Boys doors hung

I forgot how long it takes to hang a door, I wish Rich was here! Also these doors are ridiculously heavy, 35kg each!   I must have moved / handled each door 15 times or more to plane all the sides and get it to fit and then hang it.

Finished painting front wall

I put the final coat of paint on the front wall, the bits around the porch are temporary till we build the new porch.

Mixed and poured subfloor

I decided to mix the concrete for our old bedroom subfloor myself as I had lots of bags of leftover sand and stone which I wanted to clear away. The volume ended up being more than I thought. I ended up shoveling 2.8 tons of cement, sand & stone (1:2:4) into the mixer, then barrowing it into the room and leveling it (I forgot to add the weight of the water, so it was a bit more than 2.8 when mixed) .

The good part is I have a lot less materials on the driveway and I was able to get to the front wall to start painting it. I will post a picture of the front wall later.

Front wall rendered

Jean spent two days rendering the front wall, once the scratch coat was on I helped him on the second day to float and sponge the final finish.  He did all the difficult bits ;-)

Round section under bay window.

Cupboard doors

Our original Ikea cupboard doors where 60mm too tall for the new ceilings upstairs so I decided to try and shorten them.  I haven't had much luck with cutting glass in the past but I gave it another go and this time it worked out okay.

I had to score the mirror side with a glass cutter then turn the door over to cut almost all the way through with a circular saw.  I then had to turn the door over very carefully and press on the mirror to make the break.  It is nerve wrecking stuff as one crack in the wrong direction and it is off again to Ikea to buy another door.

To doors had straight cuts and the third door was an angled cut as you can see in the picture.  I need to adapt two more doors with the angle cut to complete the front of the wardrobe.

Zac's spray-paint stencil desk top

We have two old desks (made in 1952) which we got out of a garage clearance and I am trying to revive them for the boys rooms.  The sides and legs of the desk are solid oak which I have sanded the stain off and they look pretty good.  The desk top was a veneered top which someone has sanded through in places so it was decided to paint it.

After looking at paterns to paint it I decided to try spay-paint stenciling.  After a conversation with David Leicher who gave me some tips we gave it a go and below is the result.

There are a few things I would do differently next time.....but I am not unhappy with the result!

Soffit boards up

I have put up the soffit boards all in preparation for rendering the front wall. In the picture I have only completed half the soffit.

Zac's room is ready

Zac got to move into his room yesterday!

Extending driveway 2

I forgot to say, Alison laid all the bricks in the picture in the previous post.

Extending driveway

I have had another bit of luck! My neighbours had some work done on their gas tank by contractors and they very kindly offered their digger to me for the weekend, they also said I could use the rest of the space in their skip which was almost empty.
So I have spent the weekend diving up pay off the lawn with the digger, putting it into wheelbarrows and pushing it around to Peter & Ann to put in the skip. After I had filled the skip with lovely top soil Gwyn from down the road comes past and says he will take the top soil!!!  If he had come past the day before he would have saved me a lot of barrowing, but I was still very grateful for him to take everything that wouldn't fit in the skip which worked out to be the green dumper trucks full.

Gwyn asked me to connect a electric cooker for him so in exchange I am using his wacker plate (compactor) to flatten the new bit of the driveway.

While this is all happening I am still going as fast as possible to get Zac's room finished which means sanding and painting his floor with for coats in the evenings.  I put the last coat on tonight so tomorrow I need to start fitting his skirting boards.

Zac's floor

I have stayed on zac's floor. All screw holes have been filled and the whole floor sanded and I have put the first coat of primer on.

Manifold & screed

The underfloor heating manifold is now assembled and mounted on the wall. It took me forever to pressure test the thing and I flooded the house a bit trying to work out how to do it.

Once the tubing was done and tested I got Jean in to screed the floor and teach me. I was also the laborer and shovelled 2 tons of sand and half a ton of cement into Rosie's mixer then barrowed it into the house for Jean to use.  And now I know how to screed a floor!

Laying pipe

Started laying underfloor heating pipe last night with Liam's help.

Fitting cupboards

I have a new phone which makes it easier to post pictures so hopefully there will be more pictures in future.

Putting in waste pip for upstairs bathroom

A bridge was put in place so the family could still get in and out the house / annex.

There were lots of signs of rodents when digging under the floors.

This is all now in place and covered up again.

Concrete sub floor

Plastic membrane to keep the floor dry

This is the chute to get the concrete in from the mixer on the drive outside.

 Concrete poured and leveled, this now needs insulation on it, then underfloor heating pipes, then cement screed over the top.

Chimney

After looking at these pictures I realise I don't have many picture of the inside, I will try to take some more this weekend.  The chimney was one of the better buys I have had on this build, it is half the price of a local supplier so I was expecting not great quality but it has turned out to be good! :-)

Rendered other gable

Finally got around to rendering the other gable end with Rich's help

Stud walls

Sorry about the lack of updates.  I have started on the stud walls upstairs.

Tuning the piano

Last night I finally got around to tuning the piano.  I used the guitar tuning software and a few beers to help with the monotony!  Three and a half hours later it was tuned; well almost when I got to the end the first notes where slightly out, but we will wait for a week or two and give it a final tune.

Chimney down, render up

On the weekend Matt helped me get most of the chimney down, I continued yesterday when it was raining.  I spoke to building control and I am able to use the rubble from the chimney to fill in the solid floors. 

My neighbours had some work done by contractors and they had 1/2 ton left over sand and plastic underlay (about 40m) which they very kindly gave to me :-)

There was a break in the rain this morning so I got my render on the last dormer. But I soon had to cover up as the rain started again.

Bay window & front dormer

I started trying to fit the front dormer window yesterday, the one dormer is leaning over by about 15mm so I had to pull it across with a strap. I then fitted the window and I am hoping the glass will keep is square, if it doesn't then I will have to use the ceiling to keep it square.

I got the second attempt bay window cills from window people and they were not perfect but were close enough.  I started fitting them at 16:00 and then realised I had to finish them to keep the house secure overnight so ended up finishing at 22:00 (poor neighbours!)

Dad, it is not difficult fitting them on my own it is just exhausting, my shoulders are very stiff this morning!

Rear dormer complete outside

I finished the rear dormer facia and guttering earlier this week.  Went on a tip run yesterday but car wasn't full so started breaking down bedroom wall to fill car.

First dormer gutter