Cracking on

More garden space now!

A wider drive

Despite the colder weather at the end of the week, we've seen really good progress at Brookvale.
~

All the internal woodwork and plasterboarding was finished off by Thursday to allow Tony Holland our plasterer to start on Thursday evening - and very cold it was too. Even though we had a small fan heater running, it failed to take the chill out of the air as Jan and I put plastic sheet over the windows (to protect them from the plaster), whilst Tony taped over the joints between sheets of plasterboard. We managed to do the big bay in the bedroom, together with the smaller window and french doors, plus the window in the en-suite. This gave Tony enough to start the serious plastering on Friday. As he lives next door but one to us in Clifton, we heard him leave at 06.45! By late afternoon he had virtually finished the bedroom. What a difference! Even though the plaster is darker and therefore making the room seem darker than before, the room now looks like, well, a room! And the finish, as we knew it would be, is first class. Tony is now going to work through the weekend, and next week until completion as his normal source of work seems to have dried up at the moment. So, by next weekend, we should be totally plastered - that calls for a celebration.

~
Roy's boys have been back in force this week, tackling the drive widening. This has involved major excavation of soil, and then filling first with rubble, and then aggregate. Kerb stones have been laid too, and the final topping of a dry concrete type mix as the base for the tarmac at a later stage (when all the big lorries have gone).
~
The other job completed was the digging of the service trench for BT, laying the conduit and cable, and then filling in. We just need BT to come along and connect to our nice new telegraph pole, and provide the terminating point in the house.
~
One major step forward has been the removal of most of the clay spoil that was piled up in the garden. A grab lorry carted that away on Friday, followed closely by the overloaded skip. Its surprising how big the garden now seems now that the area has been cleaned up.
~
Jan and I spent Saturday in that most enjoyable of tasks - moving bricks. Having previously moved them from A to B, and then back to A, as different needs dictated, we decided that we should put them out of the way completely. So, now they are tucked away behind the garage - an area that looks a bit like a builders yard with different bricks, roof tiles, and paving slabs. Still, at least we won't have to move them again.
~
Today we had Vic our potential bathroom fitter coming along to take a look at what's involved in the shower room and en-suite bathroom, as well as Andy, the electrician, who needs to add a couple more connections for the heated floor in the shower room, and a power supply to the overhead lighting for the en-suite basin unit.
~
We had intended putting up more polythene today to protect the rest of the windows and doors from the plaster. However, the dampness of the wet plaster, combined with the cold weather had made most of the windows run with water. Despite Jan's best efforts at mopping up, the damp surface refused to accept the masking tape. Tony has therefore promised to be "extra careful". To try and help dry out the house a little we purchased a small greenhouse paraffin heater, which managed to take the chill out of the house, and in fact we saw that some of the plaster in the bedroom had already dried.
~
With the screeding quote accepted we now need Darren the plumber to lay all his pipes before the insulation and screed is started. I'm looking forward to getting the floor up to the right height as we both feel a little like Ronnie Corbett when we look out of the windows.
~
Our biggest problem at the moment is our inability to find kitchen cupboards that we like. So, this weeks challenge is to surf the Internet to see what we can find.

Jan & Rog

Preparing for the next schedule of work

The master bedroom

The kitchen

Sunset at Brookvale - Sunday 23rd January 2010

~

There have been no trades at Brookvale this week - Roy's men were due to continue from the middle of the week, but that turned into Monday the 25th, and rapidly became Wednesday 27th! They still have to widen the drive near the road, dig the service trench for BT's telephone cable, lay the porch pamments, and reinforce the road where the sewer pipe crosses.

The photos show the excellent work that Steve Baldock did on the dot and dab, and just for Julie (my niece) - a sunset!

~

Jan and I have ordered our bathroom and shower room fixtures and fittings from a supplier in Bedford. We've opted for a Burgundy coloured cabinet to house the (en-suite) moulded basin, and hidden cistern, with large mirror and overhead lighting. The shower room will be a wet room, which makes life a lot easier. We've been given the names of two fitters used regularly by the supplier and are waiting for them to make contact. Delivery on the fittings is in the region of 4 weeks, so we should have plenty of time to arrange everything that needs to be in place before then.

~

As Tony, our plasterer (and very good friend) is starting next Friday, Jan and I have been doing our usual Mr & Mrs Mop routine and clearing up so that Tony doesn't have to spend all his time moving "stuff". Tony appeared today too, and put up the reinforcing angle beads that protect the outside corners of the walls. As ever, our time at Brookvale rather extended as we tried to make the whole site look a tad tidier. By the time we left tonight the rubbish on the skip was 1/2 as high again as the skip, all the rubble had been moved into a single pile, and the place looked generally better for it. Needless to say, Jan and I are knackered!

~

With Tony starting on Friday, Jan and I will need to spend a couple of evenings protecting the wooden windows from the inevitable splashes of plaster. This involves the use of masking tape and polythene sheet - a combination known to reduce many a do-it-yourselfer to a sobbing wreck as the two materials should work together, but frequently don't. This is particularly so when the polythene sheeting we purchased from the local builders merchant on Saturday, is covered in wood dust. Wood dust and adhesive tape do not go well together.

~

One other little problem to wrestle with is the issue of "level access for wheelchairs" which all new builds are obliged to provide now. In essence we must provide an easy means for someone in a wheelchair to gain access to the house and use a toilet. We've had to fit a wider front door than normal to achieve the minimum width laid down, as well as a wide shower room door, but the actual meaning of "level access" is not clear at all. That'll be a call for Central Beds building control tomorrow.

~

The other job Roy's men will be doing is levelling the site and clearing the spoil. Once this is done we intend to find a firm to improve the subsoil, bring in topsoil, and turf most of the back garden prior to decisions on beds, ponds, bird feeding areas, et al.

~

Two old gits from Clifton feeling their age!

The last of the snow?

No picture this week as the only room that has changed significantly is the lounge / diner, but as that is full of scaffold towers, ladders, and trestles it doesn't make a very good photo.



Anyway, during the week Bob the chippy has made dummy door shuts so that the plasterer has an edge to work to, boxed in the soil pipe in the en-suite bathroom, and built the airing cupboard. Latterly, he has been finishing off the bay by covering the steel supports with specially cut oak. Bob has also put panelling across the mezzanine and a small door so that we can't be accused of making a room there - its a loft m'lud! Once the planners have signed of the house we'll rip this panelling and studwork off and convert it into our guest room/ study. Stupid, isn't it, but that's the world of planners - we have to observe the letter of the planning permission, but once the house is signed off we can build extensions, add loft rooms, et al.



Steve, our Dot and Dabber, finished off the plasterboard today and what a difference that has made to the lounge / diner and kitchen - so much lighter now. Its surprising how the grey block work walls really absorbed the light. The great thing about Steve is that he is TIDY! No mess when he's gone - rooms have been swept and he puts all his rubbish in the skip. I wonder if I can get him to speak to Bob the chippy - his idea of tidy is to spread all his chippings, sawdust, and offcuts, evenly round all the rooms. Never mind - I cleared up Bob's mess today so Wee House is tidy for the moment.



Next week will see the end of Bob's work, and preparation for Tony Holland (us proper nouns have to stick together) our plasterer. Tony is a near neighbour and good friend and we know he will do an excellent job for us. He starts at the end of the week after next and will be doing two long weekend stints - Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday for two successive weekends, so by mid February we should be well and truly plastered!



The coming week will also see a visit from Clive to discuss and quote for the floor screeding which will follow some of the plumbing work - getting the water and waste pipes in place before being covered by the screed. I've also got a meeting with Roy, our project manager come builder, to review the remaining groundwork jobs - widening the driveway entrance, digging the BT trench, and levelling the garden off prior to getting lorry loads of new topsoil.



One little irritating moment during the week was a meeting with Andy the electrician. When I said that we wanted flat plate light switches and sockets, he said that we couldn't because the wall boxes he had fitted were not deep enough. He gave me a trade catalogue and virtually every style of fittings required deeper wall boxes than had been fitted. Now why don't these tradespeople give you the choice before they start, rather than telling you how limited your selection is after the event? Anyway, after a surfing session with good old Google, I managed to find a range of good quality fittings that can use the shallower wall boxes fitted - so much for experts!

Jan & Rog

Snow progress

Sorry about the awful pun - but we're no further forward as its been too cold for Dot and Dab man, and apart from a few odd jobs from Bob the chippy, nothing has been done.

When Jan and I went to Brookvale yesterday, two of the three roads to the cottage were closed. We assume because of the icy condition of the road surface. Can't understand all the fuss personally (says he with four wheel drive!)

We went to our local bathroom supplier yesterday and had a very useful discussion. We now favour the shower room being a wet room with a heated floor so need to make suitable arrangements with the plumber (drainage levels) and electrician (new power source needed) before the floor screeding is done as the pipes and cables run in the screed.

Other than a quick tidy up today, that's it. Hopefully the weather will break during the week and we will make better progress.

The Clifton penguins

Happy New Year from Brookvale

Most of the contractors were away for Christmas apart from Steve Baldock our "dot and dab" man who spent 2 days this week fixing plasterboard to the walls (even he doesn't know which is "dot" and which is "dab"!). He's made short work of the bedroom, en suite bathroom, shower room, utility room, and hall, but ran out of materials so needs another day to finish off next week. With all the merchants away for the Christmas/New Year break we can't order more plasterboard until Monday.

~

As nothing outside has changed much, apart from the coming and going of frost and snow, our pictures this week are of the interior (bedroom bay and front door from the hall), as well as the front door from the porch.

~

With just a few more days required to finish off the woodwork and rectify a couple of bits of plasterboard that Roy's guys got a little wrong in the ceiling, the next step is plastering. We just hope we get some slightly warmer weather otherwise it won't dry out before spring!

~

Jan & Rog