We’ve completed the first month of the renovation and it’s flown by! The renovation is moving faster than I was expecting and we’re really pleased to date with the progress that’s been made. We’ve lost the rear patio and this now has a layer of concrete laid on it – the first sign of the new rear extension. The chimney in the middle of the house has been removed and we’ve lost half the kitchen, so the house looks very different to the image below.
The old porch was removed and the foot print for the new porch had been laid. This I’m really excited about! We’ve also been really pleased with the colour match of the red bricks, the original bricks are no longer manufactured yet the new bricks look almost identical to the original. We had a couple of visits from the concrete mixer, with concrete now down at the rear we can appreciate the size of the new extension as this area.
The utility room also began to take shape. The 2 old larder cupboards and large coal store have been knocked together to create one larger room. A rectangle has been cut in the wall to allow space for a utility window and the builders have also begun preparing to raise the height of the floor in the utility so that it’ll be flush with the kitchen. This is how the utility looks, as you look towards our old kitchen wall.
And then just as month 1 of the build came to an end we woke to at least 4 inches of snow. Everything stopped looking such a mess for a while as the snow did a great job of covering up the mud and building materials! We made a huge snowman in the garden and named him Ross – after our lead builder!
Over the next few weeks, the builders will be:
- erecting the steelwork to hold the roof of the extension. This will be followed by copious amounts of timber rafters, plywood and the start of the waterproof membrane – the extension could be water tight by mid February.
- Continuation of lining the new utility room, inc insulation, and levelling the floor.
- Depending on time, the remaining 75mm of concrete flooring will be laid, this will be the final flooring height.
- Heating engineer is due on site in two weeks time, prior to this, all of the radiators will be specified for their required heat output…..we’ve chosen styles and locations, however, some rooms may require 2 radiators and I suspect the extension will require 3!
- Windows should be ready by the end Feb/early March. Having new windows will really be a big deal for us, our current windows are useless and let in so much cold.
- The front door and current side window will be removed and a new lintel put in place – this will happen once we’ve moved out. This will most likely be boarded over ready for the new front door and windows to turn up.
- Kitchen surveyor will be visiting to survey the site at the end of the week. Once surveyed and plans finalised and signed off, this will allow the kitchen to go into production…..12-14weeks on it’ll be ready for installation. I’ll share another blog post in due course all about the kitchen and the process we went through to get to the stage of ordering. However, before the kitchen can go in that area will need to be built, plastered, brick slips up and the herringbone flooring laid so plenty to do!
We’ll be moving out briefly as the ceilings need to come down and that’s when progress will speed up even more. Of course I’ll share further updates at this stage. If you have any questions about the renovation please do leave a comment below, also you can follow along on progress over on my instagram instastories.
Thanks for following the progress x
