Roof going on and building progressing

Things are really moving along now and the space is really taking shape, the weather has also held out so the progress has been pretty seamless.

We all have to be through the bathroom (Emma especially) by 7.30am as the builders are now working at 1st floor height.

The chimney stack is really taking shape too.

Nearly at ceiling height

After the first day back at school, no 1 son and I took a little tour of the extension to review progress.  Tom had a climb up onto the scaffolding - purely to provide scaling for my photos clearly!

Scaffolders...

The peace and quiet of a sunny  Monday afternoon working from home was  shattered at about 2.30pm when the scaffolders arrived in a huge truck laden with poles, pipes and burly, shaven-headed men ready for business.

Now these guys really didn't hang around as they constructed the scaffolding around the extension like whilrling dervishes - 'Elf & Safety had clearly been left behind without a hard-hat or protective shoe in sight - that just wouldn't be butch enough......

2 hours later with the job done they packed their lorry and headed off into the sunset.

Start of week 9/22...visible progress :)

Mega photo update....The programme of works is behind and we're looking at a completion date of just before Christmas Day, so we won't be enjoying the Christmas lunch in the new extension.

The revised date that the breakthrough into the new house will happen is mid-to-late November, so we'll be staying at Mum and Dad's then for a couple of weeks.

The bricklayer has been trying to make up the time lost by the groundworkers by working the last two Saturdays and the Bank Holiday Monday.  Fortunately they had packed up by 1pm last Saturday as the wedding of the year was taking place at the Church (congratulations Tom and Billie) and I don't think that the sound of the angle grinder and accompanying clouds of brick dust would have gone down well, particularly since Emma and I were guests!!

The really good news is that the progress is now very tangible with the bricks going up and the diapering (diamond pattern in the bricks) is visible.  The walls are now up to my head height and the scaffolders will be arriving soon to assemble Thomas and William's new climbing frame - seriously, we will have to have a sit down with the chat to keep them off it.

Photos show the last week's developments.

Architect inspecting

Diapering

Mark, our Master Builder at work

A great perspective on the different levels

Inside the dining room

This may look boring, but the post that goes in here will support half of the building

Fireplace/chimney

Elf 'n' Safety rules OK?

Freshly cast fireplace