Simple Cottage restoration project

[MacReady]

We are starting to move from our rented five year old, four bedroom detached house this week...into something that, myself and my girlfriend think, is something much much better

We are buying a two hundred year church school dormatory that was converted some Years ago into two cottages and then back into one some Years after that. It was then allowed to become derelict before someone bought it along with the Grade II listed property to the side of it and the land in front and adjoining the church grounds.

The owner then built a new property on the ground next to the cottage, demolished the structurally unsafe Grade II building with the intention to rebuild it using all the materials salvaged and started the renovation of the cottages.

He has let us buy the cottages in a state of about 85% completion so that we can finish it off over the next Year or so.

Anyway, I thought I would start this thread as I intend to do quite a bit with regards the AV,lighting,networking etc in the place as the work goes on and thought it may be of interest to some.

Here are some pics to start with and afew thoughts about what I have in mind.


This is the outside. You can see the edge of the new building just to the right hand side and also the chimney (which is all that is left standing) of the Grade II property to the left.

This is the living room leading in from the dining room. I am going to rip off all the skirting over the next couple of weeks, get all the speaker and network cables chanelled in behind and also fit new plates for everything as well as new lighting and finishing off the fireplace with a nice piece of timber for the mantle.

The one issue I have in this room is that when the property was re-wired they fitted the new fuse box in place of the old one....and it's on a main wall in the living room. Looking at the option of moving or possibly buying a floating wall storage unit that could be hung around it so it cant be seen.

We are also going to replace the carpet in the living room and dining room with some dark wood flooring as well as remove the doors between the rooms to make it one large through space.

The main area's of the house that need the big money spending are the kitchen and the bathroom but we also have big plans for them too

So, sorry for the long post, just very very excited about this place and getting started on it. I will post some more pics of the other rooms later as we also want to get a nice AV set up in the master bedroom as well as my two kids have more integrated AV/PC and gaming systems in their room.

Will keep this thread updated as we get each stage done (the living/dining area is going to be the first so the AV stuff should be all done within the next few months Any comments or suggestions are more than welcome

[andybailey1972]

Another thread that I am going to keep an eye on. Good luck and hope that everything goes according to plan.

[JuzzyD]

That looks a nice place - good luck with the work.

[MacReady]

We finally got everything moved over into cottage....so almost every room is now pilled up with boxes and furniture.

Got started on chasing the walls in the living room yesterday. It's not going to be easy going as it is plaster over solid stone so I have only managed to get the ones from where the TV will be mounted down to the skirting done so far. Not looking forward to chasing all around the bottom of the room and I am still not sure what to do about getting the cable for the rear speakers to them when I get to the fireplace. The hearth is bonded straight to the concrete floor so I cant move it to run cable round it and I don't want to go all around the double door and single door to go the other way and that would be a LOT more chasing out to be done

I think that, for now, the cable may just run out from behind the skirting and under the carpet at that point and then back into the skirting when past the fire....then when the wood flooring is fitted it can be carefully laid under that around there....but if anyone has any other ideas or suggestions then fire away

Want to start ripping off the skirting board in the living room tonight and get all the new wall plates ordered (going to fit some new power points in the living room as well as fitting speaker plates, Sky connection plates, co-ax for the sub and network all in the new skirting board behind the av units). Also got permission from the guy who owns the grade II site to look through all the beams he rescued from that building to pick one we can have re-sized to go on top of the fireplace and he says we can have it for nothing

The Missus has picked the wallpaper she wants for in there and we are ordereing the sofa this week so hopefully shouldn't be long before that room is pretty much done.

Will post some pics of the progress when there is more to show this weekend.

Also decided to have a basic HC system in my oldest lads room. His bedroom is much larger than his last one and with his current furniture there was a lot of dead space in the middle of the room so we are going to divide into into two areas with one half being the sleeping area with bed and wardrobe etc and the other with a nice sofa bed, 5.1 set up, TV on the wall....hopefully it will be a good starter set up for him.

[gareth_alien]

This looks like one of the best 'blank canvas' starts I've seen. What a glorious building, good luck with the work.

[alz2605]

All the best with the work and I'm sure, judging by your previous efforts, it'll turn out to be a fantastic place!

[Smurfin]

Originally Posted by MacReady

We finally got everything moved over into cottage....so almost every room is now pilled up with boxes and furniture.

Got started on chasing the walls in the living room yesterday. It's not going to be easy going as it is plaster over solid stone so I have only managed to get the ones from where the TV will be mounted down to the skirting done so far. Not looking forward to chasing all around the bottom of the room and I am still not sure what to do about getting the cable for the rear speakers to them when I get to the fireplace. The hearth is bonded straight to the concrete floor so I cant move it to run cable round it and I don't want to go all around the double door and single door to go the other way and that would be a LOT more chasing out to be done

I think that, for now, the cable may just run out from behind the skirting and under the carpet at that point and then back into the skirting when past the fire....then when the wood flooring is fitted it can be carefully laid under that around there....but if anyone has any other ideas or suggestions then fire away

Want to start ripping off the skirting board in the living room tonight and get all the new wall plates ordered (going to fit some new power points in the living room as well as fitting speaker plates, Sky connection plates, co-ax for the sub and network all in the new skirting board behind the av units). Also got permission from the guy who owns the grade II site to look through all the beams he rescued from that building to pick one we can have re-sized to go on top of the fireplace and he says we can have it for nothing

The Missus has picked the wallpaper she wants for in there and we are ordereing the sofa this week so hopefully shouldn't be long before that room is pretty much done.

Will post some pics of the progress when there is more to show this weekend.

Also decided to have a basic HC system in my oldest lads room. His bedroom is much larger than his last one and with his current furniture there was a lot of dead space in the middle of the room so we are going to divide into into two areas with one half being the sleeping area with bed and wardrobe etc and the other with a nice sofa bed, 5.1 set up, TV on the wall....hopefully it will be a good starter set up for him.

re: the chasing. Why not just run the cable up the walls and across the ceilings? All you need to do is lift the floorboards on the floor above, much easier than chasing all round the room

[MacReady]

Originally Posted by Smurfin

re: the chasing. Why not just run the cable up the walls and across the ceilings? All you need to do is lift the floorboards on the floor above, much easier than chasing all round the room

I had thought of that, but the room above has a hoooooooge built in wardrobe filling all of one wall. It's going eventually but, at the moment, it's something that definitly wont move

[MacReady]

All the skirting boards in the living room are now off and all the channeling has been done for the cables. Going to get the cables trunked in tomorrow and try and plaster over the ones for the TV and also get the TV mount on the wall.

Got a 5 port Netgear switch today to run from the router for the living room to run the 360, PS3 and, in the future, a media centre pc.

Also finally worked out all the wall plates I need today so going to order those tomorrow.

[Smurfin]

Originally Posted by MacReady

I had thought of that, but the room above has a hoooooooge built in wardrobe filling all of one wall. It's going eventually but, at the moment, it's something that definitly wont move

Do you have access into the floor from inside the wardrobe though? I have a built in wardrobe in my old house, from where I robbed floorboards to patch the damaged ones in the main room