Week 23

Lots of progress upstairs and lots of progress behind the scenes this week.

The upstairs blockwork is being laid, and the rooms are coming to life. The front bedroom has a bit that overhangs the study downstairs, so until the oak frame goes up in a week and a bit, we can’t lay the entire floor. Some of the elements look really weird right now: he linen closet alongside looks miniscule, and the bathroom window looks huge. I haven’t had the nerve to go all the way around the building on the scaffolding yet, so I’ll leave it to take more photos next week.

The pre-oak porch is a funny thing at the moment. The brickwork looks great, but it is very hard to visualise where the oak and front door will be and how this all fits with the stairs in the current framework of steels and blockwork.

James has been busy clearing the area around the drive. That holly hedge has been there forever, and it was always ropey, difficult to trim and gave the cars scratches on the bumpers as we reversed out of the drive. Glad to see the back of it, but I wonder if my neighbour is just as thrilled now that there is an unbroken view of the site.

The staircase we’re considering will be something like the one in a photo that my sister sent. It was of a famous ranch house in California built in 1915. I like the spindles and most parts of the newell post.

The front door will look something like one from another house that was built locally. Hopefully we can get our joinery company to match the design.

We’ve spent very little time onsite this week, mainly do to work commitments, but lots of time choosing stuff. We’ve sorted 85% of the bathroom order, we’re expecting a quote for the front door any day, and we’ll be thinking more about the staircase this week. I’ve gone through the electrical and small power plans with a fine tooth comb as well. You think you can get all the info you need from the plans, but it’s amazing how different it is to walk through one of these half-built rooms and think “Where am I going to put the light switch?” If you have to think about it too hard, it’s probably in the wrong place.

This week coming up will be choosing tiles, getting the kitchen and bathroom orders finalised, re-choosing roof tiles to a more cost-effective option (don’t ask–this will be iteration #3), sorting out the fireplace design, and talking to a couple of interior designers to make sure we don’t make stupid mistakes with colour and furniture. The more help I can get on this project, the better!