Yes the work has started and the builders, electrician and plumber are in the building, quite literally!
So far the studwork dividing wall between the toilet and bathroom has been removed and the two rooms stripped bare. This means that now there is a decent sized bathroom instead of two tiny rooms. The majority of the pipe work has also been put in to convert the box room into a shower room (complete with loo and hand basin!) which means the house will have a bathroom a shower room and a downstairs loo which will make it far more rentable considering it is a 4 bedroom house (6 if you count the attic)!! The plumber has also started with the water connection to the mains in addition to the new central heating system which will be run by a new oil fired water boiler which is going in the utility area.
Several trenches have also been dug both inside and out in order to lay water pipes for the central heating and electric cables to the outhouse to power the water pump for the well (although using mains water for the house we intend to keep the well supply for use outside i.e. the garden/washing cars etc.)
Me and Darrell will be back there in 2 weeks so will be able to update with lots of pictures to show how it is progressing. Although of course the main purpose of our trip will be to do as much work as possible on the house, be it wall paper stripping, polystyrene tile removal or if we are really ahead of our game painting!!
Oh and turns out the kitchen really was a major bargain. We have hired a carpenter/kitchen fitter type bloke who dismantled it for us last week and who will then in turn fit it for us. Apparently it is solid wood (no cheapy MDF/chipboard in sight!) with quality fittings worth well over £10k!! Also being solid wood it will be far easier to adapt into our kitchen. My mum has also been able to negotiate a very good deal on some floor tiles so all there is left to sort in the kitchen is the work tops, and again my mum has some connections so hopefully we will be able to get a good quality work top at a good price. We looked at the concrete tiles which give the look of authentic flagstones the same as in the house I rent here in England but unfortunately they would raise the floor level too much but my mum has found these tiles which look like limestone. But will be easy to clean and fit and also look great which is obviously vitally important!
Getting rather excited now that it is all coming together, just can’t wait till it is all done. It is a real shame we can’t get over more often as then we would be able to do far more work ourselves are get it done far more quickly but unfortunately a big stretch of water called the English Channel gets in the way somewhat!!
