We’ve seen some good progress this week on tiling in the utility room and 1st floor bathroom - those are getting close now.

Also we seem finally to have sorted out the mess at the back and now most of the walls have come out - leaving only a pillar which will be removed when finally the steels are on site.

We’re probably delayed 1 week as a result of all the cockups - and now hopefully back on track.

Kitchen design continues to play on the mind - we’ll get it right.

Black tiles in the utility room:

Slightly dodgy splashback in the downstairs WC:

New floor tiles in the bathroom - lovely:

1st floor bathroom , getting there:

Sink:

Shower now works well:

View from the study - unconventional:

With the benefit of accurate measurements of our new rear kitchen room (even prior to it being finished) and due to the surprising thickness of the new wall, we’ve discovered our original beautiful plan was never going to work…

Initially disappointed, we have reworked the design and are getting close to something which is (a) possible and (b) quite practical.

Basically the room is less long than we thought it would be, which makes it proportionally “wider”.
Also we don’t think we can have any full sized cupboards in the “corridor” - so those will just be 400mm deep full height cupboards. Still hopefully useful for storing all the stuff which normally clogs up kitchen cupboards - including the hoover and ironing boards etc.

The key problem with this kitchen room is that it has no corners. Because of the two “entrance doors” and the rear glass doors, all the key work-surface space which you’d normally have in a kitchen of this size is unavailable.

So we’ve had to be a bit creative. We think this layout will feel “spacious” but still retains the minimum requisite of worktop (which is in short supply) by using a wide island.

An island and a fridge:

And the view from the decking:

Any thoughts?

There are some changes now required to the current site as a result of all the shennanigans this week but those’ll happen next week. Here’s the current state of play:

Back of the house and something close to resembling a new doorway, note the “pin” holding things up (more of those to come):

New wall - we’re quite pleased with the way it’ll blend in to the old:

Entire back of house

New wall:

Will it match the neighbour’s?

Side return, need to measure it:

Padstone we shouldn’t have had - needs to come out:

Drain and manhole which needs to move:

Rear corner:

Damp proof course:

From inside the house of horrors:

Upstairs bathroom, space for a toilet, nearly done:

Loft nearly complete:

This is what the builders wanted to do to our kitchen. They had taken it into their heads to install two enormous steel beams at 2.3m across the back and middle of the kitchen, leaving the beautiful natural head height of 3m wasted amongst clumsy boxing. We’ve had a right day on to change it to this:

We had to raise hell with the building company to highlight various flaws in their processes - that their site supervisor hasn’t spotted the clanger in advance and that we had to bring it to his attention, that the builders had made up their minds to make the wrong decision without discussing it with us and that in general not enough thought has been going in on their part. It’s amazing how much of an action you can get when you (a) draw someone’s attention to a major problem and more importantly (b) tell them you’re not paying them their profit (the last cheque) until they fix it. We’ve still got a big job on our hands to redesign the kitchen given that various blocks are sticking out of the walls in the kitchen for various structural reasons and may prevent us building what we had intended. Exhausted but pleased that at least we’ve solved the major problem. One more week and we should have a secure kitchen with roof structure and velux windows on and two of the “holey” walls moved to their new locations.

On account of having to travel to the US for a week, The building project is in the more-than capable hands of an increasingly stressed-out S.  What I really miss is being able to keep in touch with progress and watch every stage of the process with fascination. The project is going extremely well (as far as is possible to ascertain from the physical product and with an untrained eye) but it’s pushing both of us to the edge in terms of the toll it takes on our spare time and the stressing over the details, decisions and orders which have to be made in almost constant sequence. The other thing is that although the builders are generally willing to do as we ask, they’re forgetful and they don’t take notes. Time and again we emphasise something - this door needs to open like this, please install the spotlights we’ve purchased, please use this type of door handle - only to find that a few days later the opposite (or worse) is being implemented and S (who is normally the one on site during the working day) has to correct the decision.

Progress has still been great.

Work began on the rear kitchen extension. There is still quite a lot of “completion detail” (snags) to be finished in the house which we have to get on to quickly. But nevertheless, we continue to get closer to a move in date.

The back of the house came off:

And the toilet-outhouse came down too:

Agro props:

All the foundation dirt had to be taken out by hand through the house:

Side-return ready for a new boundary wall:

The back of the house, with new “matching” loft conversion:

Building a wall:

Breeze blocks go up:

They had to move a sewer out of the way:

Damp proof course:

Rear yard not looking so tidy:

Hole in the wall?

Big hole in the wall:

Very neat “Flemish” brickwork - the new rear wall:

Pad-stones ready to receive the steel beams:

Into next-door’s garden:

Garden:

Big pile of bricks (fortunately they get to use lots of the old ones):

New sewer hole:

Insulation keeping the wall warm:

Juliette balcony still to go in - matching the neighbours. Although we noticed out glass doors were not so good:

Detail on the Juliette:

Kitchen door way:

And from above:

It’s been a while since the last update (stag dos, busy working schedules and hectic activities have conspired against us). Having said that the builders have been thankfully busy as well - and aside from a bill for some extras to swallow, things are going pretty well.

Our new bathroom design has worked out really well and the loft rooms are all pretty much there now - including plastering, doors, windows and the all-important roof.

You can see from the photos below that the roofers have done a very neat job - especially with all the lead-work around the windows and with the tiles on the “rear box”.

All that is left now is to fit the electrical sockets and lights and connect up the plumbing. Then the bathroom fitting etc.

We ordered all the tiles today (for both bathrooms and the utility room) and they should be on site Monday.

So everything is gunning for finishing the loft extension in the next week or so.

Meanwhile, we commenced the rear-extension project too and work on that (digging foundations) begins on Monday in parallel. Finally we sorted out a quote for the carpet today and are getting quotes for decoration.

Increasingly we need to get to grips with moving in in April or so - a very exciting prospect.

Here’s some photos of the progress:

Prior to plasterboarding:

Slates going on the rear roof:

And felt ready to go on top:

Plastering around the veluxes:

And the plasterboarded whole:

Detail on the rear “box”, note the leading around the window:

And the front roof, ready for tiling:

Door frames go in: (this one on the new ensuite bathroom):

And a pipe for air-conditioning in the future:

Re-boarding where they had to cut out for the steel beam to go in: (now all plastered too):

Plastering under the stairs:

Scaffolders, taking the roof off in noisy style:

Dropping the corrugated sheets. Neighbours not impressed:

Spot the “friend”, still with us:(keeps turning up, no matter how many times we bag her up):

Kickboards on the utility rooms:

Window in the bathroom:

Completed “rear box”:

Rear roof:

Just needs a wash:

Detailing on the felt and soffit:

More detail:

Rear roof:

Pointing?

Cement:

And corner tiles:

Englishman, castle etc

Chimney in need of attention:

Domelight:

Roof, flat:

Our neighbours have “vents”…. why? Should we?

Front roof:

Chimney:

Vent from the loo:

Two domelights:

Juliette doors:

Internal plasterwork drying out:

Doors and frames are in:

(glad we didn’t put a shower in there!)

Velux finished:

Door frame:

Domelight, looking up:

Builders’ tea-room