Day 222-3. Underfloor heating!

Nothing monday; except we discover we've cut off the water supply to next doors downstairs loo. Oops. According to Pete tPP, this is because the original plumbing is somewhat eccentric: rather than indep supplies to the two houses, there is one mains take off (in our garden) which then feeds both houses. Quite how the old supply got to the back loos is unclear, but clearly its not feed cleanly from their side. Anyway, Pete has bodged a fix for now and S Cambs have been informed.

But *today* we have the long-awaited underfloor heating and flooring in the new kitchen. The pic shows this. The pipes are down, and are cut into the polystyrene insulation. The cold water pipe also runs under the floor, but at the edge, under where the units will be and away from the heat :-). The large cardboard box contains the cooker hood. Maybe that could go on the wall now? Some of the flooring is properly down - near the garden wall - and some just loose at the moment. Looks like it can be finished tomorrow. Then we can talk about putting the units in, hurrah!

On another note, TP points out the amusing http://www.blogthebuilder.co.nz/, about someone in NZ who wasn't happy with their builder. But sadly there are no details there yet.

The second pic is jus taken to show how nice and light the new kitchen can be, in the afternoon when the sun has come round.

Day 221. More 'ole

Ah, *that* is what was puzzling me as I was tidying up in the bedroom: why doesn't the curtain rail fit back over the gap? The answer being (as yesterdays pic shows) that the doorway doesn't fit exactly into where the window was, but extends a bit across.

Anyway, today Pete finishes off the cut upstairs, and for good measure also cuts out the outer shell of brick for the corresponding lower door, but leaves the inner one in place, which is nice for our habitability. Also the new lintels upstairs and down are in place.

Paul is around today and a certain amount of clear-up takes place outside. Though I'm surprised how full our skip looks... till I realise that much of the earth comes from Kate and Chris on BW. *We* still have a pile of earth in the front garden from the trench for the new water pipe: its been filled in for days, but of course what came out won't go back in. OTOH Paul has done a fair tidy up near the new front door and all the brick rubble is gone from inside the new side.

On saturday (fine, sunny, cold) I take the remaining roof tiles into the back and stack them neatly. One more bit of the garden returned to us.

I hoover a bit in what was D+E's bedroom on friday; but its not till sunday that I finally clean it enough to put the bed and mattresses back in. So now the landing is mostly clear again. E could probably sleep there still, but the opening is not secure, so won't until I/the builders put a sheet of ply across it.

Day 220. 'ole

No plasterers today, just Pete the bricklayer on his own, to cut a hole (joke from D: a man is trapped in an impervious chamber, with only a table inside. How does he escape? Answer: knocks his head against the wall until it is sore. Then uses the saw to cut the table in half. Then puts it together to make a whole. And escapes through the hole...) from the new side extension into E's bedroom. Since this also involves removing the wall that holds up the radiator, Pete tPP makes a brief appearance to lay the radiator down, since the hole may be there for a while (at least a week).

I come back after taking E to school, to finish shuffling things around (you can see from that pic that we pinned paper over the shelves; we'd had to dismantle E's sleeping nest on the floor; she and D are having fun sleeping in the same room for a bit). There is some chance of a door downstairs too, so I move the dining table. But, as you see from the pic, Pete didn't get through the upstairs (he was alone, which must have made things tricky).

Note space for new lintel above the block of infill bricks. The arco pole holding things up isn't really needed - he only put that in as he was going. The insulation sheet is just propped up in the hole; but all is secure because the side now locks, ta ra!

Tomorrow: rest of bricks out, maybe some work on the outer brick course downstairs, but no cut into the dining room we hope.

Day 219. Yet more plastering

Yet more plastering, mostly smooth coats on the inside at the side. Now it looks pink instead of dark.

Also Carl around some of the morning, moving the kitchen light switch near the entrance door so it isn't *behind* the door when you open it :-)

Bob replies to my mail; breakthough upstairs can be done tomorrow; good. Remind him that there is a radiator on the wall. They may do the bottom too.

Day 218. Front door!

Numerically this is still a day of plasterers, there are about 4+ of them. They occupy themselves with the inside side, as far as I can tell. Good work, but makes boring photos.

More interestingly, Tim and mate hang the front and back doors, so the side is now weatherproof and secure. There is still about 2 days of plastering left to do I think - certainly we still have several tonnes of sand left, and more got delivered today (I know cos I shovelled some of it off the pavement when I got home; our garden is a disaster zone but we can at least draw a line at our border!).

Day 217. Mostly plastering, some plumbing

Builders noises at 8, which is wrong as its a monday; although they are fairly quiet noises. Hmpf. Mention this to Ian on the way in; he promises to phone Bob. And *I* phone Bob.

The builders are mostly plasterers, it seems, Laker and Nunn again, with a number of youngish assistants. For some reason we don't do them any tea...

Its a monday so I'm back late. The front garden seems as crowded, though the new water pipe has been connected; the pile of earth doesn't want to go back into its hole. We have a new skip, though I think that was there on friday. Must throw my old bike into it.

The plasterers have fine-coated the kitchen; and also done the garden-side ceiling in the new room. How they get it to stick on upside down I don't know; let alone keep it smooth. Pete tPP has done something with pipe to route our bathroom sink/bath down sideways, which means (I think) that he will be able to set to on the floor (tomorrow?). Unfortunately whatever he has done has left a small crack so we have a mini-fountain; I patch this with sticking-plaster.

Day 216. More lots

Again, a big pile of vans outside come the morning. Rather overwhelming really, and not just in the quantity of tea required... and M has to go and ask a few who turned up really bright and early not to hammer before 8.

One of the more visible bits is the plasterers, who render the outside of the kitchen and the front and back of the side. Meanwhile the chippies plasterboard the side ceilings and stuff, so presumably the plasterers will be at that on monday. Also they put in a frame for the loft hatch and board it up.

At one point Pete tPP was here, but I think left soon after; not needed till monday.

A reminder that Febs pix are here. As you see from this pic, the front garden is rather full. Hopefully on monday Pete can connect the water pipe so the trench can be filled in which will reclaim quite a bit.

Day 211-215. Lots!

I'm getting a bit behind time here, and was away for a few days, so here is a quick summary:

Last Friday: nothing, I think.

Monday, nothing too, in deference to the neighbours.

Tuesday: Pete tPP's "big day" when he swaps the plumbing over from the old to the new system. I wasn't here, but apparently it all went OK and he finished early. So now we have a new, functional boiler. The old one has been ripped off and thrown in the skip; the hot water tank is absent. The cold tanks in the loft are still there, but not connected. But we only have an on/off switch.

Wednesday: again, I wasn't here, but there seems to have been activity: certainly the front garden is even more of a mess than before... Pete (the Bricklayer) is digging a trench for the water pipe from the side of the kitchen to the stopcock in the drive and has got most of the way. The scaffolding has come down. The new drain thingy is plumbed in outside the front door, at least "upstream" sewage is passing through it, though ours isn't yet? Not sure. Chippies at the side, putting on insulation.

Thursday: a busy and unpleasantly noisy day. Four vans outside. Carl is on electrics, and indeed doesn't finish until five, getting the light into the new shower room (at last!). Also puts in the controller for the new boiler, so we can in theory programme it. Chippies in the new side ext, putting up more insulation into the ceilings. Later on, the plasterers come to prep up the kitchen for rendering, and perhaps the side ext too. But the main pain (for us, and (alas, since the sound travels) for the neighbours too) comes from Paul having to air-hammer through the wall and concrete in order to prepare for the new soil stack, which is to be lashed up somehow tomorrow. I think (hope) all the air-hammering is done, though. This leaves a layer of dust over the kitchen and spreads into the hallway too :-(. And the counter over the washing machine has to be cut out, and the machine moved; but it gets put back in again. Pete finishes his trench digging, though.

Day 210. Electrics, windows and plans

Carl today, trailing reels of cable upstairs, and wondering where to put them down through, since the airing cupboard is going to disappear... he ends up putting them there anyway, with lots of spare wire.

When I get back, I discover that the carpenters have put some of the glass panels in: those at the top, and one at the back at the side, leaving the ones front and rear out, perhaps for avoid walking into them? And our new front door has a letter box, though the door itself is just propped up.

Now that the glass is in at the top, its really lovely late on a sunny day, as the light floods that corner: so I took aa chair up to sit in.

And then ian came to disturb me, and we talked over the internal plans: mostly where do the electrics go, have we got enough switches, and where and what type should he lights be.

Day 209. Nowt but pictures

No building I could detect today, but I have uploaded some pics to flickr; and here are some of them. The others are here here. So: left: the boiler (open rectangular box to the L) and the "megaflow tank" (think that looks like a hot water tank, and is, but its unvented, so we have mains-pressure water). Note the vent from the boiler out of the gable end.

To the right, the tiling in its half-finished state (its now 95% done), showing merge with the existing roof. The tiles at the back aren't a perfect colour match; the ones at the front are.

Day 208. Yet more plumbing, and a start at the 'lectric

Pete tPP around again, and yet more pipes disappear up into the loft. I did 100 ft yesterday, he says, and will do more today. But he really needs Carl the electrician to fix up some power for him. Off we go...

...and when I come back (by coincidence, with Ian) Carl is outside, hoping to get in, since Pete phoned him. Pete is off (its 3!) so we let Carl in and discuss moving the electricity and gas meters to outside (about £1k). Then Carl takes a quick look in the loft (oh! He's used copper pipes! He normally uses plastic) and then is off till tomorrow.

I point out that you can see the floor joists through a panel in the back bit; Ian points out that this will be opaque! Roof tiles OK too.

Day 207: Roofing and Plumbing

Roofers footsteps on the ladder, then the dulcet tones of the brick saw going through tiles at 8:40. Time to get up... well past time, you might easily say. There is a tile missing in the front: yes says the roofer, its because of the scaffolding. Hmm, OK. When I come back, the back appears to be finished (bar one tile near the flat roof?) and the ridgeline is in place. Jolly good.

Meanwhile Pete tPP has been around, doing things in the loft. Not sure exactly what but there are lots of pipes up there... photo soon.

Day 206. Misc

Not sure what happened today: as I came back, the roofers were just leaving. They have completed the "join" at the back where the new tiles join the old roof (slightly difference colour tiles; I guess this isn't too important; at the front, the colours match). And it looks like they have patched the rips they put in the tyvec.

Also we now have a glass pane in the kitchen side door, which is nice. Pete tPP was probably around up in the loft but I'm not sure.

Day 205. Plumbing and a new floor

More plumbing, Pete is "lacing the boiler" which I think means putting in all the various pipes and stuff. Thats all off in the loft though. Meanwhile... Pete (the bricklayer) and Tim and chippy are here, though I'm not perfectly sure what they are up to: probably putting in the new floor on the first floor at the side. Jolly good. No sign of the roofers though.

Day 204. Roofers

Roofers back today, much cutting of tiles (plumes of brick dust float towards Bettys, fortunately it a cold raw day and she is either inside, or away) and sawing of cuts in the gable end (to put the lead flashing into). By the end of the day they seem to have finished the front side, and say they will be back tomorrow for the rear, where they need to do some merging with the existing roof.

Ian came round, just passing, so we discussed this and that (like, could they make a start on the kitchen floor?) and what about those rips in the felting? (Ian has discussion with the roofer over this; he will patch them, but the don't agree as to whether its needed for waterproof-ness or not).