One girls DIY restoration of a cottage.

As far as possible we, me and MeWally, want an old age with low, or no, utility bills. We also happen to be stingey with money and will make as much eco stuff as we can and build it all into our tiny house.

So we'll have a comfortable home that's cheap to make and to run. RESULT!!

Monday 24 May 2010

Light At The End Of The Tunnel - Sunday .23.5.10





Today is a red letter day in my tiny world of plaster boarding!!!!  


I'm finishing this bit of the task. I'll still have half the room to insulate, but, happily, I can't reach those bits of the room yet. Thank goodness.


MeWally deviated from the norm and went APLUMBING. The small, electric shower went belly up. After a mere 7 years, it's safety valve wouldn't reset, despite a good clean out. A plastic component had split. It would work, but for how long, and how safely? 






This one was taken off the wall.






HE BOUGHT A NEW ONE  


ASSEMBLED  HIS TOOLS




And fitted the NEW SHOWER, OOOO!





Mean while I set about making a couple of templates for the fiddly shapes of the loft walls. Later in the project I'll have to use these shapes again.




I backed the paper with cardboard.


Cutting plasterboard can be horribly messy. 




At last, after banging in 28 nails today, the five  8x4 sheets of plasterboard are down to this little pile of, mostly, rubbish: YIPPEE!!!!




Already our bedroom feels warmer. Could it be the weather, or the insulation!?

Monday 17 May 2010

More Of The Same



For me there was only Sunday, which after the statutory lie in, followed by the essential Big Brekky, left very little time for house restoration, before the statutory time to down tools at 2PM.

MeWally decided to  carry on knocking the landing about and tidying up the area in readiness for the new stairs, which will arrive the week after next.


Dust sheeting; it doesn't really work, but makes us feel better, and I get to admire MeWally's tum!



He began with this on Sunday ..... and finished with 


THIS!

OUR FUTURE 'FAMILY'  BATHROOM 
and landing area.

AHHHHH; I CAN SEE IT ALL NOW!!


Meanwhile, I insulated yet more of our bedroom in the loft. Too boring for a photo. Maybe next weekend.  

JUST MAYBE.






Monday 10 May 2010

Breast Is Best

More plaster board cutting for me this weekend while MeWally got stuck into the stair well. 


THE SKELETON UNDER THE STAIRS


There's the chimney breast under there crumbling away. It's OK though, it's flued. We've decided to keep it and point it with lime mortar and then limewash it. There is an option of demolishing it as there's nothing structural to cause problems.




It's a lovely curved shape and will look fantastic as feature on the new landing - rustic.

Meanwhile I did more insulating in the loft.



You can see the battening holding in the wadding. If the wadding covers the battening, the plaster board wont sit flat, so a little time has to be spent getting it right. What with that and the carving the plaster board for the sloping soffits, it takes ages to do each little bit. Added to that, we  don't start 'til lunch time and have to finish by 2pm  (noise wise), so we get about 4 hours work done over a weekend.



The small space over the lintel didn't have enough battening, so I glued 3 layers of polystyrene (polystyrene  is semi permeable) into the space and packed out any small gaps with wadding.  I then stuck plasterboard on top. 

Still less  than  half the room completed.


Saturday 8 May 2010

Insulation against inflation?

Managed to get some plasterboard onto the wall today. 

But first the insulation had to go in.


Before nailing the plasterboard in place, the insulation has to be cut around all battening.

Only did this bit today. By the time I get up and get on with it, there's only about  3 hours before 2pm arrives and the house turns into a pumpkin.


Thursday 6 May 2010

Rubbish

Time to clear out the rubbish we've piled up. With such a titchy house, we have no space for all this stuff.   It may not look that much, but.... I'm off  ......

TO THE TIP ...



Saturday 1 May 2010

Cutting The Plaster Board

Spent the 'day' ( it's the weekend, what can I say)? cutting up my plasterboard ready to fit to the walls of our loft.

Meanwhile, MeWally decided to begin ripping out the staircase. Balustrade first.


The stairs are still in, but he did have a clean up before he  toddled off.



Make the most of the stairs, they'll be gone in a day or two: or maybe, NOT!