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.