College

I'm really into this renovation malarky so here's what I've been doing over the last month....

Bathroom

The bathroom is an ongoing saga....

Iain has put the wall back up over the new pipework

Insulation and vapour barrier

gyproc

 

Plastered smooth

Putting the feet on the new bath

In between

3 months ago I promised to let you know what I had been doing between fixing up the new sockets:

Removing laminate flooring from the lounge..

Gardening?

more wiring

Letting the plumber do his thing

 

 

 

 

Electrics

I have eventually made up my mind to re-instate the electric heating. I had dreams of installing a multifuel stove and radiators but the only quote I had was more than I expected and definitely more than I could afford. So.......

now that Iain has reinstated the bathroom joists

supported properly on the newel post.......

I have started the electrics. Easy job first - make new light switch position for the hall and stair lights

Extra sockets in the bedrooms....

First draw round the box

Then cut it out

Make sure the box fits

take a very loooong drill bit and drill through the bottom of the wall

right into the floor cavity

Make a fishing wire
 

 

Look under the floor with a makeup mirror

 

Push a cable down the drilled hole and catch it with the fish wire

 

Put in as many cables as you need

 

Replace the box

Strip the wires

 Et Voila!

Its three months since I started this post and no it didn't take three months to do one socket. I had the flu and then other tasks took over so it was a long time before the socket was finished. You'll have to look at the next post to see what was happening in the mean time.

The easy bit?

Is it decorating?
It took me a day to strip the wallpaper off this bedroom but it looks better for it.

We saved one comfy chair for the workmen to have their tea on if they wanted.

It has taken me and Ant a day to get most of this paper off...

What a worker!

More dismantling!

In order to get the rotten joists out and the new joists in the other bathroom wall had to come down.

Starting the electrics

Before Iain could take down the wall I had to move the old fuse board.

Before

Behind

 

 

 

 

Empty of cables

All neatly tidied up

Where to eat....

The kitchen has a wee space where you could put a little table and a couple of chairs - maybe

But if you do that where are you going to put the fridge and freezer?
My friend Antonia came for a look round and suggested removing this wall between the stairs and the front door:

Genius! Antonia's husband is an architect so he came round and pronounced it non loadbearing :-)

 The thick joist on the left is holding up the joists that are resting on the non loadbearing wall. Unfortunately this joist is rotten where it meets the brickwork and even though it is about 3" x 8" in cross section the other end is supported only by 1/4 " check in the newell post and one 4" nail!!

This is the end of the big joist with its one nail and just caught on the newell post

The bathroom wall frame is balanced on the stairs now.

Iain took down the wall and then the bathroom wall and then started on the joists ...

Where's the bathroom gone

Iain popped in for a few hours on Tuesday and the bathroom disappeared...

O there's the bath

Colin and Jamie

These two guys repaired the roughcast and redid the cement finish below floor level. 

It looks a lot neater.


When the boys came with their invoice Colin told me Jamie was brought up in this house - so I had to invite them in to look round.

Jamie in his old room!
I'll let them come back when its finished.

Dormers

After the repairs were made by Steve.... Paul and Mick refelted the dormers. I climbed the ladder to inspect the last one but I didn't take my camera. I needed both hands to hold on - its a long time since I was able to scamper up and down scaffolding!

Doesn't that look better!