Day 30 - Slow Progress

Not much happened on Friday. Paul arrived with the van loaded with two six metre joists on board and promptly backed it into my bush in order to get it as close as he could to the garage door. All four guys were on site and as I left for work they were trying to get the first joist into position by carrying it between them, it looked heavy!

When I arrived home both joists were in place but little else was done, an expected delivery hadn't showed up. Next week we should hopefully get some roof building going on.

Day 29 - Bailing Out

After another joyous summers day read: peeing it down all day! The house is somewhat wet. This of course means its an ideal opportunity for me to climb slippery scaffolding with an umbrella in one hand and a camera in the other.

The closest wall to us is the middle wall of the three going horizontally across the extension. If you look in the top left you can see the lintel for the walkway into the master bedroom at the far end. To the right you can see the double doorway for the balcony onto the garden. The final lintel has gone over the doorway and they are just completing the final wall on the existing house......which is where the problem is. This is inside:

The carpet is swimming and Lucies washing up bowl has been pressganged into service attempting to prevent rotting of the existing skirting boards. If this keeps up we are going to need an Ark not an extension. Speaking to the guys this morning it looks as though roof construction will start next week so keep your fingers crossed. Whilst I was out I had a look at the patio doors which are still in the garage and looking at them closely you will be hard pressed to guess they were plastic, nice one APR, good choice.

Day 27 - Gable End

The gable end is now up to the top of the doors that will be in the master bedroom.

The second wall in the upstairs has been built up to the same height without the doorways as they will be cut in later.

The wall that completes the three is currently being built up from the existing external wall of the house although is not yet at the same height as the others. It looks like we should have the roof started in short order. Also of note is the arrival of the french doors and windows, we are short a front door but that is to be done later anway. Having had a quick look at the windows I am very happy with the finish with wood effect on the outside and white finish on the inside except the new lounge which will be wood effect inside and out.

Day 26 - Shoring Up

With the shocking bank holiday weather over the weekend we got some 'internal rain' issues with some rain getting through the waterproof cover and running down the walls, thankfully both rooms have abadoned carpets so no major loss. Here you can see some of the water marks still on the walls from the outside, well they were inside too during the worst of the rain.

Today Derek and Paul set about shoring up the final holes in the kitchen and study putting a course of breeze blocks between the existing joists and pretty much filling the worst of the holes, sitting here typing this I am only suffering minor frostbite rather than worrying about the loss of various extremeties as I was last week. Richard and James were away today so no change in the woodwork but the final external wall was added to on the gable end of the house shown nicely here. I have had to move from my normal photo position as I can't fit the whole house in any more and the tree is starting to attack me when I do.

Day 25 - 1st Floor Started

Today has been a busy day, Luce and I had the day off so spent a while chatting to the guys and we also had Richard back from Thailand looking very brown and trying to convince us he had lost a stone on holiday.

As we were off and Luce had stuck the car too close to the garage they couldnt get the barrows through for the cement so they had started cutting the final joists when I got down to move the car. With teas served they cracked on at a fair old rate and I could get some action shots!


The less said about Pauls hand on his hip the better! All the joists were up early on and in the humidity and with Richards phone going off every 10 minutes they were finalising the brickwork up to roof level on the sides of the extension. The afternoon was adding the breeze blockwork for the end wall and the centre partition wall that stands on the steelwork seperating master bedroom and en-suite/bathroom.

From the picture you can see the existing roofline being hidden by Derek and the end block wall being erected. More work was done on the existing wall on the house, the holes have mostly been filed now so the gaping holes we had before are now water tight and a lot smaller. The front certainly needs some work though, the pile is just growing!

Day 24 - Joists Going In

Some more good progress today, the walls have been built up to the new metalwork and joists have started to go in.

As you can see we have most of the joists in, about another 10 and the roofing for downstairs is done and its back to more blocks and brickwork. I am still a little concerned about the space upstairs so I am going to ask the same questions of the builders I have asked already in the hope of getting some calming answers. With the joists finished and the metal work in we should see some more heat as well because at the moment there are huge holes in the roof and you can hear someone going for a pee from outside which is always pleasant!

Day 23 - We have metalwork

Good progress today, came home and thankfully the plumber has been and the toilet now flushes again which is always useful. There is a fine film of brick dust over everything in the back three rooms which has resulted in Lucie having to do her usual obsessive cleaning on everything in the kitchen. Its just gone 7 now and only now have we started cooking dinner.

The reason is because we have lost the back door, we have whats can only be described as the largest catflap in history where our door once was. Needless to say we have two residents are more than happy with the change. The other addition is metalwork, two RSJs are now in place and we should see some progress on the ceiling now. We are now at least water tight due to the addition of some plastic but its still pretty cold in the rooms with 'skylights'.

Day 22 - Goodbye Bathroom

The bathroom is now....well.....I can't really find the words to be honest, the pictures speak volumes.

Where once stood our bath is now an area of destruction! We have 3 pillars of steel holding up the existing roof as they took out all the beams above the existing windows, as you can see from the picture there is now a 'skylight' above the window that lets in a cool breeze during the summer months, sadly its bloody freezing!

That moves me on to the study, well the PC has more grit on it than our driveway (that got put into the foundation and every layer of bricks as its currently used as the cement staging area) so using the PC is really quite nasty, this is gonna be painful to fix.

The room I am working in is also nicely breezy!

Day 21 - Interior Start

Today the guys started on the existing property making some changes to the bathroom including removing the old bidet and disconnecting the bath. The sink is still in place and the toilet has been hooked up with temporary plumbing.

Eventually all this has to go so at the moment its a case of playing for time until the required disconnection. They also did more work on the existing roof, the idea being to remove enough of the existing tiles and roof to allow the woodwork for the upstairs flooring to be positioned on the existing exterior walls as we are expecting the metalwork tomorrow for the beams.

We have lost a lot of exterior wall which is currently in a pile ready to be used on the porch at the front later on in the build. We also have an 8 by 10 inch hole in the study which makes it a little chilly in the evening typing this post jammed behind the wardrobe to allow the guys to work on the room when they start blocking up the window. The things I do to record history!

Day 20 - Rain Stop Play

Day 20 was a bit of a washout really, only a few lines of bricks on the external walls were lad before the rain came, some cleaning up was done which has made the place traversable again and moving bricks from the front to the back but in all a quiet day today. On the upside we have had a delivery of floor joists ready for the laying of the 1st floor wood and metalwork.

This weekend we have to clear the bathroom and study ready for breaking in to the downstairs. The study will have its window removed, part boarded and part bricked up and should be done in a day. The bath and existing bidet will be disconnected and the toilet temporarily rerouted to allow them to make some progress on the brickwork for the internal load bearing walls.

Day 19 - Roof Breaking

A slower day today with very little progress on the actual height of the walls, this was in part due to the fact that they have reached the roof height of the ground floor and all the breeze blocks needed cutting to size on the final row at this height.

The roof has been cut into slightly to join the brickwork directly into the existing, this means we have some exposed woodwork underneath and some of the small tiles removed from the roof

Speaking to Paul this morning before work he thinks that breaking into the existing bathroom will begin next week so its going to start getting interesting! Also on the cards is removing the existing downstairs bedroom window and boarding it up prior to the windows being ready. Work should also begin on the 1st floor next week so I expect more progress then.

Day 18 - Lintels

A full crew minus Richard started early today and the aim was to get the lintels in place to make the columns near the windows more solid and less likely to come down in the coming bad weather this week.

The lounge is now looking more 'real' and we can get a feel for the size of the extension now we have walls up and window holes. We also have the only interior brick wall ready for the upstairs lintel.

We can now see the size the utility room will be and are really happy with what Bob has come up with so far.

Day 17 - Scaffolding

Day 17 saw a full cast of James, Paul and Derek arrive bright and early and after a little discussing of a couple of flaws in the drawings, Bob forgot about the step in the upstairs on cut-through drawing which meant we will have to change the upstairs flooring to accomodate a lintel which would have otherwise created a 'lump' in the floor across the length of the upstairs of the extension. Instead the change in flooring will mean a lowering of the downstairs ceiling by 5cm, no great loss.

With that out of the way the guys cracked on and by the end of the day we had full scaffolding all round and bricks up on the scaffold ready for building work to resume. A chat with Pete from over the road reveals there was some scrathing of heads due to power lines and telephone lines round the front with a third delivery of breeze blocks and bricks.

Day 16 - Ground Floor Done

Derek told me Richard is away till the 22nd but that hasn't slowed things down today. Paul and Derek look as though they have completed what they can on the downstairs brickwork

The shot you are looking at is from the current kitchen door and you can see they have completed the columns in the centre that will have the french doors and the panels on either side. No scaffolding yet so I am not sure how they can carry on, time to wait and see.

Day 15 - Inner Walls

As there is a lack of scaffolding and they are running out of external walls to build focus has changed to internal walls. More breeze blocks arrived with more bricks, I didnt get a count but it looks like we got the same amount as last time - another 4290 bricks takes us up to 8580 total so far.

Paul was on his own, Lucie said he left at 3pm so it was a pretty quiet day with little progress made, though to be fair he did quite a lot for one guy working alone. Richard is currently away in Thailand but I haven't found when he is back, it might be another weeks yet but there is still plenty to do. Things are shaping up now and it actually feels like we have had a good weeks progress.

Day 14 - 2 Walls

Certainly making some progress now we have two external walls at around head height although we have lots to do the place is taking shape

The doorway for the back door is prepped, the window for the utility room and three of the windows to the lounge, that only leaves the columns between the side panels and the french windows at the back and then I guess its moving on to interior walls and cavity insulation prior to moving up a level.

Day 13 - We Have A Wall

OK, so its only one wall, it has no windows and the end of it is pointed directly at an existing window in our house but it is a wall none the less.

Just the two bricklayers today, Darek and Paul arrived around 8.30 and got stuck in. We have a garage full of cement and fibreglass for the insulation in the garage and a cement mixer churning away on the drive each morning now! The price of progress, still at least we are seeing some now after our long wait.

Day 12 - Delivery

This morning brought us a delivery from Andrews building supplies, as I was in the shower Luce had to answer the doorbell in her dressing gown - priceless! She was none too impressed but now we have 4290 bricks on the driveway we should be good to start moving forward again.

The builders were here today, they have added to the masses of bricks with cement and mixer and sand, the gravel drive has been lost, perhaps for good.

Not only has this little lot arrived but they have started round the back already, we have several stacks of blocks and bricks and already have three lines of bricks and metal connection brackets on the existing house to link up the new walls onto. Hopefull this means the Tattershall Drive roof is complete and our extension now takes priority.