Cupboard Gone
We have a small room on the first floor between the two main bedroooms. Eventually this will become part of the landing and stairs to the attic will be in this area.
At the moment there is a cupboard in the way:
Not anymore:
Also revealed was more lovely wall covering:
Summer rain – garage gone.
So another week, more rain, beginning to feel like groundhog day. As all the jobs are outside at the moment it make's it very difficult to make any progress on the house.
This week we had some more visits from timber frame companies - looks like we have 3 or 4 possible suppliers on that front. Groundworks people are taking a bit longer to get back to us though . . . .
In the couple of days we had that weren't raining I got a change to clear a bit more lawn and also knock down the back of the garage.
Couple of hours with a sledge hammer 
Very therapeutic!
The last of the storage heaters
I've posted previously on storage heater removal. These were the last two. A little more detail this time. If you've never removed a storage heater then you won't know what a right royal pain the backside it is.
Here is the offending heating device in an upstairs bedroom:
First job is to remove the front cover by removing many screws from all round the front edge:
This reveals the firebricks - heavy lumps. You can't lift more than one of these in each hand!
Roof off (or at least a bit of it!)
With the glazing a conservatory roof gone we had left an area which used to house the wet room and kitchen.
This needs to be completely demolished before we can begin any of the new build. The first area to go was the slate tiles on the roof. I was intending to save these but unfortunately those that aren't broken or cracked are mostly shot. They simply crumble in the hand. Not a huge issue as there are no where near enough to cover what will be the new roof and the almost certainly would not tie in with the new slates in any case.
With slates gone the roof timbers were next. This wasn't too tricky as these joists were not fixed at all well at the top and simply lifted away . . . .
Having taken off the roof joists there remained a very large supporting beam at the bottom of the roof structure to be removed. A small section of wall that seemed to be supporting this was doing no such thing. I'm still wondering how it was still standing - I barely touched and the whole thing fell down!
As with all these jobs you need some sort of supervision. . . . .
Storage Heaters gone
After the large (£800!) electric bill we received the storage heaters around the house had to go.
Disconnecting the electrics was the easy part. All the heaters were connected into an 'off peak' fusebox. With luck there was nothing else in this fuse box so once this was split from the main consumer unit the whole box could go.
Removing the actual heaters was much more of a problem. Having not removed any before I wasn't aware of the weight of these things. I though, 'just unscrew it from the wall and carry it away, job done'. The first part of this worked, however carrying it away was never going to happen. I didn't realise these things are full of fire brick each one weighing a tonne. So, removed the cover from each heater and then removed the bricks one by one before carrying the case out seperately.
And one gone:
Glazing down
Next step after removing the insides of the conservatory was to remove walls and roof.
Roof was a bit tricky and needed the help of the father-in-law. You can't really tell from the pics but the roof was re-inforced glass -the kind with a wire mesh buried inside. This means it doesn't shatter but also means they're very heavy. Second problem was with the way that it had been fixed. The glass had been slid into rebated channels in roof beams. These had then been covered with lead, silicone and all sorts of other muck. Finally screws through the lot held it together. After a few expletives and some digging to find the screws the roof started to come off:
Next down were the glazing units at either end. We did this carefully so that the units can either be re-used or sold. They're actually in good condition - a rarity on this house. Removal was straightforward, unscrewed some frame anchors and foam was about all that was holding them up.
This left one side of glazing holding up some roof beams.
Quick coupla cuts with the reciprocating saw through the roof beams and all was done. . . . . .for now . . .
Conservatory Stripped Bare
Time for a bit more demolition. Everything inside the 'conservatory' and kitchen area has been removed.
Towards the back of this area the outside ground level is about 2 feet above the internal floor level and nothing was done in construction to prevent damp. Therefore we had some truly minging mould etc when removing cabinets and lifting the carpet.
With everything removed a reasonable floor slab was revealed - it'll have to go though as the floor level is not right.
A view back into what was once the 'wet room'.
Pipes and Wires
A welcome break from the digging and back indoors again - good chance to escape the Cornish summer (!!).
Having removed the wet room the old kitchen and conservatory could be next. One thing stood in our way though - all the old services, electrics plumbing & things like that. I think the term 'Heath Robinson' was invented for this house. It's probably quite dangerous the way some of it has been wired, thank goodness we don't have gas!
So, power off, water off and out with the cutting gear to remove all the services from this back area.
A coupla pics so you can see the kind of spaghetti we are dealing with!
