Floors, Walls and Staircases!

The last post was all about taking walls, floors and ceilings out, whereas this time it's about putting them back in...Yay!

The big 600mm wall has gone and we've replaced it with this block wall whilst at the same time opening up the kitchen  into the dining and living area to make the room flow better and offer a more sociable space.

This space will be the 3rd bedroom and downstairs toilet, previously it held the bathroom and one set of stairs.

 The new staircase will go here although we still need to cut out a doorway at the top into the bedroom on the left. Unfortunately the landing (albeit small) will have to come out of the bedroom on the right which makes it slightly smaller.  The original plan was to have the landing in the middle between the two but the steel girder and the position of the staircase prevented this from happening.

As you can see we still don't have any ceilings but this view is from the front door looking back through the cottage.  The doorway on the right has since been blocked up again and re-opened further along the wall for the loo and the window you can see at the back has had to swap places with the back door to accommodate the stairs, talk about putting a jigsaw together : )

The next step was to get the concrete floors laid and after months of rubble and bedrock the concrete mixer was a welcome sight (sad I know)!

Before the concrete can be poured the damp proof layer has to be laid and this is what it looks like....who knew!

Here it comes,,,,watch your feet!

Et Voila! At last it's starting to look like a floor!

Next was the staircase and ceilings.  We decided to raise the floors upstairs to give more headroom in the lounge and as the bedrooms have a vaulted ceiling they still feel roomy.

These are the bones of our new staircase and not a rotten tread to be found anywhere!  The poor estate agent who showed me around nearly broke his ankle climbing the old ones.  We've positioned them in the kitchen next to the 3rd bedroom so we now only have one set of stairs.

New ceiling all ready for first fix electrics and plumbing!

Vaulted ceiling in the bedroom, although the water tank needs to go!

Our next task is to put the rooflight in above the stairs and increase the number of velux's in the bedrooms and kitchen to let the light flood in.  I'll share some photos next time!

Shipwreck to even bigger wreck!

The first thing we had to decide on was whether we were going to keep this property and move into it and either sell/rent the existing one or vice versa?  My initial thoughts were to keep the new one as it's considerably bigger downstairs and has a lovely sunny courtyard out the back but Mr M wasn't as keen.

I think the main problem is he's not very good at visualising how it will look when it's done and is also absolutely in love with St Edmunds Lane as it's warm, cosy and clean.  I suppose when I show you what we did to it within the first month you can sympathise somewhat with his point of view.  As of this date we still haven't made a final decision (which is hindering my choices on finishes a little).  Ah well, I'm all for going with the flow and seeing where we end up : )

A decision I did make was to knock down the main internal wall as it was 600mm thick and taking up way too much room which could be better utilised.  It also accommodated my main ambition  to make a third bedroom downstairs (albeit a bunk bed room) and have a downstairs loo, here's how it looked with the wall half demolished.

You can where the two original cottages back doors were.

 And this is the magical floating wall, held up with a couple of Acro Props and very little else! I kept getting a bit nervous when 'Big Stu' our lovely demo man kept leaning on them.

Here you can see the fabulous slate walls which we will keep as features if at all possible.

The one thing this house has in abundance is fireplaces although they have either been breeze blocked up or plastered over so it's been interesting discovering what's underneath.

As you can see we had to take out the ceiling between the ground and first floor due to the wall coming down but this has enabled us to once again increase the ceiling height downstairs without adversely effecting the upstairs as they are open to the rafters, which is great for those of us in the family who are 6' 4" (Jake).

This is where one set of stairs and the kitchen (I use that word in the loosest possible sense) originally were. 

And the bathroom, soon to be bedroom 3 and a loo! The window on the left didn't make the final cut and is no more, the door in the kitchen has also moved and has changed places with the window to accommodate the all important new staircase.

Outside things are looking slightly better but not for long as this whole space was soon filled with dirt and rubble from all the demolition which was going on inside.

Next time: The new walls are going in and the space is starting to be re-defined with a much more open plan feel.  Is Mr M going to go for it when it's done......????

Watch this space!!