All posts filed under: Loft Conversion

Black Wednesday – Week 11

Published by Karen Knox

If you’re in or close to Leeds, you may have heard me on Wednesday last week. You might have mistaken the noise for a small pig being squeezed in a vice, but no, it was me. Screaming. I don’t remember the last time I felt so angry (it was probably the week before) but you know you’ve completely lost your shit when your husband comes home from work early. Without you having to even ask. Don’t jump! We’ve been waiting patiently for our staircase for 11 weeks now. Keep getting told, they’ll be started on it soon and it’ll be another week. Each and every time a new trade comes in to crack on with their job, I get; “When’s the staircase coming?” “Where’s the staircase? “Haven’t you got your staircase yet?” Erm, yes, don’t you like it. It’s there. We’ve had an aluminium staircase made to look just like a bloody ladder. **eye roll** The last we were told (Monday 14th November) is the staircase was being “made right now”. Factor in two weeks to make …

The Loft Extension – Wk 8/9

Published by Karen Knox

As you can see, i’ve been keeping really upbeat since my last loft post. Full of the joy of life I am. Honestly, i’m a pleasure to be around right now. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Karen Knox – Making Spaces (@makingspacesnet) We’ve just finished week nine and if i’m honest, I thought we’d be done by now. Not 100% done, but I thought the actual build would have been winding down. Alas, that is not the case. Things here are continuing to move slowly, but we’re certainly moving now. And there is a teeny tiny sliver of light shining at the end of a long, dark (and snowy) tunnel. That’s me sounding positive btw. The plastering has finally commenced (hooray!) and our plasterer has been busy working his way around the bedroom and all the way down our new gable wall. Still no staircase. STILL. It’s quite bizarre, but as soon as the plaster goes on the whole place goes from looking like a building site to an actual room. Of all …

The Loft Extension – Wk 6/7

Published by Karen Knox

Firstly, i’d just like to apologise for the radio silence over the last week. I think it’s fair to say, this loft conversion is starting to get to me. Like, properly. It’s not the mess, dirt, cold, the fact I can’t walk down the hall without banging my knee on a boxed toilet or the plastic floor covering that crackles when you trot over it. No, not these things. It’s the fact I can’t actually sit down for more than 10 minutes at a time and concentrate on ANYTHING as our front door is moving continuously with various trades coming in and out. I’ve never made so many cups of tea. I’ve also never got through so many bags of sugar. They’re all “two sugar” guys. Two! The other thing my busy mind is struggling with, is the continual trouble shooting. Overall, i’m a negative, pessimistic person. I focus entirely on worst case scenarios which makes me really good at project management. How does that help? I combat anything that might go wrong before it actually …

What i’ve learnt so far. The Loft Extension – Wk 4/5

Published by Karen Knox

We’re at that bit in the project where it feels like we’re moving in treacle. We’ve got a big hole in the ceiling. It’s cold. And we’re waiting. Waiting for windows to be fitted (one more week) and the staircase to arrive (two more weeks). In the meantime we’re at a bit of a standstill and it’s starting to wear us down. So i’m going to take a moment. A moment to reflect on what i’ve learnt so far. Lesson One Any work at home, large or small puts an extra layer of tension in a household. Every day when Charlie gets home from nursery, he asks “is our new house ready yet?” which at the beginning of the project was really cute and hilarious. Five weeks later, not so much. “No Charlie, no. Our house is not finished yet. There is a scaffold up outside. A skip in the driveway, a hole in the ceiling and the heating it set to “tropical”.  Then there’s the nightly de-brief of the day’s events between me and the …

A mixed bag. The Loft Extension – Wk 3

Published by Karen Knox

So what’s happened since last week? Well as the title suggests, it’s been a melange of loft extension based events. There’s been a lot of banging. MY WORD. So much banging. But banging means progress, and progress is good. Dormer tiled, old loft boards and joists ripped out, new joists fitted and another steel hoisted up for something or other. Something structural. Whatever. When can I get in? At this point i’m feeling pretty redundant, I just want to get up there and start waving my arms around showing everyone where things are going. So, to prevent me asking “is it done yet?” every 90 minutes, i’ve been keeping myself busy by placing orders for some of the key pieces making their way into our soon-to-be new rooms. Bedroom mood-board recap And my very first piece for the bedroom has arrived. Well apart from the brick wall, that’s already there. See the two ceiling lights either side of the bed? They’re going to be the bedside lights. These actually: Maria 180 lights from Urban Cottage Industries …

And we’re in! The Loft Extension – Wk 2

Published by Karen Knox

So where were we? (catch up on Wk 1 here) That’s it, the dormer was up and the new roof-line was ready to tile. Blimey, so much has happened since then. Come see. Phone pic Ta-da! A newly tiled roof with gable end. Going to take some getting used to the new house shape. The aluminium windows for the dormer have been measured and priced up. Our first quote of over £4.5k made me cry a little inside. Then punch a cushion. I know aluminium is expensive. I do know this. But £4.5k? That’s a car right there. Which reminds me, the quote for the windows came in the day before my car failed its MOT which cost me £700. **sigh** What do they say? When it rains it pours… something like that. The windows, however were something I wasn’t prepared to compromise on (along with everything else). They needed to be big. The bigger the better. And these are going to be just that. Luckily, we got another couple of quotes that came in as …

The Loft Extension – Wk 1

Published by Karen Knox

Operation Loft Extension is now officially GO. Levels of excitement are at an all time high here at Making Spaces HQ. I’m super busy working behind the scenes on this one and i’ll be showing you the whole process from start to finish over the next few months. Here was the space 10 days ago, just before we flew out to New York. The loft just about emptied and ready to rock. You can see it’s got a good head height. 2.9m to be precise with a floor area of around 5.5 x 8m. Spot the rather sexy exposed brick wall in there? Well obviously that’s staying. One week later: Day 1. Scaffold up, kettle on and materials everywhere. Day 2. The framework for the rear dormer starts to go up.   Day 3. The new roof steel gets lugged up to the top and positioned to give us the new roofline. We’re switching from a hipped roof to gable end, negating the need for two dormers. Day 4. The roof goes up over the dormer. …