Roof tiles and solar panels

Half way through the planned six months and things are still progressing quickly.  There is a hell of a lot going on.  The solar panels are on as are the tiles on the south side.

Tiling in progress on the north side roof.  Tiles are re-used from the old lean to roof. This will be finished in the next day or two, then once the guttering is done (mostly re-using the old cast iron guttering) the scaffolding can come down.

The rotten wood from the front of the old lean-to shed has been replaced with stone and is insulated in preparation for the hot water tank and equipment for the air source heat pump.

Trunking runs from the lean-to, under the ground floor of the house, which will provide hot water and under-floor heating to all corners of the house.  The electrician has also been in running wires all over the place - we have changed our minds several times on lighting as ceiling levels have changed.

Meanwhile, I have been busy removing wallpaper, polystyrene wall covering and lots of crumbly plaster from the walls.  I have uncovered timbers over the windows which will remain exposed as a feature as well as the occasional timber built into the wall for no apparent reason!

This was the lathe and plaster wall which separates bedroom two from what will be the main bathroom.  The old ceiling was at the height of the timber running across where the lathes finish which was just above my head.  The new ceiling is so high that Debbie won't be able to reach it if she stood on my head - I will have to buy her a very long feather duster!  I have removed the plaster and the carpenter has continued up to the new ceiling level giving the wall a bit of strength before the lathes are removed. I think the plan is to remove the remaining lathes, strengthening with ply and finish with plasterboard, leaving the purlins and old angled struts exposed.

Roof

 

New stone eventually arrived so building has continued.  The gable end is nearly complete.  Debbie is stood in the orangery / dining area with our builder Chris trying to sort out the details of the orangery glazing.  Lots of other things are getting arranged now including the solar electric, air source heat pump, electrics and insulation.

One week into May and two months into the build, the roof is being built.

A steel beam spans between the two gable ends of the extension and a ridge board sits just above this and carries on to meet the ridge of the existing cottage.

Meanwhile, the underfloor heating is starting to go in beneath the first floor of the existing cottage.  I have been in to remove all of the old ceiling joists from the first floor as we have decided to raise the ceiling level.

Joists

About 5 weeks in now and the walls continue on up with windows and doors taking shape.

Two steels are bolted together side by side and span from the wall of the old cottage to the gable end of the extension; this supports the bedroom wall above and marks the end of the two storey extension, the rest being the single storey orangery.

The joists run at right angles to the steels forming the kitchen ceiling and bedroom floor.

The view from the back scaffold looking in through the bedroom window opening.  Ahead is an opening in the old cottage wall where the new part of the landing meets the old part forming an L-shape.  There are two window openings on the right; farthest away is the landing window (the stairs will be directly opposite this), nearest is the south facing bedroom window.

                        The builders are now out of stone and the suppliers say they won't be able to provide any until the end of the month.  Hopefully this won't delay things too much as there are plenty of other things to get on with.

Walls

On the inside of the house, a wall has been partially removed in order to make way for the downstairs WC, these are the foundations. Debbie has had to use her expertise to sort out some drainage issues.

The internal block wall is taking shape. On the left hand wall you can see the position of the utility window and the kitchen window (nearest), the kitchen sink will sit under this window so Debbie can see out!

The external walls are taking shape and you can see what will be the back door (left) and orangery with double doors. On the inside you can see (from left) the door into the utility room, the wall against which the oven will sit, under stairs cupboard door and door into hallway.

There will be plenty of glazing allowing light into the kitchen and dining areas, to the right of this picture there is yet another glazed door making sure that light gets into the hallway. The original plan to re-use the old stone has been shelved as there would have been a lot of work involved in cleaning it up and cutting it to size, we think the stone and brick looks fantastic so we are now unlikely to paint the extension white to match the rest of the cottage. Also there will be plenty of stone for me to build retaining walls in the garden.

Foundations

9th March

After digging down to floor level, the foundation trench was dug out. Unfortunately that night the mini digger was stolen. I don't like to make any assumptions but "bloody pikeys" springs to mind.

After that minor setback, work continued at pace with the concrete being poured on Thursday and the first course of blocks going down on Friday.

In this photo you can see the work going on simultaneously on the old petrol filling site next door.


This has nothing to do with us but should be finished at a similar time. It was also once part of the old forge and will be two semi-detached cottages.

Work was also going on in the inside.  Stairs have been removed and the concrete flooring in the two rooms has been broken up to be removed as well as the big stone slabs from the hallway (pictured) being removed.  This needed to be removed in order to put in a damp proof course (dpc) and under floor heating.

Demolition

2nd March 2011.
Okay so it's taken a while but at long last we have our builders on site. They set to work on removing the roof tiles before removing the extension. All decent roof tiles and stone are put aside for later use on the extension.

After just three days the extension has all but gone. A window is discovered, previously covered by the lean to roof space and plastered over on the inside.




After just one week, they have dug down below floor level. The soil in the garden is excellent, beneath that is compressed sand. The back garden is quite high and will need to be either sloped down or a retaining wall built.

In The Beginning...

May 2010. After selling my semi in Botley, borrowing more money and sorting out some legal stuff with inept solicitors Debbie and I eventualy managed to get our hands on our dream cottage in a village that we love. The cottage came with planning permission to remove the existing lean to at the rear and replace it with a part two storey, part single storey extension. With the help of the architect we amended the plans slightly, prepared a schedule of works and put it out to tender to three potential builders. In the meantime, we removed lathe and plaster ceilings, layers of wallpaper, carpets, a big fir tree that was too close to the house and tidied the completely overgrown garden.
This is an old fireplace that had been boarded over in one of the bedrooms - we are planning to restore it and keep it as a feature.

This is a video tour of the house.