Day 24

we began building the upper walls today, all very exciting!

Day 23

bit of a wet miserable day today, roof work going on and the blocks for the updstairs now up there waiting to be laid.  We marked out all the door ways for upstairs also.

Day 22

So more or less all done on the lower ground floor, just the second skin to go in the interanl wall between the garden store and the toilet room (you can see the spaces to put the bricks in the first pic).  Roof beams painted and floor joists starting to take shape.

the doorway to the garden store and to the left, the toilet window



 for painting the beams...

Day 21

we have a doorway!

Day 20

Away for a couple of days so missed some of the progress and returned to many walls !  great stuff.

Day 17

Built up the outside skin ready to paint with waterproofing tomorrow

Day 16

Well, into the fourth week and the walls are starting to go up now, beginning with the back retaining wall.  Friday’s work was putting the oversight onto the footprint of the site, so now we have a complete concrete floor across the whole site.

The Digger also left us today.

Day 14

After a day out with sickness the work began again in earnest, in fact, everything that needs to go out is now out, and everything that needs to go, can now go in.  The little stack of blocks holding up the house is now visible, exposed but standing strong :)

Day 11 + day 12

We suffered a little illness end of last week and it finally swept around the site so builders off on day 12 recouperating.  steady progress made on Monday though with the lower wall starting to come down.

Day 10

Days 9 and 10 meant the back of the house was taken away.  all that great 1940's building!  the small square hole in the middle of the shot right at the bottom is a little blockwork supoorting the central loadbearing wall in the house.  Next week all the remaining brickwork below our ground floor levelwill be removed and the rest of the footprint of the extension will be built.

Day 8

Starting to take down the outside wall and lower ground floor blockwork starting

Day 7

Last of the digging away - thats number 10 of the lorries

Pumping in the footings

All ready to start the building

Day 5

Day 4 (3rd March)

Not much different to report apart from the loo arrived! :)

the two trusty machines

 slowly getting there

Day 3

Loads more cleared today as the digger chugged away for 7 hours.  Lots of whacking seemingly from under the house as they pierced through the wall.  Next week they plan to take the back of the house away  so feels like we are motoring on.
The big lump in the garden still needs to be taken away but we are stockpiling a bit to backfill where needed.

Day 2

The big dig

 so thats how to get into the garage then

The builders roll in...

After marking the arrival of the builders with jumping on a rusty nail and spending a couple of hours in AE on Friday, I sit here to the constant drum of a pneumatic breaker. I thought they said a baby screaming was louder than that, as if.

Important man in high vis jacket arrived today with a clipboard. He looks a little more senior than the others with their jeans and a rolled up copy of the sun sticking out their back pocket. One chap is usually blowing his cheeks out between chain smoking leading me to think did I select the right firm - are they fit enough for to keep going til then end? Note to self….stop watching "Cowboy Builders’ on bbc3.   Joking aside, I think its more of a case that its a marathon not a sprint and they appear as good as gold  and I'm really happy that we made the right choice.

Later come to understand that the chap with clipboard is from the council, building control checking the hole I dug wasn’t too deep. yikes.

So with capsizing a skip loader, stepping on a nail and digging a hole too deep, I figured, stick to Data Management!!