The new house is now built. Okay, that’s overstating it just a little… but the roof and the external walls are all in place. We’re waiting for the windows and the doors until anything else changes on the outside which means that work has begun inside in earnest.
The old bathroom walls have all come down revealing a large and light landing space. It will remain large but sadly the light is not so permanent.
All the walls on the top floor have been removed. And the ceiling. Pretty much everything actually in preparation for the ceiling height being raised and the room being made into one. There was a momentary concern when we realised that the second set of stairs wasn’t wide enough to fit a Velux window. This meant no natural light to the top stairs or first floor landing. Fortunately the carpenter (who scores very highly in the lateral thinking stakes) suggested that we could move the internal wall to Eloise’s room by a few centimetres and then be able to fit in the window. So the shape of the room has changed but it’s still looking like Eloise will have the biggest room in the house!
Spencer’s new room has been sussed by the building officer. We intend to do a loft conversion at the top of new part of the house when the build has been completed, and this will be Spencer’s room when finished. We couldn’t get planning permission to do this at the same time as the main build, but can convert it under permitted development rules when the rest of the build is finished. The building officer took one look at the ceiling joists we’d had built into the floor of the loft and refused to sign the build off unless the loft room is insulated as though it is a full room. Not a problem, as it would have needed doing at some stage. The room will be completed with the rest of the build with the exception of plastering and inserting windows.
This week’s headache has a combination of where the internal walls are going to go and then adding the double sockets, lights, switches, radiators and all appliances to the drawings. I could not believe how long this took but was up til 1am last night finishing off the drawings. And that was after the children were entertained by Granny for the afternoon while I worked on the drawings then too. It’s a relief to have finished this part of the decision process but it means my attention is back to tiles.
As for tiles, it appears that I have never noticed a bathroom floor in my life. It seems that I know what I like on the walls but only know what I don’t like when it comes to flooring. Who knew there were so many tiles that are almost the same. It takes me back to being asked to choose between white, cream, champagne or off-white napkins when we got married…
Lots of walls have come down but some have started going up too. It’s pretty difficult to make sense of these random pieces of wood but here’s the outlook from the master bedroom:
And from the bathroom:
Some extra ventilation downstairs:
