House Extension
Week Two
RAIN RAIN RAIN!
Will it ever end? Major floods in 40 miles away in Sheffield, torrential downpours leading to flooding problems at Glastonbury - and also it appears, at the side of our house.
Work is hampered by the weather - The builders, having removed 160 tonnes of earth from the side of the house, are trying to dig even deeper to lay the foundations for the extension, and also the new supporting wall that is to be built to support the road as we have lowered the ground level so much! (by at least 1.5 metres!) If the weather doesn't change soon, the road may become part of our garden!
Lisa has a new business plan - open a health spa with all of the mud. Adrian heartily agrees and has visions of women in bikinis writhing around in the mud.
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Water, water everywhere! |
Mud's much heavier when wet! |
The weather does begin to ease, and the guys crack on with digging out the footings, and also clearing the front garden to lay hardcore - in readiness for the long-term plan to convert the front garden into a driveway.
A visit from the building inspector (resulting in a large bill from the council!) reveals that he wants a "very close match" for the brickwork on the front and rear elevations. This could be a problem. The builders have searched far and wide, but have struggled to find a brick that matches BOTH the texture/design of the original, and also the size. The eventual compromise is to re-use the brickwork from the two chimney stacks to meet the requirements. No problem for the builders... but a problem for us, as they decide to crack on and remove the stacks before completing the footings (it's still raining!) As the television aerial is on one chimney stack, and the satellite dish is mounted on the other, it looks like Adrian has got a busy weekend ahead!
Scaffolding goes up VERY quickly!
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Scaffolding to remove chimneys |
Need to move that aerial! |
Great view from up here! |
The builders tell me that the chimney is coming down on within a couple of days... so the satellite dish and TV aerial need relocating. Adrian decides that they may as well move to the other side of the house as a permanant fixture, the aerial replaced with an up-to-date digital one, and be completely rewired at the same time..... A trip to the Screwfix trade counter on the cards then......
Adrian spends an entire Saturday rewiring, removed the aerial and dish.... then went round to the other side of the house, only to find that with a lower ground level on that side of the house, his ladders were not tall enough to reach the new aerial location.
Fortunately, a phone call to his mate Stuart results in the loan of a huge set of ladders.... and a few hours later, a shiny new digital aerial is installed, and the ability of the kids to watch Nick Jnr is restored.
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Neat and functional
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