The staircase going in

  This happened two months ago.  I remember the date only too well and not very fondly.  We had originally got a quote to have the staircase built as we needed one to fit exact dimensions and therefore could not buy one off the shelf.  The carpenter quoted £2,500 to build and fit the stair case.  We have managed to save money in most areas so we set to work trying to figure out how we could get this cost down.  Eventually we found a website that build staircase's to order.   The website enable you to design your own website to specific dimensions.  As you put you measurements in it came up plan drawing of what it would look like.  Once we had measured everything G phoned the company and they made a couple of alterations to ensure we had the required head height on the stairs.  The end price for the Internet stairs was £700 so we made a saving of £1800 but had to fit them ourselves. Here is the website just in case anyone else fancies a bit of staircase designing:  http://www.stairbox.com/stairs/    When the staircase arrived the straight section was complete but the winder section that is at the bottom was in pieces

The landing before the staircase was fitted



The arrival of the staircase coincided with G's birthday week and that is the reason that I don't have fond memories of fitting it.  G for some strange reason known only to himself decided that we would fit the stairs the day after we had gone out for his birthday drinks and I had the worse hangover in the world, even he admitted to being very jaded.  G never admits to a hangover.  We did have a great night and all the group of builders in the bar who have been so supportive of G's building endeavour tried to get him drunk by buying him drinks all night.  They were really impressed with how well he can hold his drink as in the bar he didn't show any signs of being drunk.  All I can said is that they didn't have to walk home with him!

 .   

The staircase precariously balanced



The staircase with the bottom winder section fitted

If I were going to choose any job to do with a hangover  - fitting a staircase would be at the bottom of  my list.  It was tricky and at times dangerous.   We had to try and get the staircase in the correct position before we could bolt it to the wall and fit the winder section at the bottom that helps support it.  The photos show the staircase in various stages of being fitted.   G worked like a trouper.  I just about coped and had to have a few lie downs to get me through.

A rare occasion me cleaning the end product

The finished staircase

Mogay cuts the ribbon



It was a great moment when we first climbed up the stairs and no longer had to rely on the ladder.  We we delighted to have Mogsy as our guest of honour for the official stair opening.  She cut the ribbon and we toasted with a glass of sparkling wine.  This is the closest she has come to doing any work on site but her visits are always enjoyable.

Rebuilding the back bedroom

The new en suite takes shape

The last post was about the destruction of the bathroom and small back box room.  The last photos were of a demolition site.  Since then a new room has been built with a completely different walls and shape.  Now there is a new double (just) bedroom with and en suite bathroom at the end (not forgetting the new airing cupboard that we have managed to steal some space for).  We are both really pleased with the result and the great news is that it will be ready  for our Christmas visitors. 

stealing some space for the airing cupboard

Its a very small en suite so we have had to spend time planning how it would all fit.  We have chosen a white squarish counter top basin sitting on an oak counter.  For the tiles we have gone for slate and white.  They are both the same height tiles quite narrow but the slate tiles are all different lengths so it give it a bit of a random look.  Its hard to get any good photos as the bathroom is so small. 

G has been working very hard.  Every night after he finishes his day job he is straight to work on the house.  I tend to be more hands on with the purchasing side of things.  Scouring the Internet for deals and bringing home lots of different tile samples.  So many decisions to make and G doesn't like progress to be slowed because of a bit of indecisiveness! 



Airing cupboard as you go into room



new en suite bathroom



Today we managed to make the final decision on the carpet that we plan to use for the whole of the upstairs a dark charcoal stain resistant and hard wearing.  We have booked it to be fitted in the back bedroom a week on Friday.  That will be an exciting moment and will signal the completion of that room.  Time to get the bed in!  The photos are work completed so far but we will add the finished look once we have the carpet down and the bed in!

Demolition time

The first bit of work we did on the first floor (that's the floor above the ground floor) was to demolish the back bedroom and bathroom to create the space for a new en suite bedroom.  I think the photos probably say it all. Loads of rubble and dust and lots of trips to the tip.  One of the funniest moments was when Dan and Hayley where up for the weekend.  It was one Sunday morning when G was waiting for a civilised time to start work which was to demolish the existing bathroom.  Instead of checking if anyone was in there before he started he just took a sledge hammer to the wall.  Poor Hayley was in the bathroom brushing her teeth at the time when the hammer came through the wall! 

In addition to all the destruction the window at the end of the bedroom had to be removed and replaced with a slimmer obscure one as this was to become the new bathroom and in order to fit the shower and toilet in the small space the big window had to go.   Some of the photos show the new window.

Next time I post I will show some of the rebuilding and the new shower room that has been built at the far end.  You can see from the photos the outline of the corridor and old bathroom.  The new en-suite shower room has been built at the far end by the window.  I am so far behind with this blog.  It feels like ages ago that we were doing this.

Plans for the next stage......

Plans Before

  So after all the external work on the loft I bet you thought our next steps would be to fit it all out internally.  However this is not the case.  Although we have completely renovated the first floor of the house the second floor has remained relatively untouched and still in a retro style.  We thought the next stage in the development should be to focus on the building work on the second floor.  The major part of this is too change the back box room and disabled bathroom in to one new super duper en suite double bedroom.  It won't be the largest double bedroom in the world but will be another room for our B&B when we decide to do it.

Plans After

The plans on the left above show how it looked before hand.  You can see at the top of the picture where it says bedroom 3 its very small and also from the drawing you can see that there is wasted space in the corridor to get to that room.  You can see from the after plans (below right) how this space is used more effectively.   The reason we can get rid of this bathroom and have an en suite bed room is because, just before we started the loft conversion, we changed the small bedroom marked Bed/Study on the plans to a bathroom.  You can see how this looks on the after plans.  In order to be able to let this out as a en suite bed and breakfast room we have put an additional door into our bedroom so the bathroom can be entered from the landing or the bedroom.  This means if the house is not being run as a B&B then it can be accessed from the landing as a family bathroom.  Tonight we are just posting plans however on our next post we will post photos of the space after G and the boys had demolished some walls and how its coming together.

I just read the post to G and he said he thought it would be worth explaining the other reason we are starting on this floor is because we have to route all the services (hot and cold water and heating) up through the internal structure of the second floor.  I would have mentioned this but I didn't realise that's what we were doing.  Also he mentioned that I have would have said ground  and first floor rather than first and second floor.  I checked the plans and it does say it his way but I think that can be confusing.  So I am putting it out to vote amongst our followers....What do you think?

We are back!

This is a sequel blog to our first blog which was all about the building of our loft conversion. The first blog covered all the external work, pain and joy of building the loft. We have now published it as a book, not available on Amazon yet, in fact there is one only one copy! We posted religiously every day as the project

had taken over our lives.  In this blog we want to share how life has continued after the summer and what we are doing internally to create the bedrooms and bathrooms.  In addition we are thinking of new life plans such as the possibilities of running a b&b, renting our house as a holiday let, converting our garage and trying to work a ski season.  We thought this would be a good place to record and share those thoughts and plans.  We won't be posting every day just as and when.  We are trying to create a better lifestyle by different means hence the title 'Life Conversion'.

Its been two months since we posted our last post titled final blog on August 23rd 2010.  I wish that I could tell you all about the lovely rest we have had since the completion of the first stage of all the external work of the loft.  I wish I could write about lazy Sunday breakfasts with Graeme reading the papers etc but I am sure no one would believe it even if it were true.


We did have a week of partying once it was finished which was great fun and just meant we were even more exhausted.  We have lots to catch up on so our first few posts will be updates on what we have done and were we are up to now.

Anyway setting this up has been enough work for one day.  Will be back shortly with some updates of how we have been getting on.

I hate to post without a photo so here is a reminder how the loft looked at the end of the summer....