Friday, February 19, 2010
In fact, it’s barely some walls now that they’ve started hitting things downstairs.
Old Lounge Steel
They cleared off the covering of the original steels which is going to be replaced eventually.
Lounge From Front Door
The lounge looks quite large from the front door. I particularly like the light switches which are free hanging in the middle of the room – shame they couldn’t use invisible wiring.
Lounge From The Corner
This view looks into the new part of the lounge, that we’ve pinched from the kitchen area.
Kitchen Joist Removed
They also removed the old steel in the kitchen which was holding up the old back wall, but since that’s been removed the steel was no longer needed.
Amanda Helping Out
Amanda’s keen to get on with the decorating, so has started to remove the wall paper from the lounge walls.
Monday, February 15, 2010
I think this is about the point at which we stop living in a house, and start living in a building site. They started downstairs today; we spent the weekend packing up and moving everything from the lounge that we could, and as much as we could from the hall/kitchen area.
View From The Fireplace
This was what greeted us this-evening when we returned – a couple of pit props holding up the lounge roof and a gaping hole where there was a wall (and radiator) this-morning.
Through The Looking Hole
And inside what was once a separate room, there’s more pit props, a few bits of now redundant central heating pipe and a socket that clearly won’t meet building regs, given that it’s just hanging around on the wires from the floors.
Thankfully I moved the telephone socket over the weekend so that didn’t get trashed, and it means we also have the internet – so we still feel part of society, even if we’re living in a sty.
We’re starting to wonder when our last meal cooked in the current kitchen is going to be – the only warm room to eat in now is the bedroom, and the cooker is about the only useful heating system we have downstairs.
Monday, February 15, 2010
I’ve lost track of the days on the build, but they’re still making progress.
The Wood Pile
Out side we have a big pile of wood (which was tidied up by Monday night). It appears to be mostly the frame of the roof from the kitchen.
Lightwell
The lightwell in the en-suite has been framed, although the window isn’t in yet. It’s a touch larger than I imagined, and takes up about a third of the total roof space, we’ll be able to bathe by moonlight.
New Roof, Old Tiles
The old tiles went on the back of the house, as you can see above.
Lights and Switches
The printouts I gave the builders with markings for where we wanted lights and the switches has been transferred to the new bedroom, mostly by use of a bit of chalk. They’ve put the boxes in for the socket, including one half way up the wall for a TV when we get that far; do need to figure out how we get the Sky scart signal to it and some other bits of wire that I’d forgotten about.
It’s been a while, but I was in Tokyo for a week and then didn’t get to see the house in daylight when I had the camera to hand for a bit.
So, the roof frame was built, eventually covered in weatherproof tyvek and the hole where the window will go was boarded up – it’s not a very good insulator on it’s own is that tyvek and board – house is now very cold.
Another brick less in the wall
They started to take the inner wall down now that they’ve done the brick work. Window still in place though (this was just after I’d returned from Tokyo). All the rubble is plied up inside the bedroom as we don’t have a skip outside yet.
Why have only one roof
The old kitchen roof is still there, with the new one above it. Lots of natural light in the room during the daytime, bit dark and cold at night.
Roof poking over scaffold
You can just about make out the top of the new roof poking over the top of the scaffold (a taller photographer would have got more in). Not yet tiled yet as we haven’t seen the samples at this point.
Looking better already
From the front you can see that it already looks better, with the flat roof gone and a nicely tied in roof replacing it. The tiler has started to re-use some of the tiles, but the ones from the kitchen roof are a different shape and colour so they can’t be used easily on the front – going to have to choose some different ones.
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Saturday, January 16, 2010
Finished Blockwork
Friday morning the scaffolder arrived and put in the ’second lift’ which allows the builders to finish off the block work on the bedroom. They arrived in the afternoon and got on with that, meaning they don’t have to turn up on Saturday now.
The snow has now cleared in the back yard so you can see all the tiles lined up ready for putting on the front of the house when the new roof is complete. The water butt is now upright, thanks to the builders, and will drain out once all the water inside defrosts.
Tiles and water butt
Also had a look at how we would lay out the bedrooms once it’s all complete and have come to the conclusion that we may need to move an internal wall in order to get the en-suite into the main bedroom without that bedroom becoming too small.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Day 8 and the brickies arrived hoping to be able to lay some bricks. The weather conspired against them, but they did move the bricks from around the front of the house to the back in piles on the scaffolding ready for when they started.
Day 9 and it’s sufficiently warm enough for the brickies to get on with it. The picture below taken a few hours into the day and they’ve already made good progress. The rolls of padding I’d seen in the garden turn out not to be cladding to keep the roof warm, but insulation for between the walls.
First day of bricklaying
Working from home was entertaining today; the cement mixer is right outside my office window, so there’s been a constant sound of that in the background of all my phone calls today. The brickies working out the back are getting on with it, but it sometimes sounds as if they’re throwing the bricks onto the wall from some distance.
Tomorrow I’m lead to believe the scaffolder is returning to put another layer on for them as they’ve got as far as they can go right now. They should finish Thursday (Day 11) and the new roof timbers are arriving on Friday – given the chaos when the bricks were delivered I think I’ll make sure I’m out of the way and safely at work before they all turn up.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Two roofers arrived today and removed the tiles from the kitchen. They’ve sorted out the good ones and put them in the corner of the patio as these will be re-used at the front of the house on the new roof to blend it in with the existing roof.
Off with the roof tiles
Sadly it snowed again that afternoon so work stopped for a while. Photo below shows the covering that they left to keep us watertight, or at least snowtight.
Look no tiles
To the left of the scaffold is the water butt, which I forgot to empty before the scaffold went up. It’s full, and frozen, and probably weight around a tonne. It’ll be staying there for a while, at least until it defrosts sufficiently to drain and then be dragged away.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Despite the cold, snow and ice, the scaffolder turned up in the morning and put up enough scaffolding around the kitchen to allow the builders to remove the tiles and start building. Didn’t think to take a photo of it though, so that plan didn’t start off too well.
