Builder's Tea

Day 401 - Store storage

2010-08-15T18:32:00.007+01:00

Ern has built himself a great workbench (at Ern height) and shelves for storing all his DIY kit.

Day 399 - Boys' Storage

2010-08-13T18:28:00.003+01:00

The Lego storage takes shape....

I think the boys are pleased so far. Because I've been using the spare bedroom at Ern's as my office, all the Lego has been stored in cratese and not very accessible so they're looking forward to having it all on show, ready to play with and with the space to spread it all out!

Day 385 - Blinds

2010-07-29T18:31:00.000+01:00

We even have blinds!

To be fair we have blinds for most of the windows but only one set are up!

But aren't they lovely - and toning!

Day 385 - Carpentry

2010-07-29T18:27:00.001+01:00

We are finally getting closer to moving in. After the builders have (mostly) finished we ended up with a list of carpentry type jobs, storage, boxing in etc.

Thanks to the wonder of Which Local (a trade recommendation site for Which subscribers) we found Huw who is working his way through our list of jobs

So far he's built and fitted shelves for the airing cupboard in the main bathroom

Boxed in the UFH mainfold in my 'walk-in' closet

And boxed in the ethernet cables in the Den

We decided to get rid of the oversized metal cabinet that had been housing the patch panels. Instead Huw has boxed in and neatened where the cables come out of the wall and we'll position the panels inside a regular furniture unit.

Day 367 - Awesome paint colour

2010-07-12T21:01:00.000+01:00

I took this photo in an attempt to capture the wonder of the paint we finally chose. It may have taken no less than 34 sample pots (over 5 litres of paint) to find the right one - oddly the colour we chose was the only one I had bought 2 samples of - but we are so happy with how it turned out. The colour is modern, neutral but not bland and changes wonderfully with the light.

This picture is an attempt to show that - each of the three walls you can see (left, right and the sliver through into our bedroom) are the same colour but look pleasingly different.

Now, what to do with those 34 tester pots?! My gut feel is mix them all together in a big tin and paint Ern's kitchen with it!

Oh and notice the Day on the post title - we tipped over a year!!

Day 385 - Loft Shelving

2010-06-27T18:25:00.000+01:00

Look what Ern made!

Fab shelving into the eaves in the loft

These *may* be used to store some of my magazine collection

Day 347 - Carpet Fitting Still Life

2010-06-22T18:24:00.000+01:00

You may have noticed lots of bits on the flooring pics - it seems when new carpet is fitted you're left with all these little bits - I found them strangely compelling

Day 347 - We have flooring

2010-06-22T18:09:00.000+01:00

Today and tomorrow the flooring gets fitted - laminate in the hallway and kitchen/diner

Midway through fitting here

Vinyl in my study

Carpet on the stairs...

Laminate under the stairs - which was previously just concrete

Kitchen/Diner

Upstairs Hallway into the main Bathroom

Comparison of the two carpet colours upstairs - we have darker in the hallway/lounge and slightly lighter in the bedrooms. Yes, they are quite similar! I prefer to say toning!

Main Bedroom

My mini walk-in closet

Utility Room - same vinyl as my study

Where three floors meet...

Day 347 - Garden guest

2010-06-22T18:08:00.003+01:00

Found this fellow in the garden when I went to move the skirting boards I was *storing* there

Over the years we've seen several frogs in the garden - seems strange as there's no water nearby. And I don't think he's big enough to eat slugs.

Day 345 - Flooring prep

2010-06-21T18:34:00.000+01:00

Before the new floor could be fitted we had to take up the old floor in the Kitchen/Diner.

So here's some pics of how it looked

The boxing in around the kitchen unit was fitted on top of the old flooring so it had to taken off. Another job to add to the carpentry list
.

Day 343 - Bathroom roundup

2010-06-18T19:30:00.002+01:00

The en-suite shower is working! I know you can't exactly see that in the picture - but just take my word for it!

And the lovely rust proof but expensive chrome plated brass storage got fitted

The above mirror lights have been moved so they're at the same level (don't ask)

The loo roll holders have been fitted (using the special water cooled drill to cut through the tiles)

And we have a flush on the toilet!

Day 343 - Front door is finished!

2010-06-18T19:26:00.000+01:00

The front door is fitted and treated. The ceiling is finished and light is fitted and working. And the porch has been tiled.

It's so nice to have to use a proper key to get into the house

Day 318 - Shower cubicle

2010-05-25T19:31:00.003+01:00

And in more good news our 3rd shower cubicle has finally been delivered and fitted

The first one was the correct type in the wrong size, the second was the right size but the wrong style (and unfortunately got fitted by the builders)

Finally we have the right type in the right size - hooray

it's a bit difficult to see as the bathroom isn't really big enough to get far enough away for a decent pic

Hooray - another major item to cross off the snagging list.

Day 318 - The Front Door

2010-05-25T19:10:00.000+01:00

The Front Door & custom built frame were delivered on Friday

Here's the door, complete with handles, locks and letterbox which we got the joiners to fit.

This is the double-glazed unit to go above the door

Drew fitting the custom oak frame into the gap, of course it didn't quite fit so they had to do some trimming.

The glazed sidelight being fitted into the frame

The glazed toplight in place and the porch ceiling is mostly complete.

Tonight when I visited the door was in place and I had to use the key for the first time to get in! There's still some finishing off to do - the floor can now be finished behind and in front of the door (porch) and the ceiling of the porch needs completing. And the doorbell needs attaching. And the door needs to be treated to protect it from the south-west facing weather.

But still, it's so exciting to finally have a front door, and isn't it fab?!

Day 308 - Juliet Balcony

2010-05-15T19:41:00.000+01:00

The Juliet balcony has been fitted

Day 307 - One week to go...

2010-05-14T21:57:00.000+01:00

I know, I know, you've heard this before. But today, James, our new foreman/snagging list resolver said today that they (the builders) would be finished by the end of next week....

Last weekend we did our snagging list - 2 and a half pages of fairly close type!!

We'll head down to the property tomorrow to check out the progress this week but it sounded pretty positive on the phone.

Major jobs still to finish and like days next week are:

The accursed shower cubicle (Wed/Thurs)
The ensuite shower which it seems is now broken (eh?)
Screeding
Front Door (due Mon from the joiners)
Lots of electrical stuff (not sure if this is on target for next week)

We hope to get the decorators back in the following week to finish off (3-4 days)

Then there's the flooring, kitchen and various storage units to build before we can move back in. At least the end is in sight..

Day 302 - Utility Room

2010-05-09T21:45:00.000+01:00

The nearly finished utility room

Just some edging and a proper splashback to do

Day 302 - Landscaping

2010-05-09T21:30:00.027+01:00

The landscaping is mostly done and looks very smart.

At the front we have natural stone chippings and a pathway to the front door.. Hopefully this will keep the planners happy.

The incomplete part is a widening of the dropped kerb. We have kicked the process off with the local council, but letter received today said they will come and review the site within the next 3 months!! And that's just review the site, not actually widen the drop kerb!

Neat drain cover in the path

Patio, Pebble drain & new Lawn

Beds and brick perches and what I managed to salvage of the lilac bush

Side Alley landscaping

Day 302- The Painters are in!

2010-05-09T18:29:00.011+01:00

The decorators are in and going great guns. Milan has a team of 2 guys with him and they've been working long days (till gone 7 some nights) and it shows.

Liam's Room

Hallway

Hallway from the other direction

Main Bathroom

Main Bathroom again

Master bedroom

Unfortunately now they've finished upstairs and moved downstairs where the builders are and everyone is getting in everyone else's way, so we've agreed that the decorators will come back a week on Monday to finish off.

Overall we're very happy with their work and happy with the paint colour choice we finally made. Over 30 tester pots were involved in the decision - we joked that if we mixed all 30 together (close to 5 litres) we'd have the ideal colour!

Day 299 - Shaun has left. the building

2010-05-06T21:58:00.002+01:00

A significant day - Shaun's last day. Shaun was our foreman from the first day of the job but sadly won't be around for the last...

Unfortunately he's decided to leave and setup on his own, he'd tried to hang on till the job was finished but no joy...

His last gasp was building the utility room. And wearing a distinctly non-corporate t-shirt that proclaimed "Tell your tits to stop staring at me"...

So farewell and thanks to Shaun, he may not have always been on top of the paperwork (!) but he came up with some great ideas, ran a tight ship with the guys and we can't fault the overall workmanship.

Good luck in whatever you do Shaun...

Day 291 - Update on what's left to do

2010-04-28T12:28:00.000+01:00

An update after yesterday's site visit

Utility Room build - mostly done apart from sink/tap and some edging
Loft insulation & boarding - boards delivered, installation today
Front Landscaping - Skip and portaloo are going today so stones can go down today/tmrw
Rear Landscaping - Patio and beds are done and turf was laid yesterday
Masticking (not sure I really know what this means though) - some has been done
Bathroom Mirrors (one of these is waiting electrician input) - both are up, but lights need moving in the ensuite
~~Fire-safe glass above the Fire Door into the indoor shed/storeroom~~
Remaining lights to be fitted - we bought more lights over the weekend so these are waiting on the electrician
UFH thermostats (again waiting on Electrician I think)
Skirting boards off in the hallway (so they can fit the flooring without needing beading)
Juliet Balcony - waiting for brackets
Glass porch - waiting for custom made bracket
Shower Door in main bathroom - waiting for masticking man

Front Door - joiners visit today to measure up - Door and side panel should've been delivered to them

Cleaners - Booked for May 4th
Decorator - Booked for May 5th

Flooring - we'll book the fitting after the decorator has started and we have a better idea of timing.

Day 282 - Gratutitous Shower Pics

2010-04-19T21:13:00.000+01:00

I popped round to the property to meet with Shaun and take a few pics. The sun was shining in through the window into the ensuite and the shower tiles

I know no-one loves the tiles as much as me but I did think they looked lovely in the sunshine

Day 280 - Downstairs Loo

2010-04-19T20:57:00.000+01:00

When they were tiling the main bathroom I got a call from Shaun saying they'd run out tiles so could we order some more? We were a little surprised as we thought we'd measured/calculated correctly but ordered some more.

So it turned out that the builders had 'mislaid' some of the tiles somewhere in the house and thought they'd run out. Of course the tiles turned up so we have some excess.

Thanks to a comment from my lovely Sister about the 'wipeability' of the downstairs loo we decided we needed something to the side of the loo, enter the mislaid tiles, which have also made the splashback.

Apologies for the crappy photos, my beloved Fujifilm camera has developed a problem with the lens cover so these were taken with my Blackberry camera.

Day 282 - Front Landscaping

2010-04-19T20:45:00.001+01:00

The slabs are all in place for the front landscaping

Area in front of the front door

Side path

Path up to the house

Path in front of the bay and kitchen window

All the gaps will be filled in with natural stone chips, that will compress down well and won't get stuck in your shoes!

Day 282 - List of jobs still to do

2010-04-19T20:42:00.008+01:00

We are finally approaching the final furlong (hey, it's Ascot I'm allowed a racing term!) of the never-ending build.

Shaun is now saying one more week.... There seems to be a fair amount to be done in this last week but I've decided to go with optimism for a change.

Things that still need to be done:

Utility Room build - Shaun flippantly said it's only 5 units! - and a sink and a worktop...
Loft insulation & boarding
Front Landscaping
Masticking (not sure I really know what this means though)
Bathroom Mirrors (one of these is waiting electrician input)
Fire-safe glass above the Fire Door into the indoor shed/storeroom
Remaining lights to be fitted
UFH thermostats (again waiting on Electrician I think)
Skirting boards off in the hallway (so they can fit the flooring without needing beading)
Juliet Balcony
Shower Door in main bathroom

Also Shaun's suggested if we want any accessories fitted in the main bathroom we should get them this week so the guys can use the special water cooled drill they've had to hire to fit them. This was after they'd burnt out two regular drills - eek!

Oh and we need to source and buy a new, smaller greenhouse so the lads can create a foundation for it.

Things that definitely won't happen this week:

Front door - we are waiting to hear from the Joiners and for the side panel to come in stock

Magic cleaners - every time I've sucked my breath in at the state of something, Shaun has assured me the cleaners that come in at the end of the job will sort this out, hence they've become known as the magic cleaners as I'm not sure how they're going to get everything (especially the kitchen) back to how it was before.

Then I think we're into Snagging List territory

Wednesday the carpet fitters are coming to measure up and hopefully Friday will see BT to re-connect the phone line.

I'm feeling slightly more confident about getting the decorator booked now. Better get going on the second batch of paint samples, the first were all too pinky/lilac.

Day 274 - Second Fix Lighting

2010-04-11T20:26:00.000+01:00

A somewhat random collection of lights that have gone up around the house...

Bedside lights - with directional reading lights

A light-up mirror for the hair/make-up area

Eco-friendly spotlights in Study & Den

Bedside lights in the boys bedroom (and some random extra holes). These have been carefully measured to (hopefully) be at the right position in the bunk beds

Bedroom cupboard light

Blurry pic of the lounge lights - the leccy hates them, says they were 'tricky' to put up. In fact he hasn't liked many of the lights!

Day 274 - New Stairs

2010-04-11T09:05:00.002+01:00

Well, new stair parts, ie bannisters, handrails etc

Lovely Richard Burbidge White Oak

Day 265 - Catflap

2010-04-02T09:19:00.002+01:00

The catflap is finally in - complete with another new pane of glass in the door!

Day 260 - Bathroom Tiles

2010-03-28T18:11:00.002+01:00

Finally the mosaic tiles to finish off the main bathroom arrived on the slowest donkey in the world from Italy. The tile shop originally advised us 2-3, in the end they took 10 weeks!

Very pleased with how they look - here they're in place but not grouted in - just wish they hadn't taken so long

Day 260 - Rear Patio

2010-03-28T17:52:00.002+01:00

More progress at the back of the property...

The first of the natural stone slabs have been laid

This was another one where you have to choose slabs from a picture in a catalogue without much idea of how they'll really look.

We're pleased with these though, if they look this nice on a cloudy day in March they can only look better bathed in sunlight, right?!

Rest of the stones waiting to be fitted

And the drainage runs that have to be fitted between the patio and the lawn - I know, what lawn?!

Day 252 - Landscaping continues

2010-03-28T17:49:00.000+01:00

The front landscaping is taking shape, the big piles of rubble and trees have gone and we have a level surface, ready for the new chippings & slabs.

Inset drain

Shaun suggested using old railway sleepers as separaters between the drive and the beds and we really like how they've turned out.

Day 252 - Curses!

2010-03-20T17:58:00.006Z

The reason the builder's havent used the new flooring we bought to fill in the area in the dining room where the boiler cupboard was?

It doesn't match!

The reason we managed to accidentally buy the wrong colour flooring?

IKEA don't make the beech flooring that I have anymore - oh heck...

Unfortunately I think this means we have to replace the entire floor in the kitchen and dining room - bugger.

Day 246 - Hall coats cupboard

2010-03-14T17:13:00.012Z

Our new coat cupboard takes shape

It made sense to build something into this space as there's a soil downpipe on the right hand side that had to be boxed in so we decided to extend it into a shallow cupboard for coats and shoes. There's a drawer at the bottom (to hide things away) and a cupboard at the top (which also hides the fuse box aka consumer unit!)

The coat hooks will be somewhat shielded by a covering panel and have been designed so people who are 5 foot nothing can still reach them!

Both the drawer and cupboard have catchless closings, although they're not working very smoothly yet...

Day 246 - Stair Supports

2010-03-14T17:11:00.002Z

When replacing the stiars the builders discovered that, like many other parts of the house, a few shortcuts were taken with the stairs and they weren't very well supported.

So they've added a couple of supporting posts (there's another round the corner) in the understairs cupboard to provide better support.

Day 242 - New Stairs

2010-03-10T16:39:00.008Z

I know they don't *look* very different but they have all been updated. Thanks to the underfloor heating we put in upstairs the whole upstairs floor level is 20-30mm higher than it was which meant the stairs finished with a bigger last step up. This isn't allowed by building controls, our brains do complicated things with steps and get confused if steps are uneven so we've had to have them all changed so each step has the same rise.

We're also now replacing the seventies style banisters and rails. Originally we'd planned to keep them, I quite liked their retro styling, but they just look out of place now everything else has been updated so I've ordered some oak stop chamfer style ones to replace them.

Day 237 - Dining Room Doors

2010-02-27T16:36:00.000Z

View from the hallway

View from the dining room

The doors and frame are in - love how they're looking. Ern has some concerns about the finish on the frame but generally we love them

Day 237 - Landscaping begins

2010-02-27T16:20:00.000Z

This is part of the base for the rear landscaping

View from the back upstairs bedroom - this used to be our garden! The builder's shed has now gone

Earth moving at the front

The remains of the old concrete drive that will be part of the base for the new driveway

Day 220 - The perils of nature

2010-02-10T18:39:00.007Z

While working on the bay window roof and sorting out the guttering and drainage (which had always been terrible) the builder's discovered the downpipe was clogged with a mass of ivy roots.

The odd thing is we don't have any ivy in the front garden and haven't since I've owned the house (14 years!). There is a tiny piece in the bed under the kitchen window (where the drainpipe is) so we can only assume there used to be much more and it grew into the pipe then when the ivy was removed the mass in the pipe died off but didn't rot or break down.

Day 220 - The happy ending of the ensuite shower story

2010-02-10T17:12:00.007Z

Back when we were tile shopping I mad the mistake of looking at and falling in love with this...

A curved shower stall with graduated mosaic tiles. It reminded me of the spa at Center Parcs where several of the experiences have curved tiled areas.

Of course it was way out of our budget. I knew we could never have a curved shower stall and I'd reluctantly resigned myself to just having a regular tiled ensuite.

But those graduated mosaic tiles kept haunting me.

So I spent an entire Sunday afternoon searching on the internet, mostly to cost it up and talk myself out of the idea.

First I was thinking that if we bought a selection of mosaic tile sheets and I put in a fair amount of effort to swap over individual tiles I could make a graduated effect. That may have been a crazy idea

But then I found this picture

And the text with it implied that it was made from sheets of graduated mosaic tiles - oooh, that could work.

So with a lot more digging I found the tile company OriginalStyle who sold boxes of 8 sheets of different mosaics which would create a graduated effect. And there was a local supplier in Woodley - result.

Called them on Monday - bad news, no display and no samples. Each box of tiles was £80, they'd do me a deal and sell me a box as a sample for £50.

£50 for a sample! Best not to think about if I didn't like it...

A week later the sample arrived - a box of 8 labelled sheets - we laid it out on the floor of the tile shop - it looked pretty good.

[I went for a different colour scheme than the picture I'd originally found because this included iridescent tiles like in the original inspiration]

Originally I'd thought to just do one wall in the graduated and the other 2 sides in something cheaper, but lovely man I live with said if I really wanted it, the extra cost wasn't too much and I should have it. How fabulous is he?!

So we ordered enough boxes to do the whole ensuite shower.

We'd now spent rather a lot of money on these tiles without much of an idea whether they'd actually look any good once they were up.

For me this was like one of those home shows with the big reveal and I'm not ashamed to say I actually got a bit choked up when I saw it...

The pictures don't really do them justice, they are just wonderful.

The idea was to have something OTT and fabulous that would make me smile everytime I stumbled bleary eyed into the shower of a morning - I think we succeeded.

Day 220 - Loft ladder in action

2010-02-10T17:06:00.002Z

I really shouldv'e done a video of this - but suffice to say it's fab. You still need a stick but it's very easy and the ladder falls down from the underside of the hatch towards you in a controlled fashion. And unfolds to this lovely wooden, easy to use ladder. Great!

Day 117 - Bathroom updates

2010-02-07T16:46:00.000Z

Those expensive taps have been fitted

Bath fill and shower head (for cleaning/rinsing)

Basin tap

Shower (you can just see the remote shower starter on the left)

Bathroom is really coming together now...

Tap in the ensuite

Day 217 - Still Life

2010-02-07T16:45:00.000Z

Day 217 - Radiators

2010-02-07T16:44:00.006Z

All of the radiators are now in...

Hallway

Dining Room

Downstairs Loo

Utility room

Ensuite towel rail

Day 217 - Doors!

2010-02-07T16:23:00.001Z

The first of the doors are up...

This has made me very happy - it's funny how having doors up has done so much to make the house seem much more finished. And we're pleased with how the doors look. They're currently 'raw' oak - they will have a finish applied to protect them which will darken them a little but hopefully not too much.

Day 217 - Exterior update

2010-02-07T16:22:00.000Z

Exterior plugs with a waterproof cover

Outside tap

Guttering and fascia finished

Day 110 - Boiler & Megaflo

2010-01-31T16:18:00.001Z

Late addition of a radiator gets fitted in the storeroom - we'll have a snuggly indoor shed!

And the boiler and pressurised hot water system (aka the Megaflo) are all plumbed in.

Day 210 - Loft ladder

2010-01-31T16:15:00.002Z

Another great suggestion from Shaun was, as we've replaced all the ceilings upstairs, we could have a new loft ladder and hatch. This would give us a nice hatch that fits snugly (no losing heat into the loft) but more importantly a better loft ladder that I could actually use on my own. The old one required some dexterity with a stick and longer arms and legs than I have.

This is the new ladder sitting in the kitchen waiting to be fitted - can't wait to see how it works.

Day 210 - Bathroom update

2010-01-31T16:11:00.000Z

Wall tiling has started in the main bathroom

Really pleased with how they look - glossy and gorgeous! [Although pretty dusty in these pics - trust me they're fab]

Day 210 - Doors arrive!

2010-01-31T16:08:00.002Z

Day 202 - Ding Dong...

2010-01-23T19:51:00.004Z

One of the things we thought about rather late in the build was a doorbell!

Thankfully Shaun and the guys were able to find a way to run a cable from the front door and into the central hall without mucking up any of Frank's lovely plastering

Day 202 - More Bathroom updates

2010-01-23T19:51:00.003Z

The shower tray fits!

And the tiles are down in the ensuite and the furniture has mostly been built, although we do have an extra cupboard that doesn't fit! The difference between plans and actual build!

Day 202 - Bathroom progress

2010-01-23T19:51:00.002Z

After weeks of weekend searching for tiles we finally got some ordered and delivered! Which meant the bathroom fit could start...

Here the floor tiles are down in the main Bathroom,the furniture is being assembled and the sanitaryware is in position, though not yet fitted in place.

Day 188 - Plastering Update

2010-01-10T16:55:00.010Z

And Frank somehow made it in to continue with the plastering

Utility room right

Utility Room Left

Downstairs Loo

Storeroom

Den

Den II

Hallway

Day 188 - 2nd Fix has started

2010-01-10T16:50:00.005Z

Having tasked ourselves with choosing/ordering tiles for all the bathrooms this weekend we popped up to the property to do some measuring.

Paul the leccy has obviously been in some time over Christmas/NY as most of the sockets are fitted upstairs

And the new fuse box has gone in

Day 188 - Snow!

2010-01-10T16:46:00.001Z

Happy New Year!

What with Christmas, New Year, the Snow and associated transport problems we've haven't been up to the property much and not much has been happening on site

Views of the builder's yard/front garden

Day 188 - More plastering

2010-01-09T16:57:00.000Z

Plastering continues...

Day 188 - Kitchen Ceiling

2010-01-09T15:44:00.000Z

Something to do with new electrics - good job this is getting replaced!

Day 188 - Cupboard Plastering

2010-01-09T09:50:00.000Z

The bedroom shoe cupboard has been plastered

And the ensuite

Day 170 - Frank's back

2009-12-22T19:27:00.003Z

And he's made it downstairs - here he is finishing off the stairwell...

Here's the hall/lounge wall - look how smooth and shiny it is!

Tools of the plastering trade

Day 170 - Bad Plaster

2009-12-22T18:55:00.000Z

We knew we had a lot of dodgy plaster all over the house, so one of the areas we've chosen to spend extra money is replastering all the rooms. This is the state of the existing plaster.

Unfortunately the surface is so bad the new plaster isn't taking very well so the guys have had to use a special mesh to hold the new plaster onto the walls

Day 168 - Upstairs plastering is nearly done

2009-12-20T19:28:00.003Z

Plaster (and Jed)

Boys front bedroom (and Liam)

View from the half landing

Now Frank's started on the lounge, a deceptively large room he says...

Day 161 - We have roof!

2009-12-13T16:10:00.000Z

Finally the flat roof outside the Master bedroom french doors (above the lounge) is complete. This means we're water tight, finally.

Day 161 - Ceiling Insulation

2009-12-13T16:02:00.000Z

Day 153 - Plastering

2009-12-05T22:21:00.000Z

Master bedroom

En-suite

Day 151 - Dining room

2009-12-03T18:54:00.003Z

We had this mad idea to increase the size of the dining room doorway to let more light into the centre of the house - this is it, and, umm, it's big!

At some point we'll have some nice oak & glass doors to go in the giant gap.

The hole to re-route the water pipe round to the side of the house is now full of water.

Day 147 - Still Life with polystyrene balls

2009-11-29T22:27:00.002Z

Day 147 - More Frank

2009-11-29T22:20:00.002Z

He's doing a grand job - the walls feel silky smooth

Insulation in the main bathroom

Day 146 - Meet Frank, our Plasterer

2009-11-28T22:19:00.003Z

He's started in the new bedroom, Liam's room.

And here the plasterboard up in some of the other rooms, ready to be plastered

Day 146 - Electrics

2009-11-28T18:52:00.001Z

Ern and Terry pore over the plans

And all over the house the cables start to go in...

Day 146 - Bathroom Planning

2009-11-24T18:53:00.001Z

We plan out where the bath will be

And our great recess above the bath, built by Steve. Plan is for glass shelves to hold gorgeous potions...

Day 140 - Roof Leak

2009-11-23T21:07:00.004Z

We sprang a leak - A combination of all the rain we've been having and the lack of ceilings meant there was water dripping into the bathroom.

It seems to be coming from some existing pipework in the loft. We'll get Shaun to check it out...

Day 140 - Electrician & Studwork

2009-11-22T20:29:00.001Z

The electrician has started....

The studwork frames are mostly up

The boys thought they were fun to run through

These are the pipes for the underfloor heating, currently in the middle of our new bedroom cupboard, but will be more to the right and boxed in.

Day 139 - Update

2009-11-21T20:26:00.000Z

Shaun's dog - Biscuit

New floor in the hall

And utility room

The holes in the wall are where the cavity wall insulation has been pumped through

Day 133 - Electrical Plans

2009-11-15T21:20:00.002Z

After a fun, but hectic, weekend away in Birmingham and Sheffield and before Ern jetted off to Amsterdam we had to draw up and confirm the electrical plans as the electrician arrives tmrw!

As you can see, they're pretty complex. We're having ethernet for internet and telephone throughout the house and wanted to dramatically increase the number of plug sockets. I counted up the sockets I was using in my old study - 26! And that's not even considering the lighting - phew!

Day 132 - Bedroom Windows

2009-11-14T20:55:00.000Z

Here's the new high-level window in the master bedroom - the obscured glass will come later

And here are our lovely french windows. So excited about these and how nice they'll be in the summer.

I also took a pic from the outside looking back at the doors. I won't be able to do this again as we'll have a juliette balcony in front of the doors. Unfortunately we're not allowed to use the flat roof as a balcony as it overlooks next door's garden.

Here's the view from the french windows, pretty nice apart from the blue plastic on the flat roof!

And the view from Liam's room

Day 132 - We have ceilings!

2009-11-14T20:54:00.001Z

These are a bit dark but we now have ceilings again upstairs!

And this neat collection of pipes is for the upstairs under-floor heating. At the moment it's in the middle of the new floor but hopefully it'll end up inside a cupboard

Day 132 - UFH & Plumbing

2009-11-14T20:44:00.000Z

The underfloor heating is also complete in the new lounge

and the connections are in the storeroom

Day 131 - Windows are in!

2009-11-13T20:19:00.004Z

Some still need to have the glass changed for obscure glass and the builders have asked to leave the french doors out for the moment to make things easier for them.

We're very pleased with the windows, they're very sleek, just what we wanted.

Day 127 - Underfloor Heating installation

2009-11-09T14:08:00.005Z

While the windows are being fitted downstairs, the underfloor heating installation has started upstairs.

The shallow trays that will hold the pipes are being laid between the new batons that have been laid on the joists

Here's what it looks like from below

Day 127 - Busy, busy day

2009-11-09T13:47:00.000Z

Today is a very busy day at the property. Henry & Sons are in fitting the windows downstairs, the plumber is laying the trays for the underfloor heating upstairs, the builders are starting on the flat roof over the lounge and we met with the architect to go through all the changes we've made so we can get some updated drawings - phew!

Day 127 - Windows being fitted

2009-11-09T13:46:00.007Z

Exciting! - The windows are being fitted by Henry & Sons over the next 3 days

They seem to be fitting the frames in first (with a fair amount of pushing and shoving)

And then will add the glass in afterwards...

Even the trickle vents don't look so bad.

Day 118 - Panoramic

2009-10-31T21:11:00.000Z

You'll need to click this one to see the detail but I took the opportunity of having no walls to do a panorma of upstairs

This is view across from the spare room, Liam's room, Master suite and the main bathroom

Day 117 New Roof complete

2009-10-30T13:13:00.002Z

Here's the lovely new roof over the new back bedroom and along the side extension. The new tiles have all gone on the back and the old tiles have been reused at the front so the new part of the house blends in from the front

New facias and soffits on the side

And Shaun showing me the plastic trays they've installed under the new roof tiles to prevent the lining filling with water and sagging.

In the second pic you can see how the old roof lining has sagged. Ern says his is much worse on his roof.

Day 110 - Bedroom roof

2009-10-23T14:34:00.005+01:00

The roof for bedroom extension goes up

Elsewhere the carpenter, Pelham, and his assistant Graham are fixing the roof beams - it seems many have sagged or are just wonky and as we're now replacing all of the ceilings everything needs to be level.

Day 105 - Upstairs Update

2009-10-18T14:14:00.010+01:00

Things really moving now...

This is the old bathroom window, part of the old external wall, viewed through the new bathroom window.

The wood is the outline of the bathroom wall

This area will be the master bedroom ensuite

Roof trusses

Day 101 - Henry's Son

2009-10-14T17:35:00.000+01:00

This week we met with Peter from Henry & Sons, our window suppliers, to measure up.

That's Peter on the right

We also met our chippie, the unusually monikered Pelham. I'm interested in unusual/old names from my family history studies and this isn't one I'd come across before. According to a quick search on t'internet Pelham is an old English name which may mean tannery town which is slightly less glamorous.
I also found that Pelham is the first name of P.G. Wodehouse and that according to the wonderful, if grammatically incorrect site, YourNotMe there are only 62 people called Pelham in the UK.

No pics of Pelham but here's a slightly blurry pic of his great work on the 5th Bedroom roof

And here's the 5th bedroom

View from the 5th bedroom doorway looking forwards.

High level window window in our bedroom which we're hoping to turn into an opening window, albeit with occluded glass, otherwise we have a ventilation problem in the master bedroom as the french windows aren't tall enough to include a top opening window without looking odd.

And here's the french window opening

I also made myself somewhat unpopular with Graham, our master brickie as we decided the main bathroom window (that he'd already built) wasn't big enough - eek! For some reason our architect John had drawn the window pretty small on the plans and it was only seeing it in real life that we realised it would be better if it was bigger. It should only cost us a replacement lintel to change though.

Day 97 - Sticky plaster?

2009-10-11T15:22:00.001+01:00

We popped round to the property for a meeting with the electrician (think of a number of sockets and double it!)

The plaster has gone from the hallway and landing (as well as the carpet)

No, I don't know what the loo roll is there for either... probably best not to think about it too much!

as well as the wall between the boys room and bathroom (the plaster was so badly popped on this wall it was held on by the wallpaper!)

and between the boys room and my study (the wall that moved when Shaun pushed the door)

More of the old external wall from our bedroom has come down

And this big crack in the stairwell will have to be 'stitched' with some metal spines.

Day 91 - Downstairs complete

2009-10-04T11:02:00.001+01:00

Looks like downstairs is pretty much done

here's the storeroom - future home to ex-garage stuff such as bikes, mowers & the eternal pile of stuff waiting to go to my folks to be sold for Cancer Research

The utility room, future home to washing machine and spare fridge freezer - we continually run out of room in ours so hoping two will solve the problem!

You can also just see the doorway to the downstairs loo

Interior of the loo - not very exciting so far but you can see the diagonal wall and the window

And the lounge - which won't all fit in the picture which I suppose means it won't be too small!

Day 90 - Home Improvement Show

2009-10-03T14:34:00.003+01:00

Today we headed up to the Home Improvement Show to pick up lots of useful tips

Overall it was useful, exhausting and slightly weird being at and event and not being an demo dolly!

We saw George Clarke (from C4's Home Show), Michael Holmes (C5's I own Britains Best Home - never seen it!) Julia Kendall from DIY SOS and Matt James the Urban Gardener.

There were lots of interesting exhibits and some useful free seminars and classes.

We picked up some useful info for our solar water decision, looked at internal and external doors, the amazing studybed and picked up a free paint roller cleaner!

It was also lovely to see and chat with David Hyde who was an exhibitor with the high end window company he works for.

Only one picture...

this is the inside of a Megaflo, the pressurised water system we're having fitted.

Day 89 - Asbestos

2009-10-02T18:37:00.000+01:00

While removing the upstairs walls the builders have found some patches of asbestos.

They're happy to remove it if we can take it to the dump - seems it's easier/cheaper for us to get dispose of toxic waste than them!

Day 89 - A head for heights?

2009-10-02T18:17:00.000+01:00

Today we had a meeting at the property with Shaun and Ian (the plumber).

As Ian was on the phone when we arrived we got to go up on the scaffolding to see the 1st floor progress

But first we had to put our hard hats on

They've knocked through the old external wall in our bedroom

View from what will be our bedroom looking towards the front of the house

Looking into our bedroom and through to the spare room as the wall has come down

Inside view of our bedroom

Hanging free

Our former bedroom window, now bricked up to become the wall for Liam's room

This is Lee and a glimpse of our main bricklayer who's name I've forgotten - doh

Looking down the gap to the big steel supporting the house

Front builders storage area - aka front garden

Shaun going back down the ladder

Day 83 - View from the Front

2009-09-26T18:35:00.000+01:00

Here's looking out our new front doorway which is now in the front of the house, innovative huh?!

The small retaining wall at the front has come down

We presume so the giant crane could get access to the front

As all the toilets have gone from the house there's now a lovely portaloo out the front!

Day 83 - Steels are in, walls come down.

2009-09-26T16:24:00.001+01:00

After a hectic week we finally got up to the property on Saturday, with the boys, to check out the changes since last weekend.

As the steels came on Tuesday we were hoping for major changes, which we got!

The chimney wall has come down so we can now see the full size/shape of the store room

And the old back wall of the lounge has gone too now the big steel is in place to support the upstairs

Here's the big steel

Upstairs our old bedroom now has temporary steels

and holes in the floor

A view from the back

And the Thorpes pose through the new study window

Day 81 - Blue Steel

2009-09-22T09:16:00.003+01:00

Just had a call from Shaun, the big steel has been delivered and is being shuffled into place.

This means work will ramp up and Shaun hopes to be breaking through and removing the existing supporting walls tomorrow!

I couldn't be there today to watch as I'm presenting on a training course in Hursley but Shaun took pictures for me to post on here!

Day 75 - Site Closed

2009-09-18T18:55:00.003+01:00

The site is closed today - they've run out of things to do!

Monday will be busy as they have to clear the site, including the skip, to make room for the crane which is coming on Tuesday to maneuver the biggest steel into place.

Once the steels are in the guys can start on the 2nd floor and then the roof and we should see things moving more quickly - hooray!

Day 74 - Pootility Room?

2009-09-17T16:29:00.001+01:00

One of the things we considered last weekend was the downstairs loo. On the plans it leads off the hall and the door is directly opposite the front door, not ideal. Also we were worried that the hall would be rather long and twisty, an unfortunate consequence of moving the front door to the front of the house!

We've decided to get rid of the coat cupboard - it protrudes too far into the hall, a coat rack will have to suffice.

Then Ern came up with the bright idea of moving the loo door into the utility. We discussed the pros and cons and decided to go for it, if it was possible.

I spoke to Shaun and he agreed it should be possible if we moved the hand basin under the window but also came up with a new possibility - cutting off the corner of the loo with a diagonal wall and putting the door in there, the access would still be off the hall but the door wouldn't directly face the front door.

After more debate we decided we loved the diagonal wall idea but still wanted the access off the utility, but could we have the loo hanging off the diagonal wall?

The diagonal wall would also give us more space in the hall and hopefully a better flow. And an interesting diagonal wall! The downstairs loo is pretty spacious so it wouldn't make much difference to the space in there.

This week I met with the brickie and he laid the blocks out to give us an idea how it will look

We're pleased, it definitely makes a difference to the flow of the hallway, it seems to flow rather than the previous abrupt left turn. Plus the guys think it should be fine to hang the pan off the diagonal wall which will add interest to the downstairs loo.

And the blog post title? Several years back my folks modified their kitchen/downstairs loo area so that what had been a cupboard off the kitchen became an extension to the downstairs loo and space to stack the washing machine and tumble dryer. At one of their infamous November fireworks parties some wag, no doubt under the influence of the notorious mulled wine, dubbed it the pootility room, a lovely juxtaposition of toilet and utility room.

Day 70 - I did it!

2009-09-14T16:07:00.000+01:00

After Shaun's somewhat depressing suggestion that we replace the wall between my study and the boys room I spent last weekend tackling the somewhat daunting task of moving everything in my study away from the offending wall. This meant trying to fit it all onto the shelves on the other side.

And I did it!

Now of course you could argue I've just got too much stuff in there, and this doesn't include all the stuff that moved with me to my temporary home at Davids, but I'm very proud that it all fitted!

It was a bit like building a dry stone wall, you had to find the right sized slot for the box you were holding!

This is the tidiest my desk has ever been!

And then on Monday the desk came down and the chests of drawers got moved over and it all got covered in black plastic which will hopefully protect it when they knock the wall down.

Day 68 - Soaking more away

2009-09-12T18:45:00.001+01:00

Another Soakaway

This is the original soakaway specified in the plans

As opposed to the additional soakaway the Structural Engineer specced earlier in the build

Day 67 - Dodgy walls

2009-09-11T18:47:00.000+01:00

Another problem surfaces...

Don't worry it's nowhere near as serious as the damn hole problem (oops, I said I wouldn't mention that again)

The spare bedroom wasn't undergoing major changes in the build but we did decide to move the doorway. The room is longish and fairly narrow, a pretty impractical shape for a bedroom, compounded by the door opening into where it makes most sense to put a double bed. This meant the bed had to pushed up against the wall so the door could still open and obviously meant you could access both sides of the bed - a pain for guests and bed making!

So as the other side of the wall is now in a corridor we're moving the doorway further down the wall to make the space more usable.

As shown in the pic - the yellow line is the old doorway, the green line is the approximate position of the new doorway.

Anyhow.... they starting my making two long vertical cuts with the circular saw - and then the wall dropped

away from the corner

and down - this is the line they'd drawn - you can see in this blurry pic how much it dropped

This is a similar problem to the bathroom wall dropping although that was compounded by a leak.

We have solid walls upstairs and basically they weren't built right and aren't supported on the joists correctly.

So now Shaun is advising we replace the two remaining internal solid walls that aren't affected by the build. This also includes the wall between the boys bedroom and my study - eeek!

Day 64 - Final post on the hole , promise!

2009-09-08T16:53:00.003+01:00

We got the bill...

Thanks to Fowles' structural engineer and his simplified solution the potential scary bill of over £5000 was reduced to £1700. And more importantly it's resolved.

Hooray.

No more posts about the hole...