Monday 6 August
It's the start of what should have been the final week of a ten week build. If you have been following the blog from the start you will know that the programme hasn't gone to plan. Some delays were no fault of the builder. Other delays could have been avoided with a bit of thought, some forward planning and much better communication.
I'm still waiting for the revised programme of works and new end of works date which the man in charge promised last Monday would be with me by the end of the week...Not forgetting details of the manufacturers of the windows and garden doors he's proposing to use, first requested back in June! Despite a couple of reminders, one on Friday and another first thing this morning when I paid the latest invoice, nothing has arrived by close of business today.
The man in charge will be going away for a couple of days to attend family wedding towards the end of this week. I will be working away from Oxford for the first half of next week. I really must tie him down before we both disappear ... or the build could drift on for another week with me being no wiser about what will happen next and when I can plan for the end of works.
However, the guys have been here today, preparing for the next stage of the structural work, installing a steel beam under the external wall of the former kitchen so that the original space can be opened up into the new extension. The carpet and underlay in my first floor home office/study (above the old kitchen) has been pulled off the external wall to expose the floorboards and joists below, ready for when the new steel goes in.
Good job, I've set up a temporary office in the front bedroom!
On the ground floor, most of the suspended floorboards have been taken up ready for the props to be installed at the ground level, and the hole in the floor has been covered temporarily with a large sheet of ply, so I can still get to the garden to water plants in the continuing heatwave.
The original panelled kitchen door (which is to be reused) has been moved out of the former kitchen to a place of safety in the old dining room. I'll get it stripped and restored before its reinstalled.
Now that the steel has been installed across the width of the house, the props in the old dining room have been removed and the floorboards replaced, loose laid rather than fixed down as they will have to come up again when drains, water and power are installed below. Must remember not to stand on one end of a loose floorboard!
Now the props have gone, I can see a bit better where the steel beam rests on the wall stubs at either end. There's still more work to be done there to support the beam which is currently sitting on blocks of wood, inside and out. However, I assume these will come out when the supporting wall is extended a little in accordance with the structural engineer's specification. Fingers crossed that the current (temporary, I hope) arrangement is strong enough to support the steel and the load its carrying.
Externally, it is now clear that not all the steel beam will be enclosed within the sloping roof of the new extension. The end of the steel outside the roof can't be left exposed. The man in charge assured me that they can deal with this without raising the wall along the boundary, which has upset my neighbour even at its present height. I wait with interest to see how this work will be done...
The "bricking in" above the steel beam is rough. However, when the extension is finished, the area above the old dining room window will be part of a small "downstand" inside the house, separating the ceiling in new kitchen from the main dining/living space beyond. As it will eventually be plastered and painted, the appearance of the brickwork doesn't matter.
Frustratingly, the cradle supporting the bath on the first floor is still free floating where the floorboard it rested on was removed to install a prop. Dare I risk standing in the bath to shower, or do I take up offers from friends to use their facilities...or just wash at the sink? Decisions, decisions...
At least the little dog I've been looking after over the weekend for my daughter didn't fall down any of the holes in the floor and seemed to enjoy his stay, notwithstanding the restricted space to run around indoors. But he had plenty of exercise in the park at the end of the street to compensate...So for a change, here's a photo of my weekend canine house guest, rather than walls, holes in floors and ceilings, and piles of materials!
Tuesday 7 August
The guys have worked long and hard today, in the heat, carrying on with preparation for installing the next steel beam along the length of the old kitchen's external wall. Props with "strongboys" on the top have been put in from the outside (this is what I was expecting to see when the first steel was installed).
At the back of the house, the outer edge of the first floor is now supported on planks and props. I can see right up into my home office from the kitchen below (and vice versa).
I was alarmed when I saw that the joist next to the external wall had been removed, and asked the builder why? If I've understood correctly, it had to be removed to put the steel beam in, otherwise there wouldn't be enough space to lift the steel into place. Not sure why they can't do from the outside...But anyway, the builder reassured me that the joist would be replaced once the steel is in, so that's reassuring.
The double hung sash window in the side wall of the old kitchen has been removed (offered on an architectural salvage website but sadly no takers - what a waste of lovely old glass..) The space it occupied has been party covered with a sheet of ply.
Here's hoping it doesn't rain too heavily, now the house isn't weathertight.
The good news is that the bath upstairs is now supported, so I can take a shower without fear of crashing through the ceiling. The bad news is that the temporary cold tap on the ground floor as disappeared. If I want to water the garden now, I have to carry watering cans up and downstairs from the bathroom. Not good with a vulnerable back. However, it looks like the heatwave will break tomorrow and there may be some rain in the next few days, so hopefully the plants won't need as much water as they have done recently.
Wednesday 8 August
I started the day on a positive note - a text to the man in charge saying thanks for getting the guys to sort out the unsupported bath! Then gently dropped in the news that the skip is full...
... and I'm still waiting for the revised programme of works. To my delight, he replied that a new skip was on its way and the revised programme would be with me later.
Swapping out a full skip for an empty one is always an amazing sight, especially when it happens underneath a fan of overhead telephone wires. However, it was done with only one casualty - a broken brick, sent flying into the gutter off the brick palette sitting behind the skip as it was raised.
The rest of the palette wobbled and moved sideways a bit, but the bricks didn't slide off. We re-arranged the top layer of bricks to minimise the risk, then the driver managed the rest of the manoeuvre without a problem.
I sent a text to the man in charge to let him know the skip changeover had happened, and soon after that the guys arrived and set to work, while my son - visiting for a couple of nights - took on the role of IT consultant and helped me sort out an email problem with Virgin Media.
By the end of the day, work had progressed on preparation for the next steel beam to be installed along the length of the old kitchen wall.
The first floor bathroom floorboards are now fully exposed and the original water pipe to the bath, WC and wash basin has now been replaced by a flexible hose which can be manoeuvred out of the way when the steel is lifted into place. We were without water for a couple of hours while this work was done, but it wasn't too bad...
Some more props have gone up, inside and out....
And the sheet of ply over the original kitchen window opening has been replaced by black plastic....It was only after I went into the garden that I discovered where the sheet of ply had gone....It's now plugging the gap between the end of the extension and the start of garden fence, which was left when an old fence panel was removed to build the extension.
My neighbours (the ones who have been so upset by the wall along the boundary) have been hassling the man in charge since July to put a 6ft-8ft board into the gap, on a temporary basis, until the new fence is installed at the end of the build....to "give some sense of normality, safety and privacy" for themselves and visiting family. I wouldn't want to look out on this by choice - to me, it would feel like one of those "be careful what you wish for" moments. But they have been given what they asked for, so I hope they are happy now...about this, if nothing else.
The good news is that the temporary cold tap has been reinstated in the old kitchen, so I took advantage of it to give the garden plants a good water, even though rain is forecast.
The even better news is that at long last, I have received a revised programme of works and an end of works date of 1 October!
So....the 10 week build will actually take around 18 weeks if all goes to plan, much closer to my original estimate of 16 weeks. However, the programme looks more realistic now, and at least I've know the order and anticipated timing of each phase of the works and when I have to do my bits - sorting out decoration, floor finishes and kitchen installation. That feels better!
Thursday 9 August
According to the revised programme of works, this should be the third and final day of structural steelwork installation. In reality, no steelwork has been installed. They have still been working on the preparation. There's now an almost continuous strip of open space between the external wall of the old kitchen and the first floor joists, which means that fresher air is getting into the house...just as the weather turns cooler and wetter. It's not a problem generally, but its a bit nippy taking a shower in the bathroom with the wind whistling through the gap!
However, the beam lifter is in place, ready for the big steel to go in place along the length of the external wall of the old kitchen, its feet poking through holes at the base of the wall. Maybe the big steel beam will go up tomorrow?
More holes have appeared in the floor and ceilings, one where gallows brackets will be inserted so that a redundant part of the chimney breast in the old kitchen can be removed (but not the main part, which is a feature of the room and will be retained). However, the non-structural timber beam is still there. I wonder why that hasn't been removed yet? I also wonder about those those bright green brackets you can see in the photo below. I don't remember putting in, but we must have done it at some point in the past to fix a squeaky floorboard, I imagine (back in our "green phase" perhaps, when the table in the workroom above was painted bright green and had a flock of small plastic sheep on it, looking like they were grazing in the corner of a large field...ah - memories!)
Floorboards have also been taken up in front of the old fireplace in the old kitchen (but not the tiled hearth - yet...) and the alcove to the left of the fireplace. I assume this is a preliminary step towards removing the suspended floor completely, ready to install underfloor heating over the whole lot.
In spite of the chaos indoors, the garden seems to have survived and is looking quite colourful at the moment. Quite amazing, considering that its been used as an outdoor workspace and storage area, as well as suffering from the drought. Isn't nature wonderful?
Friday 10 August
I was expecting the guys to arrive mob-handed today to lift another steel onto place, but no one had arrived by 9.45 am. As I had to go out urgently, I sent a text to the partner of the man in charge (who's away for a couple of days) to check that they were coming today, and remind him that the site foreman had my spare house key to let them in if they arrived while I was out.
By the time I had returned home, there were people on site and I could hear the now familiar sound of a steel beam being lifted into place. This beam will support the upper part of the side external wall of the rear wing, so that the wall can be removed at ground floor level to open the old kitchen space up into the new extension.
By the time they left this afternoon, steel No 2 was in place and they had started to back fill above and below the beam (a work in progress). The old kitchen window is now open to the elements ....just as we have our first night in months where the temperature is likely to be less than 15C, but at least the rain which tipped down in the morning has stopped.
The boiler has been removed and is sitting on the floor in the old dining room, so no heat or running hot water until around the end of August/early September when the new one is installed after the extension has been completed.
There's still work to do to finish off steel No 2 installation, including connecting up with steel No 1 with bolts through the flange, which you can just about see in the photo below.
There's one more large steel to insert in the old dining room so that the remains of the chimney breast can be removed, plus gallows brackets in the old kitchen and steel lintels where the new doors and window will be inserted into the garden elevation of the soon to be created open plan kitchen/dining living room.
According to the revised programme, all this structural steelwork was supposed to be completed today, so that they can start the roof on the extension next week. It looks like the end date of 1 October is already slipping out of reach....
But the guys tell me that they will be back tomorrow, so it looks like they are making an effort to make up for some of the lost time and get some way towards putting the programme back on track.
Saturday 11 August
One builder this morning, in to "finish off" yesterday's steel installation. That seems to have involved slopping concrete into the gaps between the steel beam and the brickwork directly above, both inside and out.
Apparently, it is now "safe"! I dread to think how unsafe it was yesterday.....It's certainly not a thing of beauty today, inside....
.....or outside
Just have to keep reminding myself that the mess above the beam will be covered up by plasterboard when the extension is roofed over and part of what is currently an outside wall will become internal. The wall below the beam will be coming out completely, except for the stubs of retained wall at the corners which support the ends of each beam.
I'm told that the rest of the structural work will be done next week. This is supposed to be when the roof structure goes on the extension, is felted and battened, openings are boarded up temporarily and the new windows ordered.
I have yet to see what the man in charge is proposing to use for windows and doors, in spite of requesting links to the manufacturer's websites as along ago as June. I think I'll just have to tell him (again) what I'm looking for and ask him to confirm that that's what he's going to order.
Looking forward to a day off builders and building work tomorrow, for a change...
It's the start of what should have been the final week of a ten week build. If you have been following the blog from the start you will know that the programme hasn't gone to plan. Some delays were no fault of the builder. Other delays could have been avoided with a bit of thought, some forward planning and much better communication.
I'm still waiting for the revised programme of works and new end of works date which the man in charge promised last Monday would be with me by the end of the week...Not forgetting details of the manufacturers of the windows and garden doors he's proposing to use, first requested back in June! Despite a couple of reminders, one on Friday and another first thing this morning when I paid the latest invoice, nothing has arrived by close of business today.
The man in charge will be going away for a couple of days to attend family wedding towards the end of this week. I will be working away from Oxford for the first half of next week. I really must tie him down before we both disappear ... or the build could drift on for another week with me being no wiser about what will happen next and when I can plan for the end of works.
However, the guys have been here today, preparing for the next stage of the structural work, installing a steel beam under the external wall of the former kitchen so that the original space can be opened up into the new extension. The carpet and underlay in my first floor home office/study (above the old kitchen) has been pulled off the external wall to expose the floorboards and joists below, ready for when the new steel goes in.
Good job, I've set up a temporary office in the front bedroom!
On the ground floor, most of the suspended floorboards have been taken up ready for the props to be installed at the ground level, and the hole in the floor has been covered temporarily with a large sheet of ply, so I can still get to the garden to water plants in the continuing heatwave.
The original panelled kitchen door (which is to be reused) has been moved out of the former kitchen to a place of safety in the old dining room. I'll get it stripped and restored before its reinstalled.
Now that the steel has been installed across the width of the house, the props in the old dining room have been removed and the floorboards replaced, loose laid rather than fixed down as they will have to come up again when drains, water and power are installed below. Must remember not to stand on one end of a loose floorboard!
Now the props have gone, I can see a bit better where the steel beam rests on the wall stubs at either end. There's still more work to be done there to support the beam which is currently sitting on blocks of wood, inside and out. However, I assume these will come out when the supporting wall is extended a little in accordance with the structural engineer's specification. Fingers crossed that the current (temporary, I hope) arrangement is strong enough to support the steel and the load its carrying.
 |
| The steel beam is partly supported by bricks and partly by blocks of wood |
Externally, it is now clear that not all the steel beam will be enclosed within the sloping roof of the new extension. The end of the steel outside the roof can't be left exposed. The man in charge assured me that they can deal with this without raising the wall along the boundary, which has upset my neighbour even at its present height. I wait with interest to see how this work will be done...
The "bricking in" above the steel beam is rough. However, when the extension is finished, the area above the old dining room window will be part of a small "downstand" inside the house, separating the ceiling in new kitchen from the main dining/living space beyond. As it will eventually be plastered and painted, the appearance of the brickwork doesn't matter.
Frustratingly, the cradle supporting the bath on the first floor is still free floating where the floorboard it rested on was removed to install a prop. Dare I risk standing in the bath to shower, or do I take up offers from friends to use their facilities...or just wash at the sink? Decisions, decisions...
At least the little dog I've been looking after over the weekend for my daughter didn't fall down any of the holes in the floor and seemed to enjoy his stay, notwithstanding the restricted space to run around indoors. But he had plenty of exercise in the park at the end of the street to compensate...So for a change, here's a photo of my weekend canine house guest, rather than walls, holes in floors and ceilings, and piles of materials!
Tuesday 7 August
The guys have worked long and hard today, in the heat, carrying on with preparation for installing the next steel beam along the length of the old kitchen's external wall. Props with "strongboys" on the top have been put in from the outside (this is what I was expecting to see when the first steel was installed).
 |
| Prop, planks and "strongboys" in place |
 |
| Looking up into my first floor office from the old kitchen below |
 |
| Looking down into the old kitchen, from my first floor home office |
I was alarmed when I saw that the joist next to the external wall had been removed, and asked the builder why? If I've understood correctly, it had to be removed to put the steel beam in, otherwise there wouldn't be enough space to lift the steel into place. Not sure why they can't do from the outside...But anyway, the builder reassured me that the joist would be replaced once the steel is in, so that's reassuring.
 |
| The edge of the first floor is now supported on props and planks |
 |
| Goodbye, old sash window... |
Here's hoping it doesn't rain too heavily, now the house isn't weathertight.
The good news is that the bath upstairs is now supported, so I can take a shower without fear of crashing through the ceiling. The bad news is that the temporary cold tap on the ground floor as disappeared. If I want to water the garden now, I have to carry watering cans up and downstairs from the bathroom. Not good with a vulnerable back. However, it looks like the heatwave will break tomorrow and there may be some rain in the next few days, so hopefully the plants won't need as much water as they have done recently.
Wednesday 8 August
I started the day on a positive note - a text to the man in charge saying thanks for getting the guys to sort out the unsupported bath! Then gently dropped in the news that the skip is full...
... and I'm still waiting for the revised programme of works. To my delight, he replied that a new skip was on its way and the revised programme would be with me later.
Swapping out a full skip for an empty one is always an amazing sight, especially when it happens underneath a fan of overhead telephone wires. However, it was done with only one casualty - a broken brick, sent flying into the gutter off the brick palette sitting behind the skip as it was raised.
The rest of the palette wobbled and moved sideways a bit, but the bricks didn't slide off. We re-arranged the top layer of bricks to minimise the risk, then the driver managed the rest of the manoeuvre without a problem.
I sent a text to the man in charge to let him know the skip changeover had happened, and soon after that the guys arrived and set to work, while my son - visiting for a couple of nights - took on the role of IT consultant and helped me sort out an email problem with Virgin Media.
By the end of the day, work had progressed on preparation for the next steel beam to be installed along the length of the old kitchen wall.
The first floor bathroom floorboards are now fully exposed and the original water pipe to the bath, WC and wash basin has now been replaced by a flexible hose which can be manoeuvred out of the way when the steel is lifted into place. We were without water for a couple of hours while this work was done, but it wasn't too bad...
Some more props have gone up, inside and out....
And the sheet of ply over the original kitchen window opening has been replaced by black plastic....It was only after I went into the garden that I discovered where the sheet of ply had gone....It's now plugging the gap between the end of the extension and the start of garden fence, which was left when an old fence panel was removed to build the extension.
My neighbours (the ones who have been so upset by the wall along the boundary) have been hassling the man in charge since July to put a 6ft-8ft board into the gap, on a temporary basis, until the new fence is installed at the end of the build....to "give some sense of normality, safety and privacy" for themselves and visiting family. I wouldn't want to look out on this by choice - to me, it would feel like one of those "be careful what you wish for" moments. But they have been given what they asked for, so I hope they are happy now...about this, if nothing else.
The good news is that the temporary cold tap has been reinstated in the old kitchen, so I took advantage of it to give the garden plants a good water, even though rain is forecast.
The even better news is that at long last, I have received a revised programme of works and an end of works date of 1 October!
So....the 10 week build will actually take around 18 weeks if all goes to plan, much closer to my original estimate of 16 weeks. However, the programme looks more realistic now, and at least I've know the order and anticipated timing of each phase of the works and when I have to do my bits - sorting out decoration, floor finishes and kitchen installation. That feels better!
Thursday 9 August
According to the revised programme of works, this should be the third and final day of structural steelwork installation. In reality, no steelwork has been installed. They have still been working on the preparation. There's now an almost continuous strip of open space between the external wall of the old kitchen and the first floor joists, which means that fresher air is getting into the house...just as the weather turns cooler and wetter. It's not a problem generally, but its a bit nippy taking a shower in the bathroom with the wind whistling through the gap!
However, the beam lifter is in place, ready for the big steel to go in place along the length of the external wall of the old kitchen, its feet poking through holes at the base of the wall. Maybe the big steel beam will go up tomorrow?
More holes have appeared in the floor and ceilings, one where gallows brackets will be inserted so that a redundant part of the chimney breast in the old kitchen can be removed (but not the main part, which is a feature of the room and will be retained). However, the non-structural timber beam is still there. I wonder why that hasn't been removed yet? I also wonder about those those bright green brackets you can see in the photo below. I don't remember putting in, but we must have done it at some point in the past to fix a squeaky floorboard, I imagine (back in our "green phase" perhaps, when the table in the workroom above was painted bright green and had a flock of small plastic sheep on it, looking like they were grazing in the corner of a large field...ah - memories!)
Floorboards have also been taken up in front of the old fireplace in the old kitchen (but not the tiled hearth - yet...) and the alcove to the left of the fireplace. I assume this is a preliminary step towards removing the suspended floor completely, ready to install underfloor heating over the whole lot.
In spite of the chaos indoors, the garden seems to have survived and is looking quite colourful at the moment. Quite amazing, considering that its been used as an outdoor workspace and storage area, as well as suffering from the drought. Isn't nature wonderful?
Friday 10 August
I was expecting the guys to arrive mob-handed today to lift another steel onto place, but no one had arrived by 9.45 am. As I had to go out urgently, I sent a text to the partner of the man in charge (who's away for a couple of days) to check that they were coming today, and remind him that the site foreman had my spare house key to let them in if they arrived while I was out.
By the time I had returned home, there were people on site and I could hear the now familiar sound of a steel beam being lifted into place. This beam will support the upper part of the side external wall of the rear wing, so that the wall can be removed at ground floor level to open the old kitchen space up into the new extension.
 |
| Steel beam No 2 is in place |
By the time they left this afternoon, steel No 2 was in place and they had started to back fill above and below the beam (a work in progress). The old kitchen window is now open to the elements ....just as we have our first night in months where the temperature is likely to be less than 15C, but at least the rain which tipped down in the morning has stopped.
 |
| Natural air conditioning via the space where the old kitchen window used to be |
The boiler has been removed and is sitting on the floor in the old dining room, so no heat or running hot water until around the end of August/early September when the new one is installed after the extension has been completed.
 |
| No more boiler... |
There's still work to do to finish off steel No 2 installation, including connecting up with steel No 1 with bolts through the flange, which you can just about see in the photo below.
 |
| Beams slotted together but yet to be bolted |
There's one more large steel to insert in the old dining room so that the remains of the chimney breast can be removed, plus gallows brackets in the old kitchen and steel lintels where the new doors and window will be inserted into the garden elevation of the soon to be created open plan kitchen/dining living room.
According to the revised programme, all this structural steelwork was supposed to be completed today, so that they can start the roof on the extension next week. It looks like the end date of 1 October is already slipping out of reach....
But the guys tell me that they will be back tomorrow, so it looks like they are making an effort to make up for some of the lost time and get some way towards putting the programme back on track.
Saturday 11 August
One builder this morning, in to "finish off" yesterday's steel installation. That seems to have involved slopping concrete into the gaps between the steel beam and the brickwork directly above, both inside and out.
Apparently, it is now "safe"! I dread to think how unsafe it was yesterday.....It's certainly not a thing of beauty today, inside....
 |
| New steel from the inside |
 |
| New steel from the inside |
 |
| At least the window opening is partly covered up now |
 |
| New steel from the outside |
 |
| New steel from the outside |
 |
| New steel from the outside |
Just have to keep reminding myself that the mess above the beam will be covered up by plasterboard when the extension is roofed over and part of what is currently an outside wall will become internal. The wall below the beam will be coming out completely, except for the stubs of retained wall at the corners which support the ends of each beam.
I'm told that the rest of the structural work will be done next week. This is supposed to be when the roof structure goes on the extension, is felted and battened, openings are boarded up temporarily and the new windows ordered.
I have yet to see what the man in charge is proposing to use for windows and doors, in spite of requesting links to the manufacturer's websites as along ago as June. I think I'll just have to tell him (again) what I'm looking for and ask him to confirm that that's what he's going to order.
Looking forward to a day off builders and building work tomorrow, for a change...
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