The master suite

What was once a master bedroom, walk-in-robe and ensuite was not really working for us. The wardrobe was a funny shape and not very functional. The ensuite was really dated and the shower didn't drain properly. The bedroom was a bit too small and had shoddy plaster, garish wall-mounted lights and a doorway in the wrong place.

Here are some shots of how it looked to begin with:

What we decided to do was rip it all out and start again. Literally - rip it ALL out, including the bathroom floor!

Here is the demolition in progress:

We decided to take out the wall that was dividing the bedroom from the robe - the challenge was that this was a supporting wall. So not only did a beam have to be put in place of the wall, but we had to reinforce the brickwork in the garage (located below the master) to make sure the wall retained its structural integrity.

This meant bricking up the window in the garage - luckily we had some bricks salvaged from when we knocked down a side gate last year:

The window was bricked in and will be hidden by the bagging which we are completing on the outside once the inside is finished.

So once the foundations were strong enough, we thought we could go ahead and take out the supporting wall. But it turned out that the original side wall was not built properly and had to be rebuilt to reinforce the lintels above the windows:

Reinforcing the lintel - the left hand window is being bricked up the one on the right will remain

No lintel = poor workmanship...

Now the lintel is solid and the widow is supported

Simultaneously we are reinforcing the walls of the ensuite with ply as our Engineer suggested we needed to give the house more lateral stability. We also laid a new floor and hung new villa board on the walls of the ensuite - ready for tiling:

Plumbing in place for toilet, double vanity & double shower (from left to right)

Reinforced walls lined with ply for stability

So now it was time to remove the remaining wall and to create a larger master suite:

Using a beam to support the Acrow Props

Setting up the Acrow Props

One minute the wall is there...

Next minute the wall is gone!

We are thrilled with the huge space we have been left with in the room now!

The next step has been to brick in the window closest to the ensuite. You can see in the photo above that Ola has rebuilt the wall in front of the window. The next step was to lay bricks across the opening to seal it over. The whole L-shaped area next to the ensuite and in front of what was the window will be built-in robes.

Here is the wall being bricked in:

He is a man of many talents! Bricklaying is the most recent skill he has acquired - many thanks to the good people of YouTube!