Day 263-267: Nowt except shuffling stuff

Nothing really this week, apart from a teensy bit of Pete moving stuff around. But inside, we've been (well, *I*'ve been) moving stuff out of the kids bedroom into the new side, so that the builders can run amok there next week. You would not believe just how many books we have... and how many boxes that requires. Whew! And its not finished yet.

Day 259-262. Plastering by Pete, and a bit o' Tim

Not doing so well at updating this... oh dear. Anyway, tues-fri mostly saw Pete doing plastering, calmly and methodically. So the new side is now all done, as is the kitchen (except one strip where the temporary pipes still run).

Other stuff: Tim finished off the side floor on tuesday. On friday he stuck up 5 of our new Ikea cabinets, so we can decide if we like the 3 over the lintel. Probably, though maybe they should be a bit higher?

Now we need Crescent back to fit the stair rail on (some backstory between them and Bob which I'm not fully party to) and we can start emptying upstairs, to allow the "big push" for the first week in April.

Day 258: Carl, Tim, Pete (x2) and a Mate

The boiler doesn't turn on this morning either. Fortunately Pete tPP does turn up, and we receive from him the Wisdom of how to make it work: turn it off; turn on the black tap at half-height on its right until the pressure on the analogue gauge shows anywhere within the "ok" region; turn off tap; turn on boiler. And... nothing. Because its outside its on cycle. Override this and all is well.

However... all this (preceeded by shifting stuff around the room and out at the back), including Carl doing some hammering, is occuring around 8, which is far earlier than it should be on a Monday, as per our agreement with the neighbours and (we thought) with Bob. So get Carl doing something quiet inside (this is all news to him) asap. And make them some tea :-)

As it happens D is feeling sick today too (a good day for it) so M and then I alternate at home; so when I get back at 1:45 I can see what they are up to: Pete tPP has gone, as has Carl. Pete the bricklayer is now showing his secret skills as a plasterer upstairs, assisted by Paul. Downstairs, the insulation is down and the pipes are in and its mostly covered up by floorboards.

Apologies to the Mate, I don't know his name.

Hors Serie: the boiler

This morning the boiler wasn't working. Odd. And it was a cold cold day, so also worrying. I go to visit it in the loft: error 22 it says: dry fire/low water pressure. Try turning it off and on: no joy. After a bit, realise that there is a pressure gauge, electronic and manual. Electronic says 0.4 bar; manual reads about zero; hard to tell. Try a few obvious things like the new stopcock; open it a bit more, but judging by the tap pressure it did no good. Of itself, pressure now reads 0.5 bar; off-on it and... it starts. And... keeps going. So maybe just a temporary drop in pressure? Not the sort of thing you want to have happening, though: needs investigation by Pete tPP.

Also some polystyrene sheets turn up. I put them inside, as they were blowing over.

Update: sunday: not working again. And doesn't recover :-(

Day 235-7. Carl

Nothing weds or thurs (thurs should have seen insulation and floor laying, but twas late). Friday no obvious signs by 9, so I get impatient and phone Bob, who assures me Carl is due (or in fact here, as I was phoning from work). And coming back it does look like some stuff has been done. But not the kitchen top light? And we do have a pile of insulation outside. Hopefully enough.

Day 233: Tim and Bob

Tim at work today putting the spiral stairs into alignment, finishing off the landing at the top (a grand word for a little space!) and building a studwork wall to separate off D's bedroom from the stairwell. It is now possible to walk from the childrens old bedroom to the top of the stairs, and thence either downstairs or into D's prospective bedroom. OR at least it was, until Tim put the sheet of insulation back, since the side is not yet tidied up inside and isn't yet part of the "inside" of the house.

2:30, Bob (back from the warmer waters of the caribbean) and Ian come round for a review of progress. I whinge about the vast amounts of sand that we have, and Bob admits there may be a bit more than is plausible, though we do need some to finish off the plastering. Discuss timetabling: Bob phones Carl who will come friday to finish off the wiring so the plasterers can finish the brick side of the wall, and indeed the last wall of the kitchen. Insulation (of the correct thickness...) is to be ordered so the floor can go down in the side. This is supposed to occur on wed/thurs (err...).

Day 232: Tim

Tim has been around today. In the kitchen, he has put the right doors on so we did guess right. Also he has cut down the cooker stack so it fits: that loses it about 2-3 inches, which will have to get cut off the upper door, maybe.

He has also put plywood protectors on the new staircase, so it doesn't get rubbled by the heavy feet of builders. However it isn't fitted quite into place yet. We do have some bits of wood out front, they may have turned up after he left. Also there is a small (?test?) hole in the wall near the dining table, connecting to the hole cut in the outer skin.

Hors Serie: fighting the kitchen

One of our weekend tasks was to work out which bits of the kitchen we have, and which we don't. As it eventually turned out, Ikea had correctly helped us order, and had correctly delivered, all the bits we need. But working out which drawer goes on which cupboard was tricky (the hard bit was realising that a 40 cm door that Tim had put on a cupboard, for symmetry, was really supposed to be half of the 80 cm unit for the sink).

M has had yet another idea, and we're going with it in slightly modified form: the worktop will now be an L all the way to the far wall, and the washer and dryer will be *under* this, both. That allows us some upper cupboards above, and also (since the washer has a smaller door) a lesser gap which allows more room for the fridge. With this version we can draw on the floor a 1m diameter circle that could be a kitchen table.

Saturday, two excursions: to Ivett and Reed who do nice shiny bits of granite that M has really set her heart on for the worktops. And they *are* nice. We like the "volga blue": dark black, with blue highlights/irridescence.

After that, to MFI. Cos: we have the wrong extractor unit. It just won't fit. This is where it gets confusing, cos in the shop MFI are fine and say: yes, we've sold you the wrong thing. But today on the phone the salesman is less accomodating. But we are going to change it, somehow.

[I forgot: the cool thing at Ivett and Reed was the gas fire with a remote control! Whatever next. Some more details]

Day 227-231. Stairs!

Nothing except talk monday-thurs (can we get the drains bit filled in? No, cos the old soil stack still has to come out some time; why have we got 5 tons of sand in the front? cos of the plastering).

But friday! Ah... Mr Cresent of Cambridge is at last ready to install his stairs (thats a bit unfair: it would have been last tues except he got sick), turns up and begins. Meanwhile Tim is here doing more kitchen-y things. Pete tPP comes to move the temporary waste pipes out of the way so the cooker stack can shuffle across.

When I get back, several kitchen units are fixed in place nicely and have their fronts on and drawers in and indeed look nice. Hurrah.

More excitingly, the stairs are in! Mr C is gone; Tim explains that the stairs need to rotate a bit; also the handrail needs to fix onto the studwork wall he will build on monday, so isn't in yet. Tim will put a cover over the beautiful surface of the treads so they don't get ruined by heavy builders feet and children with mud on their boots.

Photos: flickr set is building 2006-03.

Day 225-6. Tim vs Ikea

Nothing thurs; friday 11-3 Tim the carpenter comes in and wrestles with the Ikea units. Unsurprisingly for a proper carpenter he isn't keen on them, but he beats them into submission. This is good, because it clears the kids room of the flatpacks that have been clogging it up for months, and it gives us a chance to see how things will fit. We're not very good at doing it in abstract.

So... the cooker stack is too high by about 2". Possibilities: cut the legs down (bad for the line at the bottom); let it stick up over the window line at the top (inelegant); get Tim to cut it down somewhat. Probably go for the latter; this may cause some squiggling with doors. Should we order a cooker?

Also, the cooker stack, if put flush with the units to the corner, will be just on the edge of one of the vertical slit windows, and this will be inelegant. So we need to pad out the units by a fraction to push it towards the existing kitchen. And we need Pete tPP to re-do the temporary pipes a bit so the stack will fit.

We haven't got any worktop yet.

The units sit flush to the wall, so its not clear how the pipes for water will get around... need Pete for that. Possibly underneath, but Tim seems unkeen on this - don't know why.

Oddly enough, we seem to have all the nunits we wanted and needed, and nothing appears to be missing (except we don't have enough legs). To Ikea this weekend? (no).

Day 224: ...and a floor

Today the floor of the kitchen got finished (or rather the chipboard layer is done; the proper floorboards will go down later). So now we can stand in it. One effect of this is that you get cold feet. Previously you didn't get cold feet cos it was concrete blocks and you wore shoes; now you have bare feet :-).

Email from BtB (actually Gavin, as Bob is off in the Caribbean; obviously we're paying him too much...): the stairs will not be this week, as the stair-folk are sick.