ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
Hi all,
My wife and I purchased a 1980s house some 4 years ago with a view to altering it slightly.. one thing lead to another and before long all that was left were 2 gable ends and some roof trusses! It has all taken rather longer than we anticipated partly as I was project managing, building, sourcing materials and bringing in trades one after the other myself, rather than using one dedicated building company. I did send the build out for tender to 7 different builders - not a single one would quote or were even remotely interested in taken on our 'Scandinavian transformation' So I hired some labourers to take the house apart and do it myself, with the help and input of the various trades required to complete it - that is now 2 years ago and we have finally completed the inside of the house. I have downloaded a number of photos from the build but I don't want to bore anyone with endless building pics and because they are all iphone pics they are not the best quality unfortunately either so please excuse the quality and layout but having received much input over the years - and recently with my refurb installations from you all - I felt I should at least show the results. It is not possible for me to post start to finish in one 'sitting' so I will try to group things together to give you an idea.
Some pics of the original house exterior and interior to start:
Ripping the house apart:
As you can see there really was not much house left, even the floor screed was dug up in order to insulate and fit underfloor heating and a large part of the structure was held up by 20+ acrow props in order to fit some 11 large steel beams to open up the entire downstairs living room/kitchen area.
Rebuilding commences:
The 3 dormers to the rear of the house were removed to create one large dormer making those rooms visible much larger.
Rebuilding continues, Zinc roof fitted etc.
^^ the above wall is the TV wall.. note the amount of sockets and the Powerlead cables from Steve at Soundsheavenly running over the ceiling :)
^^ above more powerlink cables from Steve running down the living room pillars from the office above ready for a Core installation :)
The old utility room has been split in half to make space for a climate controlled wine room (glass door in the middle above)
Plastering starts - above pic is from the cigar room where the underfloor heating manifold for the ground floor has been hidden in the wall.
Shadow gaps for Ash veneer panels in the cigar room for the walk-in humidor and below the same ash panels for the TV wall in the master bedroom
Deleted due to sideways photos..
Bear with me guys, I need to spend some time trying to sort out all these sideways photos before I can complete the thread...
Holy F... talking about a radical approach!
Do I spot another Danish Icon,- a Velux skylight ?
Yes Beovox.. it kinda escalated a bit once I started taking a few walls down. You are correct, a remote controlled Velux with rainsensor, 120 x 80 cm. I decided to alter the roof and make a vaulted ceiling in the middle to flood the staircase with light.. another 'slight' amendment to the original plan.
In fact most of the stuff fitted are from Denmark (I was born in Aarhus) Ideal Combi windows and front doors, Kvik kitchen and bahrooms, Jydepejsen braendeovn (wood burner), a lot of danish furniture and of course B&O. I have been busy driving to Denmark and back collecting stuff in a large van!
OK, I think I have managed to sort out the sideways photo problem. I will continue with the wine room again, now with legible photos!
So, we split the existing utility room in half and fitted 80 mm PIR panels to make a self enclosed cube totally insulated and temperature controlled:
^^ Condenser placed on the outside wall (House will be insulated and cladded outside later hiding all the pipes)
Below the inside cooler and the control panel hidden above domestic integrated freezer
Danish kitchen and utitlity room fitted, floor tiled in utitlity room. 250 mm wide French oak wood floor being layed. Wine room can be seen to the right of the kitchen island with the open glass door:
The main living room TV wall is 6.5 meters wide (the photos are misleading) and I decided to fit a new product Concreate to that wall in order to break up the clinical white and I also felt it would look excellent as a background for my B&O.. here it is being fitted:
I wanted Ash wood panels in the cigar room for my walk-in humidor and also in the master bed room for the TV and Beosound 35 installation. Here are the panels being fitted:
The remaining walls in the cigar room are wall papered with eel skin faux leather to avoid smoke stains and smells allowing them to be wiped down occasionally.
Underfloor heating manifold hidden in the wall.
^^ I fitted a smoke extraction system with 4 ducts in the ceiling and a remote controlled panel for the extractor
Below the Ash panels fitted to the master bedroom TV wall:
Shelving for the walk-in humidor installed, also ash, and the glass surround being fitted. An electronic humidifier will keep a constant 68% relative humidity for the Havana cigars:
Kitchen and utility worktops being fitted:
Back to the wine room and oak wall panels and shelving being installed:
Testing with some large format bottles (Imperials and a Methuselah):
New: Beovision Harmony, Beolab 50's, Beolab 28's, Beolab 18's, Beolab 17's, Beosound Stage & LG, Beosound 2, Beoplay M3, Beoplay A1, Beoplay Portal, Beoplay H4 gen 2, Beoplay E8 3.0
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Old: Beosound 9000 mk3, Beolab 3's, Beovision Eclipse, Beolab 1's, Beolab 2, Beovision 10-46, Overture 2300, beolab 8000's, Beolab 4000's, Beovision avant 32" etc. etc.
Before I continue I just realised I haven't really explained the open plan and 3 x sliding doors to the rear of the house.
This is the rear of the house prior to taking it completely apart:
I wanted to open up the downstairs completely and flood it with day light so we knocked all the red brick out, supported it with RSJ A frames and fitted 3 sliding doors each 3 meter 40 cm wide. As I briefly mentioned the pictures can be deceptive but the total foot print of the ground floor only is 13 meters wide x 11 meters deep = 143 square meters.
As mentioned briefly previously the house will be fully insulated on the outside with 80 mm ISO Facade (another Belgium product) and new white, cream and grey brick slips.Here it is:
This will be the final finished facade:
The vaulted ceiling has been opened up and we're ready for the open thread staircase being manufactured in Belgium from 10 mm laser cut steel.
Time to install the Danish Jydepejsen Bella wood burner. I decided to fit the same Concreate wall panels behind it as they have excellent heat resistance. However, this time in a black zinc colour to match the burner. I had already completely removed the clunky fireplace and chimney stack that was there originally (see early photos of interior) I honestly do not like those little wood burners that sit inside a fireplace and send the heat output up the chimney rather than project it into the room. Note the 'Made in Denmark' sticker and spot the Beolab 3 floor stand :o)
Wow, incredible. Great looking modifications to the house, stunning. Bravo on the huge windows, nothing is better than light and views out of them, my house has a lot of floor to ceiling windows and sliding doors. It's a mid-century house, with a daylight basement, so sitting here at the laptop I look out on the trees like I'm in a tree house. I think your style is wonderful.
Oh, and I have that Ikea floor lamp too, next to my BS9000 on its stand in the living room!
Jeff
I'm afraid I'm recovering from the BeoVirus.
Very kind of you Jeff
Right, its back to downloading some more pics and sorting the order out plus making sure they are the right way up.. sigh!
It's almost time to start posting photos of the finished rooms, including the most important, the B&O
I will return if not later today then tomorrow, signing out for now.
Right, I've corrected more sideways photos so will proceed with some finished room pics, finally with some various B&O.
The house is now finished and both Belgian made products, staircase and internal doors, are fitted. The doors are slightly different in that they are a solid piece of sound insulation sandwiched between 2 painted aluminium panels. They don't have traditional door handles as such, the frames are lined with teflon trims allowing the doors to close softly and open both ways.
Here is the finished kitchen, for scale the island is 3 meters x 140 cm. The worktop is spanish made composite stone. I fitted Miele white goods throughout the house.
To the right of the island is the wine room now finished and fully stocked with the equivalent of around 1000 75 cl bottles. I had the electrician fit some LED trims at the base of the shelving and at the top. The black aluminium doors can be seen on either side.
The finished utility room with the same spanish made work top. The tall cabinet houses a built in freezer and above it the wine room control panel as shown previously.
The steel staircase is now fitted below the vaulted ceiling, hallway furniture in place, spot the Beocom 2 in grey to match the cabinet doors.
Another danish icon in the vaulted ceiling over the staircase, Paul Henningsen's Artichoke Lamp, this one is 81 cm diameter. Luckily LED lamps don't need to be changed very often!
The guest bathroom on the ground floor level is situated in the hallway (the bathroom alumiunium doors have little slide locks if you're wondering how that would work!)
I had been looking forward to placing my B&O in the main part of the open plan living room. Photos are a bit deceptive, the TV wall is as mentioned earlier 6.5 meters wide and the end wall with the 2 large windows is 5 meters wide.
Serious cable management was needed so I fitted 'D trunking' and tried to hide as much as possible and colour coded the plugs and wires:
Always wondered if the danish silversmith George Jensen copied the Beolab 5 of was it the other way around!
At the opposite end of the open plan living room, on the other side of the wood burner I created a separate lounge area. It is important to zone the various areas in open plan living. Look carefully and you can spot the Beolab 8000s I fitted to the two pillars between all the sliding doors.
That's quite a project Nice to see you have an EJ 5 Corona. Probably Poul Volther's best known design.
Vähintään yhdeksänkymmentä prosenttia suomalainen!
Very nice project! The walk in humidor is really nicely done!
Have you a picture of how it look when its stocked?
Livingroom: BL3, BL11, BV11-46 Kitchen: Beosound 1 GVA, Beocom 2 Bathroom: M3 Homeoffice: M3, Beocom 2 Library: Beosound Emerge, Beocom 6000 Bedroom: M5, Essence remote Travel: Beoplay E8 2.0, Beoplay EQ, Beoplay Earset
Hi Hjort, yes I have pics of all rooms and will post them once I get them downloaded and organised. It’s quite time consuming so I’m doing a section at a time. Humidor is fully stocked, pics in due course.
The next section is the Beolab 8000, Beolab 2/11 and Beosound Core installation.
Early on in the build I ran Powerlink cables between the sliding door pillars and up over the ceiling into the office upstairs in order to place a Beosound Core. I had also fitted large wooden studs into the steel beams in order to hang the Lab8000s on them. Originally I plugged in my Beolab 2 but it soon became obvious it looked clunky sitting on the floor and the sound was slightly boomy as well for the 8000s. So I tracked down a Beolab 11 in Denmark and collected on one of my visits. More precise sound and having sourced a wall bracket as well it looks, to me at least, much better than the floor standing BL2 seen on the first picture:
The Core is controlled by an Essence remote mounted on the side of one of the pillars:
Hi
What's your complete B&O setup ?
Absolutely beautiful, you have a wonderful sense of style. Love the look of classic B&O gear next to so many mid-century furniture classics.
marexy: Hi What's your complete B&O setup ?
I’m not sure I understand your question.. there are several individual setups dotted throughout the house but all network linked. So far I have shown the main living room setup and the kitchen/dining room setup. Others to follow as I get through the photos..
Thank you for the kind words Jeff and Duels. It is lovely to hear after so much stress, blood, sweat & tears!
Looking at you installation...
Despite all you best effort you might have missed one really important Danish product that could truly have set you apart in the UK...
BEOVOX141: Looking at you installation... Despite all you best effort you might have missed one really important Danish product that could truly have set you apart in the UK...
Mener du en Ellert parkeret udenfor huset? :-)
Nope! I would have screwed codes, and brought White Fuga en masse across the waters!
Let be honest. The UK power plugs/outlets are not entirely design marvels nor discrete...
Apart from that,- you F.... aced it man!
Hvilken LED pære fandt du til koglen? Den trives vist bedst med 400W glødetråds pære E24, som jeg sjovt nok købte på Amazon uk.
And the color of those chairs, pow,- in your face! I want one!
Did you or the wife make that selection?
Very nice job!
An old colleague of mine did something similar maybe 15 years ago. He then sold the house and moved on.
5 years later he happened to pass his old house and discovered that the new owner had put most of the removed internal walls back!
Graham
BEOVOX141: Nope! I would have screwed codes, and brought White Fuga en masse across the waters! Let be honest. The UK power plugs/outlets are not entirely design marvels nor discrete... Apart from that,- you F.... aced it man! Hvilken LED pære fandt du til koglen? Den trives vist bedst med 400W glødetråds pære E24, som jeg sjovt nok købte på Amazon uk.
UK building regulations would not approve danish sockets and I would have had a big problem.. sadly.
I use glødetråds pære 400W I min!
Designet, valg af farver, møbler osv er mit 100% :-)