Justified & Ancient

(The KLF featuring Tammy Wynette, 1991)

Our quest continues to find more tiles to complete those we salvaged from the old kitchen.  Last week, we visited another salvage yard - Stefantiek, near Mechelen.  

Another impressive array of bits of old houses, including  

... hunks of pierre bleue

... entire staircases,

... lions (pre-wrapped, what indignity),

... but no joy in the tile department.  There was nothing to match ours, and nothing that we could imagine putting there instead.  The prices here were however much less unbalanced than the last place (which offered 5 eur/ square metre to buy, and 175 eur/metre square to sell).  Here, they would buy back ours for 20 eur/metre square and sell for 70 eur/metre square.  

 

The search continues...   all recommedations welcome!

Touch the Sky

Kanye West (2006)

This week, work on the back roof has started, under thankfully blue skies. 

In the spare room, we can now see the centuries of dust and grime...

... but also one of Brussels' landmarks, the Atomium, built for the 1958 Expo (World Fair) and now the symbol of an era.   The bedroom is also in line for some demolition. The window has been taken out, and next the brickword underneath will be removed.

Eventually, this will be French window leading onto the green roof.  You can also just make out the neighbour's illegal terrace, decorated with hanging plastic dinosaurs. More news on that in due course..

A room with a view

The kitchen is now taking shape, or more precisely the huuuge kitchen window.  The size of it has surprised us - despite all the plans and models, we had not envisaged quite how high 3m70 really is.  Well, there'll certainly be lots of light.  I just wonder how we are ever going to manage to clean up there.

Meanwhile, the new concrete column is drying out...

... and work has started on the roof. 

To begin with, they have removed the rotten cornice (they will make an identical copy, salvaging pieces from the original one where possible).















 


... and some of the roof tiles, revealing a stunning view of the Schaerbeek Town Hall, floodlit at dusk.   We won't be able to see it so easily when the new roof is back on, so something to enjoy while we can. 

(Still) Moving on up

More progress on the back extension.  I will spare you the details of the site meeting (the merits of neopor vs. multipor) and give you some pics. The kitchen now has a floor and the beginnings of some walls.  Under the ladder on the left is where the staircase down to the garden will go. 

 

Here is the view from the kitchen.  Since the window will reach the floor and stretch across almost the whole width of the kitchen, this is pretty much the view as it will be (ok, with a bit of imagination...). 

The back facade is meanwhile looking a bit sad.  With this many holes, it's a wonder it's still holding together.  Next stage is to knock out the doorway and window on the first floor landing, insert the new beams and brick up the spaces around the new window.

 

 In the meantime, we have literally a cross-section of the house.

Move on up

( Curtis Mayfield, 1970)



Another week of progress.  The contractors have been working their way upwards from the foundations, and the garden room now has walls and a ceiling,...

.. windows looking out to the garden, ...




.. and a doorway, which is always useful.



It also seems that shitty kitty has returned, though this time leaving only a few paw marks in the concrete.



Meanwhile, the garden has - rather as expected - become a wasteland of concrete and junk.  We are very pleased that we covered up the earth with old lino and carpets.



But it's still touch or go whether the hydrangea will make it.  After a narrow escape from a stray shovelfull of cement, we have wrapped it in pink ribbon, in a vain attempt to identify it as something to preserve.  We have also sent a message to the contractors, so hopefully that should do it.

From the ground up

It's suddenly getting hard to keep up with the changes.  I just miss a week of updating the blog and am overtaken by events.  So, here in brief is the news from last Saturday. 

The most visible change was that, under the blue tarpauline, the foundations for the garden room have been laid.

Access to the drains and the cistern has been provided for.

On the left is the corner will be where the laundry will be.

And here, against the far wall the staircase will come down from the kitchen to the garden (you can just make out garden ground level on the right) and the garden room.

And the new beam above the door of the garden room, which will be supporting the weight of house.

The only thing which is not looking too happy is Mum's Villosa lace-cap hydrandea, which had a narrow escape from a shovelful of rubble.  It's going to need some protective fencing until the leaves come out and it is less camouflaged...