Building on to my house

By Peter Merton, 27th Sep 2013 | Follow this author | RSS Feed | Short URL http://nut.bz/1kj2xmuy/
Posted in Wikinut>Guides>DIY>Building & Remodeling

How I extended my house for a library and study space, with an added tower and spiral staircase

Building a library and a tower onto my house

the builders and the building

I am a literary historian and I have thousands of books. I had no more place for them and my house was a shambles with no walking space between piles of books and notes and so on. I had a salary back then and decided in 2004 to add a wing to my house to serve as a library and study and extra living space.

I drew it up and made a cardboard model, and then got an architect to make proper plans and submit to the municipality for approval.

I found a competent local builder and got estimates. I extended my mortgage, cashed in some policies, and put the money together.

There was a collapsing pair of old wood-and-glass rooms on the end of the house where I wanted the wing, and I demolished those myself, single-handed, with sledge hammer, crowbar, angle grinder, and a truck to dump the remains.

The builders did their job, and I now have a large ground floor library and study, an upstairs extra bed-sit with bath and toilet, a hexagonal tower with a spiral staircase and a trapdoor leading to a small parapet on top.

I sourced all the timber from a demolition company - nineteenth-century northern pine, with wonderful well-proportioned beams that had to have ancient triangular-profile brads removed.

Now I have an attractive and practical space, but I sit with a large mortgage and I write in order to earn and pay this off. One thing leads to another, and desire always has its costs.

Meet the author

Peter Merton
I am a novelist, ceramicist, motorcyclist and traveller. I also write flash fiction, travel snapshots, and meditations for Christians in the new age.

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Comments

Fern Mc Costigan
28th Sep 2013 (#)

Looks like youre a very talented lad my friend!

Reply to this comment

Peter Merton
28th Sep 2013 (#)

Ta Fern. Overstretched, is another way of putting it.

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Mk
13th Nov 2013 (#)

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