My Sisters Kitchen Upgrade - New Doors, Drawers & Extra units

The weekend before last I took a trip with my dad up to Manchester to visit my sister. 

 It wasn't just a social call though - we were there to upgrade her kitchen!

No More Hole In The Side Of The House...

So after about 18 months I managed to get round to blocking up the hole in the side of the house. 

 It was kind of blocked off before with the blockwork on the inside skin being finished, but decided it needed completing. 

Working Three Days in Wales

It's been many years since I've stayed away for work (this is the only other time I can think of), but mum had booked a workmate Richard (who everyone calls Dill) and me in to do some work on their cottage in Wales.

She had been trying to use local trades but kept getting let down time after time so decided if she got us into crash out the bulk of the work that might be the way to go.

Making An Insulated Pantry Door

The pantry project is moving forward!

I've decided to upgrade the door to this storage room. What I want to make sure is that the kitchen stays warm and the pantry stays cool. Having a door with insulation in it and having it well sealed will help me do this.

This video is quite carpentry based but shows how I went about making a new door. Not traditional construction but hopefully a few will find it interesting!

Let me know what you think.

Pantry Build Part 2 - Dividing Wall

So the pantry has progressed some more this week. 

The stud wall is in, so the utility and pantry are divided.

My youngest was so funny when I first did it, he wondered round to the one side, tilted his head a looked at it, then went to the other side and did the same. Then comes up to me and says "I hate it, I want it as one!". Difficult to please everyone!

Pantry Build - Part 1 - Rip Out

Now hand on heart I can honestly say I haven't finished all the other jobs in the house.There's a lot of painting to do, but everything else is pretty much there. Painting can be done on wet horrible days and with a few hours here and there

For seven years this was it for a kitchen, seems so tiny now. 

So as the weather is good and I'm at a point with my paying work where I can take a short break from it, I decided to look at making a start with the new pantry area

Early May Update

As usual this is a really busy time of year. Seeds to sow, plants to put out and veg to maintain and grow.

I love this time of year, so much to remember to do but it really sets the pace for the rest of the year, hopefully ours will be full of goodies.

The kids have been a great help with all this. Not helping all the time but really entertaining themselves and letting me get on with things.

Unfinished Plumbing

### This is a Collaborative post ####

We live in an unfinished house and I fear it may be like that for sometime... 

Nice place for a bath...

The cobbler’s children go barefoot and all that…

I’m not too bothered about it (although my wife might think otherwise), and I am slowly working my way through the list of jobs. Although the list does tend to get longer rather than shorter.

Oak Floor In Manchester

What a busy weekend! 

I'm sure as many of you know I don't like to leave the village unless I have to (managed 6 weeks without leaving it last year at one point).

But sometimes I do - mainly for family. I visit my parents farm quite often, but I'm not so great at going to see my sister who lives in Manchester. She's great at seeing us and spending time with the kids and I'm terrible at going back up there. It is a three hour drive though but I still feel guilty.

With her partner, they've just bought a house and are in the process of doing it up. One area that's having a complete overhaul is the living room, and one thing they really want is an oak floor to set it off.

Floor To Ceiling Storage

Storage is always an issue with us. We never seem to have enough. 

It's got a whole lot worse since having children. The picture above shows just their craft supplies - one of their favourite activities.

Quick Kitchen Tour

Short video of our new kitchen I've been building from scratch over the last few months. 

Not quite finished but it's nearly there. 

Can't quite see how we coped with the old tiny one now!

Sneak Peek In The New Kitchen

The kitchen is slowly taking shape. 

I'm determined to have it mostly done for Christmas day and to cook and eat in there!

Roofing In The Wind

So with much juggling of childcare this last week I managed to help start putting my brothers roof on in some of the worst weather we've had in months!  

Conditions have been far from ideal but we've made a bit of progress with this roof for the  house my brother is currently building.

Building A New Fireplace

Last week was another hard one, made worse by the fact I broke my toe! I just limped a bit - it was only my little one thankfully!

It was finally time to tackle the fireplace!

A little bit of me has always hated this old open fireplace. We used to hide it with an old bookcase I made my wife for Christmas years ago.

Trouble was it was built with the same iron hard bricks and mortar as the rest of the house - not easy to take down I can tell you!

Destroying the Dining Room

It's been a hard couple of day! 

After months of doing jobs leading up to it and lots of planning, I've finally made the big push and started to knock through to the extension downstairs!

It's been messy!

Making A Huge Desk!

So even though I've been busy with everything else around here (trying to finish the extension etc) I took on a large commission a few weeks ago. 

It was to help create a new music studio for a customer. There was a list of jobs that needed doing, construct a ceiling, lay a floor, fit a soundproof door, build a massive 3.5m horse shoe shaped oak desk...

Into The Extension Upstairs

I woke up his morning feeling like my body is a little bit broken.
My dad and brother both feel the same.
It's been a hard weekend!

Over half term I've been getting the extension ready for the big knock through. The idea being to have a big push with my dad and brother on the weekend to knock through to the top of the extension, removing the old bathroom in the process.

During the four days on my own I managed to get the bedroom ready, skirting on and all painted (Sean plastered it the weekend before), the loft boarded out and some of the plumbing sorted for the bathroom.

 Dad turned up on the Friday, he mainly concentrated on the heating and the plumbing whilst I got ready to knock through. The pictures show some of what we got up to!

Drain opened up ready! I'd left a bung in it until we were ready to connect everything up

We ate well for three days. Not for the ones worried about their weight but I think we burnt it off! We had to cook outside for the weekend.  

Dad in the old bathroom

My brother helping to break through, these bricks were so hard - even with the big breaker it was hard to do! 

Taking advantage of the bath outside as somewhere to lie for a minute...

My brother next to the last wall to come down - clinker block. Much easier to knock down! 

A little bit of mess in the old bathroom...

Plastic to try and stop the dust going downstairs

The bathroom on Saturday night. I couldn't help thinking I'd ruined my house! 

Getting the joists in the access hole that's been in the extension since I built it. I've been up and down here hundreds of times but it was good to see it blocked up. 

I lugged everything up that hole to make sure the extension was pretty much ready to go when we knocked through! 

Gone! Glad to see it boarded up and much safer with the kids! 

Finished bedroom. 

New corridor where the old bathroom was

New small shower room 

Coming from the other side. 

The house suddenly feels much bigger!
The kids were funny when they got back, My middle one wasn't even sure where her bedroom was even though it hadn't moved!
It's odd to get used to the new layout, especially when you need to go to the loo in the middle of the night, but I doubt it'll take long until i'm used to it.
Lots more to do up stairs yet though! Wiring and sockets, plasterboard walls, create a shower room, the list goes on! Then once that's all done I can start on the downstairs! Fun fun fun! Hopefully have a full day at it tomorrow when the kids are at school. Probably box in pipes around the toilet first to stop the kids standing on them!
Hopefully I'll get to the end of this extension one day, but it's not going to be for a while yet!

Destroying The Kitchen

My little man has started going to nursery for a few half days (well nine until two).

He's desperate to spend more time with other children, he's such a social animal! And this will give me a few valuable hours a week on my own that I can push on with the extension. 

All happy on his first day! He was so excited! Wouldn't even say goodbye! 

 So the first day I spent running some errands and painting the doors in the extension as well as setting myself up for day two - The ceiling!

I hate artex, but that's not the reason for this coming down. Unfortunately I need to remove it to run pipes and wires through to the extension so I can finish the bathroom before I knock through.

I'd sent some samples off to be tested and they came back clear for asbestos so I knew I could do it all myself.
I removed loads of stuff from the kitchen (and had a good sort out at the time) and then sheeted everything up.

I was against the clock from the start on this job. I knew I had to be finished and pick the kids up by two. I had a great plan of cutting between the joists and just pulling sections out with little mess.
Unfortunately when I started someone had already added another layer of plasterboard to the ceiling and glued it to the first.

 This meant things were going to to get messy! I just had to rip it down and get on with it and hope I could clean it up before the kids came home.

 By the time two o'clock came I was ready to pick up the kids, but only just! Two ceilings worth of rubbish and the previous trades men liked eating chocolate, leaving behind all their off cuts and not cleaning between the joists! There was a lot of rubbish up there and two washes to get it out of my hair!

I cooked tea in there last night and it wasn't too bad, I need to get the hoover up into the hard to reach places and give it another good cleaning. I also keep finding bits I've missed, it's amazing how far it travels!

Hopefully my electrician will come on Friday to get some lights upstairs in the extension.

What's the most messy job you've ever done in your house whilst still living there?

Roofing Farmer Style

Spent a day on my parents farm on Wednesday. 

A room I've been doing up for mum (over the last two years - don't ask! Time is not my friend!) has some issues with a leaking roof. 

Mum and dads place is old, in some places it's as old as 600 year but most is just 400 - it even has a priest hole. The roof is big, has many valleys and lots of detail. 

 Dad lifted me up to look at the leak using the 4wd forklift and a cage on the front. Feels pretty high when you're 8m in the air! 

Still theres some nice views up there! And I love looking at the house I grew up in from a different angle. 

Non of the fixes I did were brilliant, as unfortunately I couldn't see anywhere obvious where water was getting in. I did fix a slipped slate on the main roof and sealed up some of the render where I think the wet was blowing in during driving rain.

Although not what everyone would like to be doing it certainly beat doing it all off a ladder and was a fun day spent with my dad!  

Extension Progress - Scaffold Down!

The house feels naked! 

The scaffold is finally down! 

Although it's a step that doesn't really move the house on or prevent work inside, I was still really excited when the scaffolders turned up this morning. 

When I left to go to play group this morning, with my youngest two, the scaffold was wrapping round the extension and some of the house, when I came back it was nude! 

It's always a real shock when the scaffold is down, it really changes how it looks.  I'm pleased with how the extension sits with the house and how it makes the overall place look, especially with the porch on the front as well. 

Now I've just got to push on inside, when (or if ) it dries up I want to get the last of the footings in for the retaining wall for the patio, then we can get outside sorted as well, I don't want another year where we struggle to eat easily outside!

What do you think?