Week 8 - What do you get if you cross a cat and cement.......

........ Paw print parquet!

That's right, Claude fancied a plunge into the levelling cement in the kitchen and decided to run all over the parquet in shock.

On the bright side, this means the tiles could be installed once the solution set. We took Katie's Mum and Dad's advice about non-textured tiles but took inspiration from their slate tiles.

The utility room and kitchen now have most of their units installed.

Week 6 and 7 - Plaster, plaster and more plaster

As Katie had started her school holidays, she began some DIY herself in the lounge... removing and replacing mouldy chaulk, preparing the walls with sugar soap and sanding them down ready for painting next week (Thanks Rosemary!).

 

Chris continued the plastering of the entire downstairs (it was very hot, hard work!), including the understairs toilet which we have not mentioned for a while!

 

At the beginning of week 7, the kitchen units arrived in boxes, filling up the dining room completely. Claude had a brand new playground!

 

 

With the kitchen delivered, Chris set about installing the units. Cue phonecalls and trips to Howdens to rectify the units which had been incorrectly sent out to him by the company. Luckily, a branch has recently opened in Filton. Still, we have 6 spare units.

 

 By the end of week 7, the kitchen was starting to take shape. How exciting!

 

 

 

 

 

Week 5 - Fabulous flooring

Week 5 saw the sanding, staining and varnishing of the original parquet flooring that was hidden under the carpet in the dining room. As we had bought a 1930s house, we wanted to keep as many original features as we could. So, we took the opportunity to restore the floor.

 

Lounge newly sanded

 

 

The dining room with stain samples

 

It took 3 long days for the flooring specialist to sand down both rooms, stain the wood then varnish to finish. But, it looks fantastic! No more shoes allowed in the Gadd household.

 

 We opted for a matt finish but it was shiny whilst wet

 

Week 4 - Pebble dash, unleashing the floors and plumbing.

The first stage of removing wall paper revealed this beauty....If you cannot have bricks, why not have brick wall paper........

 The extension has now been rendered with the lovely pebble dash to match the rest of the house.

The builder spent a lot of time organising the plumbing ready for the kitchen to be in stalled in a few weeks time.

As well as the flooring, we removed the wall paper ready to re-paint

At the same time, we took off the paper from the wall, ready to repaint after the parquet has been sanded, stained and sealed.

Week 3: Electrics 1, Roof Structure and Damp Treatment

The first thing to happen in week 3 was that the stud work started to go in. This is a later picture as you cas see the first fix electrics going in as well.

 

Another picture of the steel and the ceiling has been batoned. Finally, towards the end of the week, the roof structure has gone on the extension.

 

The other news is that the damp proof people have been in and injected the old walls. Hopefully that is the end of the dust!

 

More updates to come for week 4 now we have a bit more time.

The Rest of Week 2: Steel Beam and Walls Going Up

Week 3 and Matt disappeared to Glastonbury! Luckily Katie was around to take some pictures!

The first major development is that the steal beam went in and we got rid of the props...

 

 

After the steal went in, the walls started to go up outside. Half way before Matt got back.

 

Week Two, Day One and the Wall is Down

So much dust! Came home from work and we no longer have a wall.

 

 

The oven was sold today, and the dining room door is now on the other door frame to reduce the dust as much as possible. 

The Rest of Week One

So for the rest of week the builder, plus some labourers have been very busy.

 

On Tuesday, the foundations were dug by Chris and Yan...

 

On Thursday the concrete arrived, and after 30 minutes of Chris + 2 running up and down the alley we had foundations...



 

 

But unfortunately by day 5 we only had one downstairs room which is now our kitchen, dining room and lounge in one.

 

 

Day 5, and a weekend with Ed and Michelle on the horizon. This is what the kitchen looked like. Sorry guys!

The House on Day 1: Builder Arrives and Things Start Happening

Before the builder started, we thought we should take a couple of pictures.

Back of House.

                       Kitchen                                                                      Under Stairs Cupboard
 

 

 

Dining Room

 

When we came home from work, this had happened:



Planning Nightmares and Disinterested Achitects

Following our "successful" attempt at blogging in Hong Kong, we have decided to write a new blog to capture the pain that we have no doubt the house renovation will cause us. This also lets everyone be nosey, and means that we can record the progress as it happens!

So it is probably best to start from the beginning...

Katie and I moved into our 1930s house in April 2013, and began saving money to do some work to the ground floor space.

The plan...

1. Knock down the outhouses (coal house and outside toilet)
2. Build a utility room
3. Knock down the wall between the kitchen and dining room
4. Install a new kitchen in the new kitchen-diner
5. Turn the understairs cupboard into a downstairs toilet

Simple! Well as it turns out, not so simple. Once we had saved the majority of the money, we decided that to make sure we get what we want, we should ask an architect to put together a simple plan of the extension. This would also mean that the builders were all quoting on the same thing, and that the applications for "permitted development" and building regulations were taken care of.

Well to start with, it turns out that despite the large fees, the architect was on the whole pretty useless, making small mistakes on plans and generally only interested in getting some money from us. Nonetheless, the permitted development certificate of lawfulness was given, and the building regs application made thanks to some initial planning advice from a friend (no prizes for guessing who).

One and a half months later, after much chasing it became apparent that the building regs team had instructed the architect that they were waiting for an approval from the water company because there was a drain "nearby". Clearly the architect did not care, but after a lot of time on the phone, I found out that the water company record a drain in the alleyway at the side of the house. Evidently, they did not trust the information they had, because I was instructed to make an application once I knew where the drain was. The only problem was that there were no manholes and no way to verify this drains existence.

So the water company agreed to send out a team to uncover this drain. One failed visit later I found out that they had turned up and assumed that because the gate was shut, it was locked. Apparently trying the gate may have meant getting out of the truck. More and more conversations later and the water company finally agreed to let me use the details they have, then took £325 to say what was already in the building regs spec - that the foundations close to a sewer need to be deeper. Great!

In the meantime, we had sorted out letters from our neighbours to ensure no boundary dispute after we had rebuilt the same wall that already exists along the boundary wall. We had the green light.