Day 62 - Ground floor complete ready for joists

After a relaxing (?) week at Center Parcs, we couldn't wait to return and see our new garden fence and the building work on the downstairs of our house.

Downstairs now has all internal walls and window openings so we can really start to get a feel for the room sizes.

As you walk into the front door, you can see the open space for the hall/kitchen/dining/family room. This will be vaulted above the stairs and landing up to the ceiling.

To the right of the entrance will be the stairs, cloakroom, downstairs toilet and utility room - all the internal walls are not in here yet.

And as you enter the back door and turn left, there will be a separate stair case for the games room above the garage. You can also see the door into the double garage.

To the left of the entrance, are the doorways to the study and lounge.

The lounge has large windows at the end.  There was a suggestion of patio doors here but after fifteen years of a patio door into the lounge, we prefer just a window.  A fireplace for the log burner also needs to be built.

The study looks down the drive onto the road.

And finally, the garden will look fantastic now it has brand new fencing all the way round.  Our neighbour thanked us on as well now it's finally up.  Thanks so much to Simon Gresswell for this!

The builders have now started the walls on Mum and Dad's house.  This will be finished and the joists up on both houses by the end of this week so it's all pretty much moving to plan.

We will have our first kitchen designs from Astley Kitchens next week and from Sherwin Hall, on November 7th.  We will post these when we get them and I'll post another update next weekend.

Day 53 - Walls to Joist Height

It's been really exciting this week to see the house taking shape.

This is what it looked like on Monday...

And this is what we ended up with today -  Friday.

We have a front door opening which is lovely and wide for a double door entrance:

Large full height window space in the lounge:

Double aspect windows - one to be bi fold doors in kitchen/family room:

A back door, garage door and double garage almost completed:

It's just so wonderful to be able to walk into our new house - designed by us!  We're on holiday next week so Mum and Dad are in charge.  Sheldon is mainly focusing on starting the walls on their plot next week so it will be all change when we return.  We're also having the rest of the garden fence completed next week to give us garden privacy.

We had the log burner fitted in the cottage on Monday.  We are looking forward to lighting it tomorrow evening and curling up in front of a film.  By the time we move into the new house, we will hopefully be expert fire lighters, as the first time we lit it on Tuesday, Dave failed to keep it going.  

Astley Kitchens came to see us and Mum and Dad last night.  We are steering towards a German wood kitchen design and he recommended Prentice Kitchens, http://www.prentice.co.uk/, in Tamworth.  They do some really nice modern wood ranges so we need to go and see their show room as soon as possible.  The main thing is getting the kitchen layout sorted asap so that we know where the electrics need to go.

Day 46 - We have walls along with grand design inspiration!

We visited Grand Designs today at the NEC.  We are really struggling to find kitchen inspiration - and wanted to see all the other ideas too.  We liked the kitchen below from Intoto Kitchens in Oadby. It even had a corner TV space just like Center Parcs chalets!  This was on sale at the show as an ex display  - from £34000 to £22000 with all the top of the range Miele appliances.  I was quite tempted but Dave didn't agree.

On the way home, we visited Sherwin Hall in Leicester.  We were much more impressed with their bathroom and kitchen ideas and have emailed our plans and budget to see what they can come up with!

Back to the house build itself....Dave has been working later over the past few days and has been coming home when it's dark.  When he's asked what's been going on with the build, my comment has been that all I can see is Kevin building grey columns of breeze blocks everywhere but no walls yet!

This obviously isn't true.  Sheldon said to me today that no-one realises how much work is involved with the floor before walls can be built and this is definitely the case.  Most of this week has been spent putting the drains in around the floor and filling in the areas around them.

And then today, the first walls were built.  I can see where my kitchen window will go.  In two weeks, the first floor will be in place which is so exciting.  I can't wait to walk in the actual rooms and see them laid out.  Watch this space!