First-time house renovation

andrew-b

Those big blocks on maggie's foundations are foundation blocks..the cavity walls are built up from them - guess it saves on a bit of concrete pouring? Have a look on the wickes website if you want the dimensions (scotland have different standards on concrete blocks i believe).

ukmaggie45

OH took photos.

We have beginning of walls and floors! :j :j :j :beer:


We have concrete base and walls are going up. by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

You might have to go for the bigger picture on this, but one of the local cats seems to have thought about taking a short cut across the fresh concrete and then changed its mind...


Cat footprint in concrete base! by ukmaggie45, on Flickr


View through build from garden by ukmaggie45, on Flickr


View of build from garden by ukmaggie45, on Flickr


Kitchen door. Wall to right will be demolished to make kitchen diner. by ukmaggie45, on Flickr


Walls rising and concrete base is poured by ukmaggie45, on Flickr


Here's the gap for the electronic cat flap by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

spirit

Wow, they really are cracking on at a pace Maggie! with the good weather supposed to be continuing all week, looks like they will be at roof level before the week's out :T

TomsMom

I'm loving your photos Maggie, it's really starting to get exciting now! Reminds me of our renos although ours were all inside. Great stuff!

suisidevw

Looks great Maggie, good developments! Electronic cat flat?! What is this?!?

latecomer

Looks great maggie - cats seem to like christening fresh concrete - we had one do a little dance on ours when it was fresh and another walked across it once it was obviously a bit more set. they are getting on a great rate. Are they doing the outer leaf completely before the inner one? Ours did both at same time but we know they knew precious little about the right way to do things.

I'm hoping to get out the MILs new circular saw and cut down the door for the sitting room tonight but will obviously depend on little LC. Its amazing how much time a baby can take up - its taken over our lives completely. Andy - i highly recommend you get everything finished before the due date

ukmaggie45

suisidevw wrote: »

Looks great Maggie, good developments! Electronic cat flat?! What is this?!?

It's called a Cat Porte. You need to have your cat chipped to use it, but when (if?) we get a cat we'll probably go for a Rescue Cat, and they are usually chipped when you get them. It reads the chip in your cat and lets it in, and doesn't let other cats in. It will store a number of chip numbers in its memory, you can have up to 31 cats!!!!! :eek:

The most cats we've ever had at once was three, and that was because the ones we didn't choose were going to make the final trip to the vet, so we took the lot! A litter of three kittens, who were an absolute delight. Each of the girls and myself had one that was more especially ours IYSWIM. Smoke, Soot and Lady. I miss them still. It will be nice to have a cat again if we can manage to. So we thought best to get the cat flap built in (or at this point in time the gap for it!) as the build progresses. It'll need its own power supply too, so will get wired up when the spark comes in to do the extension.

spirit

latecomer wrote: »

Its amazing how much time a baby can take up - its taken over our lives completely. Andy - i highly recommend you get everything finished before the due date

Yup, they are meant to take over your lives completely. they are tiny for so short a time that it would be a shame if it were otherwise.

You can house renovate any time but babies are only babies once.

IMHO

spirit

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

It's called a Cat Porte. You need to have your cat chipped to use it, but when (if?) we get a cat we'll probably go for a Rescue Cat, and they are usually chipped when you get them. It reads the chip in your cat and lets it in, and doesn't let other cats in. It will store a number of chip numbers in its memory, you can have up to 31 cats!!!!! :eek:

The most cats we've ever had at once was three, and that was because the ones we didn't choose were going to make the final trip to the vet, so we took the lot! A litter of three kittens, who were an absolute delight. Each of the girls and myself had one that was more especially ours IYSWIM. Smoke, Soot and Lady. I miss them still. It will be nice to have a cat again if we can manage to. So we thought best to get the cat flap built in (or at this point in time the gap for it!) as the build progresses. It'll need its own power supply too, so will get wired up when the spark comes in to do the extension.

I looked at those maggie, quite expensive aren't they? I had a custom cat flap built but they used a standard 3 way lockable one? Where there used to be a full length window in the front, they bricked up the bottom half and put a normal window in the top. they built my puddy flap in the bottom left hand corner. It's deeper than the cats are used to which the 2 girl cats don't seem to mind. Big Bruvver cat however is not so sure of it yet!

ukmaggie45

latecomer wrote: »

Looks great maggie - cats seem to like christening fresh concrete - we had one do a little dance on ours when it was fresh and another walked across it once it was obviously a bit more set. they are getting on a great rate. Are they doing the outer leaf completely before the inner one? Ours did both at same time but we know they knew precious little about the right way to do things.

It's not just concrete they like to christen! Our first cat, SillyPuss, walked over the screed that was put down on the concrete floor here before vinyl floor went down. Guess we may see those footprints again if we renovate this house before it goes on the market!

No idea how they plan to build the walls, we'll prob call round this evening when OH gets in from work (he's on earlies this week so will be home before 5) and we'll get a better idea then. After a gorgeous sunny morning the afternoon is turning cloudy and grey - hope it isn't raining so I can get photos.

latecomer wrote: »

I'm hoping to get out the MILs new circular saw and cut down the door for the sitting room tonight but will obviously depend on little LC. Its amazing how much time a baby can take up - its taken over our lives completely. Andy - i highly recommend you get everything finished before the due date

LOL babies do take up a lot of time! The house will still be there - enjoy little LC while he's little. OK, I know that you want to get things sorted out and finished off, but they grow so fast, you really don't want to miss out on those memories. The Twins are now smiling loads, and even beginning to laugh. :j Sorry if I seem to be nagging - just don't want you to have regrets of missing the early days. (Cyber Hugs - if you can take them from an OAP and Grandma, and Mrs LC doesn't mind)

They take up lots of time when they get bigger too!