Seeing as I had an email notification saying someone had posted on this thread I figured I should do an update. Without reading everything I have already posted all over again I will go over briefly what I have been doing and hope I dont repeat myself.
1) Slightly modified our existing kitchen area so as it is more user friendly
2) Completly gutted the second floor attic and insulated roof.
3) Gutted one bedroom on first floor and returned to useable condition.
4) Removed Shower due to leaks.
I will go into greater detail but not all in one go because it will take me hours. I only have the time to sit at the computer now because we have all been struck down by a flu type virus that has knocked us all for six this last two weeks or so and have not felt up to doing a great deal lately.
Our kitchen is on the back of the house (see the plans of house in one of my previous posts in this thread) It has very much seen its best days but is serving us ok for now and will be ok until we have our new kitchen fitted in the actual house. It will be quite some time before that happens though as lots of other jobs are going to be done first. Kitchens are my absolute favourite room as well so it has to be right and will take a lot of thought so we are not rushing it. Probably because I grew up on a farm and the kitchen was the hub of the house from dawn until dusk and have many fond memories.
So for now we are making do but it needed some slight modifications. Due to the place being empty for so long it had gotten damp and the vinyl floor was falling apart so obviously that had to go. A few of the cupboards were falling apart also so some were removed completly and others made good. The floor is concrete and had a damp proof fitted beneath it but where it joins onto the existing house (Kitchen was added years later from existing house) there was concrete through into house that obviously hadnt any damp proof as it was almost constantly wet. This being in the actual house meant it was not good at all so needed sorting albeit just temporary for now. The rest of the downstairs is timber joists straight onto soil so this will need doing as well but again is a future job.
The added on kitchen is also higher than the house itself which means it ramps down into it also just to complicate things further. Not by much but enough. there was also a lip at the edge of this ramp which meant that when we replaced the vinyl floor it would need smoothing out or would cause issues.
I will let the photos explain better.
Here you can see the cupboards I removed eventually and also the old floor covering. The doorway on the left is into the house and is where it ramps down to the wet concrete. Just through that door on the right you can see a door that leads under the stairs into a small storage room which was also very damp and broken concrete flooring.
Her it is with cupboards and flooring removed. The walls are staying like that for now as its pointless creating myself more work when it will be changed completly in the future anyway.
This shows where the water pipe comes in from outside and also a hole left in the floor for reasons unknown. A new stop tap was fitted as the existing one is seized and those who continue to follow this thread will hear more about this in the future.
Offending hole filled in as I was putting one of the better cupboard here to help support the sink as it was pretty much jammed in place and not very user friendly.
This is how the kitchen looks now and what we are using for the forseeable future. (New floor not in yet)
And a panoramic photo giving idea of whole room.
This is the ramp from kitchen into house I had to do so the new floor would fit ok. You can see how damp the concrete looks further on.
I had to build a bridge over the wet concrete as it would have been a real pain getting into the kitchen by walking around the outside of the house and the dogs would never have been able to stop walking in it either.
Here you can see that it has dried out considerably as I had a heater sat in there every evening for a few days prior to sealing it to stop the damp coming through. The downside of the ramp is that me being a tad over 6ft is I can bang my head on the door frame if I time my steps wrong as I walk through it. In the future though all this will be broken out and redone properly but for now it will have to do.
This is the storage area under the stairs which again was very damp. I decided to put a dampproof membrane down and concrete over it as it was lower than the existing hallway floor.
Concreted and leveled.
After everything had dried out and cured properly I covered it all with a rubber based membrane liquid. I cant recall proper name but it wasnt cheap. It has done a great job though and will do until we sort it out in the future.
You can see the painted on product here. This is actually dry and ready for the flooring to go down.
And the new (temporary floor) Its just a cheap lino but it was needed as just bare concrete isnt very user friendly especially when little toddlers feet are involved.
And through into the house.
This was a very much a 'make do' job and is in no way a reflection of other work to be done in the house but was something that needed doing to make day to day life a little easier. Eventually this room will become more of a utility type area and somewhere we come into first from the outside and get cleaned off (both us and dogs) before going into the house proper so as to keep the outside world 'out' as best we can.
That covers pretty much most of what was done over a couple of weeks when I had time to do it and is how it is now. Most importantly there is no damp anymore and actually nice to walk around on in comparison to how it was before.
I will endeavour to update on other jobs I have done as soon as possible!
Andy
