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.
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.
posted by William M. Connolley at 4:11 AM
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