Anna & Elv's Mini Grand Designs

Hoping that by starting this thread it will help keep my sanity over the coming months! We've sold our house and got our priorities right of course, bought another Mk1 and a static caravan to live inWe moved into the caravan the week after the AGM 2013 and hopefully won't still be in it when AGM 2014 comes alongOur latest and probably never ending project started when we decided to take on the renovation of a cottage that has been in Elv's family for 50+ years and has had very little modernisation. It's been rented out for the 30 years and our lovely neighbour is Elv's dad, not sure if he'll get used to the VW's that have taken over the yard!

So far we have found the cottages on plans dated 1860, so need to do some more research on it's history. It has all the usual features of a house of this age, woodworm, rot, damp, no lintels above openings, brick and tile floors on red ash, no damp proofing, no central heating and a kitchen comprising of a sink unit and free standing cooker.For the past 18 years I've been working as an Architectural Technician, producing building plans and running construction projects, but apart from minor alterations, kitchens and conservatory, have never had the chance to design something for our own use.

So the plan-to modernise the cottage, make it an economical home to heat and maintain, but still retain traditional features. Initially we are going to renovate the existing cottage and then extend in the future, so designing the layout now to do so is important.
 So let the fun commence and I will update with pics as we go!!


Rear view of the cottage
And the front

Pre-pikey pics then :-)
It is a mammoth task you guys have taken on - but it will be superb when it's complete !!

Massive project guys. Hats off to you though for taking it on and living in a static especially with the winter months fast approaching.

Hope all goes to plan. It'll be worth it in the long run

Smudger

Hi Anna, hope you and Elv are well and not too worn out from it all!!

It looks a nice cottage and great that it's kept in the family. Looking forward to updates and pics of your current pikey paradise.

Oh and tell Elv to get some pics up of his MK1 - it looked soooo good at the AGM it's about time that we saw it again!

PS: Are you still yellow from the AGM??  

Looks a lovely building and I look forward to the progress pics over the next 5 yrs ;-)

Me and Elv may of had a little sprint recently :-) Turbo and supercharger power quite nicely matched !!

lhasadreams said

Me and Elv may of had a little sprint recently :-) Turbo and supercharger power quite nicely matched !!

Oooo, sounds interesting Ade. Any pic or video evidence to show us???

No - it was a spur of the moment acceleration !!
 
7000rpm is frenetic !!!

LOL

Good news is we are making steady progress Lots of pics to add.
Caravan life is actually not that bad, although we have been lucky with the weather here, not floated away or frozen as yet!
It's looking more and more like the Good Life every week, garden projects also coming along too

The cottage is in 2 parts, the front is older and needs the most work. The whole first floor has had to be taken out due to rotten and woodworm infested timber which has caused the straw/cement floor on laths to collapse.

Blimey Anna, that makes my MK1 resto look easy!!  

Hat's off to you, it's a bonus the winter has been relatively mild. When do you expect to have it all done and be moving in?

Major demolition old pantry gone, floors out!

Hairyarse said

Blimey Anna, that makes my MK1 resto look easy!!  

Hat's off to you, it's a bonus the winter has been relatively mild. When do you expect to have it all done and be moving in?

Thanks Andy, yeah, Elv says he'd rather be welding!
We hope to have the first phase done for summer, so, bedroom, living room and bathroom. Then we'll do the back part which is the kitchen and bedroom above which is not quite as bad!

Making it safe! Was a bit scary when I came home from work to see that the corner of the building was not tied in to anything, a piece of old door frame above the front door opening was all that was holding it up

New Floor!!!!!!

holy s…
Bert

New air dried oak floor in, bolted through gable wall for strength, then the Time Team excavation began!

Bert said

holy s…
Bert

I Know!! I just keep laughing lol

New floor construction with much insulation, the building inspector said it was very neat! was very proud of my handywork