The grand plan
Apart from a lick of paint and a recent bathroom, the house is pretty much unchanged since built:
- Gas warm-air heating (ducts, and lots of 'em) with electric immersion heater for hot water
- Parquet floors to lounge, hallway and dining room which needs resanding, filling and sealing (plus filling the gaps left when we remove the warm-air heating outlets)
- 1970s kitchen, including sliding-door cabinets!
Our aspirations are:
- Immediate - Convert current tiny utility and the end of the double-length garage into a new dining area flowing off the kitchen, plus new utility and (probably) downstairs shower room
- Immediate - Roof lantern and bi-fold doors onto garden in new dining area
- Immediate - Replace warm-air heating, ideally with something more environmentally friendly
- Medium term - New kitchen (self-fitted)
- Long term - Replace tiling on gable ends with cladding (possibly cement board e.g. Marley Eternit)
Challenges are:
- Three-gabled (T-shaped) chalet roof limits possibilities upstairs unless we put in dormers (which we don't have budget for and which would be tricky anyway due to multiple gables)
- No space to add a shower to upstairs bathroom unless we make the small bedroom smaller still. Possibly considering downstairs shower
- Existing ground-floor spaces are concrete floor with no inbuilt insulation
- Garage floor is about 100mm lower and so when we raise floor we'll have to raise the roof too
- Extending heating to the converted area of the garage - warm-air ducts can't be extended (and we don't think we're fans of it anyway). Garage floor isn't low enough for UFH and necessary insulation, and we don't have budget for lowering it, so it's going to have to be a combi-boiler and rads
- Asbestos throughout (we've had a specialist survey) including soffits, boiler flue, roof tile underboard, boiler cupboard door, utility ceiling, Marley vinyl floor tiles in kitchen (only the last three of these areas are likely to be touched though). No asbestos in warm-air ducting - confirmed by survey.
- Budget for immediate stuff is £30k. Conversion could be £20k, leaving only £10k for heating changes.
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