Quick recap: we were living in the bus outside when this first image was taken. The sink unit against the outside wall was our ‘kitchen’.
After some significant work, such as repairing chimneys, putting in heating, new windows, electrics, and water, we began to build the lean-to extension on the back of the house for the wet rooms: utility, bathroom, and kitchen. The wall nearest to us will be the kitchen. The little back window in the main house will one day be opened into a doorway to an upstairs bathroom.
This first area in the new build was one big open room for a while (which doubled as a mudroom and general tip), then we built the wall to separate what would be the hall from the kitchen. As the main house has low ceilings and at times seems quite dark, we decided to keep the roof space in the kitchen and the hall open up to purlin level.
The back wall of the kitchen is the old external wall of the building, which was stripped and re-rendered where necessary.
We put insulated plasterboard on the slope, and ordinary plasterboard on the flat section, with insulation above, between the beams. The ceiling was then clad with pine, and the beam eventually painted black.
I found a decorative wrought iron lamp holder in a charity shop, and we covered the pipework at the back with more cladding.
My mother (bless her!) provided the money for us to buy floor tiles.
I found a big dresser – you got it, in a charity shop – and spent some time sanding it down as it was in quite a state.
Eventually we moved all the kitchen units from the old room, below, through to the new kitchen, leaving this original room to be changed back, eventually, into a living area.
Then I chose a fairly neutral colour paint to complement the blue tiles and the pine, and voila! After ten years…
