We've not been slacking. Honest!

I realise I haven't posted any updates for AGES. So I have created a  bunch of photo slideshows to update you on where we are. I've tried to organise them thematically or by room to give you an idea of progress. I've also made them small and dinky so they aren't brilliant on fullscreen, but easy on the bandwidth. You'll find the original video of the plans here to help put things in perspective (I hope!).

Here's the ground floor entry, where we used to have a shower under the stairs:

Progress of our ground floor bedroom - which we refer to as the Victorian bedroom following the discovery of the original fireplace:

Here's one of the bedroom on the first floor - the one with the art deco fireplace:

Here's the ensuite...

And courtyard and basement extension, where you will see they had to dig a massive hole. The soil was extremely dense clay, so this took a really long time. But it did mean that we didn't need to dig down further for the foundations - but the builder who had to dig it by hand told me he lost over a stone digging it all out.

The mezzanine!

Theoretically, we are supposed to be moving back into the house in just FOUR weeks. The house looks far from complete, but the foreman is making all the right noises that the top two floors will be liveable and that the glazing will be in the week before we move in. Our lease has run out on the rental house, so we are holed up in a small one bedroom flat in the same neighbourhood until we can get in. But that makes it convenient to pop by and keep the pressure on.
I am so glad to be back on this side of town - relieved even. We've just spotted a new Japanese ramen and bento place about to open up at the top of the street. I think that is definitely a good omen!
Rita won't be fully finished when we arrive and the builders will have to work around us for a few weeks, finish off the outside and complete the kitchen. For the first week or two, we'll have to make do with a bar fridge in the laundry, a microwave, and an electric frypan *(check out the Aussie!) - but we'll be in! Keep your fingers crossed - especially as Mum and Dad are planning to arrive to visit on the 3rd of November!
I'll upload some more in a week or so of the loft, the bathroom and laundry, and the stairs and hallway (where the tardis loo used to be). Progress is moving quite quickly now and we are doing weekly site visits. For a while there it felt a bit slow, but now we are getting on with more of the fun and visible things like tiles and furnishings and fixtures so it's all systems go.

We have planning permission! And we have a bomb shelter!

Two brilliant things happened in February and March. In February our planning application was approved (hooray!) without any objections and our process of getting quotes was kickstarted in earnest. Secondly, we discovered that we have a bomb shelter at the end of the garden. We never realised that it was there due to how overgrown the garden is with brambles and other rubbish. It’s filled with rubble, and the neighbours on one side who also have a bomb shelter, have mentioned that theirs tends to fill up with water. So, ours is probably not watertight, but it’s a little bit of history and something that perhaps we could tank in the future. These photos only show the top of the shelter, but the underground part is quite large from what we can tell.

The process of getting quotes and pulling together a schedule for the builders to quote against took quite a lot longer than we had anticipated. I keep hearing Keving McCloud or Sarah Beeney patronisingly voicing over “Six months after buying the house, works STILL haven’t begun. It’s increasingly looking like Richard and Tania aren’t going to be in by September. They have seriously underestimated the time it takes to get all the work in place…Yaddah yaddah yaddah…” I keep thinking about how silly we were to think that we might only need a six-month rental lease so we could move into Rita before the summer. Ha. Fat chance.

One of the team from our architect’s firms has helped pulling together the complete specification of the build from the type of light switches to the bathroom units. It’s pretty mega.

We eventually went out to six builders, of which three weren’t able to quote for the work for various reasons (either too big, or couldn’t make the time frame). So of three serious contenders who could all do the work, we then whittled them down to two. There wasn’t much in it to be honest, but there was also a hard slog whittling down the specification when we realised that we were going to go way over budget based on the first set of quotes we got in. Specification v2 involved a lot of um-ing and ah-ing about what we definitely needed to have and what was a “nice to have, and maybe we can have it later…” resulting in a number of red lines being drawn through some things like the underfloor heating throughout the basement and the bathroom, some of the inbuilt cupboards, the big garden steps, my glass bricks in the ensuite, amongst other things. As it is, we haven’t yet included the kitchen or any appliances in the budget yet – so it might be a case of kerosene stove, microwave, and an eski at this rate.  

We've had to get to grips quickly with the negotiation process and the back and forth with builders. We had a few occasions where we verbally get one statement, and then it evaporated in a “Oh no, that’s not what we meant. We meant that would cost extra/take extra time/wasn’t included etc.” In spite of that, we realise that for each builder going through the schedule and providing a quote is no small task and is really time consuming. I feel a bit bad that only one builder can win the work (just like Highlander…there can be only one) particularly given how close the quotes are and how sure we are that they could both do the work well.

We have also had some great service from a Party Wall Surveyor who has given us advice and background on navigating the Party Wall Act. He’s examined the drawings and provided us with the notices for the neighbours all without the promise of any further work. In spite of this, he’s been hugely helpful and it has taken quite a bit of his time and expertise. Not getting Party Wall consent could throw a spanner in the works, so we’ve been really focused on making sure our neighbours – who are really lovely – have as much information as possible to ensure they aren’t worried about what we will be doing. 

Finally, a photo from the loft. We noticed that the views from the back of the house look back towards town towards Oxford's Dreaming Spires. Ahhhhhhhhhh.....

Next...lift-off!

Absolutely gutted

In the lead up to Christmas we had Rita gutted back to her bare bones, bringing her back to a shell, requiring an exorbitant number of skips.

On the ground floor we had that beautiful entry shower taken out, to be replaced eventually with a more conventional hall closet. The stairs have been stripped back – I’m not sure whether we will keep them bare or put a runner on them.

Now! Where the hall shower used to be!

Before - with handy hall shower.

All of the various partitions in the rooms have been taken out – as well as the various bits of built in furniture and ensuites. Apparently they were all rather sturdier than they appeared so took quite a bit of sledgehammering to remove. We managed to keep waste down by the having the wood taken away by a local wood recycling company and the copper pipes went to copper salvage saving us a couple of hundred pounds. With the copper price at an all time high, it’s only to be expected.

On the ground floor – where the living room will be – we had the ceiling stripped out. It was in such a poor condition that it had to be taken out right up to the rafters, which has given us an extra couple of inches ceiling height (and let’s face it – who doesn’t appreciate an extra couple of inches!).  In a few places you can see from the top floor right down to the bottom where some of the wooden floorboards are missing. 

We’ve managed to amass a nice collection of fire extinguishers too. It’s like a family of extinguishers (and a toilet plunger)! Awwwwww

On the first floor, the Tardis loo under the stairs (below) has been taken out, but never fear we will be putting in another loo in a more conventional location.

The photo below is of  the room where we will create a hallway, to separate a laundry (yep, a proper bloody laundry – no more dropping clean clothes on the kitchen floor) from the family bathroom and a separate loo. Laundries are so grown up in England... We’ve been hunting for Aussie style large laundry tubs and wall-hung tumble dryers and can’t really find anything similar. An Aussie laundry tub would be ideal to wash the dog and a wall hung tumble dryer would save space, but doesn’t seem to exist here at all! I’m desperate for a swanky hotel style bathroom but we will just have to see what we can do to get the look without the price tag.

In the front guestroom, the windows need to be refurbished as the ropes are broken and there are huge gaps allowing the wind that comes rushing down from South Park straight into the house. Taking back the walls has also revealed some tiles, so it’s likely that this room was probably used as a kitchen at one time. On closer inspection of the tiles, we’ve deduced that it was possibly also the location of some gruesome murder, based on the presence of what looks like some high velocity blood spatter. Yes, I am familiar with the lingo and the evidence from my years of Friday night CSI.

On the top floor, we’ve managed to get all the junk out (including the delightful pull down bed), and we will be taking out the wall between the two rooms to create a walk through wardrobe. Some of the walls are in a bit of a state though.

Next step: Planning Permission.

What is the collective noun for builders?

 After a week of teeing up builders to come by and visit Rita, we spend a freezing weekend running through the initial build plans with three sets of builders and a damp-proofing specialist in a merry go round style. What's the collective noun for builders? I reckon it's "a crack of builders", yes?

We are asking all the builders for quotes on gutting the house - removing all the partition walls from the various rooms, getting rid of the plaster board, floor coverings, the loos and showers, the cooking points, the wood panelling, and the piping. Everything. I still can't get over how much crap the vendor left in the house even when he said it would be left empty. We've managed to sell a bar fridge on eBay as well as a chest of drawers over the week, so that's something at least. 

The sauna effect in the loft. As lovely as it is, I think we'll get rid of it.

Our very own fold down bed.
Richard suggested getting another  so we could just have them side by side.

The first guys who come round come recommended by Ben our architect. They are keen to get their electrician and plumber round to also survey the work. They are a small partnership of three builders  who do all the work themselves and are keen to tell us that they don't put a premium on any of the contracted services that they get in. I feel confident that they would be able to get the work done and would do a good job, when he mentions that he is just finishing some work for Ben himself.

The second builder  heads up a large building company in Oxfordshire. It's obvious as soon as he turns up that he's the top banana and probably doing little labouring himself, but that business is doing well. Nice Audi station wagon, some lovely threads, and hair that reminds me of Hugh Grant in the late 90s. He asks for a cappuccino when I offer to run up the street to grab us coffees because the house is so freaking cold without any heating on. He's a nice guy and clearly with the size of firm he can get cracking (there's that word again) quickly. He helpfully gives us a rough idea of the quote while he's there - but I'm most impressed that he gives us a figure for how much we might get back for the copper piping and how we can dispose of the wood in an environmentally friendly way that will keep the costs down. The first builders had asked whether we thought the neighbours would be annoyed if they built a bonfire in the backyard to burn the rubbish. I am sure they were joking. 

All the builders have laughed at the dodgy cutout for the boiler. That's craftsmanship.

Our third set of builders come round just as Builder no2 is leaving. They are good guys who did work for us at our old place. There's a funny moment when they ask us whether Builder no2 is the architect. It tell them who it was - after all, it's good for people to know if they are bidding against someone else - and they remark on how nice his shoes were.  When Richard mentions that he's "dying to see what's behind the built in fireplace" in the front bedroom on the ground floor, one of them asks "How much? Shall I get the crowbar?" and starts pulling at the fireplace. And voila! Lovely Victorian fireplace discovered!

Look what we found!

Needs a bit of TLC

That discovery makes our weekend. 

Finally, a visit from the damp-proofing specialist who tells us that we really need to "tank" the whole of the basement floor. It all sounds very sensible - and very expensive. He also chucks a great big spanner into our build programme. We'd assumed that we would do the damp proofing first and then everything follows after that. But with the idea of extending the basement and then integrating it to the sitting room with stairs, he tells us that the tanking needs to happen some way down the line. More thought required on that then. 

The basement flat

We also then have a chat about dogs and walking in the countryside, and he helpfully tells me that all Travelodges accept pets. Nice tip.