Lounge / Kitchen / Diner

A lot of the internal walls had to come out.  We will be having one big open plan lounge, kitchen and dining area.  So the world of wood had to go, along with the old kitchen and its wood fired cooker, which no longer worked how we wanted.  We gave that away to someone to use as a pizza oven, and they came well equipped  - it weighed a ton!

First up, we had to remove all the tongue and groove, to get at the frames

The ceiling in the old bathroom and toilet was 3 different sizes

Decided the chainsaw was quicker

Finally gone.  And some new doors went in too

The doors give a good view of the garden which helps working on a cold winters morning

No chance of Clive getting up

Need to fix up the ceiling now

Got a new steel made to hold up the roof.  The old post was rotten

Luckily me old mate Andy gave me a day.  And doesn't mind heights!

And the painting begins......

We are leaving the kitchen where it was, and are framing the walls to hide the pipes and give a flat wall for the cabinets

Starting with the door

We tried many ways of getting the tiles up but they are set in concrete.  So we decided to cover them up.  Some areas are tile free, so we filled up the gaps with concrete

And then poured 32 bags of self leveler to try and even up the floors.  There's a ridge through the middle of the room so its still not right, but close enough

Then we covered it all in plastic to keep any damp from coming through the slab, and covered that in tongue and groove chipboard.

We had to batten out the next room to keep the levels right

Put the door in, and started the long job of laying the floor

We will need to seal it, but we want the "old pub floor" look.  Most of the sealers etc darken the wood, so we're not sure what to do yet.

Need to build a hearth for the new fire.  Might as well use some old bricks

Finally done!

Need to fill in the gap above the mudbrick

Random lizard in the garden

We've had the kitchen delivered and it will be going in in a couple of weeks, so the priority is getting the room ready for that.  Starting with closing in the walls

Jano wanted sunken shelves in the walls, which she then changed to 70's style boxes.  I made them out of what are hopefully surplus floor boards

Rather than plastering and introducing another finish, we have decided to use some of the old tongue and groove timber that we pulled out.  It is arsenic treated so in good nick, and obviously perfect around food preparation areas.  Initially it was going to be painted, but we ended up liking the raw look to help define the room

A few wobbly cuts up to the mudbrick

Annoyingly, there is a roof joist right where the kitchen vent needs to go, so it needed a kink

Got the lines to line up

Because the kitchen is in the main room, we are building a wall to hide the fridge, which will also have some storage in the base

Cabinets going in with templates for the benchtops

Bench tops on

After getting messed about by the bench top people, we decided against a stone return up the wall as a splashback and went for el-cheapo tiles

And then we moved into this section of the house and cluttered it all up

Got our new fire in, which works far too well! 3 logs for the evening and we need the windows open. Our new addition Bev likes it too.  An old farm dog who'd never been inside in her 5 years, but adapted pretty quick

Got the floors sanded in the main house - the bedrooms are carpet.  We went for a matt finish