The Before:
The After:
Having spent some time, painstakingly, sanding all the horrible varnish off the wood work in the house and painting it a nice ivory white, the builder arrived yesterday afternoon (31/05/10) and now the heavy work has begun in earnest on the house
DAY 1: Where once there was a fugly fireplace….now a nice nook for our stove is taking shape. Cabling will be chased into the wall above the fireplace to bring power and HDMI to the telly, which will be taking up residence there:
DAY 2: Where once there where fugly, uneven floor tiles….now a level surface is being prepared to receive the flooring of our choice. Kitchen, utility and downstairs bathroom have their floor and splashback tiling removed.
DAY 3: Look Ma, no kitchen!
sniff, sniff, there was a kitchen here, I’m sure there was a kitchen here, I can still smell the kitchen here, but I can’t see the kitchen here. Jack, do you know what happened to the kitchen here?
Nope. But there’s an interesting stain on the ground here.
On the ground here?
No. Here. Smells like chicken and garlic stuffing, with just a hint of Thyme and Rosemary. Right here.
Jesus, who does your man think he is? Still no sign of the kitchen here…..
HDMI x 3 and Power x 240V laid in for the telly.
DAY 4: Where once there was a fugly patio door, now there is a nice opening allowing the kitchen/snug to flow into the dining room.
DAY 5: Paddy The Plasterer, Nobody does it fasterer…. Actually his name is Joe. But he is a Plasterer. And today he plastered.
DAY 6: …. Saturday. No rest for the wicked. Kitchen sink will be coming out, Jumbletown person will be collecting the kitchen and I’m probably painting. Again. Ad infinitum. Damn painting.
Kitchen sink did come out, as did the units in the utility. Jumbletown person did turn up. In a battered, dying Hi-Ace. I don’t think he thought we’d get the entire kitchen into the van. I didn’t think we’d get the entire kitchen into the van. But I stuffed everything in so tight, you couldn’t honestly fit another single screw into the van. If you’d tried, I think the wheels would have come off the the van. As it was the ass was dragging along the ground so badly, I’m sure they would have been stopped had any Gardai seen them. Thank God it’s gone. Saved me the price of a skip ;o)
Plastering of the doorway now almost finished.
Units removed from the utility, exposing the heating system. Washer/Dryer to be stacked here also and some shelving will be added along with new units to cover the boiler.
And there was no painting done today. Happy days. I was so impressed with the quality of my work yesterday in the stairwell that I decided to simply rest and admire it.
DAY 7: Painting again. Possibly. Not
DAY 8: Painted until I ran out of paint. Impressive, no? Ran out of paint with only one more wall in our bedroom to get it’s second coat of colour.
DAY 9: Floor leveling dude is due tomorrow, I won’t be able to paint for the next 3 days. I’m really sad.
DAY 10 & 11: Floors should be setting right now.
DAY 12: Should be back on the job, paint to buy and our carpets for upstairs are arriving today. No carpets. Put them off again as we decided to get a bit of additional work done in the bathrooms. Tiling out, tongue and groove panelling in. Did get a bit of a fright when I saw the progress that the builder had made. Scary. But I had been warned.
DAY 16: Cladding is going up for the tongue and groove to sit on. Progress.
DAY 17: Tongue and groove actually going up today. Oh No! More f*cking wood to paint.
DAY 19: I removed the old wooden flooring and underlay today and cleaned up the resulting mess. The place looks the better for it already. New flooring won’t be going down for another week yet, but it allowed me to run some cabling from the telephone box in the hall to the living room so that the sky box has a connection. The cabling runs through the subfloor below the DPC so is invisible. Happy days.
DAY 22: Concrete board has gone in to the bathrooms upstairs today, ready for tiling. Wall tiles for the showers and bathtub surrounds were also collected today.
DAY 23: The last of the tongue and groove work is finished today. The carpenter has topped the tongue and groove with a ledge in the downstairs bathroom and a rail in the upstairs bathroom (due to the angle of the roof). We also added tongue and groove to the side of the bathtub with an access hatch for the plumbing, should we ever need to.
DAY 24: Paddy the Plasterer is back in da house! Now that the concrete board and panelling is done, it’s time to make good the plasterboard and plasterwork. Got a lead from an alarm sensor chased in to the wall in the kitchen also so that it can be effectively hidden once the kitchen cabinetry goes in.
Work has started on the fencing in the rear. For the dogs benefit! And the neighbours of course. The lengths I go to in order to ensure my doggies can’t get out of their back garden. Galvanised steel posts to be sank into the dry stone wall at the rear, and then covered with timber planking.
DAY xx: Been away in Dublin for a few days so I’ve finally lost track of the DAY #. Anyway, whilst I’ve been away there’s been a bit of progress. First up, the headboard/blanket box for our bed has been completed and installed by the carpenter, and bloody good it looks. To be painted yet, but it’ll nicely tie the bathroom into the bedroom.
Second layer beneath the top one goes down to the level of the floor:
Tiling on the bathroom walls has been completed, grouted and cleaned. Simple 10cm x 30cm RAL White tiles in matt laid in a brickwork pattern:
Wooden flooring is being lain at present. Semi solid engineered Oak planks, they’re being glued down which gives a really nice feeling underfoot. So far the living room and downstairs bedroom are complete, with the hall to be completed tomorrow:
Lastly, for now, the steel supports have been sunk into the dry stone wall at the back, ready for their planking:
Initially I had wanted to put more steel posts in to the ground between us and our neighbours on the right, but this would have disturbed the foundations of the existing wall. Instead we had the height of the existing wall pillars increased sufficiently to accommodate an additional 4 courses of blockwork on the wall. Looks really good:
Garden fence now completed:
Moving back inside and to the bathrooms, a bastard of a job had to be tackled. There is nothing more evil than having to paint tongue and groove! First coats of colour go on the upstairs bathrooms following two coats of primer. And look – floor tiles!!!
Two coats of primer on the downstairs bathroom. Looking good in white actually.
Kitchen/Snug floor tiling laid. Now for the kitchen units….
Painting of the Tongue and Groove in the bathrooms finally finished. I hate tongue & groove.
WooHoo, the kitchen is going in today, 16th of July. Mark it down in the calendars – this is the beginning of the end of the renovations! We’re on the home stretch.
And the sanitary ware and shower doors are back in as well, so we have working bathrooms again. Joy!!!
New shower door for the main bathroom. Sweet.
Kitchen splashback tiled, sink all plumbed up, oven & hob connected. Carpets laid, bed in-situ. No more excuses – It’s Movin’ Day tomorrow, 24th July!!!!
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