Monday 14 April 2008

And the builder said ...

So. The builder, John, has just left. Over coffee we discussed the works to be done in Daisy Cottage after his assessing it earlier today as posted in my earlier posting 'The Begining is Nigh'.

His assessment of our 'works to be done' list:

1. New central heating system - Definately needed and will be done.

2. Re-wired fully - Definately needed and will be done.

3. New staircase Once again, definately needed and will be done. This means we will have extra room below the top end of the new stairs to creat the doorway mentioned in no.4 below.

4. Open under stairs to create a new doorway - Yes, this is possible and will be done.

5. Put an en suite into the area we have allocated as a bedroom downstairs - Yes.

6. Some new windows - Luckily Builder John says most are perfect with only a couple to be replaced.

7. New bathroom upstairs - Most definately needed. Builder John nearly went through the floor! Glad to report he didn't!

8. Two new en suites upstairs - Yes and both will be wet rooms which I favour. We did this at home in our house and they are great. No glass doors and shower cubicles - perfect.

9. Renovate the attached 2 storey shed to make a games room upstairs and a loo and a laundry downstairs. - No. It seems the games room, the extra laundry room and the small living room are a bad idea at this stage. The work and time involved to bring these 3 rooms up to standard would be prohibitive. The cash saved by not doing them just now would go a long way buying all the furniture and fittings we will need. So, I suppose it makes sense to go with what Builder John says and put them on the long finger. For now.

10. Patio area outside to accommodate bbq - Yes. Builder John has drawn a great idea for a cover for the patio area involving wooden uprights and a slate roof. The area will also be paved and a brick bbq built there. It should look great.

Other works to be done include:

The existing floors downstairs are to be taken out and replaced with semi-hardwood flooring throught the livingroom, hall and kitchen/diner. This is what we had wanted and now it seems it is possible to do all this without adding too much to the cost. That means the only carpeted area will be the staircase itself and that is for safety - wooden stairs are too slippy for any degree of safety.

All interior walls will be replastered and coving will be put in the hall, living room, and kitchen diner. I want tongue and groove in the hall so hopefully we will be able to do that also.

There will be a stove put in the diner area and an open fire left in the living room which will make Daisy Cottage cosy even in the winter.

And the best news? Builder John reckons all the work should be complete within our time slot of 8 weeks. He and his team will commence work this week - cue lots of photos for my blog!

The only thing I have to do for the moment is just get down there and say what furniture we want to keep and what is going into the skip so hopefully I will get down there at the weekend and pick through what is worth keeping. I know I want to keep the old table and I love the old fashioned kitchen chairs so they too will stay. There is an old sideboard in the diner which I will keep and a wash stand in one of the rooms upstairs which I like. Other than those few items the rest, beds and all, will hit the skip this weekend.

2 comments:

Carla said...

I have a question about your new en suites at Daisy Cottage. What are wet rooms? Thanks!

Quote from blog: "8. Two new en suites upstairs - Yes and both will be wet rooms which I favour. We did this at home in our house and they are great. No glass doors and shower cubicles - perfect."

Catherine McGlynn said...

Hi Carla. Wet rooms are basically a room with a loo, sink & shower and their difference is there is no shower tray or cubicle. The floor is slightly sloped into a drain to run away the water. It just means you have lots of room to shower and are not confined by glass doors or shower curtain or whatever.

Btw, I didn't get the 2 wet rooms upstairs and had to fit standard shower, loo & wc. But I did get a wet room for the downstairs en suite.