28 March 2013

THE BACK PORCH

The original porch at the back of the house, in our opinion, was cheaply added probably in the 70's and not in keeping with the rest of the house.  It had a large unsympathetic window facing north and an entrance door around the side.  The whole thing was very tired, worn and in need of a replacement.



above: The existing porch is circled. 



above: This drawing shows how the porch was entered via the door at the side, then through the main door into the corridor. The wall separating the dining room and the corridor was taken down allowing for the open dining hall that we now have.



above:  (after) You can see from this photo, that with the porch and main back door open, it goes into the dining room.
 

above: (after)The porch completed.  Our builders did a fantastic job with the brick work especially the arch above the door.  We hunted for the door at a local reclammation yard.  
Four panels were taken out and glass added.  This helps let in light. 

26 March 2013

DINING ROOM UPDATES

To get from this...


(before)
to this...

(after)
we had to go through this ...

the dining room was stripped back to it's bare walls and completely renovated.  Damp walls needed attention, replacement floor, windows, electrics, radiators and a new fireplace.


(above) The wall was taken down that separated dining room and corridor.


(above) Rolled Steel Joist (RSJ) had to be added to hold the ceiling up. A mock beam was used to cover it up.  Existing plumbing had to be diverted and updated. Updates to the electrics.

  
(above) This shows an exciting discovery.  There must have been an original door to the outside that had been bricked up over time.  


(above) A kitchen hatch was bricked up.  We used the original door. Secondary double glazing was taken down and both windows replaced with hard wood ones in the original style .


We were very lucky with the fireplace.  This part of the house dates back to the 17th century.  When the builders took out the existing reconstructed stone fireplace with beaten copper canopy, heavy timber mantel and probably added around 1970, they came across a curved, gorgeous shape.  We plastered it and it's now filled with logs....


and looks like this...


We don't actually make a fire here or burn the logs, as the room is quite warm enough in the winter. The logs are used on the wood burner stoves in other rooms.



21 March 2013

DINING ROOM RENOVATIONS

Our first project was the dining room. 


(after) Originally, there was a separate dining room with a door into the room from a corridor.



(before) A wall divided the dining room from a small, narrow and cramped corridor.  The corridor took us from the entrance hall at the front of the house ...



(before)to the kitchen at the back of the house. It had a window and a door.  The door opens into a porch, which goes into the rear garden.


(before)We believe the porch was added in the 70's by the previous owner.  It lacked any sympathy with the rest of the house and had to go!!! 


This lead us to our final plans.  Knock down the existing porch and add a new one (more about this later)..... take down the wall between dining room and corridor ..... this then creating a specious dining hall.




19 March 2013

THE DINING ROOM

Our dining room as it is today ...


which is very different to when we moved in...  




14 March 2013

IN THE BEGINNING

5 years ago, we fell in love with this house...



A very grainy photo!  It's taken from the original details of the house that were photocopied. 

On this blog you can follow the process we went through (and are still going through) to mostly renovate, sometimes restore, definitely repair and remodel our house.