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