First foot(ings)

After some criticism (Musgrove, E) that the focus of the blog seems to be more on the anticipatory purchase of decorative furniture, and less on actual construction, I'm pleased to report that today we have seen proper building-like stuff going on. The footings have been laid/poured/whatever'd. The Ha-Ha is no more (Ed'll be relieved, he hates feeling stupid.)


We were a little concerned that the water/sewage interface issue was going to cause a delay, but apparently it's all going to be redone anyway, so it doesn't matter, although the builder also took a photo of the unconventional pipework as he'd never seen anything like it.


In addition to pouring the concrete, which was apparently done via guerilla vehicle manouevres due to the congested parking situation outside our house, the builders also demolished the outside loo. It's been pretty useful, that loo, and now we've got to find somewhere else to store guinea pig food, potatoes and beer, but its time had come. At least once the new loo is created we won't be freezing our bottoms off when we want a wee.


The loo was where the green-painted wall is now.


I think it's now a case of waiting a couple of days while the concrete "goes off" ... or something, and then they can start building the walls.
At some point Ed and I are going to have to put some serious effort into boxing up/chucking out all the stuff in the kitchen in preparation for the deconstruction of the exterior walls. I'm hoping we've got another week or so before we get to that stage though.
Right, I'm shattered and Ugly Betty is on soon, so it's definitely beer and TVo'clock!

Day Six: (Yet another) Unscheduled Hole

So, the building inspector did go round yesterday and he decided that there needed to be an extra inspection hatch on the drains other than the one that is going to be underneath the new kitchen floor. Fair enough, but it meant that the team spent most of today deciding where that was going to be and digging it out, as well as exposing the sewage pipe for the underfloor inspection hatch.



A couple of years ago a nice man from Southern Water came round and informed us that he'd been tracking "the largest mains water leak in Reading" for some time, and had narrowed the source down to the pipework beneath our house. His argument was fairly compelling. First, when he turned off the water supply and placed a full pint glass of water under our kitchen tap, the vacuum created sucked the entire glass down in about four seconds. And secondly, if you listened hard in the kitchen, you could actually hear the water gushing somewhere nearby... rather like a Japanese formal garden, but less relaxing. So we paid £300 to get a new "breakthrough" pipe drilled to the house. And thought nothing further of it.



Imagine our surprise this evening, therefore, to find that the new breakthrough pipe had actually been bored straight through the sewage pipe.

Blue pipe = water, Brown pipe = poo.


So tomorrow Ed will be getting on to Southern Water to find out what they intend to do about this. The donkeys.

It feels all rather as though the schedule is slipping slightly from the initial six week estimate (which, fortunately, we never really believed). The ultimate aim is to have it finished by Xmas, as Ed's mum is coming to stay with us for our first "proper" family Christmas at home.

The builder also mentionedthat the weather is due to be bad tomorrow so they don't think that they'll get a lot done... this was after telling Ed a "funny" anecdote where the back wall of one of the houses that they're working on literally fell in when the lady of the house leaned a ladder against it to climb up and paint the soffits. Fortunately the lady in question was unharmed, but the builders spent all weekend rebuilding her wall. (There is a technical reason why it fell down, and it's not actually as bad as it sounds, but it does sound quite bad!)

So a "meh" sort of day overall really.

Day Five: It was hard to resist climbing in the hole...

...so we didn't. Here we are in our hole, Josie demonstrating how exactly "as tall as she is" it is. Saturday was a bright and sunny day, so we thought we'd take advantage of it by taking pictures of ourselves in a trench, as you do.

After the photo shoot we scooted into town as Ed needed new work trousers. It was a broadly successful trip as he did find some, although Josie rebelled to the extent that she had hidden herself in a rack of clothes by the time Ed came out of the dressing room, and passers-by were therefore surprised to hear him shouting "Come out you little monster!" at a rack full of shirts, and then shoving his arm in up to the shoulder and producing a protesting toddler from the depths.

Whilst in John Lewis (chicken soup for the soul of the aspirational middle classes) we noticed a rather nice tub chair in the ex-display clearance sale. I'd already identified this range as a potential "relaxed seating area" option online and was interested to note that the chair was on offer at a £50 discount. I still needed to do some work on Ed, however, so we didn't purchase it there and then. After about 90 minutes of wheedling back home, Ed agreed that it was indeed a bargain, and that he'd only be annoyed if I made him buy the same chair fully-priced in three months' time, so I despatched him after church on Sunday to go and purchase the wonderful chair.

Here it is, residing in its temporary home in our bedroom:

Now isn't that a lovely chair? Before anyone suggests that it isn't really a practical colour for a kitchen/children, may I just say Lalalalala I'm not listening.

So, on to today's construction activities. The building inspector has apparently been round today to check that we're not building the Taj Mahal in our back garden. We haven't heard anything to the contrary so assume that all is OK. There has been some further garden clearance work carried out though, which was a bit of a bonus as we weren't sure that they were going to get anything done today. You can see from the picture below that a rather large ivy has been stripped away from the wall, and some of the hedge has been removed from further up the garden so they've got room to turn round while they're building. Not a terribly exciting day project-wise, but more than made up for by Sunday's purchase of the lovely chair!

Day Four: Unscheduled hole

On Fridays I look after little Jojo, so I was thinking it would be a good idea to be out of the house as much as possible while all the work is going on. After the school coffee morning in aid of Macmillan (Josie biscuit tally = 6), I decided to head into town and make sure that all the shops were still there. Fairly sure I saw the boss's car parked on Level One of the Oracle, but I'm sure that would be a meeting with e.g. Reading Council rather than an early raid on the shops!! After a bimble round Primark (damage = a sweater, a T-Shirt, and seven pairs of knickers for Millie), and a trip to Fabricland for haberdashery, we headed over to Tesco later than usual and got the weekly shop in. Fortunately Josie was still too stuffed from all her coffee morning biscuits to make much of a demand for food as we went round.

Back at the house and the most consistently present of the builders (I have been introduced to them all by name, but I haven't a clue which one this is) was practically finished digging out the foundations. To say that Jo was thrilled to bits with him is putting it mildly. Currently we have a glass door in the dining room right next to where the footings are being dug, which made an excellent vantage point for Jojo to observe what he was doing without plopping straight into the hole.

As I was surveying the site from behind Jo I noticed that a rather lovely Victorian pipe runs through the hole right be the dining room, and I also noted that there is a 6 inch diameter hole in the pipe. "Oh well, I thought to myself, that was probably there already". Alas apparently not. According to the builder guy they had looked at it and been unable to see what it might serve, tso had commenced hacking into it, only to look (I imagined wistfully) up and realise that the guttering runs straight into the ground not two feet away... could THAT be what the pipe is for? Could it? Why probably yes. So we may be looking at needing to replace that pipe. I say we I mean Gavin and his team.

Consistent builder knocked on the door at about two-ish, just after site manager Josie had been prised away from the door and put down for her nap, and informed me he'd done as much as he could so was heading off, although a mate might be back later to look at the pipe of woe. Sure enough whilst I was busy tinkling the ivories, someone else did show up, but I was in the middle of murdering some poor defenceless tune so couldn't be bothered to try and ask technical questions.

So now I'm feeling all Capability Brown, as we effectively have a Ha-Ha all around the back of our house, although to be fair it is posing no difficulty at all to the livestock, both cats leaping disdainfully across it to lay their commemorative logs of disapproval in the newly turned earth.

Our cats nearly caused the builders we had in at Carnarvon Road to quit the site as they persisted in leaving little "presents" in the piles of dust etc involved in the build.

So I guess that is it now until Monday - do builders work on weekends? I don't know... We'll be spending the next two days trying to prevent Millie and Josie from plunging headfirst into the crevasse...

Today's photos

See pipe? See hole?

Socks returning from one of her ablutionary expeditions

The Ha-Ha, and now I notice it, Socks heading off for one of her ablutionary missions.

Day Three: Bigger hole

This morning a small army of practical men turned up to excavate the garden. The outcome of Ed's consultation with Gavin was that yes, they had dug out 30cm too far, but fortunately we noticed before they dug the end trench.

Getting home this evening we found that the majority of the footings had been dug, making the garden a very un-Hoplet-friendly place. Naturally both girls immediately wanted to investigate, but they haven't fallen in the hole yet.

A tremendous thunderstorm and downpour this evening made me wonder whether we'd end up with a pool, but it all seems to have drained away remarkably quickly thank goodness.

In other news, the administrator at Optiplan confirmed that Argos no longer sell the barstools, but happy day, she knows of another stockist, so we are back in the game for comfy sophisticated seating options.

Tomorrow I'll be at home with Josie, so it'll be interesting to see what they manage to get through. I'm hoping they migh finish the footings and maybe even pour the concrete, although I guess that will depend rather a lot on the weather. Hopefully the storm will blow itself out overnight.

Picture from today:

Great big hole

The practical men have been at it all day and the result is a great big hole alongside our neighbours' extension. They've filled one skip and replaced it with another. An odd concrete pad has been unearthed towards the far end of the hole, which we think may have been original footings for the lean-to that was there about forty years ago. The hole looks like this:



Small child included for scale - it's about as deep as she is tall.


Also note evidence of "Mumsy crafts" in the papier mache balloon in the window. Mum of the Year, that's me (last year, when we actually made the thing). Note further that the balloon is only half painted and refer to previous post re: DIY - they don't call us "Half a job Hoppers" for nothing!



So, we have a hole. We're not entirely sure that the hole has the correct dimensions, as the practical men have dug it out in line with our neighbours' extension, and for the project to come under "permitted development" rules, we can only take the building out by three metres. Next door's extension is 3.30m, so Ed will be having a chat with Gavin about the extra 30cm in the morning. Maybe you have to add a bit to footings? Who knows?


In other news, I discovered today that Argos no longer seems to be selling the barstools that I had my heart set on. They're the ones used in the Optiplan showroom and are lovely wood and leather gas-pump ones. I have made Ed email James at Optiplan and find out if he knows the part code for them so I can get in touch with Argos, or failing that, whether he'd be willing to sell the display ones to us - I love them that much.


So, all is going well so far it seems. The only collateral damage until now has been the disconnection of the water pipe for the dishwasher and washing machine. Ed has stuck it back together with gaffer tape, so that's all right then...


Speaking of dishwashers, we'll have a half size one going for a bargain price before the end of the project. We've only had it a year and it has changed Ed's life - his hands are so soft, etc. I think we paid about £140 for it but if anyone wants to make me a sensible offer for it get in touch! It's a Proline one and is about 55cm wide. We'll also be looking to shift the sideboard that it once took Ed an ENTIRE DAY to build, and matching extending table in cherry wood.


The sideboard has its on amusing tale in that when it was delivered it was back in the day when I was driving a lovely BMW Z3 convertible, which was parked on the drive. The doorbell rang and Ed answered it to the delivery guy, and explained where the sideboard (in kit form) should be put. As the guy left he turned to Ed and said, "Nice car lad, does it belong to your Mum?" Husband = mortified. Of course Ed looks a lot more haggard these days, what with the cares of the world on his shoulders and all...

Day One - breaking ground

So, it's Day One of the great kitchen extension project. We've been delayed slightly due to a hold up on Gavin's previous project thanks to the atrocious weather in August, so we've been champing at the bit rather to get things going. (Before Ed gets completely cold feet about the cost and cancels the entre thing!)

Sure enough, on leaving the house at 8 this morning there was a nice white van with a couple of practical looking types in the front seats. I was slightly disappointed to find on returning from the school run at 9 a.m that they had vanished. Oh well, I knuckled down to some serious copywriting and was rewarded at about 10.15 by the appearance of a very bleary looking Gavin who has apparently got the cold from hell. I stood well back while he explained that the skip was on its way.

At approx 10.35 the two practical chaps were back, and started ripping out the bay trees and raised beds that were sitting where my lovely new dining area is going to be. It was like extreme Gardeners World as they slashed and hacked and bashed at the poor defenceless wildlife.

The skip arrived and kind neighbour John let me move his car so we could plonk it right outside.

Lunchtime: posted about the work starting on Facebook. Realised half an hour later that this might have been a mistake as the boss commented on it. Hoped that she would accept that my "writing day" was really all about getting some work done and not about spying on the builders. I've actually been very productive today - I think the industry of the practical men was infectious!

By the end of the day the skip was half full and the bay trees and raised beds are no more. They must have shifted about a tonne of soil as well which is pretty good going.

At some point I will write out a full spec of the work that we're having done and the reason behind it, but for expediency's sake here's a rough breakdown:

• Single story extension three metres out from the back of our house and filling in the side return.


• Lots of windows and velux's and an oak trifold door at the end.


• Addition of a downstairs indoor loo (our current one is outside) and re-creation of a corridor to enclose the dining room once again. This returns the house to something like its original Victorian layout.

There will be a pantry in the kitchen. It is starting to assume the dimensions of the TARDIS as we keep thinking of handy things that we can store in there - starting with the washing machine and working upwards.

After having carried out several only moderately successful DIY projects in the past (tip: never mention tiling, gloss painting or cat flaps) we are very much fans of "getting a man in", or several men, if the project requires. While generally this approach yields nothing but advantages, it does lead to a certain inertia on our part when something goes wrong but we don't get around to "getting a man" e.g. today, we finally had an electrician back to sort out the light in our loft conversion ensuite, as it has been non-functioning for 6 months which was fine in Summer but is now difficult as it means showering in the dark. It took all of James' considerable electrical qualifications to enable him to screw the light bulb in a bit tighter...

Here is today's picture: