Day 41: A hive of activity

Monday was a bank hol. Today, everyone is bustling around doing stuff. At one point four builders are stuffed into our tiny toilet trying to elucidate a point.

So (not in order): Pete the Plumber turns up, and its just as well we're in because he needs to look around inside to check the pipe runs, both for the heating and the hot/cold. Heating is fine, because he can take a line from the living room. Hot/cold is a bit harder, because the pipes have to run into the loft, around and down through the spare bedroom and out through the cupboard, and some of this stuff won't exist when all is finsihed. So much easier to build from scratch.

Paul the demolition man is drilling a channel out of the floor to put in the shower drain. Carl the electrician needs to know about where the light swiches and the extractor fan is going... argh... call Ian, who comes down to talk about it. OK, its going there, then up through the roof (it was going up through the roof originally, but thats when the roof was staying, and the plans haven't been revised since). But... if the shower mixer valve is to be hidden, it needs 4", and there isn't that... so will the doorframe have to be moved? They seem to decide it will. But then (I said this was out of sequence) Pete the Plumber things it will probably fit, with maybe a bit carved out of the brick wall, and needs to know the valve make/number.

We also talk about where the pipes for the basin are going. The hot/cold are OK, but the drain is a bit of a problem, cos I don't want it viz. Talk about suctioning the u-bend and smells coming back in if it goes under the floor. Ian points out that there will be a cupboard and a hidden cistern so that solves that one - it can go in there.

Gavin comes around - just checking I think - and on his mobile to various other people. I talk to him about the skip/limestone, and to Mr Digger who is to do the moving of it. The problem is the f*ck*ng limestone, which is in the way of moving the skip, and whatever BtB saved by getting a job lot he is going to lose by the faff of shuffling it around. Oh for more space! So... Mr D decides that with his little digger he can roll the skip on scaffolding poles, and in fact seems to have decided that this would be quite fun, so after a bit of "maybe the limestone could go here" about the front garden we settle for this. Sadly synchronising the skip lorry and the limestone moving seems to hard to contemplate.

And Pete the carpenter is back. An interesting observation: before all else, he starts by sharpening his plane blade (shades of Simons course there...). He isn't keen on moving his door, either, but fortunately he dooesn't have to.

There are so many little decisions involved in this stuff. And there are so many overlapping things. You could save quite a bit of time and effort by exactly scheduling things, and arranging them to physically overlap carefully (instead of having to re-do them). But that itself is hard.

Ian is back: the shower is quite deep. I'm not quite sure what the solution will be, but I'm going to leave it to them.

Day 40. Limestone.

No work today, but when I get back there are 3 tonnes of limestone (for hardcore) in the drive in 1 tonne bags. But... I've just been talking to Gavin, who said that he was awaiting 4 tonnes for #2. And the delivery note says 2 BW, with 28 S'dale in brackets. And the driver said something about it "being out of the way" here. So I leave a slightly intemperate message on Ians phone, since this dumping stuff is getting a bit over the top: in that we have a skip blocking our drive that is only 1/4 full of our stuff: it also has about 1/4 of **other peoples** stuff, which the builders have been dumping from other jobs, which I resent: we have little enough space as it is without being used as a dumping ground. And if they are going to wait for it to fill up, it will be here for weeks on end (especially as the limestone now blocks it). And there are piles of insulation (again for phase 2, which is not yet agreed) cluttering up the back garden. And the soakaway isn't turfed over. And the asbestos is still there. So a lot of things have piled up, literally.

(Saturday) Well, being intermperate works wonders, because first Ian then Bob comes over to talk. Bob apologies, explains that the limestone *is* for us, but yes he is being a bit presumptuous, promises to shift the skip a bit sooner, and address the other stuff. Hopefully this will happen.

Day 39. Drum

Today Tim sets to work building the framework for the drum thing, that will hold the washbasin in the shower room. You won't understand till I load up a photo. Anyway, this gets done, and plasterboarded over in strips, presumably this will look rather better when plastered over. Tims ?apprentice? does dome hinge-rebate cutting, but only a bit. He also manages to nick the insulating trim in once place, not sure if this matters much. D watches the rebate cutting with great interest.

Day 38: And along come 4 all at once

Activity, hurrah. Noises off start at something like 7:30 in the morning, and the drilling rattles up to our bedroom, but since its activity we don't mind much. They turn out to be slightly repositioning the windows - not quite sure why, and its hard to tell how much they have moved. Meanwhile Pete, D's favourite builder, sets up his cement mixer.

When E and I leave for smoko, there are 4 builders outside drinking tea, one is sitting in a wheelbarrow, which impresses E no end. He declines a chair, and says the wheelbarrow is more comfy.

Tim the carpenter asks what sort of hinges we intend to supply. I look at him with my mouth open like a fish. Hinges? And locks? and doorhandles? Gurk. Talk with Ian: it turns out that the spec says owner-supplied ironmongery and this means these things. In the end, agree 4" stainles steel hinges, Tim to get; 5-pin locks, ditto. And us to look at handles: Ian gives us "the commplete Hafele", which is the Big Boys book of handles, hinges, etc etc. And E and I look in the new shop in Drakes while we're in town. Bring back commmunism I say: one sort of handle is good enough. But which?

And lastly: I get back just as he is packing up: the drum thing for the shower room: there is a new sketch (by Ian?) showing it not going right down to the floor (and Tim says, can it not go right up to the ceiling either?). Yes to both. In the meantime, the wall side facing Dot has been plasterboarded over, and Pete has finished the brickwork on the shower ready for Tim.

Day 36,37: The mystery toolbox

Nothing monday; today I talked to Ian, who had spoken to BtB, who promises, perhaps, plasterers next thursday. Hmmm.

Back at home, I discover an open tool box! Excitement. Assuming its not the toolbox fairy, someone has been building. But what? Nothing seems to have changed. But... someone (probably Gavin) has been doing some work levelling the top of the soakaway, which now has raw earth needing a few inches of topsoil and grassing. Or... shall we make it a flower bed? Perhaps we should.

Presumably someone will be along for the toolbox (we already have the electricians radio). I put it inside, to keep it dry.

Meanwhile, E falls backwards off he bike and cuts her finger on the mesh on the wall, which will remain insanely dangerous until rendered over.

Day 32-35: Door frames and insulation

I'll count saturday against their days, so days 32-34 were tuesday to thursday, in which nothing happened, except that on tuesday the next bill came in, and on wednesday I talked to Ian who talked to Gavin who said "oops I was expecting that" because BtB is off on hols on the norfolk broads.

But today the carpenter(s) turned up at 8 (its been so long, we've forgotten that) and started hammering out the temporary frames. While I had breakfast D watched as they attached stainless steel connectors to them and attached them in place, with much noisy drilling. We left them to it; by 2:30 the frames are in place and many of the sheets of insulation that have been lying around are on the outside walls. They are light foam faced with aluminium foil and seem to get cut to shape, then covered in wire mesh, the whole then fixed to the wall by special plastic screw/plug things.

Ian comes round to do his end-of-week round up about 3:15 so I mention the sacks of cement left in the fron garden; the Demolition Man (who I think is only round for a chat with his friend the carpenter) gets the task of moving them to a neat pile in the back. I'm never really sure if I'm allowed to ask them stuff like this so always go via Ian.

Next comes putting the doors into the frames (poss preceded by painting them, and the door sills need a coat of varnish or two), then glazing them, then onto the insides.

Day 31: roof

While we were away, the roofer turned up and finished his last couple of hours, or at least it looks like he has. It still needs a gutter though.

Day 26-30: Not much, apart from a bit of electrics

Not a lot going on this week, probably because they are off having fun at #2 BW.

On friday (or was it thursday?) the electrician put in some wall sockets, which is a light job. We also have one cat-5 cable socket, on the off chance of deciding that our wireless network is cooking our brains.

Day 25: Insulation, for the floor, we think

There was some hope that the roofer might come on Sunday to finish, but no. Its a bit odd because there is only a tiny edge left. No signs of any other building today, but we do now have a large pile of what looks like 6 foot slabs of floor insulation, rather an implausibly large number of them. Some in the newly roofed bit, some outside under a tarp. And also a lot of wire-mesh rolls that I guess are to reinforce a concrete floor over the insulation. And a few other misc boxes wrapped up - who knows what they are!

Day 24: Bill the roofer

Its a saturday, but work goes on: its nice to have keen builders. Fortunately the day is bright and clear so they can work, starting about 8:30. Gavin turns up and begins slicing strips off 18mm ply with a circ saw: amazing how fast you can work when you have the right tools (and how some right tools compensate for other poor ones: he has the stack of ply sheets on top of two wheelbarrows as a workbench). These get nailed on the roof (using a nail gun, another time saver) around the edge and he tastefully arranges the above-roof wires and boxes them in with more ply. I leave for town so I miss the next steps, which is putting the insulation on top of this.

I do get to see the laying of the tar covering, and the exciting "flaming" this involves. Or at least I watch layer 1 go on, apparently there are 4, with the top layer being a tasteful red, which is nearly finished when I get back at 6.

An interesting facet of this work is that it needs to be done quickly: you lay the sheet roll, flame it, roll it down, move along, flame that to a liquid surface, lay that, and so on. So that you don't over-flame and melt though, nor under- and have it not stick. Fun to watch for me and DE.

Talk briefly with Gavin over what-next: the window-work can go in, then get glazed, then the inside is waterproof and the plastering and stuff can be done.

Day 23: More sparks and glass in

Today the electrician (Carl) actually does something, in fact a hard days work to get most of the wiring in (and the cat-5 cable? Yes we think so). Talk in the morning: because of the roof type, he can't just run stuff down from the ceiling as he would like to, so finally settles for running it up from the floor, and will confirm with SoBtB that this will be OK (we're fairly sure it is, because there will be insulation on top of the current floor and below the new level).

Also ?Barry? the carpenter is back to put the glass panes in the "floating effect" bit, there are a few rough edges there.

Gavin and another turn up at 2 and deliver piles and bales of roofing insulation and roofing felt and gas cylinders and stuff. They need me to move the vine out of the way a bit by tomorrow - do this.

Later: Ian stops by for a look round. Discuss progress: in general good, esp if they can do the roof tomorrow as promised. There are a few quibbles: one of the roof beams is a bit twisted. Some need sanding. These are probably trivia. On phase 2: Valerie will serve the party wall stuff on monday (something has gone a bit wrong on all this since we should have been doing this a month or more ago), but we might be doing phase 2 as 2a and 2b, 2a being the kitchen. This is apparently OK. Mention the roof thingy: Ian will talk that over with BtB, up to now its been a flight of fancy, though passed by planning. Well, progress. They have started on 2 BW as well: big concrete pouring.

ps: sorry no pics, I've taken them, but uploading is a bit slow: and I've been playing Civ.

Day 22: Sparks

M is working from home all day today. The electrician turns up and talks about where to put the wires.

Day 21: Lights

No actual building, but we do decide on ceiling lights, and a few rather than many. Ian to draw up new plans showing these and some other electrical points.

Day 20: Joinery

Again no actual work, but when I got back at lunchtime (with Phil A, who kindly fixed our boiler, by the cunning expedient of pushing the button *in* not *sideways*) some joinery was being delivered, in the shape of our window/door frames. And a bit later the little panes of glass that will go just under the roof and create a cute "floating" effect arrive. Somewhat later I find SoBtB and Ian discussing something; I join in. We talk about schedules (the roof is due on Saturday) and lighting (now the roof is new, we can have ceiling lights, which I prefer, but we need to decide where). SoBtB comments on the mess in the garden, noting that he would have had to have words with someone, but that it looks like the kids work: and indeed it is, almost a Goldsworthy type "installation" of a meandering path of offcuts of white painted wood. Remind him about soakaway, which needs finishing.

nb: day 19 was last friday, but nothing happened. BtB has phoned to explain this, keen not to appear to be slowing down.