Rendered useless

It turns out that not everybody's on holiday. The builders haven't been at work because they're waiting on the outside rendering to be done, and it looks like the rendering sub-contractor has, in fact, gone on holiday. They're still chasing him so there may yet be progress this week.

Meanwhile the electrician has been working away, and has managed to somewhat tame the spaghetti beast, but not before it skeletonised one of the remaining fuseboxes:


He also set up the rather festive lighting arrangement in the hall:


The switch explains all, in case the wire wasn't obvious:


A few bits of new wiring in the kitchen, but nothing major:


Also, the patio doors on the kitchen, which haven't locked for several weeks now, are hitting against each other and one door has actually splintered. It'll be back to the shop with them.


Not much going on upstairs, though oddity de jour concerns the lightswitch outside the en suite. It has two buttons, one of which controls the light in the corridor outside.


But in the en suite there is no provision for lighting or electricity of any kind.


So where does the other wire from the switch go?

Im 265 nichts Neues

Nobody working on the site at all today. Just as well I didn't do a post over the weekend or I'd have nothing to write about. Not that there's much of significance to say.

The electrician is vainly attempting to rein in the spaghetti monster at the bottom of the stairs using a ceiling hook.

This picture also shows the blue crayon marking where the door from the hall to the TV room will be cut.

Upstairs, the new, satinised, en suite window has arrived and is awaiting installation:


We had a missed call from the builders today and they didn't leave a message. So hopefully we'll find out tomorrow what the story is for this week.

Things are looking up

Ta-daa!

The new attic stairs. Not so keen on the fancy architraving around the hatch, mind.

Meanwhile, more wiring is being done and more wallpaper is coming off. The front hall has never looked better:


The abandoned fuse board there is the one belonging to the old storage heater system, may it burn in hell.

Over in the extension, it has mostly been plastering recently, of both the skimming and board varieties. The passage from kitchen to TV room looks like this:


We're expecting final sign-off on the new electrical arrangements soon, then the builders can get back on the scaffolding, do the external rendering, finish the roofing and pretty much move all the action to the inside of the house.

In the pink

Today they left the upstairs extension open so I got to have a proper look round, and you do too.

This is the master bedroom at the back of the house -- deliberately made small to fit a bed and very little else.


Leading off it there's a corridor, past the en suite through to the dressing room at the front.


This is the en suite, spared pink plaster for tiling reasons, I'm told.


And on through to the dressing room:


At the back of this room is a large deep space designated for the hotpress.


You get extra big ones with solar heating, apparently.

Meanwhile, the hall was stripped of its carpet and assorted stacks of hardware, returning it to its former welcoming splendour:


Upstairs, they've been at work stripping wallpaper, revealing the gorgeous shade of mint green that the small front bedroom used to be.


But the main event of the day happened in the downstairs extension. Despite the holiday, a sizeable team of builders was on-site at 8am to take delivery of the new floor screed. So down it went, leaving just the drying and tiling to do.

Like something from Lovecraft

The multi-tendrilled creature that is our new wiring has made its presence felt in what I still jokingly refer to as the living room:


The electrician says that the builders are on holiday. I therefore don't exactly know what will be happening over the next two weeks -- the days marked as holidays in the original schedule, but which the builders had talked about working through in some form to make up for lost time. Exactly what form will become apparent later in the week. If anyone at the builders' is still answering the phone.

Bits and pieces

Gradual progress continues. We got our first proper look at the inside of the upstairs extension late last week, but it's still sealed up every day so I've not been able to go in and take photos. Outside, the carpet is now gone from the stairs and the site of the former landing window has been plastered over:


Meanwhile, the downstairs extension has had a radon barrier installed and is awaiting the final pour of concrete to complete the floor structure.


We're expecting that early in the week.

Duct tales

First-fix elec continues.


The upstairs lightswitches have all sprouted new wires. Someone has seen fit to strip the landing carpet, and there's new plasterboard where the landing window used to be.

Meanwhile, the spaghetti fuseboard has got spaghettier. The fusebox has been moved aside, presumably to allow the new door to the TV room to be cut.


Check out that vintage wallpaper.

Meanwhile, the kitchen is having one of its rare looking-like-a-room days.


The floor has been swept in preparation for the next layer and there are window boards at the back.


The utility room looks nearly ready for the boiler and washing machine as well.

OK, maybe just a bit more to be done.

Spark when you're spoken to

I met the on-site electrician first thing this morning and asked him to leave the misplaced kitchen socket where it is, but add another high up on the wall. He did it too:

The grey pipes sticking up from the floor are for the radiator. There's another set in the TV room.

Lots of wiring work in the attic today, and now every light fitting upstairs has new wires poking through the ceiling.


I'm expecting more of the same for the next while.

Grand(ish) tour

We've been back in residence for several days now, however the bed is pretty much the only habitable part of the house at the moment so our tactic has been to spend as much time as possible away from home. This is why the updates have been so sparse of late.

Anyway, lots has been going this past while that I haven't mentioned. The tattle devices have been afixed to the inside the front walls upstairs and downstairs to monitor the crack. This is the one in the library:


It's been in place for a while, and I don't know if it was centred when it went on, but it's looking a bit off-kilter now. I not in a position to interpret so I won't worry yet.

The electrician has been particularly busy of late. Still in the library, this is where the mains cable comes into the house from the temporary meter box:


It runs across to the hall and into the rats nest where our fuse boxes currently sit:


The hole in the ceiling above the fuse boxes corresponds with one in the boxroom floor above, and the wires continue upwards into the attic:


The plumber has been busy as well. Black qualpex piping sticks out of the floor in various locations, awaiting the installation of radiators.


The upstairs extension is still out-of-bounds. Just a chink of light at the top of the stairs hints at what lies beyond the board.


Meanwhile, in the kitchen, wiring abounds on the walls, while the island location is marked by three black water pipes in -- two taps and a dishwasher -- and one drain out:


I'm a little concerned with the sockets in the dining room, which are intended for a wall-mounted TV but have been positioned near the floor.


The wiring diagram is taped to the wall opposite and clearly marks these as "high level" points.


I'll talk to the sparks about it first thing.

Back again

Our friend from last month made a return visit this morning, and brought a friend:


The site security personnel saw them off pretty sharpish, however:


Anyway, it has been pretty busy on site this past while. We finally have a semblance of a roof on the back extension:


This has allowed the electrician to get to work in there. He's also been busily pulling cables all over the original house, so it's spaghetti central right now.

The blockwork upstairs in the extension is done, but the rooms are sealed each day so I haven't been able to go in for a nosy and take pictures.

I'll have a proper look around the general mess at the weekend and note anything of interest here.

The angry guardians

As I predicted yesterday, trench-digging expanded into the library today. A cat's head is provided for scale:


The living room is still a mess. Half a cat is provided so you can gauge how much disgruntlement this is causing:


Upstairs, the internal doors have been primed to prevent warping. No cats here because of the paint smell:

Trench warfare

The plumber did some very un-plumber-like kangoing today, and has put a trench in the living room floor for central heating pipes:


It continues into the hall, with the storage heaters in both rooms now removed. By the looks of how he's pulled up the carpet in the library, it's getting the same treatment tomorrow.

A blocklayer was also back on site, and did the garden wall project:


He's due to put in the internal walls upstairs in the extension but I can't see in to check if he's made a start on that yet.

Next in the tradesmen queue was a plasterer, preparing the kitchen for its skim coating:


Finally, and perhaps most importantly, a bright spark has set up an new external meter for us, as per the electricity firm's instructions:


With luck this will mean the scaffolding will be habitable again. We may even see the occasional roofer, if we're lucky.

Doorways and window sills

An update on progress from late last week:

Major work on the landing was completed and the new opening into the upstairs extension is now finished and boarded up. As a result, the landing window was able to be bricked up.


I paid my first visit to the downstairs extension since the new doors and windows were installed. Here's the new back door:


To the right of the picture you can see more marks left by the electrician to show where the wiring will go.

The main work on Friday concerned windowsills. In the morning we signed off on sills and skirtings with the foreman. At day's end a new sill had been poured in concrete under the back windows:


And the same at the front.


The block layer is expected back on Monday to start on the internal walls upstairs and the garden wall. It'd be nice to have some plumbing progress during the week too.