First delay...it's inevitable

It was always going to happen, but you always hope it won't! We experienced our first real delay of the project last week. 

Amazingly, (and rather annoyingly) our structural engineer missed a couple of steels off his drawings which was only spotted a couple of weeks back by the builders. They quickly ordered some steels but because they're bespoke they take a while to manufacture. 

As a result our poor brickies were hanging around waiting for the steels to appear in order for them to continue building above the window line. 

So, word to the wise, don't implicitly trust a structural engineer to spot everything! Oh, and remember to triple check their drawings with a practical/common sense filter, and with your builder early on in the process! 

Hopefully we haven't lost too much time (a day or two maybe) and I'm providing the brickies with cake and other goodies so maybe they'll be working fast on their return after next week which is flooring week! 

Other things on our minds this week are: narrow hallways (is ours too narrow?); staircases, removable balustrades, windows, tiles, bathroom layouts and much more. 

Lesson of the week: be two steps ahead not one step behind. 

Here are the all important pictures of the weeks work! 

I'm loving the windows already! 

Behind the mountain of earth is a house - just waiting to emerge! 

This picture shows the new kitchen door (opening on the right) and what will be the new pantry door (on the left) 

Below are the plans for the ground floor (apologies for the quality - screen shot by my phone of my laptop as they're A1 size!) I think you can make out the layout and what we will be talking about over the coming weeks! 

You can just make out the front elevation layout if you follow the line of grey bricks behind the orange ladder. 

Where have all the tiles gone? Part of me thinks it almost looks better! Not a fan of tile hung but budget restrictions mean we can't upgrade to cedar cladding. 

Next week: managing a tight budget...

Bricks and Mortar and a see-thru house

As you can see below the bricks are going up and the extension is really beginning to take shape. It's very encouraging when you can see some building rather than just demolition. However, that said, our house is still see-thru! 

Exciting chats for this week have included meeting the electrician and talking through our requirements for lighting, alarms and media. It's all rather mind-boggling and I'm sure I've gone overkill on plug sockets but how many of us are always trying to find somewhere to charge the phone!! 

We've also clarified what our chimney size is and what log burner we're going to use. The conclusion is an inset fireplace in the existing lounge and a more modern wood burner in the new extension - roll on those cosy winter nights! 

So here are the all exciting pictures! 

Steels - who knew they'd be so exciting! 

Taking shape

Exciting progress this week as we've watched the brickies move onto site and the real outline of the new extension take shape. 

It's funny how despite it actually being a large extension it still feels small when we stand inside it! However, having watched enough Grand Designs shows I can appreciate there always seems to be a discrepancy between what is 'felt' and what is 'real'! 

Scarily we have less of a house than we did last week as in order to satisfy our local tax man (see previous post) we have to go as far as obliterating walls and windows - hopefully now they might finally believe we can't live there!!! 

What do you reckon - could you live here? 

So now that they've started building, our thoughts are turning back to the interiors. First on the agenda is the fireplace and wood burning stove. This has a direct impact on bricks hence it being one of the first things to consider. So Rob and I are going to spend a happy evening deciding which stove we like as this decides the size of the fireplace and therefore where the bricks need to be! 

I have to admit to not being quite prepared for this decision - came a lot quicker than anticipated! Hopefully forthcoming decisions will be better anticipated! 

Foundations

Great news this week as the foundations have been approved and we can move on to the next stage. 

Progress all seems quite rapid at the moment but the weeks are flying and it's almost one month since work began. 

Here are some more all-important piccies. 

It has to get worse before it gets better

It's a truth universally acknowledged that in order for a new house to be born the old one must pass away first. It has to get worse before it gets better! As you'll see we are still at the early stages of things getting worse and surprisingly we're either in denial or we are experiencing some remarkable God-given peace about the whole thing! 

So what have we been up to these past couple of weeks? Here's a (not so brief) summary of all that's been going on with the build and behind the scenes.

Work has been continuing on site:

The archway to the right hand side of the house (as you face it) has been demolished and the garden area is being prepared for foundations to be dug this week. 

There are supports in place in the old lounge ready for windows and walls to be knocked out and the floor is being ripped up ready for the retrofitting of underfloor heating and the new flooring. 

The driveway is now almost all dug out and there only remains the completion of a hard-standing ready for big trucks and delivery lorries to use. 

Next week will see our building inspector come out to check the soil conditions to establish the depth of foundations required and foundations get dug out. 

For those of you who are more interested in the finer details; we've had to knock out one window and rip up the flooring in order to establish that we are no longer resident at the property for the purposes of council tax. Otherwise we'll end up paying council tax twice - on the rental as well as the house undergoing renovations. It's the overly thorough and beaureaucratic nature of the council tax system (that's the polite way of saying it) that means in order to be uninhabitable a property must not be water tight or have other major issues like no flooring! Still we hopefully will persuade the council that we are definitely unable to live there! 

Finally and perhaps most excitingly we have agreed and paid the deposit on our new kitchen!! Scary because it's a big feature in the open plan living/kitchen area and important to get right, but great as we love the design and can't wait to see the kitchen on display at the home building and renovating show at Sandown Park in Esher this summer! 

http://www.homebuildingshow.co.uk/show-info/venues

I think that's all we've been up to - here are a few more piccies!