We finally got the roofing snags ironed out (and inspected by the party wall surveyor). See the photos below.

It still looks vaguely like our roof was finished by Stevie Wonder – but at least it shouldn’t leak now for a bit.

The party wall surveyor said he thought our brickwork “interesting” – the “heavy” pointing style went out of fashion 400 years ago – is what he actually said. He didn’t think much to the lead roof either. But neither is too disastrous.

Onwards and upwards.

We now have a carpet man booked in for a couple of weeks time, the kitchen turns up next week, the kitchen floor is being tiled this week and various snags are being knocked off the list.

On the painting front we have finished paint on the top and middle floors and first coats on the lower floor.

And today I booked a move in date for 9th June. Rock on!

Now that the house moves on, thoughts turn to the garden.

Here’s some decking I liked the look of:

And another – overlaid?

We want to have some decking outside the patio doors and then some raised beds where we want to grow vegetables. Finally there will be a chicken coop (for S’s chickens) and the shed at the end of the garden – possibly with a seating area at the bottom of the garden to catch the last rays of the day.

And here’s a very first draft of what the garden might look like:

Ideas for the layout of the loft dressing room:

We got back to find quite a lot of progress in the house. We reckon we’re about 4-5 weeks away from moving in now (exciting) – and ready to set a date for that move too.

Tomasz the painter has made good progress – the loft is entirely painted and so are all the rooms on the 1st floor. Which leaves only the rest of the hall-stairs-landing and the front reception room to go.

Peter has also built a wardrobe for us in the loft back bedroom which turned out great.

Here’s some photos:

Finally the kitchen door gets opened onto the new kitchen:

The back of the house is secured, finally – although we wonder how to actually get out?

Kitchen door, from kitchen:

Fireplace looks brilliant now painted:

And another:

Bannisters – this is the lasting legacy of the dodgy crew – the bannisters which don’t fit… we’re just going to have to live with this one:

Bannisters:

Landing painting – looking pretty nice with a two tone effect. The
lower half is “wipe-clean” paint which should mean it lasts longer
after we move all our junk in:

Cubby hole in the back loft bedroom – painted also:

Loft bedroom finished:

Wardrobes:

Bannister rail “waxed”:

Loft finished:

Bright white:

New bedroom:

Loft door:

We were fortunate enough to have my parents (thanks!) come and house sit this week while we were away and both supervise the builders in their progress as well as help by fixing up some stuff we didn’t have time to do.
I can’t tell you how much of a relief it was being away – but knowing that stuff was getting sorted out and handled! Trying to do admin Stateside with a 6 hour time difference and a full time job is worse than impossible.
But thanks to their kindness, we now have two sheds – a new one in the front garden which will eventually be our bike shed. It needs some securing (to the ground) but didn’t my dad do a good job?

I thought I’d contribute some lessons learned – for anyone thinking of taking on another renovation project (or indeed for our learning if we do this again).
Firstly, I would like to do it again. Maybe in a few years. Despite the stress it has put us under (and it’s difficult to underestimate how stressful it has been in truth) – it has been an enjoyable and satisfying experience in the main.

• Choose your builders with care. Every builder will try to distance themselves from the “cowboys” in the market place. You may have to pay more than you think to get some who are actually good. Don’t accept the first, cheapest quote.
• Even when the quality of the work looks good, you still need to supervise them at every step. Get involved, make sure you understand what they’re doing and why and ask them about it
• Be ahead of the game. Building projects have a habit of lurching along and suddenly reaching crucial decision points you weren’t ready for. Be ready for them in advance. Know where your sockets should go, where the taps and pipes should go, whether there’s enough head height in this spot or what height the windows should go at. The “standard” way helps sometimes but it isn’t necessarily good enough.
• Draw stuff clearly. If there is a sliver of ambiguity in anything you give the builders, you can guarantee they’ll interpret in the other way. If you want something, draw it first (preferably on Sketchup or similar) and give them the picture. It makes it a ton easier.
• Present them with lists. In my experience few builders take notes during conversations in which a lot of information is being transferred. If there’s a list of stuff to do – snags, specification etc etc – give it to them on paper, multiple copies if necessary and get it distrubuted. Keep giving them lists and try to get them to tick items off. It helps everyone know where they stand
• Builders will generally try to get money upfront as much as possible. Your job is to keep them just behind in the payment stakes so that there’s always an incentive to keep going. Remember that “final payment” of £1k to £2k might easily be “not worth their while” and they may have priced the job to ignore that payment anyway. Hold back more than they want to – despite how much they whinge.
• I’d recommend using a building company who subcontracts out the work – like we did with MoreSpace. While it didn’t work perfectly, it did take some of the pressure off us having to make decisions about the money side of things and helped diffuse some tricky situations where they were able to be forceful
• The money bit is what makes it all stressful. If it was just a case of a fixed price project and getting through it, it would be a doddle. What makes projects hard is surprises. Surprises in terms of stuff which didn’t work out as you’d hoped (because it costs to change it) or surprises in terms of stuff which you thought was included but actually was extra. Assume everything you ask for is an extra until proven otherwise and ask at every opportunity. Make sure you understand what is included in advance as much as you can. Don’t give in when the builders pester you for money. Attach payments to measurable targets.
• Watch out for shortcuts. This is difficult if you don’t have a building background. Try to establish what the correct way to do things is and make sure that no shortcuts are taken. What’s the right thickness of insulation? What’s the right finish? How is that normally done?
• There’s give and take in every contract. In a fixed price contract there is some give and take. You don’t want to be really hard on your builder – they have to make a profit. At the same time, don’t accept poor work. They might do a bit extra on one thing. In return you might pay a bit extra for another. Building projects are a series of minor compromises to get you over the line

We’ve very definitely fallen out with the gang of builders who were subcontracted on our job. The McGinnity brothers, trading as “Rohan Developments” are Barry (who I nearly came to blows with after an altercation a few weeks ago and whom we haven’t seen since) and Paul (his slightly more calculating brother who we and especially S had an altercation with last week) and are generally good actual builders but have several nasty tendancies to (a) big themselves up and think they know it all and (b) to “pad” their fixed price contracts with extras which only become chargeable after they’ve been done. They also make threatening demands for payment without following the due process we all agreed at the start.
Actually the worst offence from our perspective is that they fell out with More Space our building company and stopped communicating with them. This has meant that More Space has been out of the loop and unable to project manage effectively (things they say are ignored by the McGinnitys) and worse has meant that we’ve had to act as the go-between. This has mounted huge extra stresses onto the project.
As the project has gone on and the money for some of the disputed extras hasn;t been forthcoming, they’ve taken to cutting some corners on the project – presumably to boost their profits – apparently making the roofer work with offcuts of lead from another job rather than the bigger pieces he should have had and not providing suitable drill bits for their tiler to correctly cut tiles.
We’ve had a number of issues boil to a head (mostly financial) and each time we’ve tried to be as patient as we could, as firm as we could and to work something out and get on with the job. More Space are contractually obliged to complete the work as paid but it’s in their interests to let the McGinnitys finish before kicking them out. Increasingly we want nothing more to do with them and we are hopeful we have reached that point already. We’ll see. They have a few snags and clearing up to do before they can declare themselves finished.
Take this as an anti-recommendation – don’t bother employing Rohan Developments or the McGinnity brothers unless you want a troubling and expensive experience which doesn’t jive with their initially friendly and accommodating manners.

Fortuitously for us, in the course of inspecting the neighbours damaged domelight their surveyor spotted some rather nasty “finishing issues” with our roof… Fortunately they are being rectified this week but came as rather a shock as we thought the roof had been signed off. Slightly nervous about any other issues we might come across that haven’t yet come to light:

Felt not fully covering the brick work, as it apparently should:

This, the worst one, an entire section of leading missing from the side of the dormer:

Broken brick on the party wall:

Gaping gaps in the felt and scaffold left on the roof:

Gaps:

We spent an interesting day in the house wiring it for telephone and the alarm. We thought the phone system was just broken until we realised (a) that builders had used alarm wire for some of the phone sockets and phone wire for some of the alarm points and (b) had wired the telephone sockets wrongly anyway. Once these problems were corrected and a bit of detective work on the old BT colour codes, we had it cracked and now have working telephone sockets in four of the rooms.
Ironically neither S or myself like having a phone at home – we don’t like it ringing, use our mobiles anyway and the only people who do ring seem to be salespeople. Regardless, the telephone lines will allow some flexibility in the positioning of broadband etc.
We also fixed two of the PIR sensors on the wall in the bedrooms – hopefully in suitable places to protect the place.
It’s amazing how much time each of these apparently simple tasks take – but each one is a step towards moving in….

Progress has been slow this week – mainly because it’s the end of the job and there are fewer people on site but also because the screed in the kitchen took 3 days to “go off” – and no one could work in there during this period.

Unfortunately someone did walk on it during that period (the project manager) and thinking it hadn’t set properly, dug his heels in to see how bad it was. Cue builders getting annoyed again… and a hole which needs patching.

Here is the nice flat kitchen floor:

And in the light:

Floor utilities in the right place

Feet and the screed:

Bannisters starting to get painted and sanded:

And the loft bathroom taking shape:

Toilet:

And shower:

Dining room is getting painted/sanded too:

And the oak floor makes a welcome return to view:

Footprints in the screed:

And the kitchen really taking shape now:

Rain water pipes outside – finishing touches:

Guttering:

And an outside light:

Natural Calico on the walls – front bedroom nearly completed:

Soft and clean?

And the bannisters coming on: