Slowly but surely

After 5 weeks away from the house and contact only be email and texts, we were looking forward to seeing what the house was looking like. So straight off the plane from Heathrow, into a hire car and a drive to Newcastle - straight to Bond Street.

In all honesty many areas don't look much different, although there is now no more chasing into walls to do for plumbing or electrics.

There are ceilings downstairs, and as you look through the door from the lounge into the dining room, you can no longer see into the guest bedroom - the wall has gone up!












The dining room continues to be used as a workroom for the carpenters who are now busy putting in the cedar door jambs and architraves.





Wet areas upstairs (one ensuite, one bath house and one shower room) now have plumbing and waterproofing complete, underfloor heating in place and tiles on the floor (two complete, one almost so).  

bath house almost finished

master ensuite in progress

Many of the rooms upstairs are now sort of complete though without plugs and switches - and in one case the fireplace. Kirsty spent time putting the lights for the upstairs bedrooms together, and the upstairs bedrooms and the upstairs corridor now have light fittings in place.
Trying to find the right light fittings has been very difficult...the rooms are enormous but chandeliers are inappropriate for a sailors doss house,
We wanted something different but reminiscent of old gas lighting for the corridors. These ones we found serendipitously as out of stock items at Early Settler Recollections who then contacted all their other stores to obtain much of the final stock!

the ;arch' bedroom with light fitting

and the top corridor

We don't think we have done too badly, particularly having visited a number of places in UK to see how it could be done!!!

When the floor of the mezzanine was being repaired, it was discovered that there had been modifications to the staircase, so more work but back to original,,,

 Now the floor is level and boarded but there is a big gap where new stairs will need to go in (once the wet work has been completed).

At the moment you can see from the mezzaning down to the back door through this gap!




The back entrance area (back door on the left) now has joists that are termite free and run in the right direction for the floorboarding which should be happening this week...and the staircase tread and balustrade/banister is now in our sights.

At last there is a little space in the garages as some fireplaces, some cabinetry, the doors, some tiles and sundry other items have been moved out.
There is still a long way to go before we can get a certificate of occupancy, but at least we got a huge tick from the building inspector just a week or so ago at the next 'critical stage' inspection.
Next visit should see the upstairs looking like a real house, with the three wet areas complete - and also the downstairs guest ensuite complete, the new mezzanine steps in place and the downstairs floorboarding complete.

We may even have front doors in place - complete with the big purchase of the trip - the brass door handles (picture hopefully next time!!)

Getting there slowly but surely!