Manic Monday leads to a week of great progress.....

We started the week with what we now call 'Manic Monday' when we had so many contractors on site we had to park vans all along the front of the property on the main road.  This is not ideal but has had to happen in the short term - shortly after Christmas we did drop cards into all our neighbours apologising in advance for any noise and disturbance that we might cause.  Hopefully everyone is bearing with us on this!


However 'Manic Monday' has led to a week of great discomfort for us but great progress for the project.  By Wednesday night we had all the new windows and doors in (albeit not with airtight seals).  These windows are fabulous - triple glazed, wood on the inside and dark grey aluminium on the outside  - the huge sliding door in the lounge  and the kitchen window are my favourites.

New lounge sliding doors

New kitchen window which has been lowered and will have window seat under

new front door and glass screen (the white is just protective plastic film over the dark grey)

These beautiful windows have been made in Poland by Sokolka and we have only had 2 slight issues with the fit.  Thankfully our great installers and building team were able to solve these without any delays. The house on Thursday morning was noticeably warmer and light and bright with the new big windows flooding the house with light and keeping out the cold.

By Tuesday night the old concrete roof tiles were off and the new felt and battens in place to take the new roof slates. 

By Wednesday night new tiles were being laid on the back roof section and the extraction vent for the MVHR system was fitted. 

The chimneys are waiting for their metal cladding

Thursday came and we really began to see the butterfly emerge from all the chaos as the larch cladding started and, by the end of the week, the metal cladding on the extension was finished and the plastic protective coating stripped back to reveal the finish. 

 Metal as a building material is controversial I know but we love it!

 

 Front elevation of the extension (where the old carport used to be.  There is a superb double height window here but the scaffolding makes it difficult to see it just yet.





 Whilst all this was going on outside we were busy making what felt like hundreds of decisions inside!

 

We have organised a super SMEG cooker hood for the kitchen

 

Blue and copper lampshade for the TV room from Made.com

We are using copper accents quite a bit throughout the house

The plumber is coming on site on Monday and so we have had to get radiators and bathroom fittings organised as well.  It will be brilliant to see the interior being reconstructed after all these weeks on living in 3 rooms. 

Rather liking this tile for the bathroom as we have ruled out Mermaid panels because of cost

The radiators have been a huge problem to us - not in choosing the style - we are having Zehnder Charleston - pic below.  The problem has been deciding the size and quantity of radiators - I think I spoke about this in an earlier post.  Everyone is very nervous about this, especially our plumber, but we think we have got the heat loss calculations right and the radiators will be much smaller than you would expect for rooms of this size.  However, when you add in the solar gain from the glass, the Aga in the kitchen and the wood burning stove in the lounge, we should be cosy - Fingers crossed!!