The project begins (Jan - March 2007)

We plan to change our flat from this...
To this...
We are swapping the bathroom and bedroom around so that the bathroom is on the main floor and the bedroom occupies the whole top floor. The stairs to the top floor are being moved into the centre of the house, creating space for a new external door, which will lead to a new roof terrace at the rear.

The first job was installation of the new joists, required to strengthen the upper floor. The preparation for the joists took many hours, over many weeks. The biggest challenge with an old houses like this is the crookedness of everything! Walls are not completely vertical, floors rise and fall, and there are few right angles anywhere. So we had to create custom-made joists to fit our house - each one of them slightly different from the last. We also had to cut chunks out of the existing sagging joists, in order to fit the new joists underneath and ensure a level floor above.
It took four men to lift the first joist into place (we got better at this later).

More preparation...

...and the next big joist goes up

Meanwhile, our bedroom became ever more crowded to make space in the living room (at least it helped to cover up more of the orange) More timber being delivered - a major operation in itself

The end result: all ten joists were finally installed in the front room by the end of March (we started in January). It was a long, difficult job, and we still had the other half of the house to do!