Monday 29 April 2013

Repairing the bathroom roof.

With a very old, rotten leaking bathroom roof there is only one thing for it, to rip it off and replace it. Waiting for a dry weekend we see a break in the bleak weather to remove the old roof.
Replacing the bathroom roof
Unfortunately the dry weather didn't last and soon the torrential rain started pouring and the water wasn't only flooding the bathroom but also found it's way downstairs and flooded out the kitchen area. Unlucky for us because we don't have a proper kitchen yet in place, we had all our food items stored in cardboard boxes on the floor right under where the water poured in. Cost us a small fortune in soggy soup sachets, solid packs of water soaked flour and sticky gravy granules!
Mopping up the flood water
After cleaning up downstairs it was back onto the roof to complete the job as best as we could to make it water tight over night to continue the roof repair the next day.
Repairing the bathroom roof
Unfortunately when you need to go you need to go! luckily it wasn't raining at this point. 
Alfresco pooping



Friday 26 April 2013

Fitting a new kitchen

We started the renovation at the front of the house building the living room and into the dining room not really touching the kitchen but now we have made so much progress that it's time to start attacking the kitchen and the final stage of the down stairs renovation.

Preparing walls for plaster boarding
The biggest problem with this area is that it's really very cold, and letting in a lot of cold air, to combat this and to save money in the future we are insulating the walls to retain the heat. Here you can see the top of the walls stuffed with insulation roll to fill in the gaps. Then over this we covered the walls with insulated plaster board. 
Stud working interior walls for plaster board
Seeing the last of the block work getting hidden away behind new plaster board really does feel like we are finally putting the house back together rather than tearing apart.
Fitting insulated plaster board



Thursday 25 April 2013

The Cornwall Home Show

I'm very excited to have received two tickets to the Cornwall home show this weekend courtesy of Arco2 in Bodmin. Hopefully I won't get to many new ideas for the house as I can see me wanting to spend lots of money on our new project.

 Next on the shopping list is splashback and kitchen tiles so hope to get some inspiration for our little Cornish home at the show.

If you see us there please say hello :@)

Saturday 20 April 2013

A job for the ladies!

With the first coats of paint drying it's time to get around the house with the paint a second time round. I don't think I realized how much harder it would be painting the second coats of paint, partly because the excitement of seeing paint on the walls has worn off by now and secondly because it's very hard to see how well the second coat of paint is covering when it's the same colour as the first. Anyway with the help of James's mum and myself the room has now had two coats of paint. I can't believe I have got to the age of 27 and never painted a room before, it sounds quite a shock statement but with less and less people getting on the property ladder and more people living in rented accommodation there are less people doing DIY themselves. I know it's only white paint so far but i'm really enjoying the learning curve doing up our first house.
painting the living room

How to paint ceilings

painting the cupboard under the stairs
Seeing paint on the walls is really encouraging us both with the house renovation, I can't wait to get colour on the walls and get pictures hung..... I know i'm dreaming quite away ahead but it's a nice thought. Now back to the jobs to do just in this room..... Sand the beams, paint the beams, build custom furniture for the tv, build dvd stands, make window sill, fit surround sound, fit lights, new floor, fit skirting boards, but for now we need to get on with the rest of the house before we can add finishing touches to the front room.

Didn't stop me buying new curtains though! Just going to be a long wait before fitting them!
home renovation

Sunday 14 April 2013

Removing the old door frame and replacing with a new frame

One of the biggest problems with our new house is the rotten wood everywhere and the cold. Every window is single glazed and not very well fitted and lets in a lot of cold air, and the doors are not much different either. Although we have the new door it needs a few more coats of paint before it's fitted, so although we are fitting the new frame we will be putting the old door door back in for the time being until the new door is painted ready to face being outside. 

Removing the old rotten door frame
The new taller door frame being fitted into place. Can't wait to have a beautiful stable door opening onto our lovely courtyard...... OK so my imagination is running wild but it will be lovely when it's done!
Fitting a new back door frame


Saturday 13 April 2013

Waterproofing and concreting the new floor

The list of jobs on the house just seams to grow and grow but with the manhole removed from the old porch area this can now be concreted in level with the rest of the house. Before laying the fresh concrete the floor and bottom of the walls are painted with damp proof paint as a precaution. 
Leveling out the kitchen floor
We are now shut in for the night with a plank of wood joining the house to the garage over the wet concrete.
Fresh concreted kitchen
After removing the kitchen units we realized that the floor wasn't level inside the kitchen and the floor had actually been laid around the units, so with a temporary sink in place for the night and the floor painted with damp proof paint this is left over night to dry ready for new concrete in the morning. Hopefully now the floor will be one level throughout and we can have a nice floor put down throughout and rid the patch work effect that used to grace the house.
Temporary kitchen sink
It might look like an outhouse right now but this is the kitchen in our open plan house! Hopefully it won't stay like this for to long! Eeek


Saturday 6 April 2013

Building a cupboard under the stairs

The problem with removing nearly every internal wall and cupboard and making the house totally open plan has meant that we are left with very little storage. Thinking cleverly about using every last little bit of space as well as building an under stair office we are squeezing in a small cupboard under the stairs. 
How to custom build a cupboard under the stairs

Custom built under stair cupboard
Well I say a small cupboard under the stairs, but it's not actually that small and can fit a James in there quite comfortably!
New cupboard under the stairs


Thursday 4 April 2013

Painting the fireplaces

Now that we are getting some coats of paint on the walls it's really the first time i'm actually seeing the house as a home and the dream becoming a reality. Even though my partner has always worked in property in one way or another he had a vision of how the house would eventually look when we went to view it and immediately saw it's potential. He could visualize the house and saw how the house could be modernized. 

I on the other hand have only ever lived in the family home and a variety of rented accommodation and neither of my parents were into DIY and never really did anything other than the odd refreshing coat of paint every few years. So up until now I've been doing the renovation pretty blind, I have no experience in anything related to building houses and my imagination to what we would achieve pretty flaky. I've never seen the work that goes into renovating a house, i've never seen sheets of plaster board, or rolls of insulation the whole concept is new to me. To me up until now it just seamed like we were facing more and more problems and removing more and more each week and just turning a house that was although a bit old fashioned into a complete mess. 

Finally now the months of making a mess were starting to come together and resemble a home. 
Painting a fireplace
Ok so maybe a beautiful home is a little optimistic at the moment as it does look more like a building site than  a home and pretty impossible to believe that we are also living here whilst doing the build, But it does slowly feel like it's coming together now.
Painting the fireplace surround
It's really hard to believe what was here previously and how amazing these two fireplaces look now. I loved the granite second fireplace but realizing it wasn't original it definitely made sense to remove it, and now looking at the two fireplaces in line with each other i'm definitely glad James was right to remove the granite surround.
First coat of paint on the new plaster


Wednesday 3 April 2013

Paint, Paint and more Paint!

Next on the to do list once the stairs have been moved around is to start kitting the area out as a desk area. Before the renovation the area had a steep staircase and a tall cupboard under the stairs, although we are removing a lot of storage space by loosing this cupboard and making the room open plan we are creating a dedicated office space something that we both really want. 
Painting under the stairs
Giving the walls under the stairs a lick of paint really brightens up the area showing us what we have to play with.
Painting fresh plaster
I'm dying to see how the desk under the stairs will look but James won't tell me his exact plans, telling me that it will be a surprise! I'm not sure how happy I am with this idea, i've told him what I would require and what ideally I would like in a dream desk area so lets so what i get. 
Renovating the cupboard under the stairs
First bit to go in is a small cupboard under the stairs, believe it or not this cupboard is designed to take the Henry hoover, and a few other cleaning bits like a dust pan and brush and some polish....... oh for the day to clean our house and maintain it rather than build it!
How to build a cupboard under the stairs