Monday 23 July
I thought it was going to be drainage works today, but things didn't work out quite as anticipated.
Rather than the guys turning up for work, it was the site foreman who arrived first, bringing news that they expect to carry out the below ground drainage works tomorrow and then start on the structural work (inserting steel beams followed by the demolition of external walls) on Wednesday. That's much sooner than I expected! He has ordered a skip for Wednesday and another for Friday so there is somewhere to put the demolition materials.
We also discussed nitty gritty stuff like where the new soil pipe serving the first floor bathroom will run when the wall it's currently attached to is demolished. It took several attempts referring back to the drawings before he realised why it needs to go where shown it's shown on the plans. That's because he'd assumed the extension would have a standard ceiling (with space for the pipework in the void above) rather than being open to the sloping roof, with its row of roof lights illuminating the space below.
We got there in the end...But there will be some tricky connections to get the levels/falls right, as the drain from the bath is lower than the toilet pan outlet and waste water can't flow uphill! There may have to be two pipes at different levels serving the bath and the WC, rather than everything connecting into one pipe as shown on the drawing. This could result in slightly larger pipe box through my office/study at floor level than planned. There were some muttered words about architects leaving builders to sort out tricky problems....
Before leaving, the site foreman took away the remaining engineering bricks (no longer needed now the extension is above base level). As a result, a little bit more space has been created in the former dining room to store the next lot of building materials. He also asked me to confirm with the man in charge when the steels would be arriving, so that the guys will have work to do when on site.
I was just texting the man in charge when he arrived unexpectedly, along with his partner and the chap who will be in charge of the structural work. We talked through the issues arising from the difference in the level of steel beams as shown on the architects drawings and as specified in the structural engineer's report (more muttered words about architects expecting builders to sort out the tricky problems...)
On projects such as this, a decision made on one element of the job will inevitably have a knock on effect on other elements. That's why its important to think through the ramifications of your choice before going down a particular route. In my project, there are three structural beams whose position and relative heights must work together, as well as allowing sufficient space for ventilation ducts serving the new kitchen hob and ground floor WC extracts to travel through the main house and exit to the outside world via the roof of the new extension.
I had drawn the position of the steel beams on the wall of the old dining room so that I could work out for myself how it would all fit together. That proved useful, illustrating just how low the main beam across the back of the house would be were we to follow the architect's drawing. The resultant large down stand between the new kitchen and the dining area beyond would look very top heavy, and detract from the light and airy open space I was aiming to create.
On the other hand, had we followed the structural engineer's drawing, there would have been a down stand running down the middle of the open plan dining/living area along the junction of the original kitchen ceiling and the open sloping roof over the new extension. This would have detracted from the clean cut line I'd been hoping to achieve between the original house and the new extension.
In the end, we decided to cherry pick the best bits from both the architects and structural engineer's approaches to achieve both clean lines and minimise the depth of the down stand between the original house and the new extension. The compromise will probably be that instead of the ventilation extract ducts exiting to the outside above the steel beam spanning the width of the house, they will probably have to slip below. In this scenario, the box containing the ventilation ducts (running the full length of the extension just below roof level to accommodate cable runs for lighting as well as the ducts) will be about 4"/10cm deeper than shown on the drawing. I can happily live with that difference if it means I can achieve the more important design elements of the scheme. I think we have found a solution....as long as it doesn't involve raising the wall along the boundary even higher. I was assured that it wouldn't.
The structural work due to start mid-week marks the start of the really noisy, messy and most disruptive part of the build. My existing kitchen will go completely - no more access to the washing machine or dishwasher until the new kitchen and utility room is fully functioning; the fridge and freezer will be moved into my living room where I've already started to set up a temporary kitchen, along with the small supply of cooking implements and crockery not already in storage. Visits to the launderette and washing up in the bathroom will be the order of the day. And the back of the house will be exposed to the elements until the roof over the extension is completed and new doors and windows installed. Here's hoping the long, dry spell lasts until then....
Time to do as much of the laundry as I can now, and to reclaim the little table top oven and hob which has been on loan to friends over the road who have been going through the same process as me, but started earlier. Fortunately, their building work has just been completed so the timing of the oven handover couldn't be much better.
I also need to do as much preparatory work as possible on my "day job" before Wednesday as it will be more difficult to concentrate when walls are coming down around me!
Only one other thing to think about now. Do I tell my unhappy neighbours that the disruptive part of the build is about to begin? I would have done that without hesitation a week ago, but now our good relationship seems to have broken down I'm reluctant to visit in person for fear of antagonising them, but find it silly to email or write when we live right next door to each other. Decisions, decisions...
Tuesday 24 July
I'm all prepared for the guys to come to carry out below ground drainage works as planned, but no one turns up first thing. Text the man in charge to find out what's going on, then give up waiting for a reply and go out leaving the house key under the front doormat. It's still there when I get home at lunchtime.
Eventually a reply comes... It seems that the guys are concerned about doing the drainage before the steels are in place and the walls demolished, so that should be done first. The steels will "hopefully" be here tomorrow, but it may not be until Thursday as they have to be modified a little following yesterday's discussion.
Shortly after, my neighbour's who live across the road knock on the door to return the table top oven and hob they had borrowed while their building work was in progress, together with a thank you bottle of wine. How sweet of them!
I have a relatively productive couple of hours in the afternoon work wise (it makes a change not to be thinking about building work and neighbour relations).
In a break, I put stickers on everything in the old kitchen so the builders know what to remove, what to relocate to the temporary kitchen in the front room and what to salvage to pass on to others. There's a bit more rearranging in other rooms; the washing basket is empty; there are fresh supplies of coffee tea and milk for the builders whenever they turn up, and there's not much more I can do at this stage, other than put dust covers over doors just before the demolition starts. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe Thursday....Maybe not till later in the week or next week if the skip doesn't come soon and there's nowhere to put the materials from the demolition.
Wednesday 25 July
After yesterday's text from the builder, I wasn't expecting any of the builder's guys to come today, and certainly not to do drainage works. But that's exactly what happened. Some deck boards are taken up and a hole dug where the new manhole will be to take the waste pipe from the upper floor sanitary ware fixtures.
Various bits of drain pipe are dumped on the garden (why oh why do builders dump stuff on plants when there's a much larger area of hard surfacing which is empty nearby?). Then the guy starts to move hardcore from the street and dump it on the footprint of the extension.
I'm working on the day job upstairs, when I hear the front door shut. He's gone. I inspect the house. There are now holes in the floor of the former dining room where the drain will run underneath to serve the new kitchen sink, dishwasher, new downstairs WC and wash basin and the washing machine.
There is also a hole in the ceiling too, but I'm not sure why. Perhaps he just go fed up looking down and fancied a change....
Then I go outside, inspect the garden and move the drainage bits off the plants to on top the railway sleepers where they won't crush anything. That's when I notice that the hardcore has been piled up in the footprint of the extension as high as the corner of the air brick under the main house. An alarm bell rings.
I text the man in charge and the site foreman, send a photo and request that the air brick on the main house is connected to the one on the extension before any more hardcore is brought in tomorrow, as it will be much more difficult lay the vent duct connecting the two if the area is covered in hardcore.
Thursday 26 July
This was supposed to be the start of the structural works, or a continuation of the below ground drainage works if the steel beams weren't delivered. It turned out to be a day of madness instead.
Before leaving the house early for a hospital appointment, I text the man in charge and the man I thought was the site foreman to say that I would leave the house key under the front door mat if the guys haven't arrive by 8.30am, when one of my neighbours with a car is giving me a lift to the hospital (I'm supposed to have a designated driver to take me home after today's procedure).
A few minutes letter my phone rings and its the site foreman to tell me that the guys won't be coming today; don't leave the key under the mat. It's complicated. The man in charge will explain. I should contact him. I tell him that I'll do that, but later today as I had to leave for my appointment right now.
Just as I'm about to walk out of the front door, there's a knock and three guys are waiting to be let in. What? I've just been told no one's coming today....
I phone the site foreman to ask what's going on - should I let them in? Do they know what they are doing? One of the guys I recognise from a previous visit is on the phone to his boss (the Polish partner of the man in charge's) and there is an animated conversion in Polish. In the end, the phone is handed to me and I speak to the partner whose English is good. Yes, let them in; they are there to prepare for the structural work which will happen tomorrow, and give them a key too if that's OK. I had over the key and hurry off to my appointment.
My neighbour drops me off at the hospital and we make arrangement for him to collect me in a few hours time. But when I get to the reception, the lady can't find me on the computer. There's no appointment today, it's been cancelled. Someone was supposed to phone me and explain why, but it didn't happen. After the fiasco with the builders first thing this morning, I feel like the hand of fate is against me....but I see a nurse who explains what's happened, apologises profusely and says she will try to get the consultant to see me at the end of his clinic tomorrow. I catch the bus home, drop into my neighbour on the way back to my house to tell him that I won't be needing a lift and make my way home, wondering what on earth will greet me when I get there.
In fact, I'm greeted outside my house by an empty skip. Yay! The full skip has been replaced while I've been out and now there's somewhere to dump the next load of rubbish. Inside the house, all is quiet. No builders. Nothing seems to have happened. No spare key either. I text the man in charge - what on earth is going on? The guys are coming, then they aren't coming, then they turn up, then they go away again without apparently doing anything (apart from walking off with my only spare key). This is getting silly! But the good news is that the new skip has arrived.
The reply comes back. Another apology... It seems the work is now being done by a different team (not the one belonging to the chap who phoned this morning to say the guys won't be coming). Props and strongboys will be delivered this afternoon (I had to look up "strongboys" - they are the bits that sit on top of the props to support the boards holding up the house when walls are demolished before the permanent steel beams are installed). The new team will be there tomorrow to fit the props and commence the steel installation.
Later that afternoon, the man I thought was the site foreman (the one who called this morning to say they wouldn't be coming) turns up unexpectedly and asks if he can collect his tools, which I agree. In he course of talking to him, he tells me he's not one of the builder's employees. He's a sub-contractor. Suddenly, the reason for today's confusion becomes clear; two different gangs involved with different bosses, who don't communicate well with each other, the man in charge or myself, for that matter.
I'm not sure whether the fact that he's collecting his tools means that he's off the job forever, or just for this stage of the works. By the time he's finished there's lot more space in the former dining room and garden...scaffold, electrical tools and boxes are gone, along with shovels, spades, pick axes, the cement mixer, and wheel barrow.
And my garden broom as it happens. Now I can't sweep up outside. I text to ask him to drop it off the next time he's in the area if he finds it in his van, but there's no reply. I have a feeling I won't see him again...
Now I have the house to myself, I can do a bit of tidying and dust wiping of important bits, then leave everything else to get on with some day job work. I wonder what will happen tomorrow with the build? Hopefully it will be better than today's day of madness.
Friday 27 July
The builders arrive bright and early. This time its the demolition team, including the biggest chap I've seen for a long time. Looks like he can lift a steel beam single-handed!
Within minutes of arriving, they want to know what's going and what's staying in the old kitchen - even though I had already carefully labelled everything....but better safe than sorry. We go round the room, item by item to double check they know what's what, and agree where we can store those appliances which will be reused or passed on to someone else via eBay, Freegle or a charity donation.
Then it's a mad dash for me to move the last few items from the old kitchen to their new home in the temporary kitchen area I've set up in the front living room, and get the room ready for the builders to move fridge and freezer into the space where my big old sofa used to be.
That preparation involves a bit more work than I expected (including shifting the carpet so that the appliance doors can open....I hadn't factored that into my temporary kitchen arrangement) but at last its done, the fridge and freezer are moved, cleaned and plugged in, an old Ikea table top is placed on top, spanning both appliances and then the kettle, toaster, basic utensils and non-perishable foodstuff are put back on top. I'm ready to go!
It's a bit crowded in the front room now, especially as I had a moment of madness and bought an old Ercol armchair for a song on eBay with the intention of recovering the cushions, refreshing the paintwork and maybe re-webbing, so that it can eventually take pride of place in my "reading corner" of the new kitchen/dining/living room.
The old cabinets in the kitchen built by my late husband Steve many years ago (and now long past their sell by date) are ripped out, along with the sink unit, broken hob and extract hood, old drawers and alcove cupboard, and the whole lot is put in the skip.
Oven, dishwasher, washing machine and drier are disconnected and moved to the space under the stairs in the old dining room. The water supply to the ground floor is cut off, so washing up will take place in the bathroom for the foreseeable future, and I will make weekly visits to the launderette. Oh joy! The gas supply is also cut off at the meter, but the boiler remains in place until the guys can get a valve to close it off safely, then it will join the other old appliances in the skip.
Then the steel beams finally arrive!
While all this is going on, I have time to put up a dustcover on the door to the front room, then leave the guys still ripping the old kitchen apart and go off to (another) hospital appointment. By the time I return, the house is quiet, the guys have gone and I have no idea when they will be back. Monday, I assume....
The kitchen is now empty apart from one alcove shelf (why have they left that, I wonder?) the boiler, and the old mantlepiece, surround and fireplace opening which is being retained in the new layout - somewhere to put a gas (wood burning type) stove in the future if the new underfloor heating needs a bit of a boost......And lots of debris, as you would expect. And the ends of the steel beams poking through the ex-kitchen door, waiting for installation.... must remember not to trip over those when I come down bleary eyed in the morning.
Now I no longer have a kitchen sink, I have organised a washing up arrangement in the bathroom where the shower currently provides the only hot water in the house (and thank goodness the hose is long enough to reach the washing up bowl). I think it will work just fine, as long as I do little and often. Looks a bit weird, but needs must.
Then I experiment cooking the first meal in the little table top oven. That works well too! In fact, preparing food is easier now the pared down kitchen paraphernalia is all in one room, apart from the water supply.
The most difficult thing for now will be watering the garden. The thought of carrying a heavy watering can or bucket down from the first floor bathroom to the garden doesn't fill me with joy. But with thunderstorms forecast tonight and tomorrow, hopefully I won't have to worry about that until the hot, dry weather returns later next week if the forecasters are right.
My job for tomorrow is to put up dust sheets on the doors upstairs, to minimise dust getting into bedrooms and my home office when the walls are demolished below. I've asked for some sort of temporary partition to be put in place when that happens to contain the dust, or at the very least for the carpet on the stairs and upper landing to be protected before demolition work starts. There will inevitably be a lot of dust with demolition, but if I can get it contained even just a bit, that will make life a little bit easier next week. That will be Week 9 of what was supposed to be a 10 week build! The project certainly won't be finished by the week after next, but things have moved forward so rapidly today, perhaps it won't take as long as I feared....unless there are more delays....
As I write up today's blog post, I looked back to see what was supposed to be happening today. The guys were supposed to install the props and start the steelwork, but it's taken all day to take out the old kitchen. Perhaps the man in charge forgot that kitchen clearance would have to happen next...I hope he hasn't forgotten anything else that's important. Perhaps I should remind him again about letting me see the windows and doors he's proposing to use, to make sure I'm happy with the design before he orders them. There's a long lead in time on stuff like that which are made to order rather than available off the peg....
....Ah well, Monday is another week.... I've finished with builders for now and am looking forward to celebrating my birthday this weekend instead!
I thought it was going to be drainage works today, but things didn't work out quite as anticipated.
Rather than the guys turning up for work, it was the site foreman who arrived first, bringing news that they expect to carry out the below ground drainage works tomorrow and then start on the structural work (inserting steel beams followed by the demolition of external walls) on Wednesday. That's much sooner than I expected! He has ordered a skip for Wednesday and another for Friday so there is somewhere to put the demolition materials.
We also discussed nitty gritty stuff like where the new soil pipe serving the first floor bathroom will run when the wall it's currently attached to is demolished. It took several attempts referring back to the drawings before he realised why it needs to go where shown it's shown on the plans. That's because he'd assumed the extension would have a standard ceiling (with space for the pipework in the void above) rather than being open to the sloping roof, with its row of roof lights illuminating the space below.
We got there in the end...But there will be some tricky connections to get the levels/falls right, as the drain from the bath is lower than the toilet pan outlet and waste water can't flow uphill! There may have to be two pipes at different levels serving the bath and the WC, rather than everything connecting into one pipe as shown on the drawing. This could result in slightly larger pipe box through my office/study at floor level than planned. There were some muttered words about architects leaving builders to sort out tricky problems....
Before leaving, the site foreman took away the remaining engineering bricks (no longer needed now the extension is above base level). As a result, a little bit more space has been created in the former dining room to store the next lot of building materials. He also asked me to confirm with the man in charge when the steels would be arriving, so that the guys will have work to do when on site.
I was just texting the man in charge when he arrived unexpectedly, along with his partner and the chap who will be in charge of the structural work. We talked through the issues arising from the difference in the level of steel beams as shown on the architects drawings and as specified in the structural engineer's report (more muttered words about architects expecting builders to sort out the tricky problems...)
On projects such as this, a decision made on one element of the job will inevitably have a knock on effect on other elements. That's why its important to think through the ramifications of your choice before going down a particular route. In my project, there are three structural beams whose position and relative heights must work together, as well as allowing sufficient space for ventilation ducts serving the new kitchen hob and ground floor WC extracts to travel through the main house and exit to the outside world via the roof of the new extension.
I had drawn the position of the steel beams on the wall of the old dining room so that I could work out for myself how it would all fit together. That proved useful, illustrating just how low the main beam across the back of the house would be were we to follow the architect's drawing. The resultant large down stand between the new kitchen and the dining area beyond would look very top heavy, and detract from the light and airy open space I was aiming to create.
On the other hand, had we followed the structural engineer's drawing, there would have been a down stand running down the middle of the open plan dining/living area along the junction of the original kitchen ceiling and the open sloping roof over the new extension. This would have detracted from the clean cut line I'd been hoping to achieve between the original house and the new extension.
In the end, we decided to cherry pick the best bits from both the architects and structural engineer's approaches to achieve both clean lines and minimise the depth of the down stand between the original house and the new extension. The compromise will probably be that instead of the ventilation extract ducts exiting to the outside above the steel beam spanning the width of the house, they will probably have to slip below. In this scenario, the box containing the ventilation ducts (running the full length of the extension just below roof level to accommodate cable runs for lighting as well as the ducts) will be about 4"/10cm deeper than shown on the drawing. I can happily live with that difference if it means I can achieve the more important design elements of the scheme. I think we have found a solution....as long as it doesn't involve raising the wall along the boundary even higher. I was assured that it wouldn't.
The structural work due to start mid-week marks the start of the really noisy, messy and most disruptive part of the build. My existing kitchen will go completely - no more access to the washing machine or dishwasher until the new kitchen and utility room is fully functioning; the fridge and freezer will be moved into my living room where I've already started to set up a temporary kitchen, along with the small supply of cooking implements and crockery not already in storage. Visits to the launderette and washing up in the bathroom will be the order of the day. And the back of the house will be exposed to the elements until the roof over the extension is completed and new doors and windows installed. Here's hoping the long, dry spell lasts until then....
Time to do as much of the laundry as I can now, and to reclaim the little table top oven and hob which has been on loan to friends over the road who have been going through the same process as me, but started earlier. Fortunately, their building work has just been completed so the timing of the oven handover couldn't be much better.
I also need to do as much preparatory work as possible on my "day job" before Wednesday as it will be more difficult to concentrate when walls are coming down around me!
Only one other thing to think about now. Do I tell my unhappy neighbours that the disruptive part of the build is about to begin? I would have done that without hesitation a week ago, but now our good relationship seems to have broken down I'm reluctant to visit in person for fear of antagonising them, but find it silly to email or write when we live right next door to each other. Decisions, decisions...
Tuesday 24 July
I'm all prepared for the guys to come to carry out below ground drainage works as planned, but no one turns up first thing. Text the man in charge to find out what's going on, then give up waiting for a reply and go out leaving the house key under the front doormat. It's still there when I get home at lunchtime.
Eventually a reply comes... It seems that the guys are concerned about doing the drainage before the steels are in place and the walls demolished, so that should be done first. The steels will "hopefully" be here tomorrow, but it may not be until Thursday as they have to be modified a little following yesterday's discussion.
Shortly after, my neighbour's who live across the road knock on the door to return the table top oven and hob they had borrowed while their building work was in progress, together with a thank you bottle of wine. How sweet of them!
I have a relatively productive couple of hours in the afternoon work wise (it makes a change not to be thinking about building work and neighbour relations).
In a break, I put stickers on everything in the old kitchen so the builders know what to remove, what to relocate to the temporary kitchen in the front room and what to salvage to pass on to others. There's a bit more rearranging in other rooms; the washing basket is empty; there are fresh supplies of coffee tea and milk for the builders whenever they turn up, and there's not much more I can do at this stage, other than put dust covers over doors just before the demolition starts. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe Thursday....Maybe not till later in the week or next week if the skip doesn't come soon and there's nowhere to put the materials from the demolition.
Wednesday 25 July
After yesterday's text from the builder, I wasn't expecting any of the builder's guys to come today, and certainly not to do drainage works. But that's exactly what happened. Some deck boards are taken up and a hole dug where the new manhole will be to take the waste pipe from the upper floor sanitary ware fixtures.
 |
| Deck boards removed |
Various bits of drain pipe are dumped on the garden (why oh why do builders dump stuff on plants when there's a much larger area of hard surfacing which is empty nearby?). Then the guy starts to move hardcore from the street and dump it on the footprint of the extension.
I'm working on the day job upstairs, when I hear the front door shut. He's gone. I inspect the house. There are now holes in the floor of the former dining room where the drain will run underneath to serve the new kitchen sink, dishwasher, new downstairs WC and wash basin and the washing machine.
 |
| Floor boards removed |
There is also a hole in the ceiling too, but I'm not sure why. Perhaps he just go fed up looking down and fancied a change....
 |
| Bits of ceiling removed - why? |
Then I go outside, inspect the garden and move the drainage bits off the plants to on top the railway sleepers where they won't crush anything. That's when I notice that the hardcore has been piled up in the footprint of the extension as high as the corner of the air brick under the main house. An alarm bell rings.
 |
| Spot the air brick peeping out from behind a pile of hardcore |
I text the man in charge and the site foreman, send a photo and request that the air brick on the main house is connected to the one on the extension before any more hardcore is brought in tomorrow, as it will be much more difficult lay the vent duct connecting the two if the area is covered in hardcore.
Thursday 26 July
This was supposed to be the start of the structural works, or a continuation of the below ground drainage works if the steel beams weren't delivered. It turned out to be a day of madness instead.
Before leaving the house early for a hospital appointment, I text the man in charge and the man I thought was the site foreman to say that I would leave the house key under the front door mat if the guys haven't arrive by 8.30am, when one of my neighbours with a car is giving me a lift to the hospital (I'm supposed to have a designated driver to take me home after today's procedure).
A few minutes letter my phone rings and its the site foreman to tell me that the guys won't be coming today; don't leave the key under the mat. It's complicated. The man in charge will explain. I should contact him. I tell him that I'll do that, but later today as I had to leave for my appointment right now.
Just as I'm about to walk out of the front door, there's a knock and three guys are waiting to be let in. What? I've just been told no one's coming today....
I phone the site foreman to ask what's going on - should I let them in? Do they know what they are doing? One of the guys I recognise from a previous visit is on the phone to his boss (the Polish partner of the man in charge's) and there is an animated conversion in Polish. In the end, the phone is handed to me and I speak to the partner whose English is good. Yes, let them in; they are there to prepare for the structural work which will happen tomorrow, and give them a key too if that's OK. I had over the key and hurry off to my appointment.
My neighbour drops me off at the hospital and we make arrangement for him to collect me in a few hours time. But when I get to the reception, the lady can't find me on the computer. There's no appointment today, it's been cancelled. Someone was supposed to phone me and explain why, but it didn't happen. After the fiasco with the builders first thing this morning, I feel like the hand of fate is against me....but I see a nurse who explains what's happened, apologises profusely and says she will try to get the consultant to see me at the end of his clinic tomorrow. I catch the bus home, drop into my neighbour on the way back to my house to tell him that I won't be needing a lift and make my way home, wondering what on earth will greet me when I get there.
In fact, I'm greeted outside my house by an empty skip. Yay! The full skip has been replaced while I've been out and now there's somewhere to dump the next load of rubbish. Inside the house, all is quiet. No builders. Nothing seems to have happened. No spare key either. I text the man in charge - what on earth is going on? The guys are coming, then they aren't coming, then they turn up, then they go away again without apparently doing anything (apart from walking off with my only spare key). This is getting silly! But the good news is that the new skip has arrived.
The reply comes back. Another apology... It seems the work is now being done by a different team (not the one belonging to the chap who phoned this morning to say the guys won't be coming). Props and strongboys will be delivered this afternoon (I had to look up "strongboys" - they are the bits that sit on top of the props to support the boards holding up the house when walls are demolished before the permanent steel beams are installed). The new team will be there tomorrow to fit the props and commence the steel installation.
Later that afternoon, the man I thought was the site foreman (the one who called this morning to say they wouldn't be coming) turns up unexpectedly and asks if he can collect his tools, which I agree. In he course of talking to him, he tells me he's not one of the builder's employees. He's a sub-contractor. Suddenly, the reason for today's confusion becomes clear; two different gangs involved with different bosses, who don't communicate well with each other, the man in charge or myself, for that matter.
I'm not sure whether the fact that he's collecting his tools means that he's off the job forever, or just for this stage of the works. By the time he's finished there's lot more space in the former dining room and garden...scaffold, electrical tools and boxes are gone, along with shovels, spades, pick axes, the cement mixer, and wheel barrow.
 |
| A bit more of the floor is visible now some materials have been taken away |
And my garden broom as it happens. Now I can't sweep up outside. I text to ask him to drop it off the next time he's in the area if he finds it in his van, but there's no reply. I have a feeling I won't see him again...
Now I have the house to myself, I can do a bit of tidying and dust wiping of important bits, then leave everything else to get on with some day job work. I wonder what will happen tomorrow with the build? Hopefully it will be better than today's day of madness.
Friday 27 July
The builders arrive bright and early. This time its the demolition team, including the biggest chap I've seen for a long time. Looks like he can lift a steel beam single-handed!
Within minutes of arriving, they want to know what's going and what's staying in the old kitchen - even though I had already carefully labelled everything....but better safe than sorry. We go round the room, item by item to double check they know what's what, and agree where we can store those appliances which will be reused or passed on to someone else via eBay, Freegle or a charity donation.
Then it's a mad dash for me to move the last few items from the old kitchen to their new home in the temporary kitchen area I've set up in the front living room, and get the room ready for the builders to move fridge and freezer into the space where my big old sofa used to be.
 |
| The old sofa in the front room - now gone.... |
That preparation involves a bit more work than I expected (including shifting the carpet so that the appliance doors can open....I hadn't factored that into my temporary kitchen arrangement) but at last its done, the fridge and freezer are moved, cleaned and plugged in, an old Ikea table top is placed on top, spanning both appliances and then the kettle, toaster, basic utensils and non-perishable foodstuff are put back on top. I'm ready to go!
 |
| .....to be replaced by a temporary kitchen |
 |
| ...not much room to swing the proverbial cat now in the living room |
It's a bit crowded in the front room now, especially as I had a moment of madness and bought an old Ercol armchair for a song on eBay with the intention of recovering the cushions, refreshing the paintwork and maybe re-webbing, so that it can eventually take pride of place in my "reading corner" of the new kitchen/dining/living room.
The old cabinets in the kitchen built by my late husband Steve many years ago (and now long past their sell by date) are ripped out, along with the sink unit, broken hob and extract hood, old drawers and alcove cupboard, and the whole lot is put in the skip.
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| The old kitchen is in the skip |
Oven, dishwasher, washing machine and drier are disconnected and moved to the space under the stairs in the old dining room. The water supply to the ground floor is cut off, so washing up will take place in the bathroom for the foreseeable future, and I will make weekly visits to the launderette. Oh joy! The gas supply is also cut off at the meter, but the boiler remains in place until the guys can get a valve to close it off safely, then it will join the other old appliances in the skip.
Then the steel beams finally arrive!
While all this is going on, I have time to put up a dustcover on the door to the front room, then leave the guys still ripping the old kitchen apart and go off to (another) hospital appointment. By the time I return, the house is quiet, the guys have gone and I have no idea when they will be back. Monday, I assume....
The kitchen is now empty apart from one alcove shelf (why have they left that, I wonder?) the boiler, and the old mantlepiece, surround and fireplace opening which is being retained in the new layout - somewhere to put a gas (wood burning type) stove in the future if the new underfloor heating needs a bit of a boost......And lots of debris, as you would expect. And the ends of the steel beams poking through the ex-kitchen door, waiting for installation.... must remember not to trip over those when I come down bleary eyed in the morning.
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| The old kitchen before |
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| Now everything has been ripped out, bar the boiler and one alcove shelf |
Now I no longer have a kitchen sink, I have organised a washing up arrangement in the bathroom where the shower currently provides the only hot water in the house (and thank goodness the hose is long enough to reach the washing up bowl). I think it will work just fine, as long as I do little and often. Looks a bit weird, but needs must.
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| Ready to wash up in the bathroom, the only place in the house with hot water |
Then I experiment cooking the first meal in the little table top oven. That works well too! In fact, preparing food is easier now the pared down kitchen paraphernalia is all in one room, apart from the water supply.
The most difficult thing for now will be watering the garden. The thought of carrying a heavy watering can or bucket down from the first floor bathroom to the garden doesn't fill me with joy. But with thunderstorms forecast tonight and tomorrow, hopefully I won't have to worry about that until the hot, dry weather returns later next week if the forecasters are right.
My job for tomorrow is to put up dust sheets on the doors upstairs, to minimise dust getting into bedrooms and my home office when the walls are demolished below. I've asked for some sort of temporary partition to be put in place when that happens to contain the dust, or at the very least for the carpet on the stairs and upper landing to be protected before demolition work starts. There will inevitably be a lot of dust with demolition, but if I can get it contained even just a bit, that will make life a little bit easier next week. That will be Week 9 of what was supposed to be a 10 week build! The project certainly won't be finished by the week after next, but things have moved forward so rapidly today, perhaps it won't take as long as I feared....unless there are more delays....
As I write up today's blog post, I looked back to see what was supposed to be happening today. The guys were supposed to install the props and start the steelwork, but it's taken all day to take out the old kitchen. Perhaps the man in charge forgot that kitchen clearance would have to happen next...I hope he hasn't forgotten anything else that's important. Perhaps I should remind him again about letting me see the windows and doors he's proposing to use, to make sure I'm happy with the design before he orders them. There's a long lead in time on stuff like that which are made to order rather than available off the peg....
....Ah well, Monday is another week.... I've finished with builders for now and am looking forward to celebrating my birthday this weekend instead!
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