Super size…the Patio Flat

Our Patio Flat needed some love. It has a breathtaking view down the middle of the town’s bowl-shaped hills, but we knew the interior could be refreshed. New tiles have long been an aspiration but now we’ve rolled up our sleeves, ambition is taking on new heights.

There are two spaces in the property that aren’t properly utilized for guests. The first is an internal staircase that connects the flat with the upstairs Captain House. It’s rarely used, since the properties are almost always rented separately. The second space is a vast empty water sterna, in disuse for over 20 years. It was time to say goodbye to those.

Goodbye water sterna, welcome expanded kitchen!

The sterna has caused perennial damp issues in one area of the house, despite being drained when we decided to reconfigure the water supply. (There is another, larger sterna that now supplies all three houses.) Thus we have demonized the very existence of this empty hole, which lies hidden behind the small kitchen’s wall.

Our idea is to knock in the current kitchen space, creating a bigger area for an expanded kitchen and dining area and simultaneously ridding ourselves of the sterna.

Out come the drills

First we started with a small hole to assess if the wall was load-bearing. It wasn’t, luckily, so we drilled right through to uncover a cavernous space with a gorgeous arched ceiling. This will be our future kitchen!

The old kitchen

Ripping it out

The point of no return

The sterna!

Our new kitchen

And down go the stairs

The spiralling staircase, once a dark pocket of cobwebs and brooms, has also been torn down. As a renovation newbie, it’s fascinating to see these structures are built: iron rods follow the general curvature, encased by cement blocks to support the wooden stairs.

It’s now just a hollow shaft, soon to become two divided areas. The new level will become the floor of a dedicated storage area in the Captain’s House, and the raised ceiling to a larger bathroom in the Patio Flat.