Day 48 - Tank Wars

Today I had a half day so got to see the guys in action, Phil appeared first and confirmed that I could use http://www.victoriaplumb.com/ for my bathroom goods which are considerably cheaper than anywhere else in the high street.


Richard appeared with James who appeared to be a little excitable today, Richard put it down to him 'getting his oats' at the weekend, nuff said. We then had a delivery of more insulation and our unvented tank to take on the job of the water system and give us mains pressure to all the outlets.


TV Tony started fitting facia points in 'the Ballroom' as my Dad has now named the new lounge. Richard has put a spanner in the works suggesting we have the TV at the other end, now we don't know what to do!


By the time I got home the new tank was in....
The old tank was out along with the header tank (no longer need one with this setup)....
We also had a completely plasterboarded bathroom, ready for the plasterers on Wednesday... Just a quick note to say thanks to http://www.deepingstrading.co.uk/ who have managed to deliver on time every time where others have failed, good job guys.

Day 47 - Plasterboarding

Richard was busy today so the other guys were at work on putting up the plasterboarding. The new lounge has a plasterboard roof now and they have started upstairs on the bathroom.

James started early on and didn't go home till gone 7.30pm but left behind a complete roof, the remaining areas around the Velux have been completed and the final broken tiles on the old roof replaced to finish the job, it looks the part too. Pictures to follow next week.

Day 46 - New Landing

These are two of the pictures sent to me today by Luce, as you can see Richard has got the new landing wall ready, the existing wall was removed yesterday and today we have the start of a stud wall which wil create the walkway into the new landing.
When the spindles are in for the gallery landing we are hoping this area won't be the dark area it is at the moment. This area was a mess of wood that Richard has had to get supported correctly which was a bit of a headache. With the floor in the existing hot water tank you can see at the moment will move more into the roof void off to the left of the picture and allow the creation of some cupboard space and storage on the landing for the airing cupboard and some wardrobe space for the master bedroom.

There was talk of getting some plasterers in today but Luce says none has been done after all so I suspect something will kick off next week.

Day 45 - Its All Go!

Today I am uploading my changes from a hotel room in Coventry, my photo taker for this evening is Luce so thats why there are so many pictures that just so happen to include cats!

Today was again a very busy day, full compliment of 4 APR gents as well as James the roofer, Phil the plumber and TV Tony the electrician.......sounds almost like an episode of Postman Pat.

I got home early to pick up my bag and found Phil putting in the 'first fixtures' for the plumbing so we have some pipes in place.

TV Tony is putting in TV and light points in place in the downstairs area, he has also routed some of the ethernet woohoo! Sadly I had to go so couldn't inspect the ins and outs of it all but its certainly busy. Discussing the light issues with Richard we have ultimately left the decision up to Tony, after all his expertise is what we are paying for. I spoke to Tony about the TV and he has allowed enough length in the runs to allow movement of connections if required. He truly is a Guru!

The utility room has been 'windowed and doored' so to speak and the final window in the lounge has glass in it, we are officially watertight.

The current landing has lost its wall and the gallery landing in somewhat basic at present. I think we were quoted for 14 spot lights but we have already put in 10 in the lounge so I think this could run over somewhat. Lets see what happens at the moment its fun!

Day 44 - Blockwork Done?

I am hoping now that the blockwork is complete. An internal wall of bricks had to be built in the new lounge in order to create a secure wall against rising damp as we are now lower than the previous membrane. Along with the final blockwork on the utility it looks as though all the major blockwork is done. Luce got her 'fake' fireplace for decoration as well.

The downstairs windows have started going in and we now have a good idea of how the lounge will look from the inside and the sort of size we will get upon completion.

James and friends have nearly completed the tiling on the roof, the valleys have are complete, the tiling is coming on at a good pace, I would say they are over halfway to completion on the roof. APR James (as opposed to roofer James) moved the Velux as Luce requested and she seems happier.

Finally TV Tony was back today and we have the inclusion of many lighting runs in, still no sign of my ethernet yet though. Watch this space.

Day 43 - Everything Changes

Today was a full house, 3 guys doing the roof and 4 people working on the interior. We started the day off discussing wall placements for the utility room and by the end of the day the whole extension has been rewritten!

First up, the roof. James had a couple of Polish guys assisting him today and they got stuck in with the 'muck work' as he calls it. We have some ridge tiles on and cemented in, the gables ends are all cemented in as well including decoration.

The valleys have all been cut as well on both sides and as you can see from the photo we also have 5 Velux windows in place, 2 in the new landing and 1 in each of the upstairs rooms in the new extension.Luce wants one of the Velux moving but Richard says that shouldn't be a problem, lets see what he says when I tell him tomorrow.

Downstairs is where all the changes are taking place, where we had a walkway going through the existing bathroom to create a corridor to the lounge we now don't have a walkway at all. The idea here is to create an open plan style kitchen area with steps coming down into the lounge from a dinging area at the top. The utility room will grant the extra storage required and we should end up with a lighter room which feels very roomy, thats the plan anyway. You can see here the curtain that is hiding the new dinging area on the raised part of the existing bathroom.

The bathroom door is currently blocked off using a piece of wood, the shower is behind the curtain and we have no windows in the extension, anyone could break in and use our shower in the night! The kitchen has lost a part of the wall and is also boarded up with a piece of ply. Richard was here till nearly 6pm tonight discussing our options including plans for the kitchen, it all feels as though its coming together slowly.

Day 42 - Toilet Movement

No not that kind of movement, I mean the toilet is now no longer in the existing bathroom, it has now been put in place in the new cloakroom. This does mean that you are now practically in the kitchen and someone can be in the next room (seperated by a curtain) doing what comes naturally, lets hope we get a door in short order! This weekend we have Luce's sister Charlotte coming over presumably with two kids in tow, could be an eye-opener for them.

James has done more of the gulley work on the roof, also the ridgeline is completely tiled as well as the gadble ends ready for the 'muck work', referring to cemeting in the top ridge tiles and the ends to prevent the water getting in. Richard hasn't been on site due to a lady requiring her stairs finished in times for a party, women!

Day 41 - More of the same

Today the guys finished the brickwork for the cloakroom, the wall to the left of the doorway has been put up and the joist over the doorway has been added. The hole around the soil pipe has been filled and concreted flat ready for plumbing to proceed. Outside the same applies, the hole has been filled and the inspection cover concreted round to grant access down the side of the house again.

James has carried on with the tiling, more lines of tiles have been put up near the ridgeline and along the gable end and work has started on the gully connecting the new and existing roof. Friday Foxy will be back on site and possible Phil or TV Tony.

Day 40 - Cloakroom

Today we got our first window in place, the existing kitchen has had about a metre turned into the downstairs cloakroom which meant taking out an existing window and putting in one of the new ones. The partition wall was also built in the kitchen meaning we currently have an extra dividing wall to walk round and the fridge freezer has taken residence in the hallway. The kitchen table is now in the existing front lounge. Currently we live in the downstairs front room so in all its starting to feel a little claustraphobic.

James has finished the lining of the roof and the lathes and we have had the first batch of tiles put on the roof, its looking good.

Day 39 - TV Tony

Today saw the introduction and with James still on roofing duty and the 4 APR men at hand it was a busy site. The usual teas and coffees led on to a chat in the kitchen about power points and ethernet points. This was due to the arrival of 'TV Tony' as I am going to name him, Tony apparently is a 'TV Guru' according to Foxy so hopefully we should see some understanding towards my digital entertainment centre I am trying to create with the introduction of my network cable. TV Tony was happy with everything suggested until Foxy mentioned having 5 Amp points for lamps which ended up with a barrage of insults about being 'Noncey' mostly from Luce and Paul.

James has cracked on with the lathes on the roof and is nearly complete ready for tiling. They sent the wrong tiles the other day but the Cotswolds are near enough that its not a bad choice as they also dont tend to mark.

Foxy has got stuck into the stud walls in the upstairs sections marking out the relevant areas for the bed and making it so we dont end up banging our heads when sitting up! Its starting to come together, they have opened up the existing house to make it now possible to walk into the extension from upstairs. We now have another interested visitor taking part in looking around.

The downstairs cloakroom is also taking shape, the hole that was dug yesterday has now been fitted with the required inspection cover and a soil pipe has been laid for the new toilet. Tomorrow the chaps will work on creating the stud walls to make it into a proper room rather than it coming up under the kitchen table. Outside is still not quite accessible.

TV Tony has got a lot of the electric runs in already and with the positioning of a unit to expend on the existing in the utility it should keep the long runs to a minimum. I have yet to show him the 400 metres of ethernet cable in the garage.

Richard is off for a couple of days putting some finishing touches on the previous job but he did come round tonight and we spoke about anything we might have missed or any questions, I am more than happy with the work so far....lets hope things keep this way and I will be one very happy customer.

Day 38 - Roofing Begins

Today we had a full house of 4 APR guys and the roofing chap as well. They got stuck straight in and by the looks of it a lot of progress was made.

First up was the removal of the final rubble from the pile at the front, David brought the mini digger over at the weekend to aid the removal and Paul was on that job earlu first thing. Its starting to look like my old driveway again though with a lot less gravel!

The roofing man started on one side of the extension with the gulley going in first of all and the existing lathes being cut to fit, he seems to have got most of one side done with a few more lathes to go in, the problem being the small tiles mean more lathes than on a traditional tile roof.

One minor upset was the breaking of one of my plant pots which got on the ugly end of some dropped debris. I will have to find out who the culprit was!

The MDF floor has gone in on the extension as well, all covered throughout so you can now see the footprint more clearly. Its looking good.

Finally, work has started on measuring up the new downstairs cloakroom, some scribbles have appeared on the windowsill where they will be putting the wall and outside the path has gone to be replaced with a hole where the waste connection will be made. The garage is now the only way round.

Day 37 - Tiling?

The roof was supposed to start tiling today but as there were no tiles present the guys had to suffice with a bacon butty and clearing the rest of the opening into the existing roofline. When I got home it appears that a delivery had arrived during the day so I now have 3 pallettes of tiles ready to start work. Next week we should be watertight I hope and windows too.

Day 36 - Guttering, Soffits, Facias

The guttering, soffits and facias are in place now along the sides of the extension and they are a pretty good match with the existing. As you can see below we are also ready for some tiling which should begin tomorrow according to Richard.

We had a full house of four today and they look as though they have the place ready for the tilers, apparently they can't be present on site during tiling due to the danger of nail guns so its gonna be quiet and that means I won't have to make bacon sarnies on Friday morning for them all.

They have also broken into the roof and as you can see from this shot from inside the extension the slope of the ceiling from inside the roof void is the only thing keeping the elements out.

I think Luce just wants to have a decent bath now after living in the bathroom from hell with water running down the walls and an open air view with a concrete dust floor to match. Its nice to see some end in sight for the external shell.

Day 35 - Sloping Joists

Extra woodwork has been added to the new joists to allow for an extra curve to the slope of the roof to match the existing, hopefully the picture can articulate it better than me.

Also in the picture you might be able to notice that the hole has been made for the hallway into the existing house, this walkway will allow go straight down the centre of the extension to the new master bedroom.

Richard and Phil (the plumber) came round at 7pm to have a once over and chat about placements for radiators, bath, toilets, boiler and the usual plumbing paraphenalia. We think we have some sort of plan for the location of it all that allows for the bad head heeight in chalet style houses, only time will tell but it sounds good to me.

On a side note we have managed to 'do something' to the front door, coming home one night the key wouldnt open the door after a warm day, parhaps the lock had swelled in the heat?, anyway the end result meant that we are a key down, my foot hurts and I learnt to break into my own home with ease. All our existing keys are now paying homage to the destroyed one which means I have to get nasty with the lock in order to get in and Luce has to beg the builders to get in.

Day 34 - Hole In Roof

Foxy called this morning to talk about the gable end, the drawings are showing white facia and soffit boards along the end but having had a word with Foxy it seems that a brickwork gable is probably the best bet, it won't clash white against wood effect as badly from the back as well.

I will wait to update a bit more tonight....

Just got home from work and it looks like today we had some more work on the roof and this time working on the existing.

Had a quick look in the roofspace and they havent actually broken into the house itself so I guess its tile removal at the moment and preperation work. The ceiling joists for the 1st floor have also gone in for the most part so we now have more of an idea of room size.

Day 33 - Roof Joists In

Today we got home and found all the roof joists are now in, it looks as though they are preparing some of the woodwork in preperation for the roof as some timbers are pushing into the roof line, the rain should hold off for a couple of days though thankfully.

Having had a look at the master bedroom from the ground we are still concerned about size and usable area, at the moment I am consoling myself with the fact that most of the time you spend in the bedroom is sleeping.

It looks as though the builders have now been made aware of the blog site so I will have to start being nice or risk coming home to a house with no water or electric and a bucket for a toilet! Though Foxy's Mrs can now keep an eye on him which isn't a bad thing.

Day 32 - Woodwork

Today Richard and James got stuck into measuring up and cutting the roof joists. Luce has been off stripping wallpaper in the hallway so I am guessing she is feeling the progress and is getting into her usual cleaning and tidying campaign.

All the joists have been cut by the looks of it.
The end set are up and Richard says we should see him on Monday where we should see some good progress and what will look like a real roof. The mound has also shrunk though some is still there thanks to a visit from the grabber truck to cart off a load. Things are starting to take shape.

He Hath Cometh

The man with the delivery that is......about time too! We now have some wood on our driveway amongst the mass of junk. Lets hope that is the lot. Its come from Jewson and not the usual Andrews so I am guessing there has been some trouble sourcing goods, have to ask Richard on that one. As well as a delivery we also have our second bill, this time for 23.5k but like I always say to myself you can't take it with you when you go so may as well spend it. No builders today although Paul dropped in to drop off the bill and pick up a couple of bits. His work is done for now until more roofing is done to allow the builders to then fill the gaps in the wall and finish off. We are expecting Foxy and James tomorrow.....

Rainy Days

A joyous English summer day meant that it was miserable, the builders didn't even turn up I am guessing because of the rain and because we still have no delivery of joists and trusses for the roof.

This rain better stop soon, the carpet is rather damp and the bucket emptying is starting to wear thin.

Day 31 - Even Slower Progress

Still no delivery so today was a case of taking out the rest of the back wall of the house before the roof starts. At least the bath and bidet are no longer playing centre stage in the new extension and all the rest of the debris has been removed or piled up on the montain at the front. There isn't really a great deal they can do now though so lets hope the delivery arrives soon.

As you can see everything is no ready for trusses and the like for sorting out the roof.The back of the house is now pretty bare withe the windows to the existing bathroom still boarded up, there is nothing left to do now until the roof is watertight and they can then knock in to the existing house.