Main Bathroom Remodel

We are still amazed that a house this size never really had a main bathroom. The one that did exist was an uncomfortable layout of toilet in its own closet and a bath and basin in a separate but adjoining room down a small corridor. As we looked at how best to locate one, the only logical place (due to waste and drainage options) is where this two room bathroom configuration was. To make it work better though, we decided to knock through into the bedroom next door. One of the main reasons for this was the fireplace:

It was completely hidden when we came to view the place but a nice surprise as we went round finding what was here. It seemed such a shame to leave it in a bedroom on its own, so having the opportunity to make it a feature of the main house made total sense. We knew that by knocking through it would make this room HUGE! But, it felt like a house this size could take it, so off we went at knocking through the old partition wall....

Taking down lath makes a right old mess (but does provide plenty of future firewood):

Once cleared out, it gives a real sense of how the room would fit together:

So then we got on to re-configuring the ceiling...

 Another messy job but once free of debris, Mike got on to constructing the new joists:

A view from above as I hammered in the nails on the joist hangers:

The old water tank that was up in the loft - we had considered taking it down, but after draining it and trying to lift it (impossible) we just decided to leave it in place...

Once the joists were in place it was up with the plasterboard:

And as Mike kept hitting his head on the old door frame, we opened that up to put in a taller one:

Underneath the old opening was a even older door frame. It must have been in place when this bit of the house was a barn. Not wanting to get rid of it, we relocated it to the opening of the old airing cupboard, so that it could act as a frame for some new (reclaimed ceiling joist) shelving:

 

Once the walls and ceiling were covered with plasterboard, we got the plasters in to coat the room: 

A few weeks drying time gave us a chance to choose some colours. And as we loved the tiles of the old fireplace, we decided to theme the room around this. So blue and orange were the order of the day, with Chinoise on the walls:

And a Wapping Orange tile for the shower wall:

Mike rightly looked impressed when the tiling was all done:

And next we got onto sanding the floor... 

With a very reasonable hire from a local company, we had a

floorsander and edger for 24hrs. It made good work of taking back the old lacquer:

and was really good fun to use! The end result was really impressive:

And as we had to replace some of the floorboards with new, we added some wood dye and varnish to help blend them in:

After a few coats they were starting to blend:

And after a final sand and coat of oil - you couldn't really tell the difference:

The room was really starting to come together, with the plumbers coming in to fit the bath, sink and toilet and shower unit:

The last piece of furniture for the room was a towel rail. We'd been having a real game trying to find one big enough, and made appropriately for the heating circuit we were connecting it to. So, Mike said he'd like to make his own! 

Very impressed by his bravery, he had a lesson from Richard on how best to solder the joints:

The finished article looked really impressive and once tested for pressure it was up there at 6 bar!

- well done Mike!

It's going to look lovely in place and really tie the whole room together:

So, as a final treat for getting the first room in the house complete (after a year) 

we spied an interesting old cabinet in a local junk shop and thought it would fit just perfect in this new space, so we bought it:

Can you guess what it used to be?

All that needs to happen now in this room is to hang the door and at some point put some shelves up, but everything in here is good to go! It's really exciting to finally tick a room off!! And once we get around to testing the water, we might just be able to have that long awaited bath - ahhhh, bliss!

Six square meters of finished house!

To move the plumbing along, we have been prepping the areas behind radiators recently, to get them ready for installation. It's been a bit frantic to be honest, having to decide on the finished colour of each room ALL AT ONCE, but in some way it has made us commit and just make a decision so, here are our first 6 square meters of completed house!

teachers ensuite:

main bathroom:

teachers bedroom:

games room (well, this one was easy - let's just leave the stone exposed!!):

During the process of deciding upon colours we have been in and out of DIY shops, so as a distraction (which will become a neccessity) we found some wallpaper we liked for the dining room wall (to compliment the reclaim timber wall):

and some samples for the master ensuite shower:

we're thinking black slate effect..

Here's hoping the rest of the decorating wont be as hectic, and now with an army of colour samples, deciding on the colours for the barns should become a breeze!

Woodburners

Now that the fireplace had been opened up in the lounge and the floor in the kitchen/diner has almost cured, it's time to book in the installation of the woodburners...

We had a chimney sweep visit to clear the chimney in the lounge - I don't think it had been done for years, but they were in and out in no time at all. We had sourced some reclaimed quarry tiles to fit in the hearth and secured these ready for the burner:

A day of installing and the first burner was in:

For the dining room, we had been advised that we could continue the reclaimed timber wall the full length, so I reconfigured the timbers:

and made it good to fit the back wall:

We then laid a reclaimed flagstone (from the old kitchen floor):

And after a couple of days installing this was burner number 2:

There were a few more technicalities with this one, as their was no chimney and the flue needed boxing in the room above (the bathroom). But they both work great and we are very happy with the colour Welsh Slate Blue. It works brilliantly with the reclaimed tiles in the lounge and the picks of blue in the reclaimed timbers - it's like they were made for the space!

Out with the old and in with the new (again!)

Patrick's guys have been hard at it this past month, sorting out the new roof in the oldest part of the house. In between intermittent showers and down pours, a new set of scaffolding has gone up:

Which means more exploring of the house from new angles!

Note the triangular piece of rubber to right of Mike above... instead of flashing this is the matting used for sleeping cows! It's not done the roof too much harm these past 30 odd years, but it's not done it that much good either!?

So, off with the matting and surrounding tiles:

And on with the new lead, window, valley and surround:

The front part of the roof comes off:

Before felt, batton and a new window opening go on:

It's going to make a great bathroom inside...once insulated and plastered of course:

A last look before all the old timbers come out:

And here's a view of the shiny new ones - oooh!

Whilst taking the roof off and addressing the old plaster work, we found that a window that had been put in previously hadn't been properly fitted. Here it is from the outside:

And inside - it spanned over two floors - strange! 

So, we got the hole filled in and made an opening to match the other:

They now look they were always meant to be:

A few more tiles to go on...

Then that's the roof done!