Today is not one I ever want to repeat: attempting to empty the caravan toilet with the discovery of blocked drains, rubble, backlogged poo & rogue baby wipes. Grrrrr! Hooray for Electrician Bob and his rods, and Alan's cautious advice! (And them turning a blind eye to my shocking bad language.) Pat chose the perfect time to pop out shopping for parts! Thankfully all clear now.
(No photos, you'll be glad to hear.)
Tuesday, 24 February 2015
Monday, 23 February 2015
More February picture updates
Here's another selection of our current status...
The view from our internal bedroom window, and ensuite bathroom.
Dining area.
The view from our internal bedroom window, and ensuite bathroom.
Dining area.
Study.
My expertly sanded back door.
End of month seven
As we approach the end of the project's seventh month we're amazed with the progress made, after a lot of hard work by a great team of skilled people. With the extension tower dismantled the room is now completely boarded ready to finish off the plastering, and Bob has finished installing the wiring in this section. Adrian was proud last week to have all his pipe work approved and signed off by the plumber! So Pat and Alan have now made a start on the downstairs ceilings, burying away all the pipes and wires.
Adrian allowed himself one day off from weekend DIY to spend with the girls at the end of their half-term holiday. We enjoyed a daytrip to Portsmouth, with Auntie Jen (another guest who's brave enough to stay for a few days), after stopping off at John Lewis at Home and BHS at Home in Chichester for a quick browse at lighting on the way!
The view up to our bedroom from the extension.
The Grand Designer off to work.
The upstairs landing now plastered.
The entrance hall - with its temporary scaffolding tower reinstated - now has the vaulted top half plastered, and we've realised we need to hurry up and choose a very long-drop chandelier to affix while the scaffolding is still there!
Now to work on the original part of the old house ...
The downstairs hallway.
One of this weekend's tasks was buying bricks for the cooker fireplace surround, ready for the bricklayer who is booked for this week. Hannah, Emma and I all helped Adrian unload 300 bricks from the trailer showing great Greaney team spirit - a tough workout!
The kitchen looking out to the extension.
Adrian allowed himself one day off from weekend DIY to spend with the girls at the end of their half-term holiday. We enjoyed a daytrip to Portsmouth, with Auntie Jen (another guest who's brave enough to stay for a few days), after stopping off at John Lewis at Home and BHS at Home in Chichester for a quick browse at lighting on the way!
Sunday, 15 February 2015
First room painted
Emma is the lucky girl whose bedroom is the very first room to be painted! She's chosen two great colours for opposite walls, after a base coat all over of Bridleways White. (A deep fuschia pink and Summer Season green - £9 a tin in the B&Q half price sale!)
Thank you Grandpa for helping, and with Hannah's room too, still to finish.
You might, from these pictures, imagine that we are about to move in, but unfortunately there is a LONG way still to go! Now that the upstairs is well on the way, our attention has to turn to downstairs which is still largely rubble!
In addition to painting, Adrian has continued with his plumbing checks this weekend, to ensure the system is all sound before the downstairs ceilings are installed and cover up all the pipework. Bob the electrician will be busy next week making sure all the wiring is in place, too.
Here is our newly installed hot water tank in the downstairs bathroom
And the latest temporary toilet door arrangement (which involves sliding the block of insulation material across, just about almost filling the doorway, but not quite)!
And finally a cute picture of Pickle enjoying some peace and quiet in the caravan (excuse Hannah's unmade bed!).
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Thank you Grandpa for helping, and with Hannah's room too, still to finish.
You might, from these pictures, imagine that we are about to move in, but unfortunately there is a LONG way still to go! Now that the upstairs is well on the way, our attention has to turn to downstairs which is still largely rubble!
In addition to painting, Adrian has continued with his plumbing checks this weekend, to ensure the system is all sound before the downstairs ceilings are installed and cover up all the pipework. Bob the electrician will be busy next week making sure all the wiring is in place, too.
Here is our newly installed hot water tank in the downstairs bathroom
And the latest temporary toilet door arrangement (which involves sliding the block of insulation material across, just about almost filling the doorway, but not quite)!
And finally a cute picture of Pickle enjoying some peace and quiet in the caravan (excuse Hannah's unmade bed!).
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Scaffolding Down - Glazing In
What a big week this has been in the process: finally seeing the whole house without its external scaffolding, which changes the whole perspective. Lovely to have full daylight in all the rooms. Quite a transformation. We are now officially weather tight, with lockable doors for the first time in six months - hooray! The plasterers were not able to get on with the outside rendering this week (although the walls are mostly prepped with a special glue), but that is hopefully on the cards soon to complete the outside appearance.
The impressive extension glazing is also now complete (picture below taken too soon!), although unfortunately one pane of glass fractured over the weekend and will need replacing. The window company is thankfully sending a replacement window after we had reported, during installation, that it was such a tight fit and they'd told us not to worry.
The internal scaffolding from the extension has gone, giving us a clear view through from our bedroom, and a sense of the huge space revealed - hopefully with a great acoustic for future music-making. The tower has been rebuilt in the hallway where Alan has boarded out the huge vaulted ceiling there, ready for plastering. A massive undertaking. (Having visions of great open spaces is all very well until you think of the practicalities of building them!)
We have Adrian's mum and dad staying for the weekend which is great to have extra pairs of hands to help. Decorating pictures to follow ...
The internal scaffolding from the extension has gone, giving us a clear view through from our bedroom, and a sense of the huge space revealed - hopefully with a great acoustic for future music-making. The tower has been rebuilt in the hallway where Alan has boarded out the huge vaulted ceiling there, ready for plastering. A massive undertaking. (Having visions of great open spaces is all very well until you think of the practicalities of building them!)
We have Adrian's mum and dad staying for the weekend which is great to have extra pairs of hands to help. Decorating pictures to follow ...
Friday, 6 February 2015
Snowy progress
A productive week, in spite of sprinkles of snow and freezing temperatures. The extension oak frame is finally in, and half the windows (after Pat and Alan had to do a lot of tweaking!). We're really pleased with how it's looking. And the scaffolding is gradually coming down to reveal the house beneath.
Adrian stayed up until 2.00am the other night, after work, in the freezing cold, in order to finish cladding the steel beam on the extension ceiling (see below - yes, with floorboards!), before Alan completed the whole second coat of ceiling paint, so that the internal extension tower can come down. (I texted Radio 5 Live after midnight when the presenter asked whether anyone listening was doing any late-night DIY projects. Adrian couldn't believe it - listening to the radio from high up in the house - when he heard a message from "Jacqui from Findon, in her cosy caravan, while her husband is working on their housebuild". The next day on the school run a dad told me his elderly parents had heard the mention!)
This week was the first time I've had to empty the caravan toilet during snowfall! (The drain we use is just visible on the right side of the above picture - the black cylinder on the edge of the driveway, right in the view of all passers-by.... slightly embarrassing, with my wheelbarrow and bucket in tow!)
Adrian stayed up until 2.00am the other night, after work, in the freezing cold, in order to finish cladding the steel beam on the extension ceiling (see below - yes, with floorboards!), before Alan completed the whole second coat of ceiling paint, so that the internal extension tower can come down. (I texted Radio 5 Live after midnight when the presenter asked whether anyone listening was doing any late-night DIY projects. Adrian couldn't believe it - listening to the radio from high up in the house - when he heard a message from "Jacqui from Findon, in her cosy caravan, while her husband is working on their housebuild". The next day on the school run a dad told me his elderly parents had heard the mention!)
Part of our routine, every morning, we have to move our cars off the driveway by 7.45am to make way for the builders' vans, so that we don't get blocked in. (Stable Lane is very narrow at our point so we try and keep vehicles off the road as much as possible.) Adrian caught me in my pyjamas and snowboots de-icing a car at 7.30am one day this week, before getting on with the usual school day preparations (note more gradually dismantled scaffolding) ...
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