Self_Build_Dreamers

Week 53 – Site Progress..chipboard and the big one…weather tight!

More chipboard this week and it’s been great, actually walking around upstairs and getting a real feel for the space!

Plus a little snagging as you can imagine ha!

And we are weather tight! Its a temporary door but at least we can now get the ball rolling with the self build mortgage, and the next stage of funds can be released..Happy days!

It is probably for the best having a makeshift door anyway…with all the inevitable mess!

Eek she’s really starting to look like a home! Can’t wait for the bay window roof tiles

And we’ve had a busy weekend chipboarding the landing, Andy’s ensuite and dressing room

Great for measuring…

And I can now use a circular saw! How invigorating. It’s been great measuring up the boards and working together, plus the best exercise ha!

Spot of gluing…

And a satisfying sweep!! Love a good tidy up

It’s so strange being able to stand on this part of the landing

And I love our velux window and central one…such great light!!

That’s us for another week…as we need more chipboard, but it shouldn’t stop the majority of the stud work next week and luckily the lead times aren’t too bad either. Worst case…we could always get some from B&Q ha!

https://www.brinno.com/time-lapse-camera/TLC200Pro

Gifted http://brinno.com/time-lapse-camera/TLC2020

Selfbuilddreamers

Caz and Andy x

What a difference a year makes…

It seems only yesterday that we were getting giddy about the digger ha! And look has us now..almost weather tight and onto the interiors

Cue digger pic…

There has been the odd delay on the way, be it materials..or waiting for scaffolding (bug bear of mine) or measuring issues (!) but we are getting there and soon we will have a little more control given that we will be doing a lot of the interiors ourselves

This week we have made a start on the chipboard upstairs and Dave, one of the brickies, has been filling in any scaffolding holes

Also my beautiful terrazzo has arrived and is being tentatively stored in the cottage while we wait for the install…something we will be doing ourselves. Why? Because I am so picky, I think I’d rather take forever to do it and get it just right rather than depend on someone else if that makes sense…plus I feel much more comfortable bossing Andy around ha!

And now…for the epic year brinno!!

https://www.brinno.com/time-lapse-camera/TLC200Pro

Gifted http://brinno.com/time-lapse-camera/TLC2020

Selfbuilddreamers

Caz and Andy x

Double height decisions…

As you may have picked up on in our previous posts, we are keen to really make the hallway/landing a focal point and show off interesting materials and height differences

And so, as well as having a central staircase with a concrete stair, wooden treads and a black metal balustrade we have decided to stop short of having a full height wall on the landing and show off the roof height and vaulted area

Again, good old sketchup has played its part! Having played around with a few different options we will go with something along these lines……

ALSO making use of the beautiful inchyra blue colour to flow the line of the roof and help with another hidden door idea!

Namely disguising the landing doors using colour! Watch this space for that one

And so another decision made and one that we think will look pretty cool!

What do you think?

Selfbuilddreamers

Caz and Andy x

Week 51 – Site Progress! Garage door, more deliveries plus decisions…

Yesssss we have a garage door! And it’s certainly a statement piece don’t you think! It is ocean blue ral 5020…the camera seems to darken the colour but you get the idea

And this one is an insulated sectional remote control door…perfect for when we’re taking the dogs for walkies via the garage right! And I like that this is at the back of the house, and gives a nod to the other green and blue notes at the front

Plus it turns out that, due to incorrect measurements, it had to be made again from scratch, hence the 6 week wait!

And a chipboard delivery for upstairs…

Plus another light, this time an up/down plaster light, and we will probably go with four of these in the hallway and maybe smaller versions on the landing…

It should work well with the pendant lights in the double height entrance…

Cannot wait to see the hallway come to life!

I love the simplicity of these lights too, and they won’t take away from the impact of the pendant lights….last Post

Also, our electrician Eddie came to have a nosey, as we should be ready for the first fix soon…and with that we need to decide where we would like sockets! Cue makeshift plans before editing a pdf…we will no doubt need more than we think!

And after some tweaking…here they are…

Let’s see if Eddie thinks we have enough!

And so that’s it for another week, our charity shop finds arrived on Tuesday and are currently living in the new garage until we can put them in their rightful places!

Hopefully the front door will arrive soon, it isn’t necessarily holding anything up, however the house needs to be weather tight in order for funds from the self build mortgage to be released! Ugh watch this space! I’ll be making one myself at this rate…

Brinno time…

https://www.brinno.com/time-lapse-camera/TLC200Pro

Selfbuilddreamers

Caz and Andy x

Pendant lights…

If you are following our Instagram you might know that we are having a double height space in our hallway and, essentially, really showing off the space and the look of the stairs

The stairs, might I add, are concrete and will have wooden treads, together with a black metal balustrade

Plus we also have a velux window, hopefully it’ll be a lovely bright space!

Something along these lines….Good old Sketchup!

And with that, we think that a variety of pendant lights should work really well with the central staircase and the design

Something along these lines…at different lengths, but…we’ve decided to go with a variety! And here they are…..

As you can see we have a range! And we are excited to put them altogether and really mix it up…stay tuned for the interiors!

Selfbuilddreamers

Caz and Andy x

Week 50 – Site Progress..DIY fence and charity shop finds!

House wise, it’s been pretty quiet this week, as we are still waiting on the front door…fingers crossed that will be week 51.

And so, apart from a little more window insulation and some joinery ready for the chipboard, it’s been a quiet one!

However we did complete our little DIY fence project!

After a second coat of the panels, Andy began cutting the treated timber to the correct lengths so that they could be nailed to the timber posts

ALSO we used nails rather than screws…so much better, as the heads are smaller and barely visible

And good decision to go with two different sizes plus we used two spacers to give the perfect shadow gap…

Very happy with the colour too….inchyra blue colour match at B&Q

The ground level still needs raising and so the concrete panel will be covered! I’m thinking some shrubs along here…

And that’s another job done!

Plus we decided on a heat pump… We were going to go with a gas boiler but thanks to a bit of research and excellent help from Nuheat we have switched to a heat pump

When combined with our solar panels and polypipetrade underfloor heating it should give us much lower heating bills and be better for the environment too

There is also government support which really helps with the higher upfront cost…Happy days!

And we found some little gems in our local charity shop!

Cool sideboard for the Tiki bar or living room…

The perfect size for two sinks…just needs a sand and wax!

Watch this space for little restoration projects when we get to the interiors!

Brinno time…

https://www.brinno.com/time-lapse-camera/TLC200Pro

Gifted http://brinno.com/time-lapse-camera/TLC2020

Week 50

Selfbuilddreamers

Caz and Andy x

Week 49 – Site Progress..Bay windows plus fence DIY!

Another week and we now have bay windows yay! We are edging ever closer to being weather tight! Just waiting on the front door, unfortunately there’s a two week delay but hey ho. Not too long now

So very excited for the peacock front door knocker!

I also can’t wait to take the safety fence down, it’ll feel so much closer to being a finished home then! Also it was definitely worth having the skip for a week, the front is so much tidier

Option 1 Slight overhang in line with the stone cills

Plus another decision made….the roof overhang for the bay windows!

Harold gave us a great way of visualising using the wood, and we have decided to go with option 1 and have an overhang. It’ll definitely work better with the stone cills

And we’ve been doing a little DIY fencing, panels painted Inchyra Blue Farrow and Ball colour match B&Q

Obviously Andy had to do the top bits…short girl problems ha!

They just need a second coat then we can put them together at the front of the house, horizontally. We have also gone with two different sizes..pinterest inspo!!

Plus Andy did a little insulating…check him out! And Harold secured some more of the joists on the landing

Next up bay window tiles, hopefully in week 50 yay!

Brinno time….

https://www.brinno.com/time-lapse-camera/TLC200Pro

Gifted http://brinno.com/time-lapse-camera/TLC2020

Selfbuilddreamers

Caz and Andy x

Week 48 – Site Progress! We have windows AND bifolds!

What an exciting milestone this week! After a ten week wait, the windows arrived yay. As you can imagine, we were very excited. And all of them are in now, with the exception of the bay windows..it will be week 49 for those and then the tiling can begin

We are so very close to being weather tight, I can almost taste it ha! And then we can crack on with the interiors eek!

If you haven’t read one of our previous posts regarding the all important windows decision, we opted to go with upvc flush casement windows and aluminium bifolds

We fell in love with the flush casement style in a matt anthracite grey…what do you think?

I am so so pleased with them, and they work so well with the style of the house and the furness ember blend bricks

We decided to go with floor to ceiling non opening windows at the back of the house to really make a feature of the open plan kitchen

Maybe we’ll have a water feature near this window but that’s for another post!

And anthracite grey inside too with black handles…

The handles were a super quick decision surprisingly! It was a bit of a no brainer really to go with black as the windows are grey

Also Brinno time…its been awhile!

https://www.brinno.com/time-lapse-camera/TLC200Pro

Gifted http://brinno.com/time-lapse-camera/TLC2020

Plus YouTube time…

And now we wait for the front door…it won’t be ready for another few weeks. Can’t wait to use my peacock front door knocker!

Stay tuned for more updates….

Selfbuilddreamers

Caz and Andy x

Ensuite plans!

For the most part, I have pretty much decided both layout and colours for my ensuite…yay go me ha ha!

I’ve been keen to incorporate a touch of terrazzo in the design and love this one from Terrazzo tiles

I was originally going to go for a white patterned terrazzo but I’ve decided to go bold. Go bold or go home as they say!

As it is a darker tile, and there are some pink and peachy notes, I think some paler colours should really make the terrazzo pop!

And as the terrazzo won’t cover the whole room (I think that would be too much) a white matt floor tile together with a pink gloss wall tile and a setting plaster paint on a couple of the walls should work really well!

And obviously peachy concrete sinks! Homemade of course

I really like the idea of using some sort of sideboard too for the twin sinks…I will no doubt be on the hunt for one that can be tweaked…as I haven’t come across any specifically for sinks, that I’ve liked…

And who doesn’t love a free standing bath…

Plus I’m definitely going with black taps, lights and mirrors, this should tie in nicely with the black notes in the terrazzo too!

Here is some sketchup layout plans…definitely helps!

Stay tuned for when the time comes to implement this eek!

Selfbuilddreamers

Caz and Andy x

Week 46 – Site Progress plus more paint samples…

It’s been pretty quiet for, well pretty much a month or so!

My fault of course ha! Just because I wanted stone heads and cills, it has meant that the window fitter couldn’t measure the openings until all the cills were in, and due to all the delays with the scaffolding being moved, it took even longer to get them ordered. Oops!

But hey ho, we are nearly there now, the windows should be fitted in week 47 woop!.

Meanwhile Dave, the brickie, replaced a couple of chipped cills, ready for the windows..one at the front and one at the back. This is definitely easier to do before your windows are fitted, it took no time at all!

And fitted the last cill above the garage so we are good to go!

And that’s about it for site progress!

We have been playing around with paint samples again though….

How we have managed to narrow it down to two whites, I don’t know ha! But I think we are swaying a little more towards the blackened. It has a hint of grey and looks like it could work well alongside the likes of inchyra blue and down pipe from Farrow and Ball

And how could I forget “setting plaster”…I love this colour! Beautifully peachy, and something I will be using in my ensuite and possibly in our bedroom too…watch this space! Also we actually coloured matched it in B&Q too and it is a pretty perfect match!

Stay tuned for windows soon!!!

Selfbuilddreamers

Caz and Andy x