Monday 7 January
The bliss of not having builders on site continues, but the house project hasn't left me in peace.
Email from the kitchen designer asking if his man can come 7-7.30am tomorrow to finish the kitchen installation. Reply - yes...but closer to 7.30am start preferred, please.
I also noticed that the house is getting colder...no heat in the radiators or underfloor heating, even though the controller says both should be on all day until the evening.
I contacted the electrician about the problem. He called in when he'd finished his other job for the day and we checked everything. Eventually, we tracked down the source of the problem...the room "stat" (thermostat to non-electricians) is set to be 9 degrees lower than the underfloor heating stat. As a result of this differential, the radiators are only being switched on when the temperature in the house drops below 13 degrees, rather than the 22 degrees it's supposed to be aiming for. No wonder I've felt cold! Anyway...another problem sorted.
The electrician had been planning to return on Wednesday to continue work, but his other job has over run, so it will be Thursday now - if I can rearrange a meeting already set up for that day. There's probably another couple of days work to finish off everything, assuming that no other unforeseen horrors are lurking, waiting to rear their ugly heads.
Tuesday 8 January
The kitchen designer arrived not long after 8am, and his fitting man about half an hour later (so much for the early start).
We have selected a brushed steel panel to go directly behind the hob as a splash back (to match the hob and metal trim on the ovens) following advice from the makers of the mirror glass to be used for the rest of the splash back that its not suitable to install behind a hob, being affected by heat. The designer has taken the dimensions and will order the steel shortly. When that's installed, the chap will come back and template again for the smokey grey mirror glass splash backs around the rest of the kitchen. When they are installed, the kitchen fitting will finally be done...probably, in another 2-3 weeks time.
I left the kitchen fitter to get on with the job while I worked upstairs. By close of business, he had ticked off all the jobs on his list...The pull down power unit in the corner void between wall cabinets socket is installed and working...
...the small, neat copper pull handles have now been put on the wall cupboards...
...All the plinths are fitted...
...the end panel is on the larder unit, with a hole cut out ready for the dimmer switches to be installed tomorrow, and the replacement doors on the wall cabinet and cupboard above the oven housing unit are in place...
...as are the two bits of internal wirework fittings, one in the small base unit next to the sink...
...the other in the corner unit...
Now I can get properly organised in the kitchen!
So, a productive day on the kitchen front spoilt only by finding that the lighting circuit above the ground floor level has failed...too tired to sort it out that evening, so I got ready for bed by the light of a table lamp plugged in to a wander lead from my home office in the room next door (not a bright idea, but the best I could think of at the time.)
At least the bedside lights work.
Wednesday 9 January
The man in charge is coming with a "colleague" today to run through the list of outstanding jobs, so my first job of the day is to update the list after the electrician's last visit, and print off a couple of copies so we have something to work through as we go round the house.
On arrival, the first thing he tells me is that he has parted company with his Polish partner and has set up a new building firm with his two colleagues (who I find out later are his brother in law - who also runs a building business - and his dad, who shall be known hereafter as "dad" builder). We spend a couple of hours going round the house and garden list in hand, looking at stuff that still needs to be done or put right. "Dad" builder will come in tomorrow to start making good. The electrician will be here around lunchtime to carry on with his bits and pieces, now I have managed to rearrange my meeting to Friday.
We agreed that the last job will be fitting skirting boards throughout the house in one big go as there is now nowhere to store long boards inside the house whilst waiting to be fitted. That job will have to wait until after the floor finish goes down in the dining area, shelves are up and storage units in place so that items currently stored in boxes which take up floorspace around the walls can be unpacked and put away.
After they left, I took a look at the new fuse box in the front room. As expected, the fuse for the upper floor lighting had tripped out. The good news is that most of the lights started working again when the fuse was re-set. The bad news is that the track lights on the first floor landing still aren't working, even though the electrician replaced the transformer the other day and everything was working fine after that for a while. Could it be a problem with the switch, I wonder? The builder's "electrician" has clearly prised off the front plate at some point, judging from the mess he's made of the paintwork. Maybe he just didn't connect it back properly afterwards...
My last house related job of the day is to email the neighbours to bring them up to date with the latest developments on the builders/house project front and make sure they have contact details for the man in charge now his Polish partner is off the scene...and write up the blog...
Thursday 10 January
I had no idea what time to expect the new building team today, so set the alarm early. Unnecessary as it happened, as "dad" builder didn't arrive until approaching 10am.
His first job was to find out why the water isn't draining away quickly ("pulling" is the technical term, I'm told) when the new downstairs loo is flushed. Using a jet washer and probe, he established that there was no physical blockage in the pipework serving toilets on the upper floors. The problem lies in the connection between the new loo and the main drain which runs underneath the house into the public sewer in the street.
When the lavatory is flushed, or the wash hand basin and/or washing machine drains, air in the drain pipe is stopping water flowing away quickly because there is no where for the air to go (hence the weird gurgles and burps from the toilet pan and sink when the kitchen sink, dishwasher and washing machine are in use....air escapes by bubbling through through the water and out of the pan, plug hole or overflow). Watch the video if you want to hear and see what it currently sounds like in the downstairs loo when the kitchen top is running next door - quite musical!
There is supposed to be a stub pipe connected to the WC with an air admittance valve (AAV) on top (aka a "Durgo" valve) to stop this happening.
The mention of a "stub" rang a bell, so I checked back on the architect's plans and there it is, shown on the drawing, tucked away in the corner of one of the storage units in the downstairs WC/utility room. It hasn't been installed. I had queried the drainage arrangement in this room with the (then) partner of the man in charge, as it was different to that shown on the drawing and was reassured that it was all there, but tucked under the floor rather than taking space up in a cupboard. On that basis, I measured up one of the tall storage units which had been built and ordered a pricy but very useful pull out fitting with lots of baskets to accommodate all the tools, DIY bits and pieces and household stuff like light bulbs.
Now that fitting is in place and beginning to be filled up with stuff, there's no room in the cupboard for a stub pipe and Durgo valve, so it will have to go up in the opposite corner of the toilet and be boxed in...there go my clean, uncluttered lines for this little room. I have asked for it to be boxed in all the way up to the ceiling so that it looks like an intentional part of the design, rather than something stuck onto the room as an afterthought. Perhaps it can be designed to incorporate some storage too - enough for loo cleaner and brush, and maybe toilet rolls. No doubt that will be an extra, but if I have to have something built in, I might as well make the most of it.
Having got to the bottom of that problem, "dad" builder has ordered the bits needed to sort it out and introduced me to the carpenter who will box it in. The carpenter was actually there to hang the new fire-rated door separating the kitchen from the stairwell, but he has spotted another unforeseen problem. The frame which has been installed for the door is too tall. It will have to come out and be rebuilt, so that's more time and more mess created...There is also a question mark over whether the clear glass panel above the door complies with Building Regs in terms of the way its been fitted, so he's gone away to sort that out...and the door is still propped up against the wall I'd like to paint...
Meanwhile, the electrician has arrived to try to progress his outstanding work, only to find that the dimmer switches he ordered which were delivered today, don't actually work with LEDs, in spite of what he was told by the supplier. So he's having a one step forward, two steps back day too... Then I realised that the bulbs I'd bought for the pendant lights over the peninsular unit were the right type and fitting, but not dimmable - my mistake this time. That's all four of us - me, the electrician, "dad" builder and the carpenter - having a frustrating, unproductive day.
On cue, my grumpy neighbour emailed to remind me about the problem with rainwater splashing off my extension roof into his sideway, something I had already raised with the new building team on site yesterday (though I doubt whether he would believe me, if I were to tell him that...) I'll ask the man in charge to reply to him direct, rather than play Chinese whispers conveying questions and answers between them, with the risk of something being misunderstood in the process.
I've also had to remind the man in charge that he needs to pay the chap who repaired the stained glass panel in the front door which was damaged as a result of carelessness by the previous building team. And ask for my front door key to be returned by the people from the previous team who took it with them when they left the site before Christmas. I feel a bit vulnerable knowing that a stranger who is no longer working here can get in and out of the house at will, whether I'm here or not. If it doesn't come back quickly, I'll have to ask the builder to replace the front door lock lock and get spare keys cut at his own expense. He won't be happy about that either...
Although we've gone two steps backwards today, there has been some progress. "Dad" builder has started making good - filling holes around the track light fitting...
....around the gas pipe upstand in the dining area fireplace (ready if I ever want to install a gas fired wood-burner-lookalike stove)...
...at the bottom of the column cut away to install the hot water supply to the tall narrow radiator, which the builders had forgotten about installing until late in the day...
...and where a hole was punched through just below ceiling level in the front room, in the process of inserting a steel in the room next door...
He has also hung the mirrored cabinet in there downstairs loo...
...while the electrician has moved some sockets from the side of the cabinet under the sink to the back wall...
..this may not appear to be significant. However, if the new building team can simplify the spaghetti junction of tap tails, water pipes, drain pipe and dishwasher hose which are also under the sink (but currently installed in a convoluted, space greedy manner), then there should be enough space for an under sink pull-out set of waste and recycling bins. That would be much neater and more efficient approach than the current temporary arrangement, with a plastic sack for recyclables sitting in a corner under the stairs...Fingers crossed.
Friday 11 January
I wasn't sure if "dad" builder was coming today - it was left open, depending on how he progressed on other things he's putting right for his son, the man in charge, now that he's parted company with his Polish counterpart.
In the event, no one turned up...so I was left in peace and quiet in terms of the house project. The only thing I did on that today on that front was to email the man in charge with my thoughts on how to resolve the problems of plumbing which have arisen as a result of a stub pipe with AAV not being installed in the downstairs loo, a kitchen door that doesn't fit the frame (opportunity to improve the detailing!) and my neighbour's concerns about water splashing off the extension roof into his property when it rains really hard.
I now have a whole weekend to look forward to without builders, electricians, carpenters or plumbers. I might even get myself sorted out a bit more once I've finished a presentation that I'm working on for the local camera club's meeting next Tuesday. A hint of life gradually getting back to normal even though the project is still not finished. At least the bad workmanship is being put right, slowly but surely, following the parting of the ways...
The bliss of not having builders on site continues, but the house project hasn't left me in peace.
Email from the kitchen designer asking if his man can come 7-7.30am tomorrow to finish the kitchen installation. Reply - yes...but closer to 7.30am start preferred, please.
I also noticed that the house is getting colder...no heat in the radiators or underfloor heating, even though the controller says both should be on all day until the evening.
I contacted the electrician about the problem. He called in when he'd finished his other job for the day and we checked everything. Eventually, we tracked down the source of the problem...the room "stat" (thermostat to non-electricians) is set to be 9 degrees lower than the underfloor heating stat. As a result of this differential, the radiators are only being switched on when the temperature in the house drops below 13 degrees, rather than the 22 degrees it's supposed to be aiming for. No wonder I've felt cold! Anyway...another problem sorted.
The electrician had been planning to return on Wednesday to continue work, but his other job has over run, so it will be Thursday now - if I can rearrange a meeting already set up for that day. There's probably another couple of days work to finish off everything, assuming that no other unforeseen horrors are lurking, waiting to rear their ugly heads.
Tuesday 8 January
The kitchen designer arrived not long after 8am, and his fitting man about half an hour later (so much for the early start).
We have selected a brushed steel panel to go directly behind the hob as a splash back (to match the hob and metal trim on the ovens) following advice from the makers of the mirror glass to be used for the rest of the splash back that its not suitable to install behind a hob, being affected by heat. The designer has taken the dimensions and will order the steel shortly. When that's installed, the chap will come back and template again for the smokey grey mirror glass splash backs around the rest of the kitchen. When they are installed, the kitchen fitting will finally be done...probably, in another 2-3 weeks time.
I left the kitchen fitter to get on with the job while I worked upstairs. By close of business, he had ticked off all the jobs on his list...The pull down power unit in the corner void between wall cabinets socket is installed and working...
...the small, neat copper pull handles have now been put on the wall cupboards...
...All the plinths are fitted...
...the end panel is on the larder unit, with a hole cut out ready for the dimmer switches to be installed tomorrow, and the replacement doors on the wall cabinet and cupboard above the oven housing unit are in place...
...as are the two bits of internal wirework fittings, one in the small base unit next to the sink...
...the other in the corner unit...
Now I can get properly organised in the kitchen!
So, a productive day on the kitchen front spoilt only by finding that the lighting circuit above the ground floor level has failed...too tired to sort it out that evening, so I got ready for bed by the light of a table lamp plugged in to a wander lead from my home office in the room next door (not a bright idea, but the best I could think of at the time.)
At least the bedside lights work.
Wednesday 9 January
The man in charge is coming with a "colleague" today to run through the list of outstanding jobs, so my first job of the day is to update the list after the electrician's last visit, and print off a couple of copies so we have something to work through as we go round the house.
On arrival, the first thing he tells me is that he has parted company with his Polish partner and has set up a new building firm with his two colleagues (who I find out later are his brother in law - who also runs a building business - and his dad, who shall be known hereafter as "dad" builder). We spend a couple of hours going round the house and garden list in hand, looking at stuff that still needs to be done or put right. "Dad" builder will come in tomorrow to start making good. The electrician will be here around lunchtime to carry on with his bits and pieces, now I have managed to rearrange my meeting to Friday.
We agreed that the last job will be fitting skirting boards throughout the house in one big go as there is now nowhere to store long boards inside the house whilst waiting to be fitted. That job will have to wait until after the floor finish goes down in the dining area, shelves are up and storage units in place so that items currently stored in boxes which take up floorspace around the walls can be unpacked and put away.
After they left, I took a look at the new fuse box in the front room. As expected, the fuse for the upper floor lighting had tripped out. The good news is that most of the lights started working again when the fuse was re-set. The bad news is that the track lights on the first floor landing still aren't working, even though the electrician replaced the transformer the other day and everything was working fine after that for a while. Could it be a problem with the switch, I wonder? The builder's "electrician" has clearly prised off the front plate at some point, judging from the mess he's made of the paintwork. Maybe he just didn't connect it back properly afterwards...
My last house related job of the day is to email the neighbours to bring them up to date with the latest developments on the builders/house project front and make sure they have contact details for the man in charge now his Polish partner is off the scene...and write up the blog...
Thursday 10 January
I had no idea what time to expect the new building team today, so set the alarm early. Unnecessary as it happened, as "dad" builder didn't arrive until approaching 10am.
His first job was to find out why the water isn't draining away quickly ("pulling" is the technical term, I'm told) when the new downstairs loo is flushed. Using a jet washer and probe, he established that there was no physical blockage in the pipework serving toilets on the upper floors. The problem lies in the connection between the new loo and the main drain which runs underneath the house into the public sewer in the street.
When the lavatory is flushed, or the wash hand basin and/or washing machine drains, air in the drain pipe is stopping water flowing away quickly because there is no where for the air to go (hence the weird gurgles and burps from the toilet pan and sink when the kitchen sink, dishwasher and washing machine are in use....air escapes by bubbling through through the water and out of the pan, plug hole or overflow). Watch the video if you want to hear and see what it currently sounds like in the downstairs loo when the kitchen top is running next door - quite musical!
a
There is supposed to be a stub pipe connected to the WC with an air admittance valve (AAV) on top (aka a "Durgo" valve) to stop this happening.
The mention of a "stub" rang a bell, so I checked back on the architect's plans and there it is, shown on the drawing, tucked away in the corner of one of the storage units in the downstairs WC/utility room. It hasn't been installed. I had queried the drainage arrangement in this room with the (then) partner of the man in charge, as it was different to that shown on the drawing and was reassured that it was all there, but tucked under the floor rather than taking space up in a cupboard. On that basis, I measured up one of the tall storage units which had been built and ordered a pricy but very useful pull out fitting with lots of baskets to accommodate all the tools, DIY bits and pieces and household stuff like light bulbs.
Now that fitting is in place and beginning to be filled up with stuff, there's no room in the cupboard for a stub pipe and Durgo valve, so it will have to go up in the opposite corner of the toilet and be boxed in...there go my clean, uncluttered lines for this little room. I have asked for it to be boxed in all the way up to the ceiling so that it looks like an intentional part of the design, rather than something stuck onto the room as an afterthought. Perhaps it can be designed to incorporate some storage too - enough for loo cleaner and brush, and maybe toilet rolls. No doubt that will be an extra, but if I have to have something built in, I might as well make the most of it.
Having got to the bottom of that problem, "dad" builder has ordered the bits needed to sort it out and introduced me to the carpenter who will box it in. The carpenter was actually there to hang the new fire-rated door separating the kitchen from the stairwell, but he has spotted another unforeseen problem. The frame which has been installed for the door is too tall. It will have to come out and be rebuilt, so that's more time and more mess created...There is also a question mark over whether the clear glass panel above the door complies with Building Regs in terms of the way its been fitted, so he's gone away to sort that out...and the door is still propped up against the wall I'd like to paint...
Meanwhile, the electrician has arrived to try to progress his outstanding work, only to find that the dimmer switches he ordered which were delivered today, don't actually work with LEDs, in spite of what he was told by the supplier. So he's having a one step forward, two steps back day too... Then I realised that the bulbs I'd bought for the pendant lights over the peninsular unit were the right type and fitting, but not dimmable - my mistake this time. That's all four of us - me, the electrician, "dad" builder and the carpenter - having a frustrating, unproductive day.
On cue, my grumpy neighbour emailed to remind me about the problem with rainwater splashing off my extension roof into his sideway, something I had already raised with the new building team on site yesterday (though I doubt whether he would believe me, if I were to tell him that...) I'll ask the man in charge to reply to him direct, rather than play Chinese whispers conveying questions and answers between them, with the risk of something being misunderstood in the process.
I've also had to remind the man in charge that he needs to pay the chap who repaired the stained glass panel in the front door which was damaged as a result of carelessness by the previous building team. And ask for my front door key to be returned by the people from the previous team who took it with them when they left the site before Christmas. I feel a bit vulnerable knowing that a stranger who is no longer working here can get in and out of the house at will, whether I'm here or not. If it doesn't come back quickly, I'll have to ask the builder to replace the front door lock lock and get spare keys cut at his own expense. He won't be happy about that either...
Although we've gone two steps backwards today, there has been some progress. "Dad" builder has started making good - filling holes around the track light fitting...
....around the gas pipe upstand in the dining area fireplace (ready if I ever want to install a gas fired wood-burner-lookalike stove)...
...at the bottom of the column cut away to install the hot water supply to the tall narrow radiator, which the builders had forgotten about installing until late in the day...
...and where a hole was punched through just below ceiling level in the front room, in the process of inserting a steel in the room next door...
He has also hung the mirrored cabinet in there downstairs loo...
...while the electrician has moved some sockets from the side of the cabinet under the sink to the back wall...
..this may not appear to be significant. However, if the new building team can simplify the spaghetti junction of tap tails, water pipes, drain pipe and dishwasher hose which are also under the sink (but currently installed in a convoluted, space greedy manner), then there should be enough space for an under sink pull-out set of waste and recycling bins. That would be much neater and more efficient approach than the current temporary arrangement, with a plastic sack for recyclables sitting in a corner under the stairs...Fingers crossed.
Friday 11 January
I wasn't sure if "dad" builder was coming today - it was left open, depending on how he progressed on other things he's putting right for his son, the man in charge, now that he's parted company with his Polish counterpart.
In the event, no one turned up...so I was left in peace and quiet in terms of the house project. The only thing I did on that today on that front was to email the man in charge with my thoughts on how to resolve the problems of plumbing which have arisen as a result of a stub pipe with AAV not being installed in the downstairs loo, a kitchen door that doesn't fit the frame (opportunity to improve the detailing!) and my neighbour's concerns about water splashing off the extension roof into his property when it rains really hard.
I now have a whole weekend to look forward to without builders, electricians, carpenters or plumbers. I might even get myself sorted out a bit more once I've finished a presentation that I'm working on for the local camera club's meeting next Tuesday. A hint of life gradually getting back to normal even though the project is still not finished. At least the bad workmanship is being put right, slowly but surely, following the parting of the ways...
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