Northfield House Renovation

The attic rooms had their lath and plaster removed but there remained the nails within the rafters and posts. So today was spent labouriously removing the several hundred nails. Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4 It was a long and tedious task but its another thing out the way. The sight of the new roof provided the much needed encouragement. Photo 5 Photo 6 Previous Next

As I had 2 weeks off work, I decided to get some work done on the existing house. Photo 1 Photo 2 Remaining plaster was removed from the exterior walls of bedroom 1 and started to remove wallpaper from the interior walls as these will be skimmed. Photo 3 Photo 4 Photo 5 Previous Next

My roofer wanted to install the trusses before going away on holiday in January and was prepared to work during the 2 week Christmas break. Photo 1 Photo 2 Photos 1 and 2 show the wall plate installed. They had to be doubled up, otherwise the rafters would catch the lintel. Photo 3 The first truss was raised on to the wall plate and marked for the bridsmouth. Photo 4 It didn't take very long to get a few trusses in position and by 3pm all the trusses were fitted. Photo 5 Photo 6 Previous Next

Expecting the delivery to arrive sometime before midday, I was taken by surprise when I received a call at 7:30 in the morning from the driver saying they will be arriving by 8:15 and will require 2 people to help offload the trusses. Now 8:00 I have to set off for the school run and it takes a good hour with the traffic. Fortunately, one of the other parents that share the school run was available so I was able to get on site. Called up my bricklayer and he was able to send his labourer to help out. Photo 1  The driver tried to reverse into the drive but hit the fence on the left and decided to park on the kerbside. (he would have managed it if he straightened up first and then reversed - saving us a lot of trouble of carrying the trusses and timbers) Photo 2 Photo 3 So we carried them to the back and stood them up against the wall on top of some blocks to protect them from getting wet. We also covered them with some plastic as I'm not sure when the carpenter will s...

Today the delivery of the stone heads and cills arrived. Photo 1 Photo 2 I didn't anticipate how heavy each of these stones were going to be. The delivery lorry didn't provide any forklift to offload the stones so it was left to myself and the labourer to unload them from the lorry and then carry them inside. With each item weighing at least 50kg and 18 items in total, it was an exhausting effort! The bricklayer managed to get a few more lintels on and we are almost ready for the roof. Photo 3  Lintel installed above the patio and utility door and utility toilet. Photo 4 Photo 5 Photo 6 Photo 7 Photo 8 Our bricklayer introduced us to a roofer last week who had some time before flying out on the 8th of January to install our trusses for the single story extension. It means I would have to order the trusses and have them delivered quite soon. After getting a few designs and quotes from local truss manufacturers, with lead times of 3-6 wee...

A week has gone by without any progress due to adverse weather. The only bit of work that we managed was installing the first lintel. Photo 1 Photo 2 This is the lintel above the bi-fold doors. Photo 3  Managed to remove the plaster from this wall but couldn't quite reach the ceiling. Photo 4 Decided to start on the bathroom. Photo 5 This is bedroom 1 (first bedroom on the right as you come up the stairs). As the plaster also needs to be removed from these two walls, I decided to remove the skirting boards.

The scaffolding was setup today. It was interesting how quick they put it up. Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 It wasn't long before the scaffolding was up around the perimeter. Photo 4 Photo 5 Photo 6 Previous Next

Once again nothing much to report on except the few courses of bricks have been laid. Photo 1  Photo 2 Working with black mortar is a lot more difficult as its easier to ruin the brickwork. So far I think the brickwork is looking pretty good. While waiting for the brickwork to be built, I thought it would be good to make a start on preparing the rooms on the inside. Photo 3 Photo 4 Started to remove the plaster from the exterior walls where I want to add insulation. Previous Next

With the adverse weather progress has been very slow. As such there isn't much to report on. Photo 1 Photo 2  Photos 1 and 2 show the current view from within the kitchen area. Photo 3 Photo 4 Photo 5 Wall almost up to first lift. Previous Next