Warm and snuggly

This is the first stage of insulating the roof. Three inch insulation board between all the rafters.

Stud

Today Richard occupied himself with work most appropriate. He began construction of the stud walls. A stud building stud walls. Well when you think about it, any wall built by a stud would be a stud wall. Richard's walls are particularly studdy, according to Richard. As for me, I'd rather not think about such things.

The insulation board came too. All the outside walls and ceilings will be covered in this, and hardly an ounce of heat will escape from our new bathrooms.

Porthole

I've been working on fitting the porthole windows over the weekend and while Richard fits the second skylight today.

First I made a former from bits of scrap wood and nailed it in place from the outside. Then I squidged some render and bits of brick into the gaps from the inside, which I forgot to take a picture of. When that had set, I could take the former off from the outside leaving a lovely round hole for the window frame.

The frame was then wedged in place and all the gaps filled with expanding foam, the greatest building material ever invented.

Here's the window from the outside after I'd sealed the the bare render with watered down paint.

Headache

I'm certain there will be more than one headache to endure on this project, but none so acute as Richard's when he employs his tried and tested technique for making a hole in the roof. He just picks his spot and stands up quickly. You have to admit it's effective.

The reason for the head-banging? We're having a skylight.

Double vision

Like a giant face looking at you. I'd love to paint a huge pair of glasses on it but I don't think Janine will let me.

Eyes and teeth

More toothing out for Richard as he prepares to block up another hideous window...

whilst I got on with making an eye socket for one of two circular windows which will make the outside of the building look like it has a face. Maybe I'll get Richard to build a nose out of bricks.

Now you know what the bricks are for.

The two existing windows are to become non-existing. To this end, Richard is filling the orifice with my nice clean bricks. I've been cleaning up more today. I'm off to Boots in a minute for some more hand cream.

After lunch Richard got serious and put up his scaffold tower.

Toothing out

I never liked this window. By the end of the day, it will be wall. Richard is toothing out the brickwork so that when we block it up it will meld seamlessly with the rest of the wall and be nice and strong. Probably a good idea to replace the lintel while we're about it.

Oak, no joke!

I'll tell you what the bricks are for later. (My lawyers tell me that levels of suspense will be within legal limits.) In the meantime, Richard arrived carrying some big bits of oak this morning. We'll be removing all the tie bars (which tie the roof together so that it doesn't fall down flat under its own weight) and replacing two of them with some beautiful oak ones which will remain exposed in the roofspace. The new oak one is here balanced on the old one. There's a big shelf to go over the bath too.

Never throw anything away

These bricks were rescued from various bits of demolition and archaeology since we moved in. It took me most of the day yesterday to clean them up, and I acquired a big ol' back ache and trawlerman's hands in the process, but it saved me a few quid, which I'll spend on moisturiser now. About another thirty and I'll have enough.

Floored.... with chip board

I've been busy on my own today, finishing laying the chipboard floor on top of the old floor, which was made rather interestingly from bits and pieces of all kinds of materials, of varying sizes and thickness. Large gaps had been filled with... ummm.... white stuff. Don't know what.

A layer of tongue and groove chipboard on top makes it all nice and even, although the word "level" could only be used truthfully in the kind of sentence which goes "It's not level."

Here's the drain for the shower that Richard put in on Friday.

Today

Here he is! The main man!! The dude is back!!!

I feel good now. Rich is my bestest bestest friend and I can see him every day. The fact that I have to pay him to spend time with me says less about me being a sad git and more about him being willing to do anything for money. Here he is just about to make the waste outlet for the shower tray. There was a lot of dust today, and my bogeys are totally black. I didn't want to gross anyone out by posting a picture.... I was tempted though. Oh, and Pat and Bri, great to see you are checking in, hope you are both well!

Yesterday

Yesterday Richard turned up, 2 weeks late but that's pretty good for a builder. We set about ripping the plumbing, sanitary-ware and plaster out.

Goodbye beige plastic bath, how I have loathed thee these past six years and more.
Be gone!!

By evening everything was out, and the plaster was off and bagged up. 25 sacks to be precise, which all went to the dump this morning.

That ceiling feeling (again)

Had a meeting with Richard this morning. He had some interesting suggestions on the way forward, which may well come to fruition later. But he said I should get the ceiling down before he starts work in a day or three.

I get a sore throat just looking at these pictures. The dust..... The horror..... It took me right back to over a year ago taking the studio ceiling down. The dust down my back, in my hair, my eyes, even in my underwear. Richard, next time, you can do it.

Demolition squad

We're going right back to the brickwork. Luckily the plaster practically leaps off the walls if you just give it a dirty look. It's also lucky the dog gets through lots of Chappie so we've got plenty of bags to put the rubble in.

This morning Arne and I formed a highly effective demolition squad and destroyed all the stud walls, thus opening up the entire space. Luckily, it appears that the bloke who did the plastering also built the stud walls, so they more or less fell apart too.

Mess

Getting properly started on the bathroom at last. The first thing was to get the disgusting ancient smelly carpet up, to which end a wardrobe and some other stuff had to be moved out. Here's the contents part of the wardrobe. I can't believe that at some point or another Janine or I have actually bought all this stuff!

Up comes the ancient disgusting smelly carpet. Perhaps I should save a piece in case there is a new life-form growing in it somewhere...

Coming together

One of the things about an airing cupboard is that air needs to be able to circulate, so you need gaps in the shelves, unlike the shelves in the previous version. Its amazing how many metres of wood you get through making slats.

Lordy! That was quick! Make the panel, whack the louvre doors (to let air in) on and Bob's your uncle.

The shelves in this one are fully capable of supporting the weight of a tin of varnish, unlike the old one.

Construction and demolition

The first, and very pleasurable task, was to rip out the old monstrosity and permanently remove the panels hiding the hot water pipes.

You can see how big the cupboard was. This space will now become part of the new family/guest bathroom.

Arne helped a lot with building the frame for the new airing cupboard.

Here it is all coming together where those orange panels were. The big orange tank is the pressure vessel for the central heating which we recently had installed to make the system more efficient.

Another view... duh!

A new era of splendour dawns...

Now that we have sold the car, let me share with you some snaps of the ghastly, unsightly past with which we have been living these last six years.
Before entering the bathroom, you have to pass through this small vestibule down a couple of steps and face these doors which don't open or close properly, behind which is a large (you might have guessed, if you have picked up any recurring themes from this blog) but massively inefficiently used space with just two really flimsy shelves where there ought to have been four strong ones. It is an "airing" cupboard around which air cannot circulate because there is no way for it to get in or out.
On your left as you face the doors, are these panels behind which is another large space, which is simply hidden; not used at all. Lots of the hot water and central heating pipes run behind here, so the space gets warmed up all the time to no useful purpose whatsoever. Hmmmm..... An ideal spot for an airing cupboard, you might think.

More Floor

Hi folks! As you can see we are just about ready to start laying the floor in the Love Shack. Its all cleared out, the underlay is down, and Richard kindly returned my chop saw yesterday. All systems go!

More Love

Today I finished the front side of the large removable panel. This is it in a state of non-removedness. The gap on the right will be filled with a non-removable panel. I've also been working on some integral shelves for the Love Shack of which more soon.

Love Shack Action!

Action stations in the Love Shack. I've started making the removable and non-removable sections of the panel which will extend right across the gap, offering privacy to all Love Shack guests in the future for whatever hot lovin' they want to get up to. The removable section of panel is so that we can get larger objects (such as a mattress) up and down which won't fit through the hatch.

Wood in the Hole

Another hiatus with work, and absolutely gorgeous October weather, what else could I do but get outside, trim the door, give it a couple of coats of varnish, fit all the knobs and hinges....

...and hang it so that the modesty of anyone using the shower room for whatever purpose is now fully protected.

Osprey

Sorry to report the amazing Osprey is now a late Osprey.
:-(

Something unusual...

... And nothing whatever to do with renovating a house. But I had to put this picture up. I found this chap yesterday, sitting at the bottom of a field on farmland near the house when I was walking the dog. It clearly couldn't fly and the weather was horrible, so I thought I'd better do something by way of animal rescue type stuff. I stood for a while admiring the many razor-sharp points on most of its extremities and decided the best course of action was to drop my coat over it and try to pick it up and get it home. To my relief, that worked perfectly. And to my further relief, it didn't go to the toilet during the 20 minute walk home. Not something you'd want in your coat I'd imagine. I managed to confine it at the end of our shed and we put down some water and raw mince, which it politely refused. Today we took it to the RSPCA animal rescue centre at West Hatch in Somerset where they identified it as a juvenile Osprey, which had obviously got into trouble on its first migration from Sweden to Africa, ending up in a muddy field in Devon.


I will certainly be following up on its progress, and if all goes well, we'll be invited along to its release back into the wild whenever that happens. I'll keep you posted on any news.

Plumbing

I forgot to tell you... The plumbers were in last week installing pipework, manifold, pump, thermostat and such in order to connect the under-floor heating in the new studio to the main central heating system. So I will be warm and snuggly all winter. At least I will be when the plumbers have been back and made some more improvements to the system... Something about needing a sealed system to stop the under-floor nicking the heat from the rest of the house. It will cost a bomb, no doubt, so I ask myself: Is it really such a bad thing if those who dwell in the rest of the house need to don an extra jumper or two?

Finally, some privacy.

As soon as I've got a handle and some hinges, I'll be putting the wood in the hole, and no longer will people be at risk of seeing me getting in or out of the shower when they come round. On a clear night you could hear the screams for miles.

Crystal ball

This is our bathroom. Its horrible, cold and badly laid out. It hasn't changed since we moved in over six years ago, except that a few of the tiles have fallen off the walls. But I've had a look in my crystal ball, and I've seen the future....

Its one virtue is that it is big. Big enough to divide into two or three parts.

I can't wait to chuck this monstrosity into a skip. I hate this bath with a vengeance! Richard is booked for the month of November and we've just ordered a small fortune's worth of new bathroom fixtures. We're going to have an en-suite shower room attached via some substantial wardrobe space to our bedroom, and a family bathroom with a lovely big bath set into a wooden deck. The plan below shows the plan, as it were, and although some details are bound to change, these will be minor (I may eat my words).

Stay tuned!

About Time!

Dear Blogfans,
A thousand apologies for the lack of recent posts! At first, I dismissed the trickle of complaints as being from cranky individuals who really should go and do something more useful with their time. But the trickle became a stream, and the stream became a torrent, and I now have a special folder for any emails I get which contain certain keywords like "death" and "kill" "pleaeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!" But for my own safety, I must yield to the demands of my adoring and psychotic fans. So below you will see a couple of views of the studio I took this morning.

I put up the vertical blind yesterday, just in time to start painting the latest artwork for the UTC advertising campaign http://www.utc.com/curious It casts a completely neutral shade across the board in the mornings when direct sunlight pours in through the windows making it impossible to work in colour otherwise.

Red alert! Starting to get messy in here, darn! I knew that would happen....