It’s been a busy few weeks in the non-extension related world so this blog has been somewhat neglected. We had another rain-filled holiday but with lots of fun to be found on the Isle of Wight steam railway, crazy golf course and on the beach for the one beautiful sunny day. We said goodbye to the nappy bag (but only on the condition that Lightning McQueen feature on every pair of big boy pants proffered) and welcomed school uniform with excitement and jumps of joy (I’m not convinced this excitement will last through til secondary school but am happy to make the most of it in Eloise’s first week of school at least).
Excuses aside, what’s been occurring? Well, there’s been a lot of plastering. Our bedroom, Eloise’s bedroom, the bathroom, en-suite, kitchen and some of the stairs have been plastered and are ready for decorating. Unfortunately what was the dining room ceiling is no more. It’s not the biggest surprise as the ceiling had previously looked ominously full of cracks and was sagging and so had been treated to remedial works a few years ago. The impact of all the building work had made the ceiling “spring to life” and it had started to collapse. So it has now been removed and added to the seemingly unending list of plasterboarding tasks.
In addition to the minor set back of the collapsing ceiling, the old kitchen tiles have been ripped up to reveal a base of nothing much: purely hardcore. Nope, didn’t mean much to me either, but generally speaking you’d expect to find a damp membrane, concrete base and layer of screed not just mud and stones. This means that we’re missing a floor – the hardcore now needs digging down and all the missing things need adding before the screed can go down. This will be a good thing, longer term, in terms of decreasing the likelihood of damp problems but it is a bit more work and therefore a bit more possibility of a delay. The timings for moving back in are all based on the kitchen installation, which can only be done once the flooring is down, and that is dependent on the screed being put down soon so it has enough time to dry. Come on, floor, don’t make us stay away for longer than necessary!
We’re now at the stage where we need to involve some trades which aren’t necessarily provided by our builder. The decorator cost suggested was eye-watering (especially as Neil wants to do it all himself anyway) but we’re now back on track with that and looking for tilers and Karndean flooring fitters. The bath was delivered today and the rest of the bathroom stuff is due tomorrow ready to be installed once flooring and decoration is sorted.
The patio doors are due on Monday and that will make a big difference to the feel of the ground floor and make it all feel much closer to live-able. Once the dining room ceiling and landing floor have been sorted out, it will also be a big turning point as it will be safe for the children to walk around it. At the moment, it’s not possible to visit the project with both children and just me as I can’t carry both of them all the time (and I’m probably the most likely person to fall down the stairs in any case!).
