Oh, how the grass grows if you don’t watch it! Our house project has continued, albeit at a slower pace than the first couple of years, but we have passed a few milestones along the way.

One was our bathroom. Yes, remember that one? Where that lovely (?!%*) freestanding bath we wrote about when we moved, emptied itself into our utility room below. The memories are so fond!

We’ve also carpeted a couple of areas to ‘warm’ things up a bit. The stairs and first floor landing are now barefoot-friendly.

We’ve made three more useable bedrooms, which is a good job, having welcomed-in three more grandchildren since we last updated.

Our next significant job will be the garden and garage. Details to follow.

The Present Day in Our House Project

Back to the present and things are improving steadily. We did suffer a slight setback when we discovered that a 120 year old lead water pipe decided to start leaking underneath our kitchen/dining room (solid) floor. However, Welsh Water were on the case very quickly and we have now disconnected and isolated all the old lead pipework and have replaced it with easily accessible and more durable plastic pipework. There must have been quite a kink in that old lead pipe because the flow rate has increased substantially since.

The Bathroom

There was only one solution really – start from scratch. A good job too! The old wonky vinyl flooring had managed to trap significant amounts of black, furry, slimy ‘gunk’ over a few years and as well as looking horrible, it didn’t smell too nice either.

The floor in that part of the house was a bit on the wonky side too, so I decided to build a new ‘over-floor’ using OSB timber. The slope was quite noticeable, with a 40mm drop from one half of the room to the other. Using chocks and shims, we now have a lovely even, level floor which has been tiled with star-patterned porcelain tiles. A new extractor duct and fan were installed and the dreary light pendant has been replaced by recessed LED downlighters. A new modern loo and a trendy table-top basin have given the room a contemporary and warm feel. The addition of a new shower cubicle and trendy towel radiator has made it all a much nicer place to be. Mrs C loves it!

Bedrooms

Our second floor bedrooms were up there near base camp and, though ‘habitable’, weren’t exactly homely. One of the problems with sleeping up there was that the nearest toilet was half a mile away on the first floor. So, after much thought and planning, we set out a new design which included chopping a chunk out of the biggest room and putting in a small toilet.

This turned out to be a game changer in our house project. Because of restricted space and awkward shapes, we decided to go down the Saniflo small-bore solution, running the supply and drainage pipes beneath the floorboards. It was a fiddly installation, but the end result has made the whole 2nd floor a much more liveable solution.

It’s actually quite nice up there now and it gives a kind of separate living space to kids, their partners and kids when they come to visit.

Hallway and Stairways

Rather like our experience with the first couple of rooms, we knew we were going to be up against it when it came to removing wallpaper on our stairway walls.

Aside from the sheer height and inaccessibility of it all, there were numerous layers of paper and paint on top of the crumbliest plasterwork below. It took ages, but again, the end result was well worth it, with a new brightness and sense of space that’s resulted.

The Outside

It’s been reported many times recently in the British press that THE make-or-break on a house purchase is good outside space. We have outside space, but it’s all remarkably ‘concrete’ and very drab. The existing garage is too large for its setting and is using up too much of what could be a lovely courtyard garden. So we’re going to knock down half of our garage and we’ll go for a ‘cosy courtyard’ look with wooden cladding around and modern paving stones or tiles throughout. We have a great selection of mature potted plants that would lend themselves perfectly to what we have in mind. Summer 2023 should see the completion of the ‘outside’ domain in our house project.