Our house - is a very, very, very nice house...

[Steve Maskery]

There was I on Friday morning, at my PC, minding my own business when there was a tap on the door. Well, we'd had this lousy plumber...

On the mat is standing a vaguely familiar face. Ah, yes, a builder we had approached a few weeks ago about some building work at the end of January.

"We are a bit ahead of ourselves", says he. "We've just got our planning permission", says I. "Great, we'll knock your house down at 7.15 Monday morning sharp", says he. Well, that's précised the conversation a bit, but it's essentially accurate.

Saturday 5th Jan 2008

 

[Karl]

"Great, we'll knock your house down at 7.15 Monday morning sharp", says he.

7.15 - wasn't Polish by any chance? :lol:

Cheers

Karl

 

[mailee]

Where you and Judith going to live Steve? :shock: Got a caravan in the drive? :lol:

 

[DaveL]

Steve,

Well I am glad I visited last year, it is quite a nice house, but it looks like you will be homeless by lunch time tomorrow. :shock: You could rent the hall we had the bash in, few partition walls and it could be set up nicely. :roll: :wink:

 

[motownmartin]

Steve, is this one of the cryptic clues out of the Sunday Times :?

 

[Digit]

But when do they intend rebuilding? :lol:

Roy.

 

[Rich]

Come down to Reading, Steve , lots of places for "key workers", all you need to qualify for a place is; come from abroad, be utterly useless, don't understand English and be able to hold your hand out.
Rich.

 

[Digit]

Welcome to Blair's Britain Rich.

Roy.

 

[harryc]

Hey Rich unfortunately under your description plenty of the locals would qualify aswell

Harry

 

[tim]

Lets be honest - if the staircase in the sitting room is anything to go by, it needs bulldozing. You'll not get far on that :lol: :lol:

Seriously though - where are you going to live, what are the plans and is Kevin Mccloud involved?

Cheers

Tim

 

[Steve Maskery]

Well the middle bit is 20 years old - before our time - and the flat roof is living on borrowed time. We have to do something, and if we just replace the flat roof we still have a carbuncle of a box shoved on the back of an otherwise quite attractive house (well, we think so, anyway).

One option was to join up the sloping roof bits, but our builder got the rooves at two ever-so-slightly-different angles, so one would have to come off completely, and it would cut across the bedroom window too. So we are going to build up, extend the back bedroom and re-roof the house at the same time. The watery events of last summer galvanized uus on that one.

We are going to continue to live here! The builders are going to build a stud wall across the lounge, all our furniture is piled up everywhere, it's already horrible and not a brick has yet been touched.

What on earth are we doing?

Bed, I've got to be up at the crack of dawn. Well, rather before that, actually, I suppose.

S

 

[tim]

Still at least its warm so you can use the barbie.........


yep - you are bonkers. (hammer) (hammer) (hammer) I would move out now.

All the best with it though. It surely can't be that bad - can it???

Cheers

Tim

 

[Shultzy]

No extra workshop space in the design then Steve, have you hit your head lately?

 

[RogerS]

So let me make sure I understand this, Steve.

You're going to have part of your house knocked down leaving big holes at first floor and ground floor level..just as we enter the depths of winter? Mmmm....and I thought I was the only silly-billy bricklaying outside at the moment. Just make sure they don't lay any cement or concrete below 2 degrees C - don't believe what the cement frostproofer manufacturers say :wink:

 

[Steve Maskery]

So let me make sure I understand this, Steve.

You're going to have part of your house knocked down leaving big holes at first floor and ground floor level..just as we enter the depths of winter?

Ummmmm....

 

[Chris Knight]

The timing seems perfectly sensible - you should certainly have it finished "in time for Christmas" whereas most folk want this even when they start in August. :lol:

 

[Steve Maskery]

Well it's the end of Week One and this is what's happened.

Under the concrete floor we discovered this terracotta tile floor. It must have been beautiful when it was new. We think the original owner must have had a lean-to sun-room here.

We found this arch in the brickwork, but apparently it would have been for support only, not as an architectural feature, as it was stuccoed over.

The previous owners built the present extension 20 years ago, and it looks as if they just covered the terracotta floor with concrete and built on that. The left-hand wall had NO footings at all under the 3.5 inches of concrete! So some new footing were is order PDQ.

While we are at it, let's have a new roof too.

Rain stopped play on Friday. Let's see what this week brings!
Cheers
Steve

 

[Gordon T]

Hello Steve, keep the photos coming, very interesting,,,and good luck this week, the forecast is rain and lots of it all week long!!
GT

 

[Steve Maskery]

Well we lost virtually all of the week before last, but last week and so far this we have made great strides.

Oi! What you doin' to me roof?

Well OK, as long as you put it back...

The trouble is, the tiles were all pointed inside the loft, and that pointing has had 70 years to crumble. I've cleaned a lot up in the loft, but htis job has brought all the rest down. I went up there this afternoon and it looks like the blitz. Still, once they have the laths on, the tiles go back quite quickly:

As for the back, they've had a bit of a to-do with the blue cants, but all is well now and I can see just how big my windows need to be. I've got all my stock planed up but not moulded or cut to length. I need to get my skates on. Cutting all those hippy angles is clever, isn't it?

I'm really not looking forward to them knocking through into the bedroom The other thing is that my workshop door doesn't close properly anymore. Actually it's never fitted very well, but now the bottom half doesn't fit at all, I'm going to have to re-fix the frame once the bricks are set properly.

 

[Slim]

The other thing is that my workshop door doesn't close properly anymore.

Where do you live Steve? I only ask because I'm gonna come and pinch all your tools. (Did I say that out loud?)