Penthouse progress

"Rome wasn't built in a day"goes the old adage.  This is particularly true for the refurbishment of my Penthouse in the sky and my first development project in almost 10 years after tiring of the relentless buy-to-let treadmill of refurb and let.  This time its all very different.  Out has gone the cheap and cheerful budget refurbishment and in has come high end development.  Think Candy and Candy rather than Rigsby.

I love my penthouse

It's proving a challenge but an enjoyable one.  For the first time in 20 years I'm developing a building with me in mind rather than the marauding tenant classes.  Whether the property ultimately gets sold or in fact gets let out I'm unsure at this stage but for now it very much is my Penthouse and I love it.

Removing the project mezzanine floor

The latest phase in my Penthouse saga is the removal of the projecting element of the mezzanine floor.  Whilst in some ways I was a little sad to see it go as the cantilevered structure did look quite dramatic in the double highted space.  It really was an unsustainable luxury.  When I worked out the positioning of the spiral staircase it was going to end up right of the middle of my living room / kitchen making the space largely unusable.  A structural report and 17 page safe working document along with a pleading letter to the freeholder finally convinced the managing agent and their bosses that the hulking steel structure could go and wouldn't result the imminent collapse of the building or it disappearing in a puff of smoke as sparks from the reciprocating saw caused the place to spontaneous combust.

Designing my spiral staircase

The next stage for me is to revisit the design of the spiral staircase from Fontanot in Italy and make sure that it will work with my new truncated mezzanine space.  The biggest difficulty I face is trying to work out where the treads start and how the landing meets with the existing mezzanine floor along with how the ballustrading fixes and works with the floor.  All this has to be sorted next week as once the design has been finalised then there is a 4 week wait whilst the spiral staircase gets shipped over from Italy.  Below is a picture of what it should look like when it finally arrives and gets put together.  Worth waiting for I hope!

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