Main Door Choice

The Glazed Door that goes with it

The chosen handle

The site was quiet yesterday and today.  The project plan actually shows a pause around Easter, though Nick (our builder) is in email every day.

I noticed the skip had slabs and couldn’t figure from where!

From the back patio is the answer

Old shed gone as a flat pack !

Study stripped – note as everywhere else, radiator gone

Staircase stripped but old skirting still there

Spare room wardrobe gone

This is the skip company we’re using

J’s sewing room

Bedroom 2 from landing

New fuse box already – must ask Nick about the earthing

Main Bedroom

Main bedroom wardrobes

Front of lounge – radiator gone

Lounge front to back

Lounge entrance from hall

Landing

Main hall

Hall radiator gone

Hall from kitchen

Bedroom 3

Fireplace gone

Cloakroom locked

Dining room and airing cupboard below

Staff Cafeteria and Office Arrive

Our First skip is filled – carpet, kitchen units, some doors mainly

The gate came off so lorries could get through more easily

The Kitchen and larder has been stripped out.  The team report the stop cock is immovable, so tomorrow they’ll turn it off in the street and deal with it.

Our project leader admiring his handiwork in the kitchen

The Dining Room

The Old Sewing Room

This website records the project to rebuild the family home during 2019. It is a “Blog” so by convention, the newest postings appear at the top, and the oldest at the bottom.

You can also see entries listed by category (eg “Kitchen”) by clicking on one of the topics listed down the right hand side of this page.

THE VIRTUAL TOUR

The website holds a virtual tour of the house – some video around the outside and some photos, room by room, around the inside.

To see the tour, look at the right hand column (on PC or MAC… or scroll down on Ipad or phone) and see a long list of topics under a heading of “Category Selection”.  Near the bottom of that list you will see “Tour”.  Click that and it will take you directly there – ‘advert free’, I think.

Built originally as one of a pair in 1977 in the grounds of a large house, the whole site contains five contemporary homes. It is superbly located in a silent cul de sac, within a market town at the edge of London.

The idea is to thoroughly update it to a modern contemporary home, and taking it from 5 bedroom/2 bathroom  to   5 bedroom/4 bathroom, increasing its main dwelling size along the way by around 50% to 3,308 sq ft..  (Incorporation of the garage slightly flatters this size upgrade)

The big idea from the architects is to incorporate the V shape between house and garage and take it as a family room (“craft room”), then put two ensuite shower suites and a dressing room to the guest “suites” above it.  The ground floor is altered substantially pushing out the back of the house and knocking through the kitchen/breakfast room to be a very large room and main room of the house. In doing so the dining room is almost doubled, and new utility room and gym/bike-room is added behind the garage.  A new enlarged entrance vestibule will be pushed out from the front of the house.  The upstairs “office”  will be relocated to a larger room.  The front of the house faces south, and the rear north – which has always been a challenge – so a number of details are included to admit light into the heart of an otherwise (today) dark house. Hopefully with remodelled driveway, patios and gardens, increased use will be made of outside living space in the warm months.

These two photos above illustrate the V shaped area to be incorporated into a new ‘family room’.  This will be the ‘craft room’ in reality.

The garage will be pushed both back (to accommodate a new utility room and bike-room/gym), extended forward to embrace modern car lengths.  People and cars have grown a lot since 1977.  The garden shed seen here has already been relocated to another part off the plot. The whole house and new area will be re-roofed. The whole garden, driveways, and patios to be redesigned.