The Windows

The front of the house windows were totally different from the rest of the road as you can see, so they HAD to go.

But the back had all the original Victorian box sashes - Bib really, really, really wanted to keep them, but it was not financially viable - her heart said keep but her head said change.

Below are some of the original windows that have now gone.  Bib has kept some of the weights, they are so heavy, even the lighter ones !!!

This window below, which was above the old loo, escaped, so we're keeping the original (you can imagine how happy Bib is!!!)

One of the new windows is in.

Now to the front of the house.  Before the windows can be installed, the joists have to be extended so the new bays can go in.

Very strange seeing your inside floor joists on the outside !!!

Starting to rebuild the bay.

Looking down from the first floor through the new bays before they put the new roof on.

More or less finished.

Finished - yay !!!

Well except for the very top window - see how nicely it fits ....... NOT.

That will be changed soon, and from the inside you can see they put a square window in.

What fun !!!

Until next time Ratters .......

The Next Instalment .......

....... of the house renovations.

Before we start the work proper, we had to get steel toe cap boots, cos lots of things were being knocked down (these are Bibs).

This is a picture where the fireplace used to be in the old kitchen (Bib forgot to take a picture of this before the gas fire was removed !!!).  It was on an angle.  This is looking towards the front of the house.

This is where the original stack pipe used to be (half in and half out of the house), behind the gas fireplace because the bathroom was above us.  As you can see Bib thought it would be funny to put me up here among the old soot and near the old stack pipe hole. You can see the original pipe in the picture on the right hand side of me.

Now that there is dust being created, it's landed on all the cobwebs !!!

As the work is starting, we all thought that somebody had to supervise this lot, so we volunteered and here we all are ready and comfortable !!!

 The photo shows a doorway has been created from the ground floor front room into the back room.

This is from the other side.

And again from a slightly different angle.  The cupboard is staying, but the fireplace will be removed and relocated in the front room, where you can just see a gas fire (and below).

We got a bit bored supervising so decided to have a play with this wheelbarrow !!!

The hole that was made in the wall leads to two walk-in wardrobes and a bathroom right at the back.  Bib's wardrobe has the original cupboard in it - she says she going to put her special shoes in it, her Irregular Choice shoes. 

Here we are balancing on the structure that Richard (Bib's husband) built - he's a carpenter, but sshhh don't tell anyone.

And this is Bib's special shoe cupboard, it's original and was used to show off all your posh crockery.

The fireplace has been removed.  The above cupboard is to the right of this fireplace.

And these are the tiles from that fireplace that Bib tried to rescue (there was a concrete hearth over the top of them and it had stuck to some of the tiles - Bib was very angry).  She got as many as she could, all in bits, to use somewhere else in the house.

Until next time Ratters .......

A Birthday Weekend Away

Well it appears to be someones birthday, so we're all going away for the weekend.

Here we are sitting on a map in the caravan of North Devon, because that's where we were - Combe Martin to be precise.

We arrived on Friday and went to Ilfracombe as we were too early for our accommodation, so we stopped for afternoon tea for our lunch !!!

As you can see, it was rather yummy !!! 

It was a weekend away from everything, a time to just relax and do as much or as little as we all wanted.  So we spent Saturday morning just drinking tea (well Bib and Richard cos we don't like tea), and then we went to Woody Bay.

 

 Third class all the way for us.

Sunday we all spent the morning drinking tea again and then in the afternoon we went to Croyde and then Woolacombe ...

Woolacombe

... and passed Saunton Beach.

We then came home on Monday.

It was Bib's birthday a couple of days later and we got together with Milo and got her these.

She was really happy.

It's been a while .......

....... so we thought we'd update you.

The first job was to lay out the kitchen to make sure everything fits !!!

This is the first floor back room and you can see where it's all going.

After that it was time to knock some walls down, but we weren't allowed in there because Bib said it was too dangerous for us little ones.  This is the wall between the bath and the toilet - it's an original wall (lath and plaster) - it looks easy to knock down, but don't let that fool you, it took a day and a half, but was fun.

And once the walls were down you could see the loo.

That took a whole weekend, we ran out of time so had to come back to our proper jobs.