Day 74 - Pootility Room?

One of the things we considered last weekend was the downstairs loo. On the plans it leads off the hall and the door is directly opposite the front door, not ideal. Also we were worried that the hall would be rather long and twisty, an unfortunate consequence of moving the front door to the front of the house!



We've decided to get rid of the coat cupboard - it protrudes too far into the hall, a coat rack will have to suffice.

Then Ern came up with the bright idea of moving the loo door into the utility. We discussed the pros and cons and decided to go for it, if it was possible.

I spoke to Shaun and he agreed it should be possible if we moved the hand basin under the window but also came up with a new possibility - cutting off the corner of the loo with a diagonal wall and putting the door in there, the access would still be off the hall but the door wouldn't directly face the front door.

After more debate we decided we loved the diagonal wall idea but still wanted the access off the utility, but could we have the loo hanging off the diagonal wall?

The diagonal wall would also give us more space in the hall and hopefully a better flow. And an interesting diagonal wall! The downstairs loo is pretty spacious so it wouldn't make much difference to the space in there.

This week I met with the brickie and he laid the blocks out to give us an idea how it will look





We're pleased, it definitely makes a difference to the flow of the hallway, it seems to flow rather than the previous abrupt left turn. Plus the guys think it should be fine to hang the pan off the diagonal wall which will add interest to the downstairs loo.

And the blog post title? Several years back my folks modified their kitchen/downstairs loo area so that what had been a cupboard off the kitchen became an extension to the downstairs loo and space to stack the washing machine and tumble dryer. At one of their infamous November fireworks parties some wag, no doubt under the influence of the notorious mulled wine, dubbed it the pootility room, a lovely juxtaposition of toilet and utility room.

Day 53 - The hole is resolved - hooray!

Spoke to Shaun and the hole/waste pipe problem is now resolved.

The structural engineer that Fowles engaged came up with a much simplified solution which was approved by building control and the work's been completed!

They had to dig a little further down and then encased the pipe in some padding, put a steel over the top and then filled the hole in with hardcore and then concrete for the footing.

By the time we saw it the wall was already up on top of it!

Day 52 - The Wall dividing East and West Lounge goes up

Part of the changes we're making is to steal some space from the lounge to make a study/den for the boys. Somewhere they can play computer games on the laptops, do homework, play on the wii and watch what they want on the TV - not all at the same time obviously!

It's not going to be a huge room but it should be big enough for some desks at one end and a small sofa and tv at the other.


Lounge side view - this will end up being a corridor with access to the storeroom, utility room and the new lounge


Study side view - The boarding is what used to be the patio doors in the lounge. At some point they'll be a window there