Update for Mister_IQ

There, finally. Still not entirely finished, but has been like this for the last year or so.

Needed closure on this blog, methinks.

28th April 2005

The last couple of weeks have mainly involved plumbing and plasterboarding.

Looking toward the rear / garden

The left side of the kitchen units

Toward the utility room

Toward the utility room (from the rear)

12th April 2005

I'm falling behind again in blogging this.

I can only show you progress in pictures.

12th April 2005





The issue with the windows was resolved quite well in the end. The supplier was offering £250, while the builder was suggesting £500. I told the builder this, and after a few days when the work was completed, he said he'd charge me £300.
However, I'd still been negotiating with the supplier at £500 and charged him VAT on it too. So a profit of £287.50 was the final result.

Do I feel guilty ?
Hell no !
The prices for the extras are hitting us hard, so we're grateful for small mercies. (we've still got the old windows too, so expect to see those on ebay any time soon)

Thursday 31st March

Things started to move along nicely. I collected the roof windows and then later the flashing kits.
I received a call from the builders on Thursday to say the windows are old stock. They were manufactured in 2000 and don't fit the new flashing kits !

Following long angry conversations with the merchants, they have admittedly they shouldn't have been selling them. They are going to send out new windows and bear the cost of stripping back the slates already installed and the replacing them. I have a feeling there will be arguments over how much work that actually is though. I helped a bit by stripping off most of them on Friday night and Saturday morning.
Saturday morning, Paul also came around and did a fantastic job completing the first fix electrics all over !

Tuesday 22nd March

OK, this was kind of my fault, but we messed up the roof steel. When the architect drew up the initial drawings, we asked for some minor changes internally. He did these and gave us a new set of plans. Unfortunately, when the builders arrived on site I had given them the first set of plans thinking that the only changes were minor internal ones. Unbeknownst to me, there was also a major change in the size of the ridge beam. The builders had already ordered it, so we had to bear the cost of that and hope that it can be resold. Unfortunately, the new one is much larger and expensive too.
When it arrived 5 of us tried to move it for an hour or so. We reached the alley.
The crane arrived the following day, swung it into place in about 10 minutes and disappeared.


Tuesday 22nd March
The roof has been going on, leaving the holes for the Velux roof windows.

Monday 14th March -1st floor joists

Last week, the main thing happening was the first floor joists going in.
I'm still trying to catch up though, since we've been a little short of sleep.

Monday 7th March - Extension (to the family)

Last week has been hectic.
I can't remember a lot of what happened construction wise because our new baby daughter Darcey arrived on Sunday (Mother's Day !).
I'll try to recap though. We had a lot of snow which slowed things down somewhat, but the blocks have been going up gradually. I also took Friday off work, and finished off moving the kitchen into the dining room which has worked much better than expected. We also completed the boiler move into the airing cupboard. It's not working 100% right, but that's mainly down to a scaled-up cylinder which we'll be replacing. I also witnessed the horde of wilderbeast which are scaffolders. Even the builders just stop and watch as they storm through. The air turns blue with the language and the volume on site is raised to eardrum-bursting levels.
Today, they finished the block work and are ready to start on digging the hole for the pier which the steels rest on, and then knocking down the wall. Here's a view from the top of the scaffold.