Enter the dragon

Chinese New Year came around quickly - January 23rd, the last two years it's been in February. Serves me right for suggesting we launch a work project to co-incide with Chinese New Year, but thankfully despite the the tight time frame it launched OK.

Another project I want dealt with before the Chinese New Year is out is our downstairs bathroom/utility room, but it's early February and still not much to report. The builders came back with a quote of £8k but this could've escalated depending how difficult it is to find waste pipes under the concrete. We've decided to go back to Plan A which is to expand the existing downstairs cloakroom to accommodate a shower, and separate the utility room from the garage. The builders popped round last night and discussed plumbing some more, and suggested ways of improving the water pressure so now we're waiting on a revised quote.

In the meantime, winter has finally kicked in with the current outdoor temparature at -3 degrees (Celcius). It might even snow at long last. Great time for the boiler to start leaking everywhere - it's got a condensation pipe that's not attached properly any more (deteriorating sealant or something?). I've been texting the guy who installed it all day but he's busy. And it's Saturday tomorrow, eep. (Pictured: the canal near our house, with ice!)

This morning this fluffy fox was right up against the glass doors peering in. I showed him my (vintage) rabbit fur coat and mouthed 'You're next' and he promptly walked to my rosemary bush, lifted a leg and pissed on it. I feel a fox war coming on.

Downstairs revamp

Our downstairs configuration has been a topic of conversation lately. It turns out the current cloakroom isn't big enough for the Roca toilet and sink combo. Rob then had the genius idea of swapping everything around - moving the shower/loo/sink into what was going to be our utility room, and moving the washer and dryer into our current cloakroom (NB cloakroom is what the British call a small toilet, usually positioned under the stairs).

It's such an obvious solution I can't think why we didn't come up with it in the first place. It might be because the stack (plumbing arrangement involving large pipes) is about two feet up the wall - which might be tricky when plumbing in a loo and shower waste pipe. I'm sure there's a solution - maybe smashing up the floor until we find the outgoing pipe and joining it up there. Additionally we'll need a dedicated hot water system - gas or some kind of electric pump - otherwise the top floor bathroom will have no pressure when the downstairs one is in use.

As the room will have no natural light we'll need to consider lighting, and of course heating and venting out the steam. For inspiration I quite like these two bathrooms - large slate tiles and a glass shower door - practical.

(Both photos via housetohome.co.uk)

Phase two plans

Image: Joanopolis House, Sao Paulo from wallpaper.com

Two years after the work started on the house, we've finally finished phase one. And now I'm thinking (vaguely) about phase two. I must admit my passion for getting this project finished is diminished somewhat but next door's build only went a month or two over schedule. Their Polish builders were superb, so we swapped numbers and I said I'd send through some drawings so they could quote for them when we get motivated about, well, saving.

Phase two was going to involve knocking the downstairs loo through to the under stairs storage area and putting in a wet room. But this isn't practical for lots of reasons - the location of the soil pipes, the plumbing costs, having to tank the room so it doesn't leak etc etc. The Polish builder suggested putting a shower into our utility room, which doesn't exist at the moment as the washing machine and dryer inhabit a wall in the garage/bike store room.

So Phase two now means fitting a solid wall in the garage, putting in a proper ceiling and floor, lining the walls, putting in a shower and a sink and tarting it up with some tiles etc. And then giving the existing downstairs toilet a makeover so that it doesn't look like a bad 80s flashback (as it does now).

Phase three is the top floor, phase four is the garden. By then I reckon I'll be shopping round for a happening retirement village...

(I couldn't find any suitable inspirational photographs of utility rooms or under stairs storage so here's a lovely home in Sao Paulo that would be my inspiration for a holiday home...)