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Bathroom progress

Updating the 60’s bathroom, it’s 70’s decoration and 80’s shower. We think it hadn’t had any tlc since the shower was added.

We are rearranging to give, hopefully, a nicer layout and retain a separate shower and bath. As the shower is used most it will be bigger than the current one and located where the door is. I’ve cut in a new door into bedroom 4 which will become part of the landing for access to the side extension.

Bath is moving back to it’s original location and is the biggest we can fit in.

I’ve replaced the hot water cylinder with heat store and heat exchanger which works better than I thought it would but will be adding a hot loop to give near instant hot water at the tap.

Replaced the soil stack that was coming apart at the joints. There is no original pipework in the house, soil, heating and water has all been updated.

Underfloor heating is only a small loop running from the heat store which will also heat a towel rail radiator.

Bathroom shortly after moving in, 30-May-09
Bathroom shortly after moving in, 30-May-09

Bath taps are concealed in the wall, note the big hole which is on a wall that is double thickness and tile hung outside with no cavity. Not great construction but handy as there was plenty of thickness to chisel into.

Nest to do is block off the old door, finish tiles and add the shower with its dual pattern rain head and hand shower, nice, but a pain to fit.

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Replacing the stairs

The old 60’s stairs had to go. Welcome a new oak staircase with winder at the top. What a pain to fit, should have stuck with a straight staircase!

Old stairs on the way out.
New stairs on the way in.
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Finished orangery.

The rest of the floor down and steps from the lounge.

Step corners cut freehand using an angle grinder and the half bull nose edge done using a diamond shaping tool on a variable speed angle grinder.

  • Steps in progress.
  • Tools removed and just blinds to fit.
  • 10mm lens makes it look big!!
  • Furnished and finished.
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Woodburner and Hearth

Hearth and step are thermal blocks faced with brick slips. The pointing takes forever and is boring. I used Mapei flexible adhesive, some rapid set but some the slow set that I used for the floor tiles. Slow set gives lots of working time.

The hearth stone was cut and shaped by a local stone works, they didn’t cut the first one in the orientation we specified which meant the pattern didn’t look right so they cut another one but obviously the second pattern wasn’t our first choice so a bit disappointing. Even so it’s a fantastic bit of stone with bits of semi-precious red bits and flecks of gold bits.

I very pleased with my lead work and lead burning, pity its on the roof out of view.

  • Hearth construction.
  • Brick slip wall.
  • Brick slip wall complete.
  • Hearth stone slab.
  • Flue lead work.
  • On fire!
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Creating the cloakroom, a start.

After demolishing the larder and cloakroom, it’s time to make a new cloakroom and passageway to the orangery.

Insulation under the floor and new stopcock, pressure reducing valve, anti-knock pipe, provision for water softener and orangery underfloor heating stuff. Next is the cloakroom soil and basin waste pipes now that the radiator is moved and feed pipes for toilet and basin are in and hopefully the right location.

  • Empty space.
  • Passageway.
  • Insulation.
  • Pipes.

After adding all the underfloor pipes, the joists went in for the new lowered floor area.

Joists for floor.
  • Stud work.
  • A flushing loo!

Floor down, stud work in, pan and cistern plumbed in and working.

Next is the plaster boarding and patch up the wall.

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Downstairs cloakroom – demolishing.

Before removing the larder, I had to remove the airing cupboard wall which is supported by the larder. The airing cupboard is a later part of the project!

The lintel supporting the airing cupboard and the one for the door to the old cloakroom where in the main supporting wall so had to be carefully cut out using the Allsaw and drill.

  • Looking to orangery door – note larder wall in the way.
  • Cloakroom from the orangery door
    Cloakroom from the orangery door
  • Airing cupboard wall.
  • Lintel supporting airing cupboard.
  • Open plan airing cupboard.
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Orangery lights

Yeah – we can now see and work when the sun goes down.

Two sets of lights – main panel lighting and spot down lighting. The spots are about half the brightness of the panels, but the camera has made the exposure to mid-grey and I didn’t compensate for it! The spot lights are dimmable to make it cosy.

The other circle in the ceiling is our recessed Kef Ci200 speakers – nice 🙂 There are a pair of them!

Main panel lights
Main panel lights
Spot down lights
Spot down lights
Outside eaves lighting
Outside eaves lighting