My apartment Project log

[Dr House]

That looks a good buy above.

Iv got three bids pending now, 1 i will get im sure, fingers crossed on the others.

That looks a good buy above.

Iv got three bids pending now, 1 i will get im sure, fingers crossed on the others.

Yah it was a fantastic buy, if you remember I asked if you where interested in the one next door but you snobbed the CR post code.

The developer built 2 of them one for him self and one for his dad, so he has done everything to a very high spec with under floor heating, Rako mood lighting, solid wood/glass stairs, Miele kitchen and WestOne bathrooms. The poor guy spent 5 years on the project and lost a lot of money in the end

Thats it here
http://s872.photobucket.com/albums/ab283/nastytooth/house/

 

[Dr House]

I hope I'm wrong but this sounds like a train wreck.

if I were you I'd stop wasting money on hobs and finishings and get the shell into a sellable state, that way if you don't get extra funding or the bottom drops out of your investments you have something to fall back on, odds on a developer wont give you tuppance for a motorised mielle hob.

hope I'm wrong but it doesnt read at all well, unless your combined families have deep bailout pockets, in which case you are sorted.

I would not go as far as calling it a train wreck but we have hit some bumps in the road, the problem is that my wife does not want to sell it and until she finishes her specialisation in 2.5 years we will definitely not be moving so I still want to do it to a high standard and not just look at it from an investment point of view.

I am lucky in that both of our parents have quite deep pockets and are both willing to help us its just that I am too proud to accept it however if the brown stuff hits the fan I will have to accept my parents money and just refinance it at a later date to pay them back.

 

[Dr House]

ahh in that case I applaud your tactics

a) stock up on the greatest gadgets money can buy
b) hide them,
c) feign financial hardhsip
d) accept the bail out,
e) complete project
f) sleep badly worrying about your white lies
g) install hidden gadgets
h) sleep soundly
i) profit!

lol Im trying my best to do it on my own or as close to as possible, my dad is a gadget feend and keeps trying to persuade me to incorporate all sorts of weird and wonderful toys.

 

[Dr House]

Isn't that hood a bit hmmmm 'gash' ???
It only moves 30cm, might as well just leave it in the up position and not be banging your head on it all the time right? Steam/heat rises anyway so whats the benefit?
$5 says after one month the novelty wears off and you just leave it up anyway, for it to be worth anything it'd have to be automatic...

Not hating on anything, I love gadgets, useful ones

Well the hood will be in the middle of the island so the idea is that it will be stored 30cm above the hight of a normal hood and will only move down when cooking thus not obstructing the view when you are not cooking.

We also have a miele induction hob, the hob automatically controls the hight and fan speed of the hood so theoretically we should never have to even press a button on the hood.

 

[Dr House]

Very small update.

We finally sorted out many of the building regulation problems which has shaved another 25k off the build cost. I also have managed to come to an out of court settlement with the developer on some issues so things have started moving nicely.

We should start the build work on 18.07.11, I dont know how long its going to take but we should have a time line soon. I estimate 6 months.


We have finalised 2 of the bathroom arraignments, the pictures are just to give you an idea of the arrangement not the tiles or Sanitaryware.
Bedroom 3

Bedroom 2, except we will loose the bidet and have a double bath.

Kitchen we are a bit closer to a final arrangement. The back run of units are solid basalt faced (it’s a volcanic rock), the island run of kitchen cabinets will be in frosted white glass. I don’t know what color the floor will be yet but probably white also.

WC

 

[Dr House]

Ok so we have finally started work on this thing, 2 years late but its going.


This is picture of the back of the flat (the 2 dormer windows)

Both removed to be replaced by a 5m wide folding sliding doors.

we are also doing the same at the other end of the living room

 

[Dr House]

This is what it looks like inside at the moment.

one end of the living room

other end of the living room

This is what it will look like when done

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ki1rnW_uU5qxRN5vnTABQD3JkPHcnxOZcDnldY_-0GE?feat=directlink

 

[Dr House]

I can't wait for updates, can't believe it's been two years.

What software was those renders?

There should be quite a lot of work done over the next 3 months and then it will slow down again until I manage to sort out some more liquid cash.


No idea about the renders sorry.

Good luck, hopefully there'll be no more snags!

Thanks,

Lots of work has gone into the planning stage so hopefully everything should go well from here.

 

[Dr House]

Looking forward to the updates. How long is is now planned to take?

It should be possible to get everything done over the next 9 months however a lot is depended on my cash flow, if the stock market picks up I can get the work done on time. If not it will have to wait until I can free up cash.

 

[Dr House]

ok update on the above work. As you can see the 2 Dormer windows have been removed, the roof cut open, the supporting steel thing removed and a new huge dormer put in its place. We will have a schuco sliding door put in in there with a glass balcony (5m x 1.8m) it was supposed to be much bigger however due to some structural issues this is the best we could do.

The next step is to build the same thing on the other side of the room.

Before

EDIT: this is the living room end of the living/ dining room it does not have the best view the other side is much much better. I should have an update in around a week when that side has been done.

 

[Dr House]

Robbie G,
I have no idea what program was used as I did not do it my self, sorry.

Thanks for the tip no the kitchen floor, I really did not think of that but its a very valid point.

 

[Dr House]

Seems utter madness to spend this on a flat, nevermind one you may not be in in three years time?

When we started the project we planed to stay there for the foreseeable future because of my wife's job, but that may have changed so we may be free to move if we want to. She wants to stay in the area however I am from the south and would rather move out of the UK or back down to london.

I don't think we will make a loss on it if we decide to sell up and move.

 

[Dr House]

If we do ever move I would not keep it, the project has basically made us "house poor" due to 2 massive mortgages I have on it. The next time we move I will get something much cheaper and use the extra cash to enjoy life a little more.

 

[Dr House]

2 mortgages on a flat?

Bet the people below are happy about having scaffolding right outsider their windows.

The flats under me with the scaffolding up are owned by the developer and it was put into my contract that I would be allowed to do this before I bought the space. I hope it will come down in around 6 weeks form now.

1 mortgage is on the flat, second had to be taken on something else to cover part of the over spend.

 

[Dr House]

Soo few more photos.

The new dormers are now finished

To be honest I am really really very !!! disappointed with them, they got a lot smaller then had planed and we intended them to come down to the floor and as you can see they are not even close.

New stairs to the mezzanine level

Again I Just don't understand why it was not designed to be the full width of the opening.

 

[Dr House]

Ok so small update.

The above "windows" are now finished.

However to we had some large items to get into the flat which would not fit through the doors. This includes a couple of baths and my mattress.

So delivery day:
It would not fit in a normal truck so I had to get one of these

The mattress:

However we could not pull it up the side of the building as its over 200kg
so I had to get one of these. I think its called a Ihop

on its way up

and finally in after 2 hours

Here it is in the bedroom

Then same story for our bath's

It holds 440l of water.

Ok so now that everything has gone trough the windows was finally managed to get the winnows installed in the new dormers we built.

This is the living room side

This is the dining room side

We replaced the PVC windows in the kitchen to match the living room and dining room

We have finally got the heating system in. We decided to go with a 35KW viessmann boiler, a 310l viessmann water cylinder. We also installed two whole house water filters to remove any heavy metals and chlorine from the water. We also installed a commercial water softener.
The hope it that it will deliver unto 83l/min of what water. An average show needs around 10l/m so hopefully we should be able to have all 4 showers going at the same time.

We have installed hot and cold water manifolds in each bathroom so there should be no loss in pressure or temperate change if a tap is switched on anywhere in the house.

This is the plan for the UFH

We have also stated the CAT6 install. I have around 20 runs going to every room.

 

[Dr House]

200kg mattress?!

Jeez, I've never heard of anyone having to get a crane to deliver a mattress before.

Looks like it's coming along nicely now though.

Well its quite big at 2.4m X 2.4m so it has just over 4000 springs in it

 

[Dr House]

Link?

Its custom made by Vi-Spring

http://www.vispring.co.uk/the-colle...uxury-mattresses/bedstead-superb-mattress.htm

 

[Dr House]

Why do you need such a large mattress! o.O

Is this the London side of your location of the Prague side? Just a bit curious. Very very interesting though, but can't believe it's taken so long!

kd

Well we have a big room (about 30 ft long) so I thought it would be nice to try and fill it properly. Its in the uk, close to Sheffield.

Its really taken longer then it should have, we area coming unto 2 years now because we had some issues with building regs. Then we had money problems, then I got really busy at work and the list just goes on and one.

I hope to have it finished in 3 to 6 months now.

 

[Dr House]

Chainsaw of course

lol that what I told my wife. we only managed to get it into the bedroom because I knocked the door out

looking back on it I should have never bought it.


I am toying with the idea of getting this for the kitchen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA98chdygYI