Look at the sky!

Look at the sky!
Originally uploaded by Burrow Life.

Because everything has been going so quickly of late we have probably been expecting the impossible of the builders. By the end of last week I think we'd expected the roof to be entirely finshed and the patio built. Well, there's obviously a lot more to this building lark than we think as we're not there just yet.

I suppose I hadn't realised just how much insulation goes in to every gap, crevice and space you can imagine (at this rate I doubt we'll have any of the new radiators on during the winter). The picture above shows our nice new skylights in place surrounded by the insulation. I think there's also a shiny backing to the plasterboard that's going up too. Don't they look lovely? They should be positioned directly above our breakfast bar when it goes in.

The patio is started, and is currently sporting a rather fine (and wide) step to take us down from the rear doors. Pictures to follow when there's more to see.

And triumph upon triumph - we set ourselves the goal of sourcing all the items for the bathroom within what seemed like a tight budget, all in the space of a day. We did it in a morning, and for less than the budget. About time we started saving money on this project!

Rapid progress

Lately it seems as if everything has stepped up a gear. The house changes every time we visit - which can be twice a day sometimes - so it's hard keeping up with it all.

We had a VERY long site meeting on Monday, which had an 11 item agenda to plough through. We needed clarification on a stack of things like extraction venting, TV aeriel sockets, radiator positions, issues over the kitchen, the bathroom door position, the kitchen door position, costs for the kitchen worktop...it just seemed to go on and on!

It turned out that the main windows/doors for the extension haven't been ordered yet, as they needed to await completion of the brickwork. This gave Rachel the chance to try and influence their design a little, as we'd been worried by the wood/glass ratio being too far towards wood.

Our approaching holiday is coming at a critical time as the plasterer is coming in soon, so fittings need to be chosen for the bathroom. This means we have to source everything this weekend!

Mr Builder's estimate for the granite was for the wrong kitchen dimensions and the wrong type of granite, and was a full £1,000 more than our last quote. We're getting another drawn up in case he can't match the price.

We're popping in on the way home tonight as we anticipate the rear patio being put down and the roofing tiles on the extension.

Inside the new extension

Inside the new extension
Originally uploaded by Burrow Life.

An excited phone call from Rachel yesterday morning (she had parked at the house and gone in - as usual!) saw me counting the minutes until I could get there myself and see the latest progress.

The roof is substantially on, save for the tiles etc, but the boarding dviding old house from new has gone so now we can get a real feel for the size of the combined living area/kitchen.

Modelled above by Ms Gover and a long-haired Damian.

The Roof is Going On!

The Roof is Going On!
Originally uploaded by Burrow Life.

Should be all finished by the end of the week, but this is one day's work. S'funny as it stops short of the face of the windows, but I'm sure it will all work itself out

Radiators? But it's sweltering.....

Email through from Mr Architect today advising that Mr Plumber has done some thinking and decided we don't need all the radiators planned for the house, and that we should try and keep any off the newly dampproofed walls. I suppose with all the insulation and double glazing the house will be much better at retaining the heat. We're going along with this idea on the basis that we might save a bit of cash and re-invest in a large, fancy Hudevad radiator in the main living area. Or maybe just have more granite....

It looks as we may be reaching the end of the long-running kitchen saga with us finalising the plans, including reducing the width and including the integrated fridge freezer (on special offer until the end of the month). And with the money we've saved....

Plastic pipes?

If I'm honest, there is an overwhelming temptation to visit the house at any given opportunity. Today was one such day - we drove in on the basis that we needed to visit Curry's after work.

Poking our heads in the door this morning we found no one working. This finally confirmed my view that Friday was a non-working day. What we found had changed since Monday was that Mr Plumber had started. But far from seeing gleaming copper pipes all around there was a great deal of plastic piping.

I guess it all makes sense: plastic pipes are cheaper, they go around corners easily and they probably retain heat better. I just hadn't expected them. Oddly there were copper pipes attached to them, which didn't look natural. But I'm no plumber, and as long as the dishwasher works what do I care?

Of course, having walked back to the house after work we had to look in again, only to find that actually work HAD gone on during the day, and a great deal more copper piping was evident. We also overheard an entertaining exchange between our neighbour and a friend about the structural integrity of the extension construction. I never knew he had a qualification in mechanical engineering - I thought he just built walls!

Speaking of walls, we peeked out of the upstairs window to see that the girders had gone in along the top of the walls. This means the walls are complete and the roof will, indeed, go on next week. Exciting!

The devil makes work for idle hands...

The devil makes work for idle hands...
Originally uploaded by Burrow Life.

While it's great to have someone else do all the sweat and toil in refurbishing your house it does have its disadvantages. When you're working on something yourself you get that sense of achievement and involvement that comes from an honest days work. Having to watch (from a distance) others dong it for you does make you feel disempowered to some degree.

I have been filling this gap by mucking around with Mr Architect's plans using a wonderful bit of free software called Google Sketchup. Those nice folk at Google feel the world would be a better place if everyone could be creative and not worry about the expense. Precisely how this makes the architects of the world feel is another matter.

Anyway, I have been modelling the kitchen based on what we're buying from Wickes rather than Mr Architect's initial draft. The software lets you do 3D projections and walk around them. What we found is that while the kitchen looks great it is on the generous side and so we're going to reduce the width to give us more living room space.

Would have played with the bathroom too but my brain hurts too much

Nice bricks

So much to report this time. As you can see the outside brick layer is progressing well. They would have been further along but some toe-rag nicked 300 bricks the other night!



We has been full of worries and woe leading up to tonight's site visit. Yes the windows had gone in, but we couldn't help thinking they should have looked more like traditional sash windows with their 4 panes per window. We'd squared up to confront Messrs Architect and Builder about it, and both conceeded they weren't as they should be. But all sides agreed that any solution wouldn't look the same or would be too costly to put right.

However, from the inside the new downstairs windows make quite a difference.



The suspended flooring is all finished now. Mr Builder is going to concrete around the two fireplaces and level off with the flooring. Now that the floor is done the interior walls are starting to be formed.



This was really useful as we got to see the sizes of both the bathroom and kitchen. Thankfully we've now seen with our own eyes that the kitchen will fit in! We've also managed to negotiate a wine rack in the stud wall.

The bathroom is shaping up well. A few changes to the plans; the washing machine will be accessed opposite the bath, and the toilet isn't going to be a corner unit. Rachel was quick to employ her idea to locate Treacle's catty toilet in the gap next to the washing machine, with a cat flap to let her in and out! The old dining room fireplace (which is located at the foot of out bath) will be used for recessed shelving to accommodate toiletries, and we're putting another recessed unit under the stairs to put towels in.

Despite the flooring being replaced everything is still on track, with the roof going on the new extension next week

"Why don't we move the kitchen upstairs?"

The title of this post is written in jest but serves to illustrate the current uncertainty around the kitchen.

Yes, the one element of the house that is ours to design, source and order has taken 2 months so far, but just when it looks like we've finally sorted it some random element gets introduced. The running order of uncertainties looks like this;

• kitchen units (well, you have to start somewhere)
• wooden worksurface
• sink and dishwasher position
• granite worksurface
• undermounted sink
• integrated fridge/freezer
• granite worksurface
• wall units
• kitchen units (after a visit to Buildbase)
• granite worksurface
• kitchen units (after lunch with Gwen and Giles)
• granite worksurface
• granite worksurface
• granite worksurface

Can't wait until we start on the bathroom!

Rachel's lovely new window

Here it is, in all its splendour. Hopefully it will be joined by a few more soon!

A quick nosey round on Sunday with our neighbour Jane showed that the floor was pretty much down too.


Still some uncertainty around the kitchen but we're leaving it until we have the next site meeting. I did give Wickes a call and ask them to draw up an illustration using a different wall unit to give a bit more headroom near the sink, which should be following in the post.

Now to order a 300mm cavity wall catflap!

Kitchen Layout (probably)

Kitchen Layout (probably)
Originally uploaded by Burrow Life.

After some "issues" with the plans, which meant we've had to shave off 100mm from the width of the kitchen, we've gone back to Wickes and had them amend the order. Here's what its looking like.

We're probably not having the double sink shown, as it's too far into the corner. Also the worktop on the right will be nicely shaped into a curve rather than the ugly square shape shown