New house guest and progress upstairs

Today's the first day of the school holidays and the first of my 3 and a half week sabbatical before joining The John Lewis Partnership.

As a slight distraction I thought you'd like to see the new resident at Waterford Lodge, named  "Flash" for obvious reasons, I guess!

Flash is a Giant African Land Snail, they're hermaphrodite which means that they can be a boy or a girl.  They like beer (def. a boy), cucumber and like to stay warm and moist.  I forgot that I had aided and abetted
the children's application to home him during the school holidays!

Upstairs is coming along well, the painters were in today and the first coat of "Ivory Cream" has been applied, carpets are being fitted in a week - so the plumbers need to get moving with the ensuite.

Old bathroom, just needs painting

Shower

plaster nearly dry

Snowstorm threatening in Waterford

Undercoat applied

1st coat of Ivory Cream

Downstairs is no further on, although the end is in sight with the current forecast for the folding doors arriving and being installed between 20th Jan and the 8th Feb - so hopefully the project will complete by the end of Feb?

Windows now installed

Ground floor still open to the elements

Hole in the side awaiting a window, due in late Jan

Frosty afternoon

One of the 3 finules now in place

Old roof (rear) vs. New roof

New

Old

The view from our new bedroom over a frosty Waterford Heath

Week 22 - Muck, dust and grime

As the last 2 weeks of our exile in Brookmans Park have passed the number of contractors onsite has increased.  Finally, on Tuesday we hit a peak with 2 roofers, 2 Carpenters, 2 plumbers, 1 electrician, 2 builders and 2 plasterers.  There were signs that people were starting to get on each other's nerves as everyone was competing for space.

but ...

The roof is nearly finished, just the ridge tiles to go.

The heating and hot water has been moved and thank goodness it's working again, as it's got much colder recently.



The new space upstairs is being plastered, as is the newly reduced family bathroom.

A skylight has been put in the bathroom

All the preparations for the electricals have been made.

However, while it's warm, the house is FILTHY - dust everywhere, leaves (no-one closes the door) blown in, piles of rubble everywhere and the whole site is generally scruffy.  So a weekend of scrubbing, sweeping and hoovering was our reward for moving back home.

Bedlam in Waterford

After getting quite used to just two guys coming and going from the extension as they pleased and quiely cracking on.  The start to his week has been a good deal more frenetic at one stage there were 6 vans parked outside the house.

Without any heating or hot water, I'm also sampling life "Victorian Style" on a fairly mild but grey and damp November day I'm struggling to stay warm - especially as there are 6 people constantly coming and going via the front door. Brrrrr!

Roof tiling has commenced with two roofers on the roof

We have a plumber relocating hot water tanks and plumbing the new services in (hence no heating or hot water). We have an electrician cabling. We have 2 builders and their supervisor knocking down walls and connecting the old house to the new house.  One thing that is really amazing is that the floor in the existing bathroom meets the new floor perfectly - that's quite a feat!

Bathroom before - we never did paint the side of the cupboard

Cupboard and water tank removed

Floors all covered with protective plastic

First contact with the new space

Getting bigger

Breakthrough!

End of day 1 knocking though

View back into the house from the new bedroom, ensuite to the left

170 year old laths

You can see the horse hair in the plaster

Everything is moving along at quite a pace.