Putting on a Good Front: Restoring our house to its former glory

I was waiting until we finally got the fan light glass fitted (how long it’s taken is another story) but that reveal will have to be another post.

If you follow my Instagram account you may have seen that we’ve had a lot of comments recently asking how we went from this:

to this:

So here’s a run down…

1. Re-built the bay
   • The bay was knocked through to allow for the JCB to get in to the back of the house so it had to be rebuilt – which is why it looks so crisp

The bay window- now a makeshift opening

 

2. Replaced the windows

• Obviously the existing windows were not the originals! So we went for new double glazed sash ones that look so much better and keep the cold out

• 3. Hacked off the existing render & pebbledash
  • We had a peek under the render on the first week which showed that although the rest of house is built with yellow London stock brick, the front is red brick
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  • This was very common apparently because red brick comes from up north so was more expensive – and some kind of sign of affluence I guess
  • It wasn’t until 7 months in to the renovation that we started to hack off the horrendous rendering and pebbledash
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  • Now I know pebble dash Isn’t that appealing to the eye but it is actually a very smart render because it allows the house to breathe through the different seasons. Had the house been covered in only pebbledash we may have considered a different option. After all we live in Wandsworth where pebbledash originated!
  • Once this was all removed – by a jackhammer! A lot of the bricks were damaged. Plus because of the bay we have new and old bricks that need to look consistent
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    In came the experts. The London Brick Restoration company spent 3 days working their magic on the old bricks. They ground up red brick in to a paste and somehow managed to paint it back on. See the difference here between old and restored

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  • Then they re-pointed the entire front with a pointing style called tuck pointing which looks super neat
  • 4. A new lick of paint
    • Painting all the new rendered sections and window ledges, finally getting rid of the blue!
  • Plus we got a new door installed and painted that a deep blue
• 4. Built a new front wall
  • Again, it’s not like we were dealing with an original front wall. But we did want to ensure that it complemented the house
  • We went low so that the railings could be high. We wanted decent pillars either side of the gate but also ensured that we weren’t standing out on the street too much, so we went along the street and measured some!
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    We added coping stones and pier caps in sandstone colour

5. Added some stunning railings

• Then came along Jack. He’s an awesome welder and made us the most awesome railings on site.

• We went for a spearhead top which is quite typical of the era.

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  Then we went for a straight edged gate with dog bars

6. Sorted out the tiling

• We sourced from a local tile place in Balham some dark grey 80×80 porcelain tiles  for the patio and bull nosed York stone

• I had contemplated going for the traditional chequered path but decided to be a bit more daring. It took months of looking but when these monochrome tiles came up on Fired Earth I knew they’d be perfect

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7. Made a great side gate

One of the great practical features of the house is the side alley. This used to be access to the garden but now we have filled it in to accommodate the w/c but kept the side door for a super handy buggy access.

We have a few long steps going down so it’s easy to bump the buggy down and because the plot is wider at the front it’s great storage space for scooters and bikes.

The neighbouring wall is really tall so we needed a high gate with a lockable door. Luckily Jack was on the same wavelength and ta-da!!

8. Planted some pretty trees

• Finally we got Leo from the Blueteam garden company in again and he planted us some beautiful bay trees and lavender – which I’m hoping will survive!
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A Year in…

Well we’ve been blogging nearly weekly for a year now since the start of the renovation when the house looked like this:

and now it looks like this:

Quite a transformation eh?!

Not only that, but it has actually been 2 years since we purchased the house, when Hunter looked like this:

and he now looks like this:

(I think Axe actually looks younger!)

So what we’ve decided to do is change the blog up a bit and post when rooms / areas are completely finished, showing you the story from start to finish for each room with lots of before, after and progress pictures. It has already been such an epic journey and thanks to everyone who has been supporting us through the good and the bad! We are on the home stretch now getting everything finish hopefully before the baby comes (!)

K

 

Weeks 50-52: And at Last I See The Light…

Stealing some lyrics from one of Hunter’s favourite Disney songs for this post because it’s another one about lighting!

Also we’ve managed to obtain some renewed energy after taking some time out on our family holiday so can now talk a bit more positively about the build.

Whilst we were away, junior the electrician was “having fun” installing all the LED strip ambient lighting throughout the house.
For those that are interested about how to use LED strip lighting for different effects, I’ve written another post here called: “Everything we now know about lighting”
For everyone else, here’s a load of pictures…

Strip LED Lights in the ceiling windows

Statement pendants over the kitchen island

Downlights over the adjoining doors

LED strip lighting over bathroom feature wall

LED lighting hidden in our cinema room coving

Side Return lights

The MOST exciting lighting update actually happened this week. We’ve finally got the smart lighting system installed in the kitchen and garden! No more dining by lamp light….

Again, I’ll skip the detail about why and how we decided on the system and areas to tech up (see the lighting post).
We went for a system called RAKO. It’s hardwired but you can have wireless, and it just controls lighting.

This is what the control system looks like, which we are hiding in our utility room  the other cables are for all our internet and speakers etc to eventually go in to a switchboard and in a cupboard

Here’s the switches

Plus you can control it with an app

We have 8 circuits across the garden and kitchen and have programmed 5 different “scenes” which combines the different lights to set a certain mood.

 

As you can tell were rather excited about this!

So the garden should be looking lovely by next week and we can show off the rest!

K

Weeks 46-49: Dust, Sweat & Tears

It’s been a month since we’ve posted an update on the house and it’s also probably one of the most difficult months of the build…which is why I’ve been reluctant to write up on progress.

I don’t want to dwell on it here but there has been a lot of dust; from living with the builders, sweat; from the heatwave, and tears; from frustrations over the final part of the build.

In summary, we are in a dispute over one pretty important cost area which hopefully we should sort out soon. And things aren’t getting completed as quickly as we thought such as the alarm system and bathroom extractors, and pretty much the rest of the ground floor.

Anyway here is what has been moving since last month…

LIGHTS

The kitchen lighting was always an area we wanted to get absolutely bang on right. We invested more here because of the amount of time we would be spending in the kitchen over the years. Here’s what we ended up going for…

• Recessed downlights. Instead of having lots of downlights across the kitchen we’ve gone for only four double recessed lights in the kitchen working area. They look really smart and blend in to the ceiling being white metal. The lamp fittings can be angled to get the right light in the right task areas too. We’ve gone for this type of light in the hallway too.

• Statement Pendants. We’ve followed the golden rule of three here and chose 3 statement pendants to hang over the island. They have become somewhat of a focal point for the whole kitchen and I love looking at them from different angles. I love the asymmetry of them. They are from Flos and we luckily picked them up in a crazy john Lewis sale at 40% off back in spring

Heres how I decided on the positioning .. string and balloons!

• Track Lighting. To tackle the pitched roof and expansive roof windows we went for track lighting. Yes, they are that kind you find more so in restaurants or art galleries but they really do make sense for this area. They were easy for our electrician to install, and only need one power source per track, rather than several for downlights. Each spotlight can be angled and more can be added to the track. In the side return we have a recessed track in to where the steel is.

• Under cabinet lights. Our clever kitchen units came with task lights flush in the wall cabinets!

• LED Strips in coving. To be shown, but for ambient light we’ve gone for LED strips around the periphery of the kitchen which will be set in to coving. Trust us, it’ll look fabulous

 

With all these different lighting areas we were very aware that a 4 gang dimmer switch was not going to cut it, so we invested in a smart lighting system for the kitchen and garden areas. This will be installed in a couple of weeks so we will do an update on that later.

We also now have some external lighting down the side alley of the house:

FRONT

Outside the front is still getting its face-lift. The years of cement and tiles were broken up and taken away ready to be transformed. This gave Todo and his son space to render the bottom of the wall, fix up the bay and porch area and finally remove the rest of the blue paint!

TILES

Todo has also been at work tiling the rest of the hallway with the porcelain marble effect tiles. They are very cool underfoot in this hot weather! Frustratingly we are still waiting for a third step tile for the hall stairs.

BATHROOMS

Barry was back again to finish off the rest of the bathroom fittings. We now have a toilet and working sink in the family bathroom, and a wc toilet and sink!

We’ve also agreed the layout for the utility room and pipework has been laid ready for the units and sink to go in

 

WARDROBES

Hunter has now gotten in to the routine of greeting Dave the carpenter in his van every morning on his way out to nursery. Dave has been working on 3 wardrobes. One up in the loft

A shallow one in the master bedroom with sliding doors

And a deep and tall one in the master hallway

We still have quite a lot to get finished but we are hopeful that we will get agreements on outstanding matters and be able to start working on making this place our home rather than just a finished house… especially when there is a very clear deadline looming…

 

Weeks 44-45: Wiring and Tiling

Hunter is now on first name basis with our electrician and tiler, Junior and Todo.

Todo and his some have been working on the vestibule floor, patio and front. We’ll post about the front in the future but here’s the front door painted in F&B Stiffly Blue:

So on to the vestibule. This is an area we got really excited about right from the start when we planned out the extension. Basically it is a second hallway, connecting the side door, w/c, utility, boiler room, basement and kitchen.

The downside of a victorian terrace is that the hallways tend to be very skinny – or non existent. I really wanted a grander entrance but extending in to the side at the front would have been a costly extra 50cm of space.

The area started off as a bit of hallway after the stairs and the start of the old kitchen:

Then when we knocked down the back of the house, turned the old kitchen space in to a utility and put the framework in,  we started to see the space it could turn in to.

At this stage it still looked quite small, but adding the walls and doors always adds perspective:

We then had the stairs put in, and self levelling matting then Todo could start the tiling.

Just when you thought we’d had enough of marble-effect porcelain, we added some herringbone to the mix!

Here’s what it looks like almost finished:

(For anyone interested that’s “medium grey” grout at 2mm wide)

Todo was also busy sorting the patio for us. Like any builder, when you say patio, ours thought of the big slabs usually used. We went for a slightly more contemporary style and chose wood effect porcelain.

It is also is a very high non-slip rating (R12) which means that even in the rain it makes it very difficult to skid on.

So that’s a third of the garden done. Next week the wall is being rendered at the back, but we still need to sort out decking and grass before the summer is over.

On to lighting. Junior has fitted nearly all of the bedside lights. We have these Anglepoise ones in most of the rooms: (clearly I don’t have a recent picture of one actually fitted!)

In one of the guest rooms – which will be Hunter’s future bedroom we went for these flush Astro lights that go one when pushed open. Functionally, this is so that the room can be flexible and we don’t have big lights in the walls when he has a small bed in there, but also because they are really cool.

 

We also finally have working starlights (I won’t bore you with the driver saga)…

These had to be plastered in – which half of them were and the other half – well the plasterboards didn’t get the memo. So poor Junior had to cut these all out and there will still be quite a bit of making good.

Here’s a picture of the ones in the loft that were plastered in and wall painted:

And finally, one of our pendants is up. This is a FLOS “Tatou” that we got in the John Lewis sale and hangs in the front bedroom:

K

Weeks 42-43: Living with the Builders

Our new front door!

So the past 2 weeks we have started to live in the house! As you can see by some of the pictures from the last post, we still have quite a few finishes, but the benefit of being in the house is that we can see the progress daily, be there to answer questions and best of all – be in the house in the evenings to talk through what is next and what we need to order!

Although I’m really going to miss having numerous different trades-people seeing me in my pyjamas urging Hunter to get ready for nursery!

Morning view of the hallway

First priority was getting a new (and working) front door, as the old one was being screwed in every day and we were accessing the side door. Once that was in, an Instagram poll helped us decide which colour (to be revealed) and on to the next item on the list!

The focus has been on the top two floors. The electrician was finishing a lot of the wall lights, and switches so that at least the bedrooms and some of the bathrooms have light.

We also have a working kitchen now! It has been so nice to actually cook in this space, something we have been dreaming about for nearly 2 years.

Speaking of which, I thought I would remind myself how far we have come by sharing some before and after pictures of the place. I have pictures from this time 2 years ago when we first viewed the house! I was still on maternity leave and Hunter was a lot more “controlled” in his buggy!

Here’s how the loft looks:

Loft Master November 2017

Loft master in May 2018

This even now has moved on, as there is a carpet and fixings on the wall! I’ll need to take some more “after” pictures at the right angle!

Loft Rear October 2017

Loft Rear May 2018

 

Loft Landing January 2018

Loft Landing June 2018

Look we have a stair runner! That was installed today! If you hadn’t spotted the cables coming out the wall or the lack of hallway radiator you’d think it was finished!

Remember when the walls and ceiling were removed on the first floor?

We’ve moved on a lot since then!

Front bedroom in September 2017

Front bedroom in May 2018

Side bedroom in July 2017

Side bedroom in October 2017

Side bedroom in May 2018

Family bathroom in July 2017

Family bathroom in May 2018

Strategically shot picture as there is still no toilet in this bathroom!

Another reason why moving in before the house is completely finished is actually quite good – you get to use all of the plumbing before people leave site. We had a few minor leaks and an issue with the drainage due to the house being used for the first time in 2 years. Well worth having a plumber handily coming in the next day to fix things!

Kitchen space once we had the rear demolished

Kitchen extension May 2018

More before and afters to come but that’s enough for now!

As you can see we are currently living with a minimalist approach to our furniture! It’ll take time to get the right table, chairs and sofas etc so we don’t want to make any rushed purchases! We are very grateful to our lovely neighbours who had lent us their emergency chairs and trestle table in the meantime!!

Next priorities are getting the garden finished so that we reduce the amount of dirt getting dragged through the house and Hunter has a place to properly play in!

K

Weeks 40-41: Getting it Liveable

The time has come when our budget and timescale has dictated that we need to move in to the house – so the past couple of weeks have been a huge push from our builders to get the place liveable and safe so that we can stay there.

First up was getting running hot water through the house. The boiler had been installed but none of the bathroom fittings had been finished, nor the radiators in so this was a key job to be done.

Like our splash-back decision? It’s a copper metallic effect on glass. I especially love the way it reflects the crap that’s currently being stored in the utility room!

The bathrooms were all (and still are!) at different stages of completion, so the team worked on having at least one complete bathroom and another running toilet.

The first one to be finished with fittings, running water and lighting was the loft en-suite:

So nice to have running water. All that’s left in this room is the PIR automatic light and the splash back.

The other bathrooms are shaping up nicely too!

Here is the small loft bathroom:

 

The front bathroom:

(check out the shutters!)

Family Bathroom:

Woohoo we have a bath!

Still a few lighting bits and fixings to go but they are nearly there.

Next was getting electricity running and putting faceplates on so we can plug things in! We prioritised the rooms that had carpet in and shutters so that we would be able to have a decent night sleep. We now have two rooms that have carpet, shutters and lighting in:

Side bedroom:

Rear loft room:

Plus the loft master bedroom is also carpeted but no shutters yet:

Here’s a fittings montage:

This still means we don’t have lighting downstairs bit at least it is summer! The ovens, fridges and tap works and after a clearcut and a clean the kitchen looks like this:

We are especially pleased with our fancy hob, which is not only induction, but has an extractor built in which meant we didn’t need to have a bulkhead above the island.

It is from German brand, Bora and was sourced by our kitchen suppliers.

Also – cue fanfare – the scaffolding has been taken down after 9 months and the new restored brickwork can be revealed!!!

I can’t stop looking at it. what a transformation from how it was before:

Now that we are in, it is actually really beneficial being in it every morning and evening. We still don’t have any furniture, and living in the space really helps to make decisions. Hoping that we can soon so that we can start booking friends and family round to stay when it is more finished!

K

 

Week 39: Second Fix is Underway

It’s been an exciting week over at the house as many of the fittings have started getting fixed in, making it look a lot more like a house and less like a building site.

In the two reception rooms we’ve had the oak flooring laid. We chose a chevron design and the pieces have a large variation in colour and grain which makes it look different from each angle you enter the rooms.

I also think it is going to make these rooms look huge. I’d read that chevron apparently does this more so than herringbone. In fact we were OK with either, it just so happened that there was the right amount of stock in this pattern on the Havwoods Clearance website!

Upstairs the bathrooms are beginning to look more finished as the sinks, vanity units and toilets have been put in to place

Loft rear bathroom

This is the smallest of our four bathrooms and was an odd layout to get right because of the head height restriction near the toilet – but thankfully each item is in good proportion.

Double sink in the front bathroom

You’ll remember from a previous post that we added a bathroom in the front of the house and were debating over whether to have a double sink or a bath. I’m pleased we went for a double sink. Plus we got a clever cabinet that is hidden in to the stud wall which makes it flush to the bathroom wall and looks awesome.

The sink is matt, which is the same as the shower tiling and the bath in our family bathroom. This unit is in a concrete grey effect, which goes well with the marble effect porcelain tiles. All bathroom fixings are from CP Hart, some from the main shop and some from their outlet centres.

Sink in loft en-suite

In two of the bathrooms we went for the same style sink with a thicker shelf on one side. These are great for those bathrooms that have limited storage space like our loft that has a sloping ceiling so we couldn’t get a cabinet in. It does mean the tap is off-centre though.

The bedrooms have all been painted and skirting down ready for the carpet that comes next week! We also picked a lovely decorative fireplace for the front bedroom (the one with a bay window) This is from a local fireplace restoration place.

K

Weeks 37-38: Good Investments

Like most people undergoing a transformational renovation we have been faced with a multitude of decisions on what we should be spending our money on, and where we can afford to spend less.

The house before it all started

When working on a large renovation, and a fixed budget it is important to be really clear yourself about what you are prepared to invest in, and where you’d be willing to make the sacrifice. Sometimes the decision is too hard and the sacrifice is on the bank balance or your short term life choices. (Not going on holiday, living in the property / caravan etc)

The clearer you are about this from the beginning, the “easier” it will be to make important decisions during the build. Like: “Should we replace that wall”, “How much do we spend on flooring”, “Do we go for underfloor heating”, and “What is our kitchen budget”…. you get the drift.

It was clear that our house needed A LOT of work on the structure, and actually getting it to a basic working property with heating and lighting would all be starting from scratch. So along with this we decided that making the structure and workings of the house to be the priority for our budget – but also, to invest in making these last for as long as possible as this would be our family home for a long time.

We’ve been blogging a lot about the structure and extensions of the build, but actually there has been a huge amount of plumbing and electrical work done.

The heating was far from ideal!!

We were basically faced with a blank canvas. The plumbing and electrics were far from up to scratch, and with half of the house being demolished, it was clear that a lot of the budget had to go on this. Here’s what we’ve learned…

1. Turning a 3 bedroom, 2 storey knackered property in to a 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom 3 storey property involves a LOT of pipes!
   • The first fix involved getting all the pipes to radiators, towel rails, sinks, toilets and showers to the right places and then run under the floors (or outside for the soil pipes) and all the way down to the cellar
   • It really helps to know your bathroom layouts as early as possible
   • Also, where your radiators are going to go and if you want the pipes coming out from the floor or the wall
     

     

     
2. It requires some horsepower to ensure the showers have enough pressure in the loft
   • Victorian properties were built for one simple bathroom. When you’ve got 2 in the loft alone this calls for not only a large water tank but a way of ensuring the pressure is good and consistent – especially when other appliances and showers are going at the same time
     

     The bathroom off the kitchen!

   • The obvious place for us to put the water tank was in the cellar… a long way from the bathrooms but it’s out the way and doesn’t take up cupboard space
     

     One of the 3 huge tanks!

   • The water pressure from street level in our area is terrible at best, so we also needed a way of bringing in this water and converting it to a better pressure value to suit our needs – this means we needed an Accumulator. In fact, because our cellar was so low in height, we couldn’t get the big one we needed so we had to get two!
     

     Accumulator tank

3. There are all sorts of options when it comes to heating
   • A mistake we made on the last house was not having underfloor heating in the kitchen, so we knew with a bigger kitchen this would be a must have
     

     Boiler with underfloor heating pipes under

   • We also chose underfloor in the bathrooms but not in the bedrooms or reception rooms
   • Radiators come in all sorts of styles but we decided to spend the extra and get column traditional ones – although we have gone for the standard screw fix ones rather than the expensive cast iron version
4. The cables have to go somewhere!
   • With an average of 5 double sockets per room, 3-4 light circuits and each bedroom having points for TV and internet, that’s a lot of cables, and they all have to terminate somewhere 
     

     

     We chose the utility room for the termination point of the cables

5. Lighting makes a huge difference to the final product if done well
   • Unless you’ve had a lighting layout done by an architect or designer at the drawings stage, your builder will base their pricing of a standard spec which involves a set number of spots/ downlights in each room spaced equally
   • It makes a huge difference having a lighting layout that works for how you will be using each room – however this means that 1) you’ll be spending more in fittings and on the labour and 2) you need to know exactly where all the furniture is going in each room first
   • We didn’t go over the top (apart from in the kitchen – see point below!) but we did end up getting lights cabled in next to each bed, and getting a layout designed so that each circuit created a different effect. We focused on the ground floor and kept the bedrooms quite standard
     

     Cabling for TV, Internet and light fittings beside the bed

6. If you’re going to invest in smart home tech – choose wisely
   • We all love a gadget, but when it comes to the home do we really need an oven that you can turn on from your mobile when your on the bus home?!
   • There are plenty of options to tech-up your home but they all come at a price, so think about whether this will really add value to your life, and if this renovation is for a 5-10 year home, perhaps skip it altogether!
   • We decided to go for function over style with the radiator valves and have gone with EvoHome which means you can decide the exact temperature output of each room in the home
   • We also went for a cabled lighting system in the kitchen, rather then the whole house. This was mainly because we were going to be using the kitchen the most when we move in and for many different functions, so wanted the lighting to reflect the moods.

So the past 2 weeks have been really about getting the arteries of the house to working order, as well as more painting, finishing the skirting and general getting on with stuff. Next week the flooring comes and we focus on the outside!

K

Week 36: Kitchen Worktop

Last week, after the excitement of the kitchen units going in, we couldn’t wait until the worktop got installed…

Centre island where the induction hob will be

We went with (another) marble effect, but instead of matching with the bathroom tiles, we chose a less ‘busy’ style. This is called “Estuario” and is hardwearing porcelain.

The design has a lot of white space combined with a large thick vein across the island, which is grey with speckled bits of brown to add a bit of warmth

The island being almost 3m long fortunately didn’t need a join and used an entire slab. However, across the long sink run side, we did need to agree where a join would go as the maximum length was 3.2m and ours needed 3.4. We went for the join to align with the first cupboard edge and it is barely noticeable.

Now that the worktop is in, focus is on the splash back which will also be the whole length of the sink run. Here are our options:

Which one would you go for?

K

Kitchen and worktop are from Eclectic Interiors

Units are Rational brand