Saturday 28 July
The relaxing start to my birthday weekend when I was hoping to enjoy some time off from the house project was rudely interrupted by a knock on the front door before 9am. It was a man I'd seen before (but couldn't quite place him straight away).
To my surprise, he told me he was there to deliver the lift.
Lift?
I'm not having a lift installed I thought to myself (although maybe I should have incorporated that feature into my future-proofing plans for the house as my back condition continues to deteriorate).
Then I recognised him. He's the driver who delivered the steel beams. The 'lift" he was referring to is in fact a device that raises the heavy beams into position to support the building above when structural walls are demolished. It seems it should have been delivered yesterday with the steels. That explains why no one was here when I returned from hospital early yesterday afternoon. Without the "lift" they couldn't put the beams in place, so left the house early unable to proceed with the next stage of the job.
The driver and I looked in the old dining room to see if there is enough space to bring this big bit of kit indoors. There isn't. The space has already been reduced by the opening cut in the floor as part of the drainage works. The remaining bit of floorspace is taken up with two huge steel beams for main structural walls, a smaller one which will go above the new glazed doors to the garden and a lintel for the window in the garden wall of the extension, plus props and strongboys, stacks of blocks and bags of insulation.
He's not even sure that it would go through the front door, given its width!
Nothing for it but to rearrange things in the small front garden, manhandle it into position and leave it there. I don't think anyone is going to run off with something like that in a hurry....
We have a brief chat as I sign the paperwork in the hall and he laughs as I tell him that this is the end of Week 8 of a 10 week build. More like an extra six weeks he says, and that's just to finish the extension and integrate it into the ground floor. He doesn't know, and I don't tell him, that the project actually involves a lot more than that. I tell him I hope it will be finished by the end of September, then mentally readjust that timeframe as I look around. Some time in October more like?
We say our goodbyes and he says he'll see me again when he comes to pick the equipment up again...whenever that will be...
I text the man in charge to let him know that the lift has been delivered (but resist the temptation to tell him it was a good job I was still here when the lorry arrived as I have other plans for my birthday weekend). However, I flag up concerns about whether the lift will go through the front door, without removing the doorhandle first to create an couple of extra centimetres, as space in the hall is restricted by a radiator. I ask him to pass this information on to the man in charge of the structural work, as I don't want to risk damage to the original front door.
That's the post-script. I really want to distance myself from the building work now, mentally and physically!
The relaxing start to my birthday weekend when I was hoping to enjoy some time off from the house project was rudely interrupted by a knock on the front door before 9am. It was a man I'd seen before (but couldn't quite place him straight away).
To my surprise, he told me he was there to deliver the lift.
Lift?
I'm not having a lift installed I thought to myself (although maybe I should have incorporated that feature into my future-proofing plans for the house as my back condition continues to deteriorate).
Then I recognised him. He's the driver who delivered the steel beams. The 'lift" he was referring to is in fact a device that raises the heavy beams into position to support the building above when structural walls are demolished. It seems it should have been delivered yesterday with the steels. That explains why no one was here when I returned from hospital early yesterday afternoon. Without the "lift" they couldn't put the beams in place, so left the house early unable to proceed with the next stage of the job.
The driver and I looked in the old dining room to see if there is enough space to bring this big bit of kit indoors. There isn't. The space has already been reduced by the opening cut in the floor as part of the drainage works. The remaining bit of floorspace is taken up with two huge steel beams for main structural walls, a smaller one which will go above the new glazed doors to the garden and a lintel for the window in the garden wall of the extension, plus props and strongboys, stacks of blocks and bags of insulation.
He's not even sure that it would go through the front door, given its width!
Nothing for it but to rearrange things in the small front garden, manhandle it into position and leave it there. I don't think anyone is going to run off with something like that in a hurry....
We have a brief chat as I sign the paperwork in the hall and he laughs as I tell him that this is the end of Week 8 of a 10 week build. More like an extra six weeks he says, and that's just to finish the extension and integrate it into the ground floor. He doesn't know, and I don't tell him, that the project actually involves a lot more than that. I tell him I hope it will be finished by the end of September, then mentally readjust that timeframe as I look around. Some time in October more like?
We say our goodbyes and he says he'll see me again when he comes to pick the equipment up again...whenever that will be...
I text the man in charge to let him know that the lift has been delivered (but resist the temptation to tell him it was a good job I was still here when the lorry arrived as I have other plans for my birthday weekend). However, I flag up concerns about whether the lift will go through the front door, without removing the doorhandle first to create an couple of extra centimetres, as space in the hall is restricted by a radiator. I ask him to pass this information on to the man in charge of the structural work, as I don't want to risk damage to the original front door.
*******
That's the post-script. I really want to distance myself from the building work now, mentally and physically!
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