The most enjoyable part of the works was the removal of the old mouldy utilty room.

Who knew there was a brick wall under that mouldy wall in the back? I have no idea what all of the differnet colours mean. And seeing the concrete roof/ceiling allowed us to better understand why the water kept seeping in. Surprise-surprise, half-arsed jobs and patches that never resolved the root cause were to blame. At least there were no huge surprises underneath it all!

Build it up, tear it down

One big change is the removal of the big frech sliding doors on the side of the utility room, and the creation of a door at the back. I’m sure it was fun having to drill a hole every few centimeters around where the new door needed to be. It created a very open plan look.

This new layout meant there was a lot more light, so the old toilet looked a lot less dingy, although all of these holes were soon boarded over, and temporary doors were put in.

But there wasn’t much time to enjoy that, because before we knew it, the walls were being torn down and the old toilet was no more, leaving some interesting pipework.

Stomzy

We also had a few storms to deal with. I think it was Storm Arwen that ripped off parts of the flat roof. Although this was the old roof and so had to come off anyway.

But slowly the walls went up, and some more of the weird and wonderful oddities were uncovered.

But things began to come together, with interal walls and insulation going up.

And very helpfully, a wonderful new (and importantly water-tight) roof was added, complete with yet more cat paw prints. Whilst it isn’t a sexy part of your house, or even a part that you think about very often, it is an amazing feeling to not have to worry about leaks and more mould every time it rains.

The Roof, the Roof, the Roof is on Fire

Wet, Wet, Wet

Plumbing was fun, with lots of new pipes being installed. And some rather horrible discoveries under the kitchen cupboards, of stuff that the pervious owner (or at least one of them) left behind.

But the progress didn’t stop. More walls, more insulation, even new doors, and a quick inspection from the cat, and we were on our way. Some of the old brick work was exposed now, and whilst it looked pretty cool, it caused problems, breaking the builders tools, and making the plastering difficult.

We even got as far as getting plaster on the walls (inside and out). Although this was a unexpected challenge, becasue depite now having a utility room that was water tight, getting rid of the moisture in the plaster proved tricky. After a few weeks, even with an industrial dehumidifier, there were still a few patches that wouldn’t go, but we had to press on.

Then we had to take a bit of a pause.

Whilst we had found the tiles that we liked, we managed to pick the specific ones that weren’t availble for 6 weeks. And then got delayed for even longer. So for a long time, we couldn’t do anything.

See part 3 for the final stage.