Now time for another major upgrade to the house. When we bought the bungalow in 2007 it already had a ‘Sunroom’ to the full width of the rear of the house with a flat roof & white plastic window frames & door.
Sunroom refit
These now needed to be upgraded so we again spoke with Wigan Planning to see if we needed Planning Approval and again the answer was no as it was classed as Permitted Development even though we were changing the flat roof to a pitched roof.
This time we worked with Ryan and the team at Ryplas who were the most competitive in price. We were in the middle of the COVID pandemic and it seemed that most of the UK were spending their holiday money on house refurbishments. To add to the demand for builders and helping drive the costs upwards was that the pandemic was causing supply issues for building materials.
Ryan’s team started in earnest but we hit a bump in the road with Wigan Building Control requiring a change in foundation style. However, we worked with a local Structural Engineer to prove that the existing foundations were more than suitable to carry the weight of the new brickwork and roof. Approval granted.
Another bump in the road was when Ryan’s team took the existing concrete tiles off the roof of the bungalow and it was noticeable that the gable wall from about ten brick courses from the ridge were being pulled out of alignment by approx. 100mm by the telecom cable running to the telegraph pole. We spoke with BT who were not particularly helpful in accepting that the problem was being caused by their wire. Eventually they did send an engineer who disconnected the cable. Ryan was able to rebuild the gable wall for us and added back in some new cavity wall ties.
We even had some spare cash to replace the worktops, kitchen hob & splashbacks to the kitchen.
Garden make-over
Just as the building work to the Sunroom was coming to an we decided to have the garden stripped back & new flags & artificial grass added.
We were given the contact details of my aunts nephew Simon who undertakes garden remodelling.
Simon started the project but unfortunately the heavens opened and the garden suddenly looked like a swamp. The weather eventually turned the corner and Simon was able to complete the work.
We now have a garden that we feel we can sit in without the need to keep on top of the weeds and gardening.
Sunroom photographs
Garden makeover photographs
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