The Study - before and after

The new work that started in August and was supposed to take one day was finally finished on 28th September - I am NOT a happy customer of Strachan Furniture Makers. Obviously they weren't with me for that entire time, they just had to keep coming back to finish bits off, or put them right.  However, the study is now finished, and here are the 'before' and 'after' photos.


                                Before                                                 After

   

The Study Window

The stained glass window for my study is now in. It was inspired by the beautiful fragment windows in so many of our cathedrals (wrecked in the Reformation or the Civil War and put back together as mosaics), and created by Rachael Aldridge, who made the door panels for me. See her website at: http://aldridgeglass.co.uk/  I love that she was able to let me have some left over fragments from church windows she had restored in Northampton, I found some bits for sale on ebay, and there is a little Cheshire Cat, hand painted by Rachael in the window as well.  It makes me very happy when the sun shines through it.

The Study

This hasn't featured much in my posts, so to keep you up to date:

Rubble is removed, floor is levelled:

Walls are plastered and a flue put in place for a wood-burning stove:

The Bathroom...

has all the pipework installed now:

and down below in the study a false ceiling is installed to hide the outlet pipes.  (The alternative was to take them around the outside of the house, and I didn't want that.)

One week in

Work has started, and the builders seem to be in almost every room, destroying as they go. I know this is how it will seem for a while before things start to come together again, but see what I mean:

Grand Entrance

Storage  for various things, and the downstairs cloakroom excavations....

 

Dining Room

Study

Very much another storage room, but see, the shower enclosure has now gone...

Kitchen

And here the serious destruction is getting started:

while the new kitchen cabinets reside in the sitting room. 

The Old Kitchen

...is yet another storeroom...

...and upstairs work is starting on ceilings and floors.

Main bedroom

Guest Bedroom 1

Guest Bedroom 2

...and finally

Bathroom

So not much is going on in the utility and shower rooms, but nowhere else is left untouched.  I'm glad I'm not living there yet (thank-you Vicki).

The plumbers start this week, more excitement.  I'll keep on posting.....

The beginning - May 2014

Finally the proud owner of an old and slightly wrecked house, I'm going to post photos of the progress made turning it into somewhere I want to live, as I have promised friends & relations. Here goes:

Alexander House

For those who don't know, a joke between me & Chris was that we would buy a B&B when we retired, and call the house 'Alexander House'.  So, in my mind at least, this is Alexander House, though I'm not so sure about the B&B... 

Grand Entrance

Sitting Room

Dining Room

Study

This room was the bathroom, so there will be quite a bit of work needed here.

 Kitchen

And this was originally the dining room...

Utility Room

The Old Kitchen

...will disappear - I want more garden.

 Main Bedroom

Shower Room

Guest Bedroom 1

Guest Bedroom 2

Bathroom

Work is going to start on the 9th of June, I'll try and keep the progress posted.