All fall down

Have been watching the back of the house being systematically destroyed by the builders over the last week or so. The initial plan had been to clear the boiler house and build up to roof level and then knock through the wall of the study and upstairs toilet when the walls were up, but as always the best laid plans go awry and we discovered that the joists were rather dodgy above the utility room at the back. This necessitated knocking everything down to the level of the utility room ceiling (well actually it looks as though it went down to well below this!) in order to replace the joists. So a considerable amount more destruction was called for and bearing in mind the walls are stone and about 2 foot thick that's a lot of rubble. However we have plans for a patio at the back of the house so the rubble is being used to fill in there rather than being carted away - recycling in action!

Lots of changes

Well- after preparing the scene yesterday by moving our hot tank to the upstairs landing, Gerard and his team have finally got down to the major work of knocking down the back of the house! They have removed all the interior walls between the bathroom and the toilet on the middle landing floor and most if not all of the tiles on the back roof are off. Tomorrow, if all goes according to schedule, the roof will come off and some of the back wall may very well be knocked down. We now have a very small landing halfway up the stairs with a large panel of plywood separating us from the builders (and in the near future a large hole in the house!)

Incommunicado

Today the job of setting up to remove the back of the house started. Much concern over the last few days, as we suddenly realised that knocking down the back wall meant that the hot tank wouldn't be there any more - and we wouldn't have hot water!! Fortunately the builders were aware of this and have plans to move it. Hence a delay of a couple of days until the electrician and plumber were available to do the wiring and pipework. They went to work today - and unfortunately they seem to have affected the phone line, as we are without a phone connection (although the internet connection still exists albeit as a rather narrow rather than broad band)

Busy weekend

Gerard the builder suggested on Friday that they could start working in the utility room and study - seeing as they couild be easily separated off from the rest of the house by closing the doors into the hall and the kitchen. So Lyn and I spent the weekend clearing out the study and utility room - a big job considering that we had used the "study" as a storage facility and over time it had got rather full to say the least! - Now our dining room is over full with all sorts of boxes and other miscellaneous objects. We finally threw a pile of things out into the skip outside

The builders arrive

Well finally the builders have come - initially the schedule was due to start at the beginning of June, but between having to revise the plans and the holidays, everything got delayed. But they are finally here and have started knocking everything down! I had cleared out the old boiler house at the weekend and it's just as well because by the time I had left to go to work this morning the roof was off and they were starting to demolish the walls. I returned home to find that a significant portion of the rear of the house was in a pile in the back yard. Still it's good to get things finally started. At least the weather is good at the minute - (unlike the South of England with floods) - last week it was still wet and I'm sure it would have interfered with the work.

It's raining

The builders are due to start in just over a week - and I hope the weather changes!!
It's been bucketing down for the last 3 or 4 weeks - some summer so far and if it is like this when the builders are working it will be one big mud pile!

New job!

I have in my infinite wisdom encouraged the creation of a website for the school - so I have been burning the midnight oil in setting it up - as yet it is pretty empty but it has been an interesting intellectual diversion - for those of you who are into web matters it is created using a content management system called Joomla! - for those of you who aren't - well here is the website!
Click here