As many of you know, one of the biggest pieces of life admin I have been involved with lately has been my loft conversion.

After about 18 months of hard work getting all the paperwork in order and getting all the permissions from the council and the housing association and the bank, I finally got the money and it’s all started!

I thought I would document the process as I go along too….

Week 0 – the scaffolding was put up at the back of the house while I was at work the week before the work got started – It’s unfortunate that they had to squish a few things in my flower beds, but they’ve clearly tried not to do too much damage, which is nice!

Week 1: my lovely builders, S and G rocked  up on Monday morning with a lorry and a crane to lift all the materials over the top of the house and onto the scaffolding/into the garden. It’s a bit of a squeeze as there is not a lot of storage space in my tiny garden!!!

Although they originally estimated it would be 6-8 weeks, once they arrived they have cheerfully announced that it’s an easy job, and they reckon it’ll be no more than 4 weeks tops. I was somewhat sceptical of this plan, although so far I must say they’ve been going like the clappers and everything does seem to be moving pretty fast!

I’ve had to hurry up and start ordering tiles for the bathroom, and selecting some paint colours etc.

Here’s what the loft looked like before all the work started:

Then in the first week they really went fast!

Week 2: In goes the dormer – just like that after only 6 days!

Roof struts in, and felting/waterproofing

Then in goes the NASA-approved insulation

And then boom! Velux windows go in! Just like that!

Three skylights – one for the stairs, one for the bedroom, and one for the bathroom.

My dad pokes his head up the ladder to take a look as the floors go down

Week 3: They knock through the ceiling and the stairs go in!

And in go the stairs…

And then the walls and plasterboard go in

Meanwhile my bedroom gets a tad cluttered

Pipes go in ready for plumbing

And then it all gets plastered

Cupboards going in

Guttering and tiles go on

This next segment I like to call “Bannisters much?”

Critical carpet testing – the toe test!

Painting starts in the spare room!

I am in LOVE with my new shower tiles. i laid them out on the floor to see how they would go best in the shower.

Tiles go in

Sadly there were lots of broken ones…

Sexy new floor goes in!!

My lovely blinds go in

I put this one in all by myself!

Bit of Sunday morning painting

Shower gets installed

Towel rail, sink and loo go in

My very sexy new splashback is in!

All grouted!

Painting going on

Trying to think of something cool to do with my broken leftover tiles…

New floor in my other bathroom too

Carpet goes in!

My eaves space still fits most of my storage boxes – amazing!

Then the flat-packing marathon begins

I put up the curtain rail all by myself

All done! New chest of drawers!

I finally moved in! Here’s my bed

Achieved another life goal – I’ve always wanted a decorative birdcage full of fairy lights that look like flowers….

Pictures go up on the walls

Hall and stairs get new carpets too

Shower door goes on – finally complete!

After moving up into my new penthouse bedroom, and my lodger moved across into my old bedroom (here’s all her stuff that I moved!)

Then it was time to convert my third room into a new spare room/home office (as I’m working from home a lot more now)

First I build the new wardrobe

Then my new desk

And a chair…

Then the new guest bed…

It was at this point I realised I had put a critical bracket on upside down and had to re-do some bits….

Ta-da! New spare bed!

It has lots of storage space…

And it also folds out into a double bed!

Then my brother used his amazing DIY skills to help me put up some bookshelves. Here he is unimpressed with how straight the first attempt was….

That’s better!

My flat-pack marathon – I should get some sort of an Ikea achievement badge by now!

Now it’s just a case of putting up pictures and general decorating

The hallway gets a new bookcase too

So that’s it!!

All done!!