and Ensuite

The builders are concentrating on getting our bedroom and ensuite done, so it's been full-on with plastering, windows being fitted, shower, toilet, sink etc all being installed. The ensuite is long and thin, as these pictures maybe show: 

And here's a couple of the bedroom:

Mid September

So, it's 16 September 2013 and building work continues. Nothing very exciting visually, which is why I haven't posted anything much recently. 

The big move last Thursday was breaking through from the upstairs extension into the existing upstairs hallway. I came home just as they were cleaning up - very dusty! 

Here's a before and after :

Window before the knock-through

After knock-through - door into extension

Insulation has been going in upstairs today, and some of the bedroom/ensuite walls have plasterboard up. We have to make decisions about shower door and sink this week.

Tomorrow the windows are arriving (apparently!). That'll make a difference in terms of warmth and visual appreciation. 

I'll take some photos of the bedroom and ensuite once there's a bit more to see.

Our First Year!

On Saturday 31st August we celebrated having lived in this house for a year. Well, we didn't really celebrate as such, but it did give pause for thought at least. The year has flown by! 

So, back to the extension, lots has been going on, not all of it visible from the outside. The main thing to see is the roof has been started. There's also been some wall building, but this is mainly round the back and not easy to photograph. Anyway, here's a selection of photos showing how things looked around 29/30/31 August 2013:

View from current kitchen door through 'cinema' room to cloakroom

View from kitchen door to other end of 'cinema' room and out into the back garden

Back garden,currently featuring large holes, this being just one of them

Some of the roof structure is now up

Another two of the aforementioned large holes in the back garden!

Friday 23rd

So here's how things look today (Friday 23 August).

Second floor frame is finished, cladding is being put on the ground floor frame. A big pile of scaffolding arrived today so the builders can get on with the upstairs cladding etc. 

It's coming on. Not much more to say than that really :-)

View from the front

View from the back garden

 

About 3 weeks in?

Ok, so it's not that interesting to write about the extension, which is why it's been a while!

However, much has happened over the last 10 days or so. Foundations, concrete base, and now the timber kit has started. First floor only so far, but it's giving me a better idea of how things will look. Really hard to get pictures that show the scale of things, but here we go:

Ade is currently working hard on identifying all the kit he wants for what is now being renamed the cinema room (was previously the playroom, family room or games room). It's the downsstairs room that you can sort of see outlined on the pic above. 

Apparently we're having a projector and surround sound etc. It's fair to say that none of this is my department, and of little interest to me. Although I expect I'll enjoy watching movies with good sound, once it's all done!

The Wallaces' Extension - The Early Days

This is before work started. Members of my family had gathered to enjoy dinner outside one really warm Friday evening (12 July 2013). 

The garden looks quite nice in this photo, but it wasn't really in close up. The greenhouse had broken glass, the slabs were messy, the whole garden was overgrown.

Fast forward to Friday 25th and the greenhouse has gone (as well as a tree which is just out of view to the left).

And the next day the steps to the back door went. So no more exiting from the kitchen to the garden!

Next the foundations are started and then filled with concrete and gravel (I think - not really that good at/interested in the technical details, to be fair!).

So now the garden is completely out of bounds, which is not entirely great for the kids. But only another week and a bit of school holidays to go, and we're away next weekend, so it's not too bad!  I am missing having somewhere outside to hang washing but last Friday one of my (many) nice neighbours let me use their line.

5th August - building walls starts

6th August - walls growing

I've never worked within a blog format before so it's quite hard to make it look reasonable. However, you get the idea I hope! 

To be continued ....