The Problem with the Weather

This is quite an old picture that I haven't used before. It shows the brick work above the front door which is not in good nick. Some of this needs to be taken down and repaired / replaced as appropriate as the cracks you can see are not supposed to be there!

Whilst we can postpone (indefinitely) the re-pointing and re-rendering this job is not something we can leave however we cannot do it while the temperatures are so cold. The builder had hoped to do this on Saturday but there was no opportunity and we will need to look ahead and get a couple of days of warmer (not freezing) weather so we can get this done and let the cement set.

Change of Specification

After much thought we have decided to change the specification and not re-render or re-point the flank walls.

This is not because the jobs don't need doing but because the weather is making it pretty impossible to do any meaningful outside work that won't need to be redone is few months time. I would hate to dress a house up for sale and then the new owners have to spend money on repairing it all again.

I spoke to the estate agent who was of the opinion that provided we are up front with potential purchasers it shouldn't cause a problem i.e. don't wait until their survey points it out. Overall it is likely to be cost neutral to us as we won't be paying the builder for the work but may have to reduce the sale price accordingly. Having said that we are not going to be greedy with the resale price so it is possible that we end up making slightly more without having wasted money on work that will need to be redone.

Bathroom Window

The ultra thin render based wall has been replaced with a bright and shiny new window. I think it's look pretty good but it is even better from the inside.

More pictures to come and then it's time for kitchen design. I have the exact measurements now the stud work is in so design and ordering is next weeks priority.

The Public View of the Thin Wall

I meant to put this photograph up with the last post. This is the outside of the "thin wall". It is remarkable that it stays there really. By the time you read this it should have been replaced by a new frosted window.

Creating Space

Since all the work has been done to strip everything out of the house and the floorboards have been put back down and made "true" it is possible to walk around the house and take more of it in. If you excuse the body in the following photograph you can see through from the rear reception room to the front room and out of the front door (across the road etc .....). This had led to the suggestion that we should consider not replacing the doors between the rooms as it helps to open out the space. This makes sense but it has made me wonder about whether we should open it out further.

The pictures above and below show both sides of the same wall. You can see in the picture below, the wooden lintel although as the wall is solid and non load bearing there is some doubt about what it is doing there. I have come up with the idea of removing much of this wall and opening out the staircase to the rear reception room. I would like to remove the wall completely but this cannot be done without an RSJ and by the time that was installed and clad with fire retardant material it isn't worth the extra cost.

A cheaper and easier option is to take the wall down to just below the ceiling and but in a 4x4 lintel to say half way (or maybe just over) the wall by the stairs. This will open up over half the stairs into the main room and create a much bigger space as well as making a feature out of the stairs. APD Observer and MeatOnTheBone will probably remember doing something similar in a house in Cobham over 20 years ago. Any memories they have of this would be appreciated.

The picture below shows the wall above the door from the reception room side. The lintel would just about be at the top row of bricks and would need to be boxed in or painted black and made to look like a beam to match those in the front room.

If we did decide to do this I think it would make sense to replace the door from the front refeption room to the stairs.

I have the day off work tomorrow (mainly for Christmas shopping but Mrs APD has done most of it) so we will be have a chat with the builder about this in more detail.