Week 26 - Just over six months update - Our Self Build

We've now gone over the six month mark and in some ways, it's gone really fast and in others, it seems like we've been building forever.

This week has been an expensive week.  We've bought the floor tiles for downstairs hall, kitchen and study - everywhere except the lounge really!  And we've also bought a flue, now that the chimney is complete - see later picture, the showers and taps, all the bathroom furniture and tomorrow, Dave is buying the solar panel that will heat our hot water.  This is something we wouldn't have chosen by choice - I'm yet to be convinced on the level of payback v investment, it's a planning condition as councils seek to become more environmentally conscious.  I guess we will see....

In  terms of house development, the roof tiles are starting to go on the front as the felt and batons are now all in place, along with the grey fascias.  The brickwork on the gable ends is now finished. Electrical cabling is now in place - and in the next weeks, the trenches for the services will be started so that we can bring electric, water, gas and telephone lines to the house.

The photos below show the view of house as the roof tiles go on the front.  There's probably about a week and a half roof tiling left to do.  The roofers will also add the solar panel onto the south facing, back roof.

Our new chimney looks fantastic and the flue will now be put into place ready for the log burner.

Inside the house, all the stud walling is now in place.  This is Dylan's room.

This is Aidan's room and the landing.  The landing is huge - and we are going to put a bookcase and chair here looking out to the drive through the velux windows above the front door.

The velux window is now in situ on this slightly later photo.

This is our bedroom leading into the dressing room and ensuite.

This is the fifth bedroom ensuite - it will now have a bath over the shower  - it will eventually look like the photo underneath.

The view here is the family bathroom - and the plans are shown below it.

This is the fourth bedroom - my room when Dave snores! 

And here is the ensuite to the main bedroom, I've shown it before, but a reminder again of how it will look, is shown below:

Week 24 - Some key internal decisions made....

We have now decided on all our bathroom designs including tiles.  We've used Pochins in Leicester, who we would thoroughly recommend.  Their showroom and selection of products is comprehensive and their advice was really helpful.  We've also bought our tiles from there - helped that Porcelanosa had a 40% sale on until the first week of February.

The photo shows the Utopia furniture in the colours we have selected and we are using the old fashioned tile design on the floor and the shower wall.  The other tiles will be plain, large white tiles in a brick pattern.

In the family bathroom, we've gone with a grey and white theme - using the beautiful wave styled Porcelanosa tiles shown in the photo above on the shower wall and the same large, white tiles as the ensuite on the remaining walls.  The floor will be large, grey marble tiles as also shown above.  The furniture will be similar to the Utopia range in the ensuite in a grey finish.

There is also a bathroom in the annex/fifth bedroom and this will be tiled in the white tiles as the family bathroom/ensuite maintaining the same theme throughout.

Downstairs, we have underfloor heating throughout.  We visited the most beautiful tile shop in Loughborough - https://www.floorsofstone.com.  It's in a converted mill and it's a treasure trove of antiques in a glorious old mill.  

Their floor tiles were recommended by Sherwin Hall and their prices were really reasonable as well. We have chosen Ivory Travertine tiles as shown below:

Now it's just the showers and taps to choose - and that's tonight's job.  It's all starting to come together :)

Week 24 - Roof starts to go on and gable ends finished

Since Christmas, there has been a lot of detailed work in completing the gable ends in preparation for the roof going on.  It has felt like nothing major has happened for weeks - but it has, it's just detail takes a long time to complete.

So we have dormer window frames in place ...

Internal view of dormer window in Aidan's room

 

External view of dormer window in Aidan's room

Angled gable ends against the corner roof slats....

Velux windows frames are now all in place.....

Fascia's in grey starting to go on....

Bases for the internal stud walls are now in place.  It will be exciting to see the wall frames being built this week.

Roof lining and battons almost all in place ready for the tiles....

All this work on the house means that we need to finish the cottage in preparation for sale.  Two things remain to be done on the cottage, the front garden and the drive.  We can't do the front wall or the drive until the service trenches have been installed - and for that, we need to wait for Mum and Dad's scaffolding to come down.  We have however put a new front path in place using the original bricks from the chicken coop.  It took one weekend of Dave's time to save the bricks, but when you look at the results you can see it was worth it.  We hope you agree.

Week 24 - Mum and Dad's house

We haven't posted for some time - and that's because most of  the focus since Christmas has been on Mum and Dad's house.  The good news is that our house is now moving on again and I will write a separate post after I give you all a quick glimpse of how fantastic Mum and Dad's house is looking!

Doors and windows are now in to make the house watertight and the next stage is first fix on bathrooms and electrics.  Lots of decisions for Mum and Dad to make over the next few weeks!

View from second bedroom through stud partition wall to main bedroom.  The cut out in the floor will be the vaulted hall/landing walk through.