It has been a while since we posted, but little happened with the build over the Christmas and New Year period. But the boys have been back with a vengeance in the past week. Not sure what happened over Christmas, but it seems they have taken rather a dislike to stairs if what they have done to ours is anything to go by…
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- First walls go
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- The airing cupboard has bought it
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- And the hot water tank bites the dust
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- See that lathe and plaster – that makes dust!
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- Open plan at the top of the stairs
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- View from the bottom of the stairs
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- View from the stairs into the kitchen. This used to be a wall.
Our new staircase is currently being built – should be in place by mid-February. Elsewhere upstairs, the new bathroom is taking shape. Gareth has built us a cabinet for the sink to sit on and the largest bath in the world has arrived…
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- Not bad for a couple of hours work. He’s a clever boy!
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- The bath looms into view
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- It is a beast
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- No really!
Our bedroom is pretty much done other than carpets and a lick o’ paint. Curtain poles and curtains went up in the week; far more important than we had thought in a south facing bedroom with massive windows!
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- New door frame into the “master suite”
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- Curtains are up!
Downstairs things are also moving along. The extractor fan above the cooker is in, the breakfast bar is in, and all of the units are in place – we are just missing the door and drawer handles which are in a box somewhere… The guys have screeded the lounge floor so all of the floors downstairs are at a single level which makes a real difference to how it all feels. And Xander turned up yesterday to build us the brick hearth for the multi-fuel stove to sit on in the new lounge. He used bricks from the chimneys that came down elsewhere in the house and the lack of uniformity in colour shape and size is a really lovely reminder of how the old house was – exactly what we wanted.
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- Kitchen taking shape
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- View from the other side of the breakfast bar
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- And the breakfast bar itself
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- Polystyrene insulation laid
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- Screed laid and Maddie didn’t walk on it before it was dry – honest she didn’t
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- The floor’s are all flat
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- View from the front door – big isn’t it?!
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- Hearth waiting for the stove guy to turn up next week
And finally a bit of a surprise. We had thought that this was some sort of weird modern wall-hung art installation that the guys had given us:
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- Decorative. Or something else?
But no. Over the weekend a miracle happened. It started giving out heat. Yup, that’s right, the plumbing has been switched over. Still the two big cast iron radiators to reconnect downstairs, but heating upstairs and hot water too. Loads of it. Probably even too much for Charlotte to use in one of her mega-showers. And just cos we are never satisfied, we had to open the windows in the bedroom today as it was too hot!!!
