The Bathroom Diaries: Week 6

Roof tiles, snow showers and breaking through.

The weather has well and truly taken a turn for the worse this week, with sub-zero temperatures, snow and sleet showers, and gusty winds for good measure.

Our original plan for the week was to have the roof completely finished, fully tiled and the ridges cemented. However, it was just too cold (and dangerous) to be tiling the roof in icy conditions, and the last thing I wanted was a builder going through the new roof!

We’ve had to change tactics, and work has now started internally.

As I sit downstairs writing this post, I’m surrounded by the dulcet tones of drilling and hammering as our existing bathroom wall is being knocked down. The noise is quite deafening, but I’m very excited to take a look later on, as it will be the first time I get to see the new bathroom space in it’s entirety.

Monday 18th November:

The final baton work has been completed, and lead sheeting has been applied, ready for the tiles to be laid.

Tuesday 19th November:

It was great to see some tiles being added to the roof today, although the weather wasn’t on our side for a large part of the day.

Therefore work continued inside with beams being applied to the internal roof structure in preparation for the construction of the ceiling.

Wednesday 20th November:

The day started off with beautiful blue skies, and the sun shining, even though it was freezing cold!

We managed to complete the tiling on the front side of the extension before sleet and snow showers arrived in the afternoon.

The afternoon was then spent inside, starting to take down the outer layer of the external wall.

Thursday 21st November:

The builder called me at 7.00am to advise there’s a change of plan today. We were originally planning to get the rest of the roof tiled, but due to how icy it has been overnight, it makes more sense to knock through the existing bathroom wall.

Very exciting, if not very noisy!

This is the first time where I’ve really been able to appreciate the full space we’ve now got to work with.

Before and After

I wanted to share a video with you, however, by the time it was cleared of all the brickwork and rubble, sheeting had been put up to block our existing bathroom from the extension. We still don’t have windows and believe me it’s bloody freezing, especially having a shower with literally a single sheet of roof membrane attached for privacy.

I’ve been assured some insulation boards are going to be put up tomorrow as a temporary fix, which should make it warmer.

The joys of renovating during the start of winter, which is why I would have loved for this project to have started in the summer. And typically, the week we knock the wall down is the coldest day of the year to date.

Alongside the knocking down of the wall, a further steel has been added to support holding the roof up.

And our first window has been installed.

All in all a very productive day, with plenty of progress being made.

Friday 22nd November:

I did have a slight panic last night that I might not have been able to share this weeks The Bathroom Diaries due to a slight incident with my phone.

Whilst out on my run last night, I had a little fall, which resulted in my phone screen being smashed and not being able to access my phone with all the photos of the progress of the extension to date.

Fortunately, this morning, popping into our local phone repair shop, a very helpful gentleman managed to replace the screen within 30 minutes for a very reasonable fee of £60. Not only did this take away the stress of feeling like I’d lost a limb (it’s not good how reliant we are on our mobile phones these days; literally my whole life is in this small device), but it also meant I hadn’t lost months of memories of photos (I’m really rubbish at uploading onto my laptop and iCloud, and it’s only moments like this that remind me I really should back things up a little more often). More importantly, it means I have a full post (with photos), to share with you today.

Anyhow, back to todays progress.

The front and back of the roof are now fully tiled, which just leaves the side to be tiled and the ridge tiles to be cemented,. We need some improvement in the weather before anything can be cemented, although I’m assured by the end of next week this will be done, as the weather starts to improve slightly. By that, I mean no rain, and above sub-zero temperatures.

And look at my lovely Velux window in pride of place.

I can also confirm it’s much warmer in the bathroom now, as we have Celotex boards up against the windows and a layer has been added between the membrane sheets, which I’m very thankful for, especially as we have 50mph gusts due to arrive over the weekend.

Based on where we started this week, and the less favorable weather, we’ve made some really good progress this week.

Let’s see what next week has in store for us…

Enjoy your week.

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The Bathroom Diaries is an additional weekly post every Sunday, sharing the progress of our first-ever renovation journey, documenting the creation of my dream bathroom.

If you missed any of the The Bathroom Diaries series you can catch up here:

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The Bathroom Diaries: Week 5

The Bathroom Diaries: Week 4

The Bathroom Diaries: Week 3

The Bathroom Diaries: Week 2

The Bathroom Diaries: Week 1

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