Week 16 - Oak smoked undies

This week the plumbers have finally arrives- yay! Deck the halls with copper pipes and monkey wrenches! Three of them turned up on Monday and proceed to rip up all the floors, banging and crashing with an enthusiasm I'm not sure we've seen on site to date.

Unfortunately by Wednesday the day came when the building project really did break into our cosy reality- the plumbers stormed through the house, ripped out the boiler, the hot water tank and have left us with no heating or hot water... probably till the new year!

Of course, as you can can see by the beautiful picture take by my friend in Tetbury, this manoeuvre just happened to coincide with some festive weather... yes, you've guessed it, its snowing outside!!!

Well at least I feel I'm at last shaking off the dreadful bug that me and (according to my GP) most of England have had to endure for the last month. The log burner has struck up and I have a wheelbarrow full of little off cuts of wood from the building project to recycle as fuel! So at least one room in the house is warm. We only have to survive a week really, as we are flying to Marrakesh for Christmas, which hopefully will be a little bit warmer!

Drying washing is proving a bit of a challenge. I am currently surrounded by piles of it dangling everywhere. The undies are smouldering nicely on top of the log burner. Not sure it would pass health and safety. I should add a sprinkling of chestnuts really, shouldn't I?

Week 15 - Dreaming of bathrooms

Not much action on site again this week, but have been dreaming about my ensuite bathroom which I just couldn't get inspired about. Then I ended up buying a sandstone sink on ebay (yay!) which is ridiculously heavy but gorgeous. It is golds and reds and purples in swirls-

I love it... even if it is a little large for the room. So then I'm thinking I get James to inset it into the wall a bit, like a little alcove. Then I'm thinking sand and water = beach so I could do a sort of shell mirror grotto thing. Very Victorian apparently... (see right).

I found this awesome site called mydeco.com which allows you to do moodboards and things... so I had a go. I don't know why but Botticelli's Venus keeps popping into my head. So I've decided its going to be a Renaissance / classical revival bathroom. Ok a little OTT but who's going to see it apart from us? I promise to try and restrain my self in the rest of house... honest!

Ensuite bathroom by jaykaybee22

What's the general opinion on padded gold toilet seats?... ;)

So, anyways, I have order myself some brass taps to kick off the classical theme... inspired in part by our trip to Auntie Vikki's gorgeous villa in Zakynthos.

Weeks 13-14

I've majorly lost track of time... I think we are possibly in week 15 already!

Well, here is Justin finishing off the roof and you can see the oak beam in place.

As soon as the timbers were in James and Douggan were over to felt it and make it (sort of) watertight. Also the chipboard floors went down upstairs.

The immediate effect was to give it a sense of inside space. You get much more of an idea of a room and your

eyes are drawn to the french doors and (much needed) lightwells- I do hope it won't be too dark in there when we are done! Im sure some light paint on the walls will do wonders, fingers crossed, as it does feel a little like a basement at the minute.

Then all went quiet for a few more days, but I'm pleased to announce I have finally managed to find a plumber who is prepared to take on the job, albeit at twice the cost of what I originally anticipated. But he is allegedly the best in town, so I'm hoping the luxury macademia nuts I'm paying will ensure a highly

evolved primate! We are in essence putting in an entirely new pressurised system which will be future proofed for any number of showers and baths we want to plumb in at any altitude.

Last Friday James and Douggan were back to put in the stud partitioning in the problematic ensuite. I can't tell you what a headache this has been with the lower-than-expected ceiling height, but

by putting in a tiny door, stealing a foot from the bedroom, loosing some of the oak beam (sob!) and integrating the sink into the stud partition wall.... Nick might just be able to sit on the loo and stand up in the shower after all!!! Every centimetre counts mind you- we can only hope it all works out in the wash!

Plumbers supposed to be starting tomorrow, getting everything ready to move the boiler next week. Let's hope the snow holds off for a little while longer as we will be without heating while this goes on!!!

Electrics

Electrician turned up yesterday, totally unexpected. My dear neighbour Sarah came knocking on my door (I was still in my dressing gown)...

"Your electrician is blocking me in so I can't get off my drive"

"It's not my electrician, there is noone on site today"

"Well I can't get off the drive"

"Well thats not my problem..."

It was of course. Sigh!

Funny, but this really does mark Chapter 2 of the building project. We have moved beyond questions of how high ceilings need to be and where the walls go to questions like "what kind of light fitting are you thinking of for your bathroom" and "where are you going to put the TV?" "Do you need a dimmer with that?" A dimmer? Wow! Kevin our sparky brings a new world of opportunity and creativity- and a taste of the future where this concrete jungle is transformed into a cosy home...

It is like the first signs of spring and it makes my heart glad :)

Week 12- Dormer, History and Silence

Well, last week Justin came back for another day, put the dormer up and then disappeared for a week to another job... so all has been very quiet. Although

I was initially furious that no one was going to be on site at all (the building equivalent of being stationary on the M4 on a Friday- even 2 miles an hour feels better than not moving at all....) I found myself with my first proper winter cold and was soon quite relieved I could cuddle up with a bovril and not have to make any big decisions for a few days, not to mention the luxury of peace and quiet.

Feeling a bit better today I found some bits of the original purlins that had had to be sawn off and found a short history of taste in exterior paint colours! From what I can tell the purlins- and presumably the decorative barge boards -

before they were yellow

they were brown, before they were brown

they were red...

then they were a bright blue

then a paler blue

then a mint colour!

I wonder how far that takes us back? Maybe not as far as you think given we are supposed to paint exterior woodwork every few years... but I bet it could be as much 30 or 40 years! Fascinating! (well for the geeky historian in me!)

Weeks 10-11 - The roof finally on.

Finally the roof is going on! I don't really understand where the past few weeks have gone, or what has been going on... Nigel I guess has been working on the gable end and tidying up a few bits and pieces- he has done a fabulous job. It was his last day today which is sad but marks the end of the brick work- which is a real milestone.

Justin started... last Thursday I think, and put the front and back of the roof

on as a guide for Nigel. Then we faffed about for a few days trying to source some purlins. Basically I wanted the roof to match the existing attic roof, so Roger had designed it to have the purlins and ceiling ties on display. I had agreed with Justin that we

would shot blast some softwood to make it look better... but James couldnt source them in the right size, so we decided in the end to go for oak- because the cost of the shotblasting plus softwood was about the same anyway. So I went to speak to a nice chap called Tim at Nupend - http://www.oakframecarpentry.co.uk who sorted me out with two steady oak purlins he had in stock. I think they will look great by the time Justin has chamfered the edge. Look at me parleing the carpentry lingo! I can almost understand what they are trying to say to me these days!!!

We then had a total mare with the ceiling height in the bedroom, well more specifically the ensuite, which I have to say is our first real major disappointment. Somewhere, (I think it is to do with the pitch of the roof being different in reality to in the drawings) we have lost about a foot of ceiling height. This makes no difference in the bedroom really, but in our ensuite bathroom, not to put too finer point on it, if Nick wants to pee he is either going to have to kneel, squat or calculate the projectile.

But lets stay positive, we are almost in the dry and God has blessed us with the mildest November since who knows when! Someone said to me when the roof goes on you are about half way.... that sounds good to me :)

Week 9- Up to the first floor!!

Well in two months we are up to the first floor! Feels like things are really picking up pace now! This is Nigel at the start of the week....

This is the kitchen diner with the ceiling on. We were really worried about the ceiling height in here at one stage but it seems to be fine!

Below... a bit blurry but where we are up to now... - that is our bedroom wall you can see! ...and another "juliette" view. I almost got vertigo taking that one... it is much higher than I imagined!

Roof could be going on next week!

Having some fun with the pretty stuff...

Ok so enough of
bricks and concrete...

when does the pretty stuff start?

Well have been starting to think more about stuff this week. I have designs some railings for the balcony... James is going to see if the budget can stretch to something like this.

I tried to buy a back door on ebay but got distracted by cheese and biscuits and missed the moment! But I did buy a lovely copper bowl that I'm dreaming about turning into a "vessel sink" or "sink bowl" as they are known in the Baker family.

I also spent a lovely hour in Mandarin Stone in Cheltenham sighing at a few millenia of crushed fish and other sediment. We are partly swayed from our original terracotta kitchen floor intentions... especially by some travertine cobbles layed in a herringbone pattern- much like this lovely brick floor....

Week 8 - Rooms taking shape and scaffolding goes up

More of the same I'm afraid... but with every week that passes you start to get a bit of a better idea of the rooms. You can now see where the kitchen window is, the downstairs bathroom and the big french doors. The brickwork looks beautiful.

On Saturday morning (much to our surprise) the scaffolders turned up to do their stuff. We were still in our dressing gowns... I'm glad we were in though otherwise they would have completely blocked next doors right of way etc.. its fine now though.

It is funny how it immediately looks like a building site once scaffolding goes up.

Tonight Nick and I climbed the ladder and sat on the planks contemplating for the first time what will be our view from our juliette balcony on the first floor... bliss!

Week 7 - Downstairs cloakroom and utility.

Most of last week was spent doing the "raft" foundation and retaining wall for the downstairs loo and utility room. We solved the change in level problem by putting the raft under the soil pipe rather than on top of it.

Unfortunately we have still lost a bit of the width of these rooms as if we had followed the plan the toilet would have been in the middle of the back path. As it was we had to shave off a few inches off the path to ensure the width was sufficient for the sink and washing machine, provoking a more than a few frowns from our dear neighbours. As Tony D'Amato (Al Pacino) once said "The inches we need are everywhere around us. They're in every break of the game, every minute, every second. On this team we fight for that inch..." Keep fighting guys! ;)

We love Bricks!

I love bricks! There is something about their texture, tangibility, what they represent as little pieces of something wonderful.

Our brickie Nigel is very talented. I love the way he is tying in all the brick work to the existing building.

The guys even managed to save an old victorian air brick which we reused in the back wall to take the ventilation through to the old part of the house.

On Wednesday last week the "new" reclaimed bricks arrived. The building site is now "choc-a-block" quite literally with bricks everywhere. They look a bit lighter than the original house but I think once we wash the dust off them and mingle them in with what we saved from the old kitchen they will do just fine.

Week 6 - What a difference a day makes...

Well, we are back from a lovely holiday in Zakynthos. We got about half way through and I thought this is great- I hadn't heard from James so everything must be progressing nicely. I sent him a quick text to check everything was ok, only to be phoned back an hour later. Apparently in a few days we had managed to loose a foot off our downstairs cloakroom (which wasn't exactly huge to begin with) and some problem with yet another drain meant that I (and I quote James) "will be needing a ladder to get to my washing machine". So James suggested they leave that bit until I get back.

What happened in practice was they left everything until we got back... partly because of wanting my expert opinion... ;) and partly because the builders had a big falling out with each other!

It took a few days but on Thursday and Friday I managed to get a bricklayer on site and happily within a few hours I had the beginnings of some walls! It is really starting to take shape now.

Week 4 - Blockwork to DPM

The last two days Nigel has been here laying out the blockwork. This is very exciting as we get to actually see where the walls go and get a sense of the shape and size of the rooms for the first time. The levels are still confusing everyone. On Thursday night I had 5 exhausted builders trying to do the maths and telling me we had 11 inch rises on our steps- it was going to be built for giants! But Nigel and I had a quiet think this morning and realised that two steps actually equals three rises -so they are only 6 inches after all - praise the Lord!

It's looking really great- but it needs to. We are off on our hols this weekend so it's good to leave confident that the guys know what they are doing. Well... we'll see when we get back!!!

Rest of footings poured

On Tuesday we got the rest of the footings in. It was pretty hectic- pumped through some big tubes....

Phil leveled out the concrete with his "vibrating plunger" (!!!)

It was a rainy, muddy day- the site really looked like a muddy building site for the first time. But the concrete crept along, filling up the bottom of the trench and within an hour we had the stepped footings in place. Despite the rain we could walk on them the following day.

Our new bricks!

Bought my bricks today. Quite a terrifying selection, but the Mr Ron of Ronson seemed to know what he was talking about. So we bought some lovely handmade reclaimed bricks from a house demolished a few days ago in Gloucester. They should be with us, cleaned up in a week.

Week 3 - The Stroud Underground

The week has continued with more uncovering and replacing of drains... our soil pipe, the one we share with No.2, the one from No. 3 that comes through separately, the main one for the whole of the terrace and the whole of Orchard Lane that will flow past our new patio doors. The guys had to deal with a few flushes of unpleasantness I can tell you. But at least now it is new and spangly we hopefully don't need to worry about anything untoward leaking out underneath my new kitchen floor! We also experienced a burst water main that I found the guys struggling when
I arrived home one day. They looked up mournfully from knee deep in water and sewage holding the offending pipe spurting everywhere and said they had rung James who was coming back with some supplies. "Surely a bit of PTFE tape would sort that out" I said... "I'll just go and get my plumbing kit" - returning a

minute later with an old Pinot Grigio
box full of tools. A few twists of a monkey wrench later and the problem was solved.... I'm my father's daughter ;o)

We finished the week with some six foot holes that I can stand up in and you can't even see my head. We are pumping concrete on Tuesday.

End of Week Two - Finally we are starting to build something.

First lot of concrete footings were poured today along the party wall. The building inspector came out to check them. "Thats good soil" he said picking some up between his fingers. In an Indiana Jones type fashion he put it to his lips and tasted a bit... "good mix of Cotswold sand and a bit of clay" he said with a satisfied nod. Mikey looked at me horrified. When he had gone he explained a few hours ago he had emptied the contents of our soil pipe in that very spot.

But he gave the approval and the concrete arrive about 2.30- you have half an hour to get it all off the lorry and into the ground or the evil company charges you about £150 per five minutes overtime so Phil and Mikey went into overdrive.

At last we have moved on from knocking things down and are starting to build something :)

Noise levels 4/5

Stress levels 4/5

What's in an inch?

I made our builders check the boundary line about 20 times, and then took some photographic evidence. Some basic trigonometry was employed (something about right angled triangles) and lots of pieces of string....

Where are the L plates?!

Nick comes home from work and immediately wants to be in the driving seat...