Here’s a few photos, it’s been a slow week on the progress front.
I’m assured the builders will be back on site this week.
It definitely got worse before it stands any chance of getting better.

Cabling and a new electrical fusebox:

Readying the sockets.

Looking better… the rear bedroom, closest to completion.

Spot the evil mannequin:

Bathroom ceiling…

The bathroom design is getting closer.

Here’s a parts list for ordering this week:

• Steel bath, 1800 x 800mm, from Bathstore Saniform? £279
• Square sink and cabinet, dark oak (Oakland from Miller brochure) £900 589HPD-1/OW1
• Illuminated mirror, above sink, dark oak
  559-1 £250
• Storage unit, dark oak 597PD-1 £625
• Drencher showerhead
• Shower screen
• Shaver socket
• Towel rail
• Toilet
• Large mirror

Work has ground to a halt this week as our builders have been dragged off on another job – for no longer than “a few days”. We believe this is par for the course and things were going so well.
So the house is sitting empty and unloved, with a lot of exposed bricks, a few inserted wall sockets, a new switchboard and a half-boarded ceiling in the two bedrooms on the first floor.
We’re being philosophical (for now) and have stalled on our payments to them too. Tit for tat, etc.
In the meantime we’re getting down to the surprisingly difficult tasks of designing the kitchen and bathrooms. Getting there slowly, still a long way to go.
Oh and working to get the neighbours to sign their party wall agreements without too much fuss.
Kitchen draft:

Bathroom (ignore the design, look at the layout)

The bog, still standing. It’s the only thing still standing.

The story behind the really pretty scary ginger mannequin with the red-painted nipples and, frankly, a dodgy looking piece of carpet for a fanny is that the builders found this in our attic. This is pretty worrying. Especially since I told S early on we’d find a “body” in the house. Who the hell made this shocking, primitive “sex toy” I have no idea but I’ll be glad when it’s been removed. Was this made by the elderly gentleman who owned the property and lived, wifeless for the last few years of his life? Or was it hidden there by his teenage son, made in the 70s? What could possibly explain this surreal “apparition”? And what’s with the pyjamas she’s only barely wearing?
What must the builders think?

More photos of the current state to come soon!

You’ll remember the kitchen range which we found hidden behind a load of old cupboards in the kitchen of the old house? A nice man from Wales came to remove it and we sold it to him on eBay
Well I’m pleased to say that it’s now been restored, lovingly, having had all of it’s rivets and screws replaced and retapped and re-painted (currently in primer). What he’s going to do with it I’m not sure but I think he just likes restoring these (now quite pretty) things.

It’s two weeks into the action now and (sorry for the lack of updates) the house looks quite a bit different.
The main problem so far has been the builders have been far too keen – working 7 days a week in their “demolition” of the property and annoying the neighbours with the noise. Since we need these neighbours to sign our important 3rd party wall agreement, this is not the start we were looking for – and now have to come back from holiday and sweeten them up with presents from Sicily.
The progress is quite impressive. Every room is back to either plaster or brick (depending on whether the plaster was good or not) and the floor is slashed with holes where the rewiring is going on in Earnest. We have a new electrical switchboard and a lot of new sockets already in.
Upstairs, the rear chimney breast and some of the roof around the chimney is totally removed (making the back rooms feel bigger) and the most progress is in the old bathroom which has a new wall some 3 feet better off as per our new design.
It’s dirty, dusty like a building site really and outside there are piles of rubble and clutter to be eventually removed.
We went for a sneaky peak yesterday morning (for me between coming back from holiday and flying out to the US) and looked round while the builders weren’t there. It is strange to see our “new” house forming from the ashes of the old.
One quite surreal room where the builders are having their tea breaks contains a wierd female mannequin with ginger hair and red nipples… we’re not entirely sure whether they found her in the attic (which would be possibly more odd) or in a skip somewhere but the mystery of the “strange woman” is still to be solved…

So bang on time, 5 chaps turned up on Monday morning at 8am and proceeded to knock seven bells out of the old shack.
Only two of them are actually working there this week but they’ve already made some good progress – stripping out all the old junk and piling it in the garden until a truck arrives at the weekend to get rid of it all.
Photos to follow…