Day 98 - Doors

Fitting the hinges

Lots has happened in the past few days, but the most exciting was the arrival of my new doors. Four panel oak and they are all now in place and look great. I bought some oil/wax for them yesterday and Martin will be applying that tomorrow.

Loft Shower room Door and the door to the roof terrace

 The door to the roof terrace now has its double glazed panel fitted, Martin has finished all the painting over the past few days and started on oiling the wood on the roof terrace. He will finish that tomorrow. The glass company still hasn't finished the balustrade. I don't know why they're taking so long but it seems to be a combination of them having taken incorrect measurements and supplier problems. It really needs to be done soon as otherwise it will hold up the finishing of the project.

Martin oiling the terrace

Day 94 - Kitchen units & More Colour

Kitchen units in place

The kitchen is almost in, just the appliances and doors to go. They came to measure up for the worktop today and that will be delivered in a week. Also almost all the woodwork is painted, and the loft bedroom is now blue! It's funny how different the paint looks on the wall. Both the colours in the kitchen/sitting room and the loft bedroom look completely different to what I thought I had chosen! Today I also booked the carpet to be fitted. Hopefully everything will be ready for it...

Loft bedroom painted

Day 91 - Cupboards, Shelves & Painting

My new green sitting room

I had a last minute job in London today so dropped in to the flat after work. The sitting room/kitchen has been painted and is now ready for the kitchen units to be fitted. I think it looks pretty damn good! They should be starting on the kitchen installation tomorrow.

The built-in cupboards in the loft shower room

Also Nasco has made a lot of progress on the cupboards up in the loft bedroom and bathroom as well as adding some shelves next to the sloping chimney breast. I can't wait to move in...

Loft bedroom shelves and wardrobe

Day 87 - More Painting & Wardrobes

Loft wardrobe and shelves

Nasco has been hard at work making cupboards and wardrobes. He has nearly finished the one in the loft bedroom which needed to fit an awkward space under the sloping mansard roof. The downside of loft rooms is the sloping ceilings which drastically cuts down on available space and can make it difficult to manage storage space. Also today Martin has been busy painting and I got someone round to fit a television aerial so that I no longer have to play around with an indoor aerial that never seems to be quite in the right place.

Martin painting my bedroom

Day 85 - Alcove Cupboards & Shelving

It's been a week since my last update and it's been a week of preparing and painting woodwork; door frames, windows, skirting etc. This all takes time and the guys have also been waiting for delivery of a new paint sprayer for the walls.

Nasco fitting the alcove units

Todays update though is all about the cupboards that Nasco has built to go either side of the fireplace. Before starting this project, I had one cupboard and a set of shelves on the right of the fireplace but the shelves weren't very sturdy and bent under the weight of the books that were on them. Nasco has kept the cupboard on the right hand side but built a new cupboard on the left and shelves on on both sides. They will need around four coats of paint so that will take some time but already they look fantastic.

Most of the glass in place - note new storage box/bench on the left

The glass balustrade round the terrace is mostly in place and was meant to be finished a few days ago but it's another company installing it and I need to chase them again. The kitchen is being delivered on Tuesday and the boiler also should go in this week. I'm aiming to move in at the start of July.

Day 78 - Skirting, Door Architraves, Painting

Wood flooring and skirting in the loft

I've been staying the past two nights at the flat despite it still being very much a building site. I've been washing myself on the roof terrace under the hosepipe, (as that is the only running water I have), and very much hope that the neighbours haven't been watching as the balustrade isn't yet up!

Architrave round the door frame and painted bathroom

Progress since the last update is that the bathrooms have been painted and the tiling/grouting finished. The wood floors are now fully laid in the kitchen/living room and the loft bedroom. Today they put in lots of the skirting and architraves round the door frames. The glass balustrade goes up this Friday. Even though it looks like a building site, the main things left to do are the boiler/radiators (all the pipework is in place), kitchen installation, painting and carpeting. There will be a delay for the delivery of the bathroom basin as I ordered one that is too large and the smaller one isn't in stock. I also need to order tiles and basin for the downstairs loo but they will come very quickly (I hope!).

Day 75 - Bathrooms & Roof Terrace

Bathroom tiling - pre-grout

Shower room tiling

The bathrooms are getting there. Nearly all the tiles are laid, just need to add shower screen, loos and basins then they are ready for painting. Meanwhile below is a photo of the terrace. I need to find out when the balustrade glass will be coming for that, then we just need to paint the rendered wall and it's ready for the summer BBQ season... when I buy myself a barbeque. I have promised the team a barbeque on completion. Apparently lots of previous clients have done the same but so far nobody has delivered on the promise. It's now in writing so I have to!

Terrace decking all down... oh except for one piece to the right of the staircase!

Day 72 - Quick Visit

Wood floor nearly all down in the Kitchen/Sitting Room

I was in London again today so dropped in to see the guys. They have almost completed the wood flooring downstairs and were also working on completing the decking and tiling. The floor is protected by corrugated plastic until the end of the build so I couldn't get a proper look at how it all looks but I can't wait for the unveiling! What I could see was completely solid - very impressive. They'll be painting and putting in the kitchen soon... exciting!

Day 71 - Tiling, Flooring, Decking

The sitting room with the new cornicing and ceiling rose as well as the ply-boarded floor

A longer post than normal today as there's a lot to report on since the last update. I went up to London today. Being a Bank Holiday, the guys were taking a well deserved day off but it meant I could spend a few hours checking on progress.

Cornice

I couldn't wait to see the new cornicing which was put in on Wednesday last week. I wasn't disappointed, it looked fantastic and really finishes off the room. It will look even better once it's painted.

Underlay and engineered flooring in the kitchen/sitting room

In the same room they have covered the floor in ply boards and started on the engineered wood flooring which is laid on top of a rather expensive underlay which has good soundproofing qualities.

Bathroom tiles

Shower tiles

They have made a start on the tiling. It's strange how the tiles look different on the wall to how they do in the shop. I almost prefer the tiles in the spare room shower to my bathroom!  The tiles still need to be laid on the floor and the grouting needs to be done on the walls but they will both look great when done. They've ply-boarded the floor and fitted the bath so it looks more like a bathroom than it used to!

The terrace partly covered in decking

The decking on the terrace is partly completed. Once it's completed I'll clean and oil it and it should stay a lovely dark golden colour. The lights are installed on the wall and other than the exterior power point, I just need to chase the glass balustrade and the terrace will be finished (other than painting the rendered wall). It was a lovely sunny day and I sat down and soaked it up for a while before driving back to London.

Day 63 - Scaffolding Down

View from the terrace towards the City

The scaffolders came today and by the time I got to the flat after running all sorts of errands all over London, it was 2:30pm and the scaffolding was completely dismantled from the front of the building, leaving just a few sections at the back to be carried through the downstairs flat tomorrow. The sense of space on the balcony was immense and the views were stunning.

The plaster is drying in my new study

Nasco was preparing the plumbing for the bath and Alex was still doing battle with the spaghetti network of wiring for all my LED downlights, most of which are now connected. The plasterers also finished today - I am astonished how hard they work, not even stopping for lunch. Normally Nasco's crew always take a short time out for a sit down lunch, but the plasterers don't stop until they are done. Finally I discussed tiling and bathroom details with Nasco. After putting the loo in place we decided that the basin I've ordered is too large so I called to change the order.

Nasco trying out the loo for size. Do you like my 'rustic' floorboards?!

Day 62 - Cornicing & Exterior Door

Hardwood door

Check out my new door that leads out to the steps up to the terrace. I had imagined a nice cheap PVC door but Nasco wouldn't let me do that! Instead he has had a solid mahogany door made. I wasn't in London today but he sent me a photo of it. I love it! Oh dear, I'm in danger of becoming a door bore!

Sample of the cornice I'm having made for the sitting room

I forgot to say that on Monday I went to a couple of plaster moulding shops to buy some cornicing and a ceiling rose to replace what we took out in the sitting room. It won't be exactly the same, but without a cornice the room would look as though it was missing something. I should have organised it a while ago as it will take a while to make and fit. Hopefully it won't hold up other work.

Day 61 - Plumbing, Windows & Electrics

Loft bathroom

It's all go on site. Plasterering, electrics, plumbing... it's all happening! The shower tray is in place in the loft bathroom as well as the towel radiator. When testing the shower drain they found a leak so had to open up a hole in the kitchen ceiling to fix it. Having run a hose through it for a few hours it is now watertight! It's worth finding this out before the ceiling is plastered.

New bathroom window

The loft bedroom sash window and lower bathroom casement windows were fitted yesterday and look good. With all this double glazing and insulated plasterboard, the flat will be so much warmer than it used to be. Alex has been very patient with me changing my mind a few times about electrical sockets and switches and has pretty much finished installing all the cabling. The downlights are all the new LED type rather than halogen. With a run time of 77,000 hours they should see me out as well as cutting the energy bills. Alex connected them up in the bedroom so I could see how they looked. They were just as bright despite being 9W rather than 50W.

Alex fitting downlights

Day 58 - More Plastering and Rendering

Rendered Terrace Wall

The remaining windows were supposed to arrive today. However I received a call from the delivery driver around lunchtime saying that he had been involved in an accident and they wouldn't be delivered today. They are already late and this is holding up the plastering as well as the scaffolding which is a bit of a problem. (The driver said he was fine by the way, and I'm uncharitably thinking that he wanted to start his weekend a bit early and was making excuses!).

The rendering along the terrace wall looks very sharp and more plastering has been done in the loft. Also the bathroom items were delivered today along with some of the doors, and the shower tray is already in position. I think we're going to see a big transformation this week with lots happening.

The loft bedroom is nearly completely plastered

Day 57 - More Plastering

Plastered Kitchen/Living Room

Lots has been going on over the past week or two, but it's not very visible work; more wiring, plumbing (all the pipes had to be replaced), fitting of vents and a bit more plasterboarding in small areas. Yesterday and today the plasterers have done a lot though, managing to plaster the huge kitchen/sitting room as well as some of the loft bathroom.

Loft bathroom plastered

 I'm staying up here tonight on site as I have an early job tomorrow and have had enough of driving. The only problem with it is that there are absolutely no 'facilities' so I can't wash or cook or do much other than lie in my sleeping bag in the dust. Wish me luck!

Day 54 - Rendering

First render coat

Today we had two guys rendering the party wall to the terrace and along the steel stairs. It will need two coats as it needs to be quite a thickness. The glass people came to measure up for the glass balustrade around the roof terrace and I have been choosing showers, loos, basins and tiles for the bathroom. The bathroom shop had some of the shower mixers in stock so I took them back and they were fitted straight away. Also the wall between the downstairs loo and what will be my study was moved to make the study a bit larger. I chased up the window people but still don't know when to expect the windows. The scaffolding really needs to come down in the next week or so as my downstairs neighbours need their garden back.

Terrace Tap

Day 50 - Plastering etc

Plasterers at work in my bedroom. (Obligatory builders bum on show)

Lots of plastering going on today - some in the loft bedroom but my bedroom was completely plastered by the end of the day and looks great. I spent the day measuring for and choosing bath, shower, basins etc as well as looking at tiles. The loft bathroom is an awkward space, half with restricted height and quite narrow so it's a challenge to fit in a shower that won't feel cramped. I'm compromising on the size of the basin to allow a large enough shower to fit in.

Exterior drain. The remaining space will be tiled

Elsewhere the pipes for the radiators are in place, a tap is fitted on the terrace to water my plants, and the drain at the foot of the exterior steel staircase is in place. Nasco changed his original choice for a more sturdy round drain which looks very solid and stood up to an hour of the hosepipe running through it without any leaks! I've got to finalise tile/bathroom/wood floor and bathroom radiator choices this week so lots to fit in around work.

Loft bedroom part plastered

Day 48 - New Fireplace & More Plasterboard

New fireplace

Having been in Germany for a couple of days for work, it was high time I visited the flat to see how it was getting on. There had been a lot of progress. For a start I now have a fantastic new gas stove in the sitting room. It just needs to be connected up but otherwise it's all installed.

Plasterboarded Loft

Secondly almost all of the plasterboard is in place. The ceiling in the sitting room will be slightly lower as I didn't want to remove the lath and plaster with all the mess and extra cost involved. Instead we are boarding over the existing one. The stud walls are in place in the middle bathroom and I really need to choose bathroom fittings.

The sitting room ceiling going up

Day 44 - Roof Details & More Plasterboard

Nick putting in the edging tiles on the front roof

Rescued Ridge Tiles

The past week has been hectic with work so I've either been in the car driving to and from work, sleeping or filming. I managed to drop in for ten minutes or so this morning before rushing off to a job. The roof is pretty much finished now, with the edging tiles going on the join between the front pitched roof and the flat roof over the loft. The ridge tiles on the front roof look much better than the ones that were there before. The guys had rescued them from the skip on another job and I'm glad they did as it looks great.

Kitchen/Sitting Room plasterboard

Inside there is a lot more plasterboard up which is still ongoing and the squared off archway between the kitchen and sitting room is in place. I had my first look at the steel stairs leading to the terrace and they are very solid. The wall on the left as you go up will be rendered and on the right will be covered with slate. At the bottom as the stairwell is open to the sky, they are putting in a drain covered with a grill and the remaining space will be tiled. Finally they have installed the soil pipe from the loft bathroom loo which goes under the floorboards and out to join the other soil pipe from the original bathroom.

Steel staircase leading to the terrace

Day 41 - More Plasterboarding

I left dusty footprints on my shiny new roof!

Progress on the plasterboard

Another job in London today so I dropped in on the flat for five minutes before heading off to the City. The terrace looks fantastic and they have put up more plasterboard as well as starting work on tidying up the hole in the brickwork where the chimney breast was removed. The flat roof over the loft needs to be finished off and then the roof will be watertight. The steel stairs that will lead up to the terrace should arrive tomorrow. I won't be able to visit again before next week so my next visit should be an interesting one with lots of new things to see.

The removed kitchen chimney breast filled in

The fireplace and surround is being replaced next week