Our Little Durham Restoration Project...

[paulrockliffe]

Going back to the wedding bar I made, I found some pictures of it mocked up in the workshop:



Here it is back after the wedding being put to work:



There's been loads of moving and tidying and clearing out since then, extra shelving on the wall:



The main bar top is now here:



Flips up to give me an extra work bench, or room to work with my machinery:



Built some tool drawers, still need to make the rest of these:



Hot water heater wired in for the sink:



Loft ladder for my workshop loft:



Handwash station:



16A supply fitted to run my compressor:

[paulrockliffe]

When Bear2 was born I was able to take a few months off work, so I bought some wood and when the Bears were both asleep I used it to learn how to use hand tools a bit better. Bought a mallet and some chisels and some diamond plates and learned how to sharpen, then set about cutting mortices and tenons:









M16 bolts x 4 to level up the bench on the floor:



The top is just a chipboard kitchen worktop, I do need to make something a bit more substantial eventually, but realistically, that's not going to happen for some time.

The bench is also designed to take drawers both ends, which I really need to get on with soon as I'm desperate for a bit more storage space.

[paulrockliffe]

I also built another loft in the workshop, same method as the first, so I can get more of the rubbish out of the way:















All finished and loaded up!

[paulrockliffe]

I also upgraded the lights, there's something like 28 downlighters, each with 2 x 28w energy saving bullbs. It's pretty bright!

I basically cut some holes in some ply, fitted the lights in the holes and the ply to the ceiling joists. One day I'll get some plasterboard up, but this will have to do for now:

[paulrockliffe]

The garden was next to get some attention, I took delivery of three apple trees, a couple of plum trees some blueberries, black currants and raspberries and have planted up the garden border:



Apples:


Plums:


Raspberries:


This all went in in 2016 so it's had two summers to get on with things, we've had loads of raspberries, strawberries, blackcutrrnats and blueberries this year and we're looking forward to a huge plum haul and the apples later. I'll get some pictures of it as it is now, it's quite a transformation!

Here's a plum tart I made last year, looking forward to more of the same shortly....

[paulrockliffe]

I've done a few little jobs too.

Garden bench for my father inlaw:


Picture frame for the wife made from a spare bit of ash from our wardrobes:


And I spun up a new jam jar lid on my lathe:


Because you can't really say no to these two:

[paulrockliffe]

I've finally finished sorting the damp issue on my gable wall. Each summer I've taken more and more rubble out of the cavity as it dried further and I was able to break it up with some threaded bar bolted together in the cavity. I got another barrow-load out this summer then put the bricks back in. Fingers crossed.

[paulrockliffe]

I also got a proper project that's I've been working on on and off for the last couple of winters:





Got my little helper so have made good progress so far:



It's basically sorted mechanically, short of having the engine properly setup and a few oil seals replacing. I've done 99% of the electrics and sorted the driving position, but really I don't have time for it so it's another project that's taking longer than I'd like.

I've also got a Nissan Micra sat waiting to donate it's engine eventually, really need to take that to bits and sell what I can and scrap the shell to tidy the yard up!

Will be awesome when it's finished and I have time to drive it!

[paulrockliffe]

My final project, that I started a couple of weeks ago is a new desk. I've been working at home a lot since the start of the year and perched on the end of the dining room table wasn't ideal. I had planned to make a desk n the alcove in the dining room, and got as far as making the top scribed ready to be fitted, but then I had a better idea:

Our bedroom has an alcove that's not used for anything, because it's not quite 30cm deep so can't really accommodate much. Definitely not a desk. Except I realised if I angled the desk I might just get enough depth without it coming too far into the room, so I got my largest monitor and measured up and got sign-off from the boss.



Frame in:



Shelves above:





Spare ash post from my understairs cupboard. not sure why I used such big bits!



Bought this a while ago, it's proving pretty useful!



Three sensibly proportioned pieces of ash:



Got the hand plane out and tidied them up:



Cut to length and test fitted:



Through the router table, then finished:



And fitted:



The next job was to rough cut and scribe some MDF panels for top and bottom. A pig of a job, but I know from the lounge shelves that actually when they've got stuff on you can't see any gaps, so there's only the bottom one that needs to be done properly, the rest just need to be close enoguh:





Then I painted the bottoms of the shelves, the most visible boards. The room is being redecorated, so I went for a dark grey and was advised to spray them with plastikote. It's worked well enough, but that's three boards of 30cm x 1.4m and used a can of primer and a can of top coat. They really wanted another couple of coats and I ended up waxing them to blend the colour a bit. No way I'm paying the extra £40 in paint to finish the rest like that given the entire project has been made with scraps so far!

Once they were painted up, it was time to get the clamps and glue out:



Three bottoms done, the tops are just sat in for now:



Got a new computer and a couple of extra monitors, the layout isn't ideal though, particularly as the desk isn't wide enough for all three....



So I made a frame, two oak uprights, these are ripped from the rebates of my dining room cupboard frame. Three ash cross-members, from another project:



This is glued together with the ash sat in mortices in the oak, no rebates just put the monitors in and used hot melt glue to fix them from behind. Simple to build, looks really neat. These are all oiled and fitted now, but I haven't got a finished picture as the light has gone in the room!

The desk top still needs to be finished, it's having an ash veneer on top. The shelf tops need painting, though it likely doesn't matter if they don't get done. And I propbably need to add a light and run some power to the bottom shelf for charging stuff on there. The computer needs tucking away and the wires properly tidying. Eventually there's a box of drawers to make too, but no rush on that.

[paulrockliffe]

And that's me up to date at last!

[Craikeybaby]

paulrockliffe said:

So it's been over two years now!

I'd like to say I've got loads to be report, but to be honest the last couple of years have been a bit of a write-off, our eldest has just turned three and we have a 1 year old now too, so it's difficult to stay on top of anything and find time to do the projects I've got lined up.

I've still got quite a few snagging jobs to do and the list of projects, particularly in the garden, just gets longer and longer. I'm resigned to this thread lasting a long time yet!

Anyway, I haven't completely wasted the last couple of years and I've finally found time to go through all my photos and pull together the house stuff, so I can do a few updates.......

After reading this post I was nodding in agreement, thinking how my list seems to getting longer and longer, but not much has been getting done.

Then you turn out to have done loads! I particularly like the fireguard, much nicer than the monstrosity we ended up buying.

I also found nap time during extended paternity leave to be good for getting jobs done, in my case painting the veranda outside.

[seiben]

I've read this thread over the last couple of days having clearly missed it the first time around. Hats off you sir, you've done a fantastic job!

Part of me is a little sad you didn't keep the original fireplaces, but I can certainly see the attraction of the woodburners and I do like the finished result. I've been browsing the local FB Marketplace for more woodworking tools....

Fascinated to see what happens in the future, so I'm in the the next update in two years

[paulrockliffe]

Craikeybaby said:

After reading this post I was nodding in agreement, thinking how my list seems to getting longer and longer, but not much has been getting done.

Then you turn out to have done loads! I particularly like the fireguard, much nicer than the monstrosity we ended up buying.

I also found nap time during extended paternity leave to be good for getting jobs done, in my case painting the veranda outside.

I reckon if I had a clear month I could have done everything I've done in the last two years in a month. And I tend to go months without doing anything of note, then getting a few days at something substantial, so if feels like I've not got through much. And it's easier to do the little jobs that are really just treading water rather than starting something that needs a couple of weeks, so won't get finished for months.

The fireguards took a couple of weeks of evening work, hardest bit was workign out how to overlap the joints at the corners without having nails going through from the front. The rest was just running them through the router table and gluing them up. I'm quite pleased with them as well. Problem I had when I was looking at them is that they're all really ugly because they aren't fit to size, so they have to have extra stuff to make them adaptable. Or they're really expensive.

They are just pine, but they look good because they're the right size. And the wood came off the scrap pile, so they cost nothing. I was supposed to finish them with something, but I never got round to it, mainly because I can't find a decent finish for pine, other than paint and I'm not sure what colour would look better than the pine.....

My wife appreciates how much time stuff takes and that I'm doing stuff she wants done, so I got lots of days where she'd take both kids out of the house and I could get stuff done, but second time round was much less productive compared with the first child, I was pretty much full-time on the house for three months then!

[paulrockliffe]

seiben said:

I've read this thread over the last couple of days having clearly missed it the first time around. Hats off you sir, you've done a fantastic job!

Part of me is a little sad you didn't keep the original fireplaces, but I can certainly see the attraction of the woodburners and I do like the finished result. I've been browsing the local FB Marketplace for more woodworking tools....

Fascinated to see what happens in the future, so I'm in the the next update in two years

Thanks!

The thing with the fireplaces was that they weren't original, they were later additions. The ones in the bedrooms weren't very nice and the hearths came out into the room too far, the living room one was OK, but it needed a hearth that wasn't recessed into the carpet so would have had to come out anyway.

I don't regret taking them out, but I'm not as sentimental as some. My only regret is I didn't know how valuable they were and sold them far to cheap!

Gumtree is great for tools too, I tend to just check in a few times a day and if stuff comes up I buy it rather than waiting until I need it. I bought a proper air filter for the workshop a few weeks ago, which did a great job when I was machining wood for my desk.

I have a bit of an update now, and I don't think it'll be two years before the next proper update......

[paulrockliffe]

So for the last 12 months or so I've been working on making the house bigger.

We've got three bedrooms and they're full. It's a pain when my parents come and we'd like to be able to accommodate our friends visiting and they all have kids too. What started out as a loft conversion has morphed to include an extension downstairs as well, though we included that now simply because it was cheaper to get it through planning at the same time and it's just easier to get all the design work done in one hit rather than having to start again in a few years. There was also a risk that if we were allowed to do the loft work we wanted that we'd be told that the downstairs was over-development, we'd rather compromise on the loft space if that was the case.

Anyway, lots of messing about and we finally had a design we were happy with, we were heading for planning in January and building in the spring. Then the Bat wkers got involved. Because the front soffit has a gap in it and there's a few raised tiles at the back, we needed an emergent survey, which couldn't be done until the end of May. FFS! There are no bats, there are some that head over from round about in the evenings to eat flies and some big bomber bats that track the cylcepath behind our house too, but nothing in the house at all. £700 and 6 months later we finally had a report to tell us what we already knew. Amazing.

The only silver lining was that it made the architect look incredible value for money!

So planning went in a couple of months back, we had a bit of messing around as the planners wanted a step back between the existing building and the new, they wanted vertical windows to match the house and they wanted a higher roof line because it was too squat. All reasonable really, but the step back caused us a bit of a problem with the layout so that took a bit to resolve. And the vertical windows in a horizontal wall looked st, so I had to come up with a ruse to get around that.

In the end we got permission for a better design than we thought possible, we got roof lights in the front elevation that we thought wouldn't be allowed in the Conservation Area,we got two huge dormers at the back and the downstairs will be really nice with the extra ceiling height.

The internal layout for the new extension isn't fully resolved yet, so I've just shown it as an open space now. The kitchen location is sorted, but there's a sitting area, toilet and pantry/utility to fit in to that space and the existing kitchen. I have some ideas, but I'm focusing on the loft for now, so no decisions for some time.

Anyway, this is what it'll look like when it's done:



And the layout:



The loft layout is basically large room with dressing room/bathroom. The plan is to use it as an upstairs living space for the kids to play in and a guest bedroom. A sofa bed will go up, and there'll be room under the eaves for knock-down beds for guests. The dressing room will *just* take an occasional bed, and there's room in the roof space for a knock-down mezzanine bed as well. The existing kitchen will also work as a guest room when necessary, so we've got room for an extra 5 double beds if we need them, which should be more than enough!

I've just about got the structural design sorted out now, my architect is sorting building regs drawings and we'll be ready to start quite soon I think.

Exciting times!

[paulrockliffe]

Quick job this afternoon; decided to add an extra mini-shelf above my desk, to help tidy the bottom shelf and fill some of the unused space.

Had a ratch around the scrap pile for some suitable wood and ended up jointing a couple of skirting boards from the house my parents built and have just sold. The nail holes are a reminder. Jointed, glued, thicknessed, riped to width, tidied up and oiled to finish.

I ended up fitting it by trimming the end carefully with a plane until it could be jammed into place. It's not perfect, I probably shouldn't have gone so thin over a 1.5m length, but it looks good and is fine for the weight that's on it.

[paulrockliffe]

So Building Regs drawings and 50 pages of structural calculations went in today. Need to start pulling together a shopping list for the floor next....

I made a bit of a start by improving the lighting situation up there ready. When I asked our electrician to fit a couple of bulbs up there 5 years ago I discovered that he'd hung them off the upper purlins at shoulder height because he was a lazy arse. Just about acceptable for storage, but completely useless if you want to see what you're doing and nowhere near enough light for the space anyway.

I had a couple of Gumtree lights that were to go in my workshop lofts, but when I got them they turned out to be fully fire-sealed and 8" deep, so too big for the limited headroom up there. £10 each so I took them anyway and they've finally come in useful:

Because of the fire rating they don't screw through from the inside, they have a couple of bolt holes in the back, so I lashed up some wire rope between the two mountings, put a pair of screws into the ridge board and hung the wire over. Then wired them up.





Much brighter!

[paulrockliffe]

Today's job is to extend the central heating, hot and cold water to the loft while I'm waiting for Building Regs.

The pipes are to go in the back of my fitted wardrobe and need to miss the back of some draws, can't run down the side due to the drawer slides. Just checked the pics of when I put the floor down to see what's under there.......

.....let's just say if I knew then what I know now a lot of wires wouldn't have been put where they were.

Going to say a little prayer, get the multi-tool out and see if the gap behind a joist is more or less than 22mm.

[Pamoothican]

How on earth have I missed this thread? And I’m only on the other side of the village!

Credit where credit is due, you’ve done a fantastic job so far and the new plans look cracking.

[RichTT]

Just read through this whole thread. Not only is it an incredible transformation of the house, but also and incredible amount of solid graft from you and your family. Well done, it looks superb!