Progress report week 17

Monday the builders spent the day knocking holes in our house and adding windows at the front and back. They also started on the new living room.
Tuesday they made more holes in the house, taking out the whole of the corner of the house downstairs! (It's a good job they had put lots of steel in here and here beforehand.)
Wednesday the electrician put in lots of wires, Chris did lots of plumbing, more stud walls appeared and generally everything in the living room floor has been made ready for the flooring.
Thursday the first coat of render went on the outside and the walls went up in the loft room.
Friday The builders have insulated under the floor downstairs with chicken wire and fluff so at least we know that the new rooms are chicken proof. The floor has gone down today and the loft has had its ceiling plastered and some of the remaining walls. There is just the wardrobe and the tiny prayer room to plaster. Outside the renderer has done the front and the back upstairs so hopefully the roof at the back will be tiled next week.

There are too many photos to put on this post but for more photos see the hall , the new living room, the loft, the utility room , the new front bedroom , the study, the breakfast room

Progress report week 16

During this week the builders have been working hard in the loft, the door frame, last of the insulation and the walls have all gone up. We are now waiting for the stairs which may well be late next week. They have also started plastering up there.
Chris has also done some rearranging and plumbing in the bathroom.

For more photos see loft here, outside hereand bathroom here

Down comes the old kitchen ceiling.

The ceiling had to come down so I can sort out more plumbing. I was only going to take down a bit of the ceiling but then half of it came down when I wasn't expecting it. I made more mess than I had planned.
 
 

Major Plumbing day

The time had come.... I had to tackle the central heating. Sarah has taken the girls to London for the weekend so I can lift lots of floor boards.
I needed to put the pipes in for the radiator that will be in the Utility room and Beth's bedroom. The old copper pipes were so tightly plumbed in I decided to re route the main 22mm pipes that take the central heating upstairs.
They go up the wall in the downstairs toilet and come up under the floor in Rebekah's room.
 
First I had to put in the new 22mm plastic pipes. They are so stiff its like wrestling an Anaconda.
 
 
 
Here are the tails for Beth's room radiator.
 
And the ones for the utility room.
 
 
 
So its all in. Time to presurise the system.... and HURRAY!!!! no leaks!

I still have to do this all again ... at least once if not twice to do the rest of the system.

Progress report week 15

Week 15 and we are watertight in our main roof again. YEAH

Ridge tiles on the roof, tiles on the dormer and the bathroom marked out inside, it's all starting to take shape now.

When the builders turned up on Tuesday morning with LOADS of dust sheets I was rather concerned. I decided they were obviously going to knock holes in the ceiling. I was right!!!! They've also removed the cupboard at the top of the stairs (and put something there to stop the children falling down the stairs in the night!). Lots of noise and dust followed but the builders have done a great job of clearing up after themselves.
The ceiling now has plasterboard over most of it.
Next week, internal walls.

For more photos from this week see here and here

Progress report week 14

Wow 14 weeks have passed since the garage vanished. photos and video and we have an appearance of an extension which is possibly showing signs of coming to an end!! (Not for another few weeks though yet - probably another 15!!!!)
They have got tiles on the roof and will do the dormer ones next week. The electrician has been in the loft and has put all the wires in the right place for the lights and switches. The floor has gone in the loft now, all the windows have arrived (but not gone in yet), the Velux windows in the loft are fitted and also the ensuite and the bedroom main window.

When the building inspector came on Thursday we discovered that we needed more fire insulation in the loft and so we have taken the decision to add another layer of plaster board to the upstairs ceilings!!! More work but it will leave us with good ceilings rather than what we have at the moment. It'll be ok I'm sure.
For more photos from this week (there are quite a few) see here

Progress report week 13

The loft is looking really good now. Its getting close to the shape of a real loft conversion. We've also had a little done in our bedroom and the bathroom

Progress report week 12

The extension is going again. It's been a really busy week this week. The builders have been up in the loft all week. They've done some of the joists in the loft and put some of the outside roofing joists up. Chris has removed a giant wasps nest from the roof space and the bathroom now has a window again.
The minor downside to this week is that I got home from work on Monday to be greeted with a meal and the words "they need to do something in our bedroom"! I had been holding on to the fact that the only room which wasn't going to be touched by the builders was our bedroom. Chris says my face dropped considerably. Oh well it's only something minor and just means I'll have to sort out some of the stuff which has made its way into our bedroom from elsewhere. When I came up to bed on Monday Chris had pulled the lightswitch off the ceiling so that just added to the work in our room. (It has been secured again now so all happy)
There are other photos and comments if you click here
Overnight it has been raining which isn't great when there are no tiles on the roof. The builders have done a good job of patching most of the holes but a little has got through and we even had a few spots of rain in our bedroom this morning!! Looking at the weather forcast for the next few days I hope he's found all the leaks.

Progress report week 11

Well another bank holiday week means only 4 days available by Thursday the building regs drawings were ready so work could start up again. Firstly more scaffolding. The scaffolding is now up to the level of the roof. The builders spent Friday removing all the tiles from the roof. Chris had a great time up there with them! Then they cut a hole in the roof to get in and out. A steel went in to support the dormer. By the time I came back from a bit of shopping I found out we had hit a major problem. The structural engineer had assumed that one of our walls was a supporting wall when it isn't. This meant the engineer had to spend the weekend redrawing the drawings for us and making everything run at 90 degrees to the original plan!! It looks like we could easily have a 2 week delay due to changes in the steels, and other things. - Complete nightmare!