Day 2: the roof trouble
Day 2 dawns clear but with a curious ripping sound, rather like a large tree slowly falling/tearing in the distance. I suspect the blackthorn above the garden shed but no.
Paul arrives at twenty to 8; Peter a little after. I get up and talk to them; they don't want to start till 8 because the noise may annoy the neighbours. Considerate. I offer them tea/coffee; they choose tea, white, with sugar. Now its 8: they start to cut through the brickwork from the garden-facing window at the end with a brick saw which *is* loud.
I do b'fast and misc elec stuff. M heads off to work. The electrician isn't here yet (9:30) and he needs to get inside so... well, I leave them the back door keys, having rather little choice. We had hoped to wait a week or two to see that we trust them but, well, tis done. Peter goes off to get some more supporting beams, leaving Paul at a loose end. He volunteers to rebuild the bike shelter I bodged up (the ripping noise was the tarp pulling loose...) and I make him another tea. I go to work and leave him at it.
When I come back at 2 ish Paul says: the roof will have to come down. Ah. This was always a possibility if the roof beams spanned the wrong way. As you can see from the photo the roof is a bit odd: there are the sheets of asbestos that form the ceiling, with a sort of shaped asbestos former above, in which are laid concrete beams with some reinforcing (in the photo you can just see the reinforcing, spiral reddy-dark metal at the bottom of the pic, just R of centre. The black bit in the centre of the pic is, I think, the electical cable conduit).
There is an electrician there too, and they are all wearing dust masks, so I go in round the front. Power is off to various bits so the electrician can cut cables etc, and this means the phone and the wireless aren't working. Time to head off!
Stop via Ians: discuss all this: if the roof is coming off, should the walls go to and just make it bigger? Or not. A flat roof or peaked. But how to avoid spilling rainwater onto Dot (our neighbour. Friends, remember this: buy yourself a *detached* house). How elaborate to get? Planning issues too. Argh... I really don't want more choice at this stage but we've got it and there is no avoiding it (other than just deciding not to choose...). Anyway, Ian will come round at 8 tonight. Now I'm off to ma's to collect the children.
Later: Ian comes early, so M talks to him (inc some ideas I had in the car, like ditching the bow-window-seat as over-elaborate, and perhaps the "lobby" bit isn't needed either), he has thrown up some new plans, we'll have to talk early tomorrow to see if work can continue (pulling down the ceiling seems a near-certainty, so I presume that can continue no matter what we decide about where the walls are). The builders have had some sand and cement delivered but I'm not quite sure what they are planning to do with it, I didn't think we were at the constructing stage yet.
Paul arrives at twenty to 8; Peter a little after. I get up and talk to them; they don't want to start till 8 because the noise may annoy the neighbours. Considerate. I offer them tea/coffee; they choose tea, white, with sugar. Now its 8: they start to cut through the brickwork from the garden-facing window at the end with a brick saw which *is* loud.
I do b'fast and misc elec stuff. M heads off to work. The electrician isn't here yet (9:30) and he needs to get inside so... well, I leave them the back door keys, having rather little choice. We had hoped to wait a week or two to see that we trust them but, well, tis done. Peter goes off to get some more supporting beams, leaving Paul at a loose end. He volunteers to rebuild the bike shelter I bodged up (the ripping noise was the tarp pulling loose...) and I make him another tea. I go to work and leave him at it.
When I come back at 2 ish Paul says: the roof will have to come down. Ah. This was always a possibility if the roof beams spanned the wrong way. As you can see from the photo the roof is a bit odd: there are the sheets of asbestos that form the ceiling, with a sort of shaped asbestos former above, in which are laid concrete beams with some reinforcing (in the photo you can just see the reinforcing, spiral reddy-dark metal at the bottom of the pic, just R of centre. The black bit in the centre of the pic is, I think, the electical cable conduit).There is an electrician there too, and they are all wearing dust masks, so I go in round the front. Power is off to various bits so the electrician can cut cables etc, and this means the phone and the wireless aren't working. Time to head off!
Stop via Ians: discuss all this: if the roof is coming off, should the walls go to and just make it bigger? Or not. A flat roof or peaked. But how to avoid spilling rainwater onto Dot (our neighbour. Friends, remember this: buy yourself a *detached* house). How elaborate to get? Planning issues too. Argh... I really don't want more choice at this stage but we've got it and there is no avoiding it (other than just deciding not to choose...). Anyway, Ian will come round at 8 tonight. Now I'm off to ma's to collect the children.
Later: Ian comes early, so M talks to him (inc some ideas I had in the car, like ditching the bow-window-seat as over-elaborate, and perhaps the "lobby" bit isn't needed either), he has thrown up some new plans, we'll have to talk early tomorrow to see if work can continue (pulling down the ceiling seems a near-certainty, so I presume that can continue no matter what we decide about where the walls are). The builders have had some sand and cement delivered but I'm not quite sure what they are planning to do with it, I didn't think we were at the constructing stage yet.
posted by William M. Connolley at 1:43 PM
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