Thursday 11 January 2018

Feeling a bit rusty.

Have to admit I am feeling a bit rusty.
Just like any other brain activity -or any kind of activity for that matter- unless trained, used and exercised on a regular basis......

Nevermind, it's been a while I had not applied my grey cells to some 3 dimensional puzzle games like how to fit a bathroom into a niche half above the stairs and half into the butterfly roof loft space in order to be able to fit a decent sized second bedroom within the rest of the floorplan.

On top of the spatial constraints, come the financial and regulatory puzzle pieces.... As soon as we open the loft space, new insulation becomes a requirement for building control.... The new support for the load bearing wall, and the extra costs that follow suit.... How much value is added by this second bedroom? Does it cover the necessary additional expenses?

These are the questions on the top floor. But in the lower ground, it seems that the only two options to have two bedrooms to fit is to either knock off the wall that supports the entire staircase across the 4 floors above, or maybe skew the corridor to some "funky angle" in order to knock the wall off but at least keep the pretty much predetermined place for pillars to support it!

I could go on but you get the picture.  It's like playing with a 3 dimensional puzzle.... Maybe 6 dimensional once you take financials, timeframe s and regulations into the equation?

That's just the "straightforward" phase 1 where we are taking the existing 4 flats and just refurbish them for resale later in the spring, but am already looking forward to walking around the finished product!

Plenty of obstacles still to go but it's a labour of love... Can't deny it. Just wish I had more time to exercise that part of the brain a bit more often.

Literally "watch this space"