Bathroom

This was originally fitted out with a suite from MFI - one of the last to actually be delivered before they called in the receivers. We had it fitted as part of the renovations that were carried out when we bought the house.

The major changes to this room are the move of the door, sink and radiator. Neither the bath nor the WC had to be moved.

Unfortunately, because of the move of the sink, and the changes to the wall, we've had to replace the flooring. The original flooring has been discontinued, but we were able to find an alternative which matched in with the original paintwork.

We've actually repainted 2 walls, but used the remainder of the paint that was left from when we redecorated the bathroom only a year or so previously.

The taps were changed over from some victorian style taps which were really past their best. Hopefully the next set will last a little longer. The bath panel was also changed from the acrylic panel that had discoloured to a solid MDF panel with a routed out "plank" detail.

Shower Room

The shower room has a 800x1000 shower cubicle, a slimline WC (both from AC Bathrooms and Heating), a vanity unit sink (from Ikea) and tiles from The Tile Store.

The tiles are cream, and all the sanitary ware is white. The walls are B&Q Kitchen and Bathroom Duck Egg. The dark wood vinyl flooring came from L M Hill in Hillsborough.

Day 35 - Naked house?

And that's it, we can now see what the gable end looks like in it's full glory. The scaffold has now gone!

Day 34 - Skip gone

Not much left now - the skip has gone, and we're just waiting on the scaffolding and then the house is back to normal again.

The big decorating challenge starts here!

As each room is finished, the final "look" will be put on here. We've got the flooring booked in for fitting in the new shower room and the bathroom already, so we've got plenty of painting to do over the next few days.

Day 33 - Emergency Gutter Painting, and The Builders Leave

The only real change to the existing rooms to fit in the new staircase is the move of the bathroom door. It's had to be moved about 8 inches across to give enough width to get upstairs. Due to the way that the bathroom was originally laid out, this only affects a mini "corridor", and doesn't actually change the bathroom size at all.
The move of the door has had a couple of knock on effects, and this has resulted in the sink being moved about 4 inches towards the window, and the radiator being relocated to the wall adjacent to the WC. Bizarrely, the room now feels slightly bigger than it did before it was made smaller...

Unfortunately, the other knock effect of all of this work is that about 20 tiles have had to be removed and replaced - some have been salvaged, and some have been replaced with spares that we kept when the bathroom was done originally.

The last few bits of putting the bathroom back together happened today. The skirting boards refitted, the new bath panel put on (the old acrylic one had discoloured really badly, so we've replaced it with a much nicer MDF based one) and the floor re-boarded ready for new flooring.

Then, at about 11am, the scaffolders turned up to take the scaffolding away. With one more coat of black gloss to put on the guttering, I had to drag myself off my sick bed and lie 20 feet up on scaffolding instead. I got it all painted, and the scaffolders took away the front section of the scaffold.

So that's it. The builders have all left. The house is ours again. To be honest, it feels a bit empty, and I'll miss that early morning knock on the front door with people wanting to start work.

We (and all the neighbours) were really impressed with the work ethic of every one of the builders - they just got on and got it done. The real work started on Day 5 of this blog, and finished on Day 33. That's 29 days of work to get us from a standard 3 bedroom semi (3 beds, 1 bath) to a 4 bedroom semi with a separate office (4 beds, 1 bath, 1 shower). The original estimate was 6-8 weeks. They brought it in under 6 weeks in the end. Thank you Rosewood.

An hour or so after the last builder left, I got an email saying that the roofer needed to come back and paint the flat roof with UV paint, but that he'd be there first thing tomorrow and it would be done before the rest of the scaffold came down. Sure enough, like everything else on the build, he turned up and got it done.

Day 32 - So close now!

This morning, it seemed that there was still loads to do, but the builders were almost certain they'd have everything (except the original bathroom) exactly as we wanted it.

It was like watching synchronised swimming (without the water and funny nose clips). Gaps were filled, rooms were swept, windows cleaned and the skip (number 3) filled.

The buildings inspector came for his second visit, and we're all signed off.

So, we're done. Well, apart from a tiny bit of finishing in the existing bathroom. More on that tomorrow!

More photos to follow as rooms are completed - the painting starts here...

Day 31 - Really, really close now...

Loads of people on site today, all frantically trying to finish stuff off.

The plasterer came back and touched up a few corners that had been knocked when the second fix electrics were done, and he also skimmed the rest of the wall "above" the new staircase.

The last bit of the soil pipe has now been fitted, and the shower and sink outlets now link into this outside the house. The shower room is now functional!

The doors are now pretty much fitted, and some of the filling has started.