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.