Reduce, Re-use, Recycle.......

First the exciting bit of this week's project has been the application of the purple cladding!  The garage door will also be treated with this product from Rockpanel - the colour is RAL 3011 Brown red - so more aubergine than purple really!  The fixing of this product has been brilliant and our thanks go to Frazer Carter Group for their meticulous work and attention to detail.  Fitting in with the theme of this week's blog Rockpanel is a product that has achieved A+ BRE certification in the BRE Green Guide - A+ being the product with the best environmental performance.  Just the sills to fix now (Saturday) and the white horizontal pelmet in this picture to be clad in grey aluminium - next week!

....... all through this project decisions have been underpinned by the mantra of reduce, re-use, recycle - but this is not always an easy thing to achieve.    However, we have got some real successes - like the re-used light fitting and bench seating in the kitchen for example.

Reduce

The last few elements of the reduce agenda are now being put in place.  (The reduce agenda is all about cutting the amount of fuel it takes to run the house - both in terms of heating oil and electricity.)  These last elements are the loft insulation and we have just laid a 300mm layer insulation throughout the roof space (there was almost none in there when we bought the house).  Building regulations currently require a minimum of 270mm.  Next, because the scaffolding is finally down, we have been able to begin work on the flat roof above the garden room.  This has a temporary cover over it and it doesn't have its full layer of insulation yet.  It is interesting how the lounge and garden room are noticeably colder than the rest of the house because of this!  Once this is done the house is completely wrapped in its insulation duvet and we should find, once all remaining drafts have been eliminated, that our use of heating oil is substantially reduced next winter.  There is a new snug fitting back door to be installed and a few holes and gaps still to be tracked down and filled. 

We have also used LED lighting throughout the property - both replacement bulbs in traditional fittings and some new LED light fittings in other areas.  This, together with the solar thermal for the hot water, should reduce our electricity usage.  The solar thermal has already been working well and providing us with piping hot water from even the shortest spell of sunshine. 

Re-use 

The re-use part of the agenda has been really good fun and some of the original features in the house have been kept, updated and refurbished.  The staircase has been given a new lease of life as have the vanity unit and hardwood trims in the house bathroom.

Re- fitted vanity unit with new contemporary basin

Panelling from the dining room re-used in the master bedroom

 

Re-used book cases and children's desk (now my desk) in the garden room

Recycle

The recycle part has meant many, many trips to the charity shops and the local authority recycling centre. On the downside it has been a disappointment to us that we have still had to send many skips of old building materials and general waste to land fill.  It is a good job that projects like this don't happen often in the lifetime of this house.  Finally, of course, there has been a lot of use of online auction sites both to sell our old items and to purchase some nice new mid century pieces for key positions in the house. 

Ebay sideboard purchase - looking lovely!!

- Latest purchase G Plan bedside tables

 

The swan emerges......

 .......we took a couple of days away again this week so that the stairs could be stripped back and revarnished.  When we returned we found that our swan has begun to emerge from underneath the scaffolding. 

Still a few bits to finish and tidy

The purple cladding is still to be applied - we have had some issues with the finish of the product and so it has been delayed while we get really good panels.

This is what it was like as we began the project

This was taken at the very beginning of the project and one of the changes we made was to echo the white panelling under the windows with larch.  This helped on cost grounds but we also liked the idea of referencing the original 1960s design.

This is what we were aiming for  - it has been tweaked a bit along the way.

The stairs have been quite a challenge!  Under the carpet muffs that were on each step the wood had been protected from the sunlight but 40+ years of bleaching on the outer edges has taken some dealing with - but it is done!  A big thank you to our decorators for persevering at our request - yes, I know we could have put carpet back but when the stairs were put in originally they were all wood...... like this. Fab!

The panelling has also been repolished and stained where it had faded and we decided to paint all the white bits of the staircase black and we like this effect better because of that super black skirting and cornice detailing that is in the dining hall.

This is what the stairs looked like when we bought the house

Finally this week, we have carpets and flooring in almost all of the house now; just the kitchen, front porch and landing to go... the garden room/lounge was fitted while we were away and Wow! - we love it. 

The new carpet fitted in the garden room - and our fab room  divider!

It's all so mid century here now - what with the room divider, the ebay furniture buys and the fabulous bones of this house - we are thrilled with the progress!  In the next couple of weeks we should see this project drawing to a close and we get our home back - brilliant!