Nice people thread part 3- Nice as pie

PasturesNew

Ah, not high enough ... what you need to do is dig a big hole... and have 3 steps down, a couple of paces across, then 3 steps up again. Then it'd be high enough to fit the doors :P

LydiaJ

:T Perfect. I'll see an architect immediately, Pastures.

michaels

Is the archway big enough for a single door which you could then have curved glazed panels next to and above?

Otherwise the odds are the arch is 'decorative' rather than load-bearing so it should not bee too big a deal to straighten it up in to normal shape opening.

misskool

Big hugs to dog-dog and hope he recovers soon.

Kitchen plans sound wonderful, I'd love to have a kitchen 3x the size of what I have now but we've just done it up (1.5 years) so it's staying that size for a LONG time.

We had to remove the door to make an archway for our hall to kitchen (needed 2 inches for worktop to line up), tap the archway bit as ours is just literally some metal and some cardboard taped to it and plastered over, so it can be easily knocked back out and then slimline door can be fitted again. That's the reason why open plan houses are dreadful.

I'm down again, saw a new GP today and been diagnosed with something else. I swear, it's a new disease each week on the NHS. And no one has fixed the original symptom yet

LydiaJ

Hugs to you too, missk. Hope they work out what it really is v soon, and can treat it so you will feel all better.

Thanks for all the input about the kitchen archway. Lots of things for me to consider there. I've now wrenched my mind away from the distant future, and am considering the equally vexed but much more imminent question of how to put a shower screen on the bath in my en-suite so I can have a shower over it.

The ceiling slopes, but there is enough head height at the taps end for someone like me to stand and have space for a shower head above me - there wouldn't be enough for a really tall person, but I'm 5'7" and it's OK for me. But the shower screen will have to have a corner taken off it because of the ceiling. (Does that mean getting a bespoke one? That might be expensive.)

It'll also have to be a folding one, I think, so that it can be opened without going across the doorway into the room. This will mean removing the swivel mirror from the wall that the shower screen will fold back against - but I can replace it with a full length mirror flush with the wall, which would be handy anyway because I haven't currently got a full length mirror anywhere in this house.

Moreover, unless it's a particularly narrow screen - not recommended if DD is ever going to use the shower because she gets water EVERYWHERE - we'll need to remove the handhold thing from the edge of the bath and find some way to seal up the hole that it will leave.

Finally, there's the question of the ceiling materials. It's currently covered in what looks like wooden cladding, painted white. It feels tacky to the touch, though, and I suspect it's not the right kind of paint, or it's too old, or something. Anyway, once the shower is in it will get actual splashes rather than just condensation, so it will need to be properly waterproof. Perhaps mermaid board on the ceiling would be the way to go.

Oh dear - is it very obvious that all this renovation planning is really a displacement activity so I don't have to get on with dealing with the boxes of stuff? Sorry for droning on about it.

lostinrates

we had a folding shower door in the Hampstead bathroom, it was brilliant, BUT, it didn't have to account for a slope.

silvercar

Is the bath handle attached to the bath itself? If so it is going to be difficult to block it off.

Will the shower screen be the same height all along its width, or does the sloping ceiling mean that it needs to angle as it opens?

Doozergirl

lostinrates wrote: »

I don't want anything blocking the clear eyeline through, or ANY clutter on the island. A sink with two taps and maybe a chopping board, to be near the sink. THATS it. Plus, an extractor would ruin the line through, and ruing my vaulted ceiling.

Even it if looked like this one?
http://www.weheart.co.uk/2008/12/04/elica-star-cooker-hood/
With your Italian connections you might be able to pick [STRIKE]me[/STRIKE] you up one much cheaper.

LydiaJ wrote: »

Thanks for all the input about the kitchen archway. Lots of things for me to consider there. I've now wrenched my mind away from the distant future, and am considering the equally vexed but much more imminent question of how to put a shower screen on the bath in my en-suite so I can have a shower over it.

The ceiling slopes, but there is enough head height at the taps end for someone like me to stand and have space for a shower head above me - there wouldn't be enough for a really tall person, but I'm 5'7" and it's OK for me. But the shower screen will have to have a corner taken off it because of the ceiling. (Does that mean getting a bespoke one? That might be expensive.)

My head is spinning. Can I have a picture of the offending archway and the bath and the floorplan please? All budgetry constraints considered

I remember your house is a corner plot, isn't the conservatory on the highway side not really the front of the house? I'm sure they will be more sympathetic to the situation of your house. If the conservatory is already there then I suspect that will help a lot. I might be remembering wrong though.

The house we wanted, they've come back and accepted our last offer made when we had a buyer. We also have an offer on the house which is there or thereabouts. H is working that hard that we haven't even had time to talk about it

lostinrates

Doozer that does indeed change things.


I saw some brilliant kitchen lights in Bath the other week. Simple glass demijohns turned into pendant lights....but £175 each. Beautiful, but you'd need three, and £525 is a lot for three glass bottles.

GDB2222

LydiaJ wrote: »

I could change the archway back into a doorway and put a door in it, or double doors, or something. Ideally I'd like double doors that would fold right back out of the way, ie rotate 180 degrees about the hinge so as to lie along the walls either side of the doorway, like shutters. Is that possible?

Yes, it's very possible. You just need some very big hinges that stick out from the wall a long way. They need to be deep enough to carry the door round the architrave and skirting board, so they'll need to still out about an inch. Try your local architectural ironmongers.

Edit: Found them! You want parliament hinges or projection hinges. http://www.sdslondon.co.uk/stainless-steel-projection-hinges/guide-to-projection-hinges-1.html

Something with a fairly modest projection should do you, depending on thickness of skirting boards and any architrave. For example, this one:
http://www.sdslondon.co.uk/contract-quality-brass-hinges-range-of-finishes-available/parliament-102-x-102mm.html

This is what it looks like in practice.