Well we had a five year plan to complete the renovation of the house. Times up! Time to take stock to find out what actually have we been doing!  So how have we done? Honestly not too badly, I could not make a list of all the work we have done, that would take another five years. But I can illustrate the size of the task with a few factoids and photos, and who does not like factoids and photos?

The factoids.

• Number of floors – 4.
• Combined surface area of all floors – 380 m2 for those of you not metrically minded that’s 4,090 ft squared.
• Average ceiling height 3 m / 9 ft 10 ins.
• Tallest ceiling height (to the apex) 6 m / 19 ft 8 ins.
• Overall volume 1250 m3 / 44,143.33 cubic feet.

Not sure what that looks like, well the average 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom house in England is about 100 m2 / 1,076 square feet. Try it with you own property, just do a quick calculation, to get an idea of scale.

So now you have an idea of the size of the project, do we get a bit of slack on blowing the deadline?

Ok so I can see you will need more convincing, so now onto exhibit B the photos. In this post I will concentrate on just one floor the ‘grenier’ or attic, which is quite representative of the house.

Oh and another lovely shot of the attic at the start of the project.

I’ve gone too far haven’t I. You have sympathy with us for not hitting our deadline. But now you are questioning our sanity, taking on this project, let alone deciding we could do it in five years. “FIVE YEARS! You must be mad”. Ah but the wiser amongst you are saying, “Well it is not a problem if you are a professional from the building trades, or you have money to throw at the project”. Wise words indeed. We had a tight budget, which we have kept to, more or less. Both of us were desk jockeys, filing paperwork was manual labour for us, and our tools were the stapler and hole punch. We were at best competent Do-It-Yourselfers having only ever bought new houses in England.

We did use builders at the start of the project, but as our confidence grew in our own abilities so it lessened in “les artisans” ability to start work on time and to finish a job by the agreed date. So in the end it was easier but slower to learn how to rewire, plumb, repair masonry, roofs etc etc etc.

The attic was used as general storage when the house was a school and also as a place to cure meats, as evidenced by the salty meat stains that had seeped in the rotting floor. Not forgetting the time that German Shepherds were bred in the attic either, I hasten to add not for their meat and of course they were not actual shepherds but the dog breed. So quite a bit of history, and with history time passes and with the passage of time dust and dirt settles, and the house has been emptied of any number of trailer loads of that.

The attic in its new and shiny form is our “penthouse guest suite” with a comfy salon.

two double bedrooms, here is one 

and a bathroom/toilet, for which I do not have a photo.

Well that about wraps up the attic, I will have to look for more photos of the other rooms and get posting with details about their renovation. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.