Cutting the toilet door. A job I was not looking forward to as it was inside the main house. I'd cut bricks before and even outside the dust turned day into night. The misses would not like this. Spent a decent amount of time sheeting up which worked pretty well
Stud work. I find wood easier to work with. This job was almost a pleasure. Just made sure all was plumb and level. Could now start to see the utility wall and toilet separate
Plumbing and electrics. Decided to go the polypipe route due to ease and cost. I had some tricky runs and the flexible pipe saved me a huge amount of time. I'd have preferred to use copper but I'd have been very slow. Electrics also went fine. I'm lucky to have a mate who is a sparky who gave me strict instructions and checked everything with a fine toothed comb and tested. Enough said about that as I'm sure it might encourage debate! Planning was key trying to get everything in the right place for the finished room
Boarding and plaster. In a strange way I was looking forward to this. It was time to make this building site into a real room. 72 plasterboards ordered, stud work in place and a ton of screws and board adhesive. Getting flat and level went easier than I thought and although it took time it was great to see clean walls. The ceiling was a mission alone even with my bodge job dead man handles. But I was pleased as punch with it. Plastering also went well. I was under the watchful eye of another mate who has spread a good few walls but even he was daunted by the ceiling. That was a shoulder killer. Dry and mist coated it looked a different place. Not a building site, but a room.
Now to cut my holes for the downights and hope my wiring plan was accurate. All fine except one. Managed to fish the wire and pull a bit of slack through. I was contemplating upgrading the 2.5w bulbs to 5w as I like my kitchen bright, but with the led strip round the skylights (idea stolen off this very forum) it was plenty
Levelling and tiling floor. Another daunting task. My floor was pretty flat. During the early stages when I had no roof and it rained I noticed where puddles formed. Not deep, but I wanted a better base to make tiling easier. As I was checking levels, I noticed I had made a slight, but very lucky error when I laid the new slab. I had laid it what I thought was 5mm low so I could self level. However my datum, the old kitchen floor was all over the place, some very highs, some very lows. But I had laid it perfectly level to the adjoining breakfast room floor by accident. The solution was to remove the old kitchen tiles and knackered quarry tiles and bring the floor back into line with the other 2. On lifting some of these quarrys it became apparent that a crap layer of weak concrete over soil was the method of the day. So late on in my build with plastered walls I dug out a 12sqm floor and relayed a proper insulated slab with DPM. Not what I wanted to do but felt I had to. I now had the issue of fresh concrete that could take 3 months to dry. Bugger. More questions and internet searching led me to a resin based surface DPM that supposedly allowed new concrete to cure and loose water even if tiled over. Witchcraft. So that went down followed by a load of free bags of SLC that a mate procured from a trampoline park that went bust. In true keeping with my skinflint ways I made my own spiked shoes to navigate the sea of SLC. Went down ok but maintaining the wet edge over such a large area even with a mate mixing for his life was tough. Surface was better but not perfect. Tiling is a monotonous job when you're slow. Grouting is miserable with rough tiles. Brick acid was the only solution to scrub off the residue. Buffing off with a dry cloth as per instructions is a joke
Rendering. Initially going down the sand and cement route due to cost I soon was pursuaded to change tac and do k-rend. Brilliant stuff even for a novice. The scratch back is a lifesaver and can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. The back went so well I decided to abort my painted pebble dash on the front which was supposed to match the top part of the house and K-rend this too. Only issue is they don't do magnolia. Luckily Webber do a colour similar to magnolia. Got that but as yet it's not gone on due to heat first then rain. Will get done very soon. Scratch coat complete though out the front.
Kitchen. Before I started I went down to Wren kitchens to get a design. I had no intention of buying from them as I'd read so many poor reviews. Their quote for the kitchen, utility and appliances was close to £20k. I had been eyeing up DIY kitchens for the main units and IKEA for the utility and that along with budget appliances was £10k. Then a very lucky break. I was just looking at Welsh dressers..... As you do..... A bloke in the valleys made them to order. Whatever colour, design you wanted. I spoke with him about kitchens and he'd made a few. I sent him a quick sketch of what I was after and asked for a ball park figure for a bespoke hand made kitchen, solid wood carcasses, doors, painted, with oak worktops expecting to have a good laugh at the price. He came in under IKEA price! I drove to Wales expecting to find a state of the art CNC factory to be greeted with an old school workshop and a chap on his own. Had a cracking chat, looked at his work and felt like a gamble. So I spent a good while designing my kitchen and utility with good old pencil and paper. 8 weeks later and after many conversations he came and fitted with me as part of the deal for a day to get the units in. Absolutely stonking old school joinery. In one of the pics you can see a reclaimed door to the porch. Needs painting but another cracking eBay bargain.
So that’s where I’m up to. A working kitchen with quite a few bits left to do. Filling woodwork, painting woodwork, guttering, rendering the front then hopefully signed off. Will keep you updated.
what an excellent job you've done! would pay good money for that level of craftsmanship in all aspects of your build! don't sell your self short and play it down in the writing. you've done a stonking job! im sure the "professionals" would be envious!
On holiday at the minute which has come at the right time. A week doing nothing and getting ****ed is going to be a good reset. I can then get back on it full bore and finish it off. Always a risk when the kitchen is working to leave those little bits. As soon as the guttering and drainage is done I can get it (hopefully) signed off. Got to decide the best course of action for that. Bought 4 soakaway crates for £20 of scumtree but really want to go straight into the main drain as that is by far the easiest option. BC doesn’t like that though.
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