As you can see from the picture above, they've started to install the ceiling in the front of the house now. They've also started to build the half height wall that will enclose the kitchen area.
From the pictures above, you can see that they're squaring off the reclaimed section of wall in the kitchen and that they've installed a number of ventilation ducts up a ventilation shaft they discovered that runs to the top of the house. It's up this shaft that the dirty air from the kitchen and toilet will be vented up the ducts. Beneath this shaft is the doorway to the small utility cupboard, where the washing machine is going to be located along with all the cleaning and ironing equipment.
The picture above shows that they've now finished bricking up the wall to form the toilet and enclose the back of the kitchen area. They've also installed the doorway on the kitchen side of the cupboard that houses the stairway down to the cellar. This cupboard will be used as a pantry, with a trap door installed over the stairway so that it's possible to walk into the cupboard. On the left you can see the reclamed archway that provides access to the toilet and the doorway on the other side of the pantry, for access to the stairway down to the cellar.
In the picture above, you're looking towards the front of the house from the dining area and can see that they've started building the half height dividing wall. Flo's just spoken with the builder and he's asked us to come and have a look at the wall now that they've built a bit more of it, since he seems to think it's a bit imposing... so will have to see! But the kitchen area does indeed feel larger than I anticipated.
For those who are a bit squeemish I'd avoid looking at the picture above. Not the one of the toilet, where you can see that the flushing tank and mechanism have been fitted behind the wall, but the picture of the ceiling. We agreed that it would be too expensive to try and restore the original ceiling (and also not up to the council's building standards, since we have to install an insulated ceiling now that we're converting the house from an office), but the builders have been a bit brutal in installing the frame for the new ceiling, screwing right on top of the old ceiling rose.
Now into the lounge and you can see that the frame for the ceiling and the ceiling insulation has all been installed. Also, the windows have been unjarred and now open and we intend to get these reconditioned and double glazed.
Looking back from the lounge to the dining area, you can see that there's now a small step in floor levels with the under-floor heating and cemented floor installed. This will ultimately become flush once the floor in the lounge is leveled with a cement layer and the wooden floor is installed. The plastic drain pipe sticking out of the floor runs down into the cellar and will be cut flush with the finished floor to provide a conduit for running electrical cables between the cellar and the lounge. This means that all the electronic equipment (like DVD player etc) can be homed out of the way and out of sight in the cellar, with the TV being the only electronic apparatus on view in the lounge.
The back of the house hasn't really changed much, so there's no point posting any new pictures from there. However, I realised that I've never taken any pictures of the complete front of the house. So, in spite of the rain, I ventured outside with the camera and took the picture above which shows a view of our neighbours appartments upstairs. Notice that the builders have stuck newspaper in the window to prevent people from looking inside... I think this is more to prevent people seeing what they're getting up to than the work that's being done.
That's it for now... I'll take some more pictures as soon as there's something new, which will probably be the finished kitchen wall and the closed in ceilings.
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