Pantry Build - Part 1 - Rip Out

Now hand on heart I can honestly say I haven't finished all the other jobs in the house.There's a lot of painting to do, but everything else is pretty much there. Painting can be done on wet horrible days and with a few hours here and there

For seven years this was it for a kitchen, seems so tiny now. 

So as the weather is good and I'm at a point with my paying work where I can take a short break from it, I decided to look at making a start with the new pantry area

Roofing In The Wind

So with much juggling of childcare this last week I managed to help start putting my brothers roof on in some of the worst weather we've had in months!  

Conditions have been far from ideal but we've made a bit of progress with this roof for the  house my brother is currently building.

Making A Huge Desk!

So even though I've been busy with everything else around here (trying to finish the extension etc) I took on a large commission a few weeks ago. 

It was to help create a new music studio for a customer. There was a list of jobs that needed doing, construct a ceiling, lay a floor, fit a soundproof door, build a massive 3.5m horse shoe shaped oak desk...

Into The Extension Upstairs

I woke up his morning feeling like my body is a little bit broken.
My dad and brother both feel the same.
It's been a hard weekend!

Over half term I've been getting the extension ready for the big knock through. The idea being to have a big push with my dad and brother on the weekend to knock through to the top of the extension, removing the old bathroom in the process.

During the four days on my own I managed to get the bedroom ready, skirting on and all painted (Sean plastered it the weekend before), the loft boarded out and some of the plumbing sorted for the bathroom.

 Dad turned up on the Friday, he mainly concentrated on the heating and the plumbing whilst I got ready to knock through. The pictures show some of what we got up to!

Drain opened up ready! I'd left a bung in it until we were ready to connect everything up

We ate well for three days. Not for the ones worried about their weight but I think we burnt it off! We had to cook outside for the weekend.  

Dad in the old bathroom

My brother helping to break through, these bricks were so hard - even with the big breaker it was hard to do! 

Taking advantage of the bath outside as somewhere to lie for a minute...

My brother next to the last wall to come down - clinker block. Much easier to knock down! 

A little bit of mess in the old bathroom...

Plastic to try and stop the dust going downstairs

The bathroom on Saturday night. I couldn't help thinking I'd ruined my house! 

Getting the joists in the access hole that's been in the extension since I built it. I've been up and down here hundreds of times but it was good to see it blocked up. 

I lugged everything up that hole to make sure the extension was pretty much ready to go when we knocked through! 

Gone! Glad to see it boarded up and much safer with the kids! 

Finished bedroom. 

New corridor where the old bathroom was

New small shower room 

Coming from the other side. 

The house suddenly feels much bigger!
The kids were funny when they got back, My middle one wasn't even sure where her bedroom was even though it hadn't moved!
It's odd to get used to the new layout, especially when you need to go to the loo in the middle of the night, but I doubt it'll take long until i'm used to it.
Lots more to do up stairs yet though! Wiring and sockets, plasterboard walls, create a shower room, the list goes on! Then once that's all done I can start on the downstairs! Fun fun fun! Hopefully have a full day at it tomorrow when the kids are at school. Probably box in pipes around the toilet first to stop the kids standing on them!
Hopefully I'll get to the end of this extension one day, but it's not going to be for a while yet!

Destroying The Kitchen

My little man has started going to nursery for a few half days (well nine until two).

He's desperate to spend more time with other children, he's such a social animal! And this will give me a few valuable hours a week on my own that I can push on with the extension. 

All happy on his first day! He was so excited! Wouldn't even say goodbye! 

 So the first day I spent running some errands and painting the doors in the extension as well as setting myself up for day two - The ceiling!

I hate artex, but that's not the reason for this coming down. Unfortunately I need to remove it to run pipes and wires through to the extension so I can finish the bathroom before I knock through.

I'd sent some samples off to be tested and they came back clear for asbestos so I knew I could do it all myself.
I removed loads of stuff from the kitchen (and had a good sort out at the time) and then sheeted everything up.

I was against the clock from the start on this job. I knew I had to be finished and pick the kids up by two. I had a great plan of cutting between the joists and just pulling sections out with little mess.
Unfortunately when I started someone had already added another layer of plasterboard to the ceiling and glued it to the first.

 This meant things were going to to get messy! I just had to rip it down and get on with it and hope I could clean it up before the kids came home.

 By the time two o'clock came I was ready to pick up the kids, but only just! Two ceilings worth of rubbish and the previous trades men liked eating chocolate, leaving behind all their off cuts and not cleaning between the joists! There was a lot of rubbish up there and two washes to get it out of my hair!

I cooked tea in there last night and it wasn't too bad, I need to get the hoover up into the hard to reach places and give it another good cleaning. I also keep finding bits I've missed, it's amazing how far it travels!

Hopefully my electrician will come on Friday to get some lights upstairs in the extension.

What's the most messy job you've ever done in your house whilst still living there?

Extension Progress - Scaffold Down!

The house feels naked! 

The scaffold is finally down! 

Although it's a step that doesn't really move the house on or prevent work inside, I was still really excited when the scaffolders turned up this morning. 

When I left to go to play group this morning, with my youngest two, the scaffold was wrapping round the extension and some of the house, when I came back it was nude! 

It's always a real shock when the scaffold is down, it really changes how it looks.  I'm pleased with how the extension sits with the house and how it makes the overall place look, especially with the porch on the front as well. 

Now I've just got to push on inside, when (or if ) it dries up I want to get the last of the footings in for the retaining wall for the patio, then we can get outside sorted as well, I don't want another year where we struggle to eat easily outside!

What do you think?

Extension Progress - Floor In

After wasting a weekend being ill last week I managed to have a good go on the extension this weekend. 

I'd ripped up the temporary flooring a couple of weekends ago (some ply I'd bought cheap) and the upstairs was ready for having the chipboard put down. An easy enough job - but not very kind on your knees! I glue all the joints and I glue the boards down to the joist as well as using screws to hold them down, I hate hearing squeaking floorboards so I go with a full belt and braces approach. 

I've still left the hatch in the floor, which will be filled in as the upstairs gets finished, this means that I can now build the walls and get the whole bathroom ready before we knock through into the old bathroom. 

I also pulled in the chimney liner with the help of a friend. This is a bit of a mess around as I need to insulate it before the scaffold comes down. Trouble is I don't want to build out the fireplace yet (as it'll wreck our dinning room) so I can't terminate the flue where it is to finish. Instead I've wedged non flammable/combustible around the flue where I've broken out the chimney higher up. Then when I come to make the bottom section of the fire place I'll be able to insulate the last bit from inside. 

The down side to this was I didn't have enough insulation to finish insulating the flue, I was gutted, it's hard to work out what you'll need anyway as the dark depths of a chimney are unknown in size, I was about a bag short which I'll pick up in the week, just annoying not to finish the job I started!

Because the two counties where we live/the wife works have had different half terms, my wife is off next week doing all my jobs (school run etc) and I'll be working on the extension as well as a few little jobs for customers. 

This means I have a huge list of jobs to get through including, nogging out the floor and ceiling joist, finish the flue, install loft hatch, plasterboard the ceiling up upstairs, stud walls up for the bathroom/wardrobes/cupboards and plasterboard them one side. 

Should be a busy week hopefully! 

Extension Progress - Roof Tiled

This roof has been my nemesis lately. 

I've not managed to get out there and finish for a number of reasons, either the weather has been against me (to cold for the mortar to go off or too wet to not wash it down the roof), my wife and children have had different bouts of poorlyness or we've had things like birthdays to contend with.

So it's just sat there, in it's unfinished glory, taunting me every time I go to get in the car.

Yesterday I managed to get out there and even though it had forecast rain for the afternoon I'd thought I'd risk it. Luckily the rain never came and I managed to have a good run at it, I did think I was going to run out of tiles at one point but luckily I'd got just enough (about 30 or 40 left over I think).

Stepping back last night and look at it I'm really pleased with how it's turned out. All four of the hips I've had to do up there look really tidy and the lead work around the chimney does as well. A good, solid, waterproof roof, One that should last for many years. 

There's still lots for me to do up there (not today though as it's meant to rain all day). I've got to fit the gutters and line and insulate the chimney. The chimney is cause me a particular problem as I can't insulate it properly until I block the bottom off, and I can't do that until I know it through into the extension and we're a long way from doing that. I have got a plan though so we'll see how I get on! 

Also I've taken the my last two posts down. I've enjoyed your all your comments and they've been both popular posts, but I've decided that I'd rather talk to this woman face to face next time something like this happens. Rather than her reading it in a few months time if someone at school mentioned my blog (the dangers of using my real name). I've saved both posts and all the comments though so please don't think they were wasted. Thanks again for all your input.

Extension Progress - Roof On

Sorry it's been a quite week on the blog - I've been really busy! 

Managed to get the roof on the extension!

It's now felted and battened meaning that it's waterproof from the top and ready to tile! 

I still have a few things to do inside the roof (which I'll do tomorrow - Sunday). 

Here's some pictures of some of the frame work - 

Cuts on the jack rafters

Hip and jack rafters either side

Beams as ceiling binders but also to form a truss to support the purlins in the roof

Feels good to put a lid on the place and to be honest it's been one of the hardest little roofs I've done just because of how it cuts intot he old one and that it has purlins, I don't think I could have gone for a truss one just because of how complicated it is. 

I've also had a bit of help over the last week or so, so big thanks to Andy, Dill, Nick and Dave who've all come at different times to lend a hand, the days on my own always seem very slow by comparison! 

If I finish off a few structural things in the roof tomorrow I'll be pleased with how half term gone! Just the job of tiling to go on the roof then (as well as fitting gutters, etc) but that's not straight forward either! 

Extension Progress - Up To First Floor Joist

Things have been busy here. Dill got the brick and block work up to joist level by the middle of last week and I've been trying to get the floor joists in whenever I've got a spare few minutes. 

"Helpers"

Luckily mum came over on Thursday to help with the children so I go a few hours in then as well as a full day on Sunday (I had to work on Saturday unfortunately). I've also stole a couple of hours whilst my girls have been at playschool and school whilst my baby boy took a two hour nap, I have to seize every moment I can at the moment and hit the ground running! 

I've still got some more to do on the floor, noggins to go in and hangers to be fixed, then I can fit a temporary floor (bought for £45 so it doesn't matter if the rain gets on it) so we can build the next level up. The scaffolders (an old building friend) came on Monday and installed the first lift of scaffold so once I've finished the floor I can start loading out all the bricks and blocks which helps save a lot of money by doing the labouring myself.

I've also installed a temporary hatch in the floor (in the picture above), the idea behind this is that I should be able to work in the upstairs of the extension before I knock through. That means that when the old bathroom is destroyed to make way for the the corridor we should have another bathroom ready and waiting! that's the plan anyway, we'll see how it goes!

Hopefully more brickwork continuing next week and I should have the floor all finished by then! 

Extension Progress - Slab Poured!

My dad and I have had a few busy weekends wince the last time I wrote about the extension! 

Easiest to go through it in pictures:

The cavity under the ground level has been filled with a light concrete mix

Drainage has been added, pea gravel around all pipes.
I also built a man hole from scratch.

Drainage in the house surrounded by peas gravel and hardcore added to the slab

Wackered base

Sand blinding added so the plastic won't get damaged

Plastic added - this made a huge play pen for the youngest! 

6 inches of insualtion added to be under the concrete floor

Plastic to go between the insualtion and plastic as well! (build regs requirement) 

Wet concrete being laid - the grid pattern is the reinforcing in the concerete slab

Tamping the concrete roughly level - to lay the concrete we also had the help of one of dads workers Andy!
Got it mixed and laid in an afternoon.

Floating up the concrete late at night

A nice finish on the concrete - this will be the tiled floor of the kitchen eventually! 

It's certainly been busy around here! 

Yesterday and today are being spent getting ready for Dill the brick layer who is coming tomorrow. I've load the slab out with blocks, got all the starter bars in the walls, moved bricks so they're nice and close and made sure he's got plenty of sand and cement. Anything to keep him efficient and save me money! 

Exciting times now - can't wait to see this going up!