Renovation Project - We have a toilet

Renovation Project - We have a toilet

The house is still cold and using the downstairs toilet is awful, yes it may be inside, but it is the equivalent of having an outside toilet, as it is in a small extension at the back of the house. it is also not very nice, with the damp, mould and peeling paint, so we are starting our new bathroom today.

This will be upstairs between the two bedrooms.

The first thing is to look where the doors will go, as it is a small landing and we will need a new door opening into the bathroom, luckily it works out ideal (it is not often you can say that when renovating!)

The first job is too remove the old walls and make a space for the new bedroom door this does not take long as the old wall is just made of clinker brick.

Before

top of the stairs

Bedroom 1

Bedroom 2

During

John starts measuring the size of the room, we will have to take space from both bedrooms.

He builds the first wooden frame and adds plaster board to it, he shouts me up to look at it, and to be honest you cannot tell that the space has been taken from the bedroom.

I ask is it worth taking so little space for the wall, and John agrees, he then shouts me back up and says we have not taken a couple of inches, we have taken the L shaped bit of the bedroom.

This is when you know it is right, when you don't realise you have changed it and it looks like it has always been there.

We put the bath and toilet in to make sure everything looks good and the room is not too small.

Everything fits perfectly, it will not be the biggest bathroom, but then it is only a two bedroom house (and there is always the downstairs toilet)

The plaster board is fitted to most of the walls, but as there is no light, the wall to the stairs is left open for now.

Not many people choose to have an open plan bathroom, but heck it is so much better than the one we are currently using.

The most exciting bit of today is the toilet is going to be fitted. I can not describe the sheer joy and depth of emotion at having an indoor toilet and bathroom. This is something that is so often just taken for granted, but once you do not have them, nothing compares to that feeling.

John has to work out where the soil pipe is going to ensure it has enough fall. This is easier than he expected.

The soil pipe goes along one of the beams in the living room and he now has to go through the outside wall. Not really a problem normally, but the walls are made of granite and are approx 600mm thick.

John starts trying to get through the wall, we expect this to quite some time, but there are some large rocks that come out quite easily (I can say this as I am not doing the work!) and we are outside in no time (well in no time for this France!)

The soil pipe is installed and fitted to the main pipe.

We have a working toilet inside the house, not finished but usable for the night time. It is rather open plan so not for use by visitors and a bucket is needed to fill it up as the water has not been connected, but we no longer have to go outside during the night, it is such a happy day.