I have a dream...

"I have a dream that one day this house will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all buildings are created equal.' I have a dream that one day on the rolling hills of Huddersfield the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table in the living room. I have a dream that one day even the County of West Yorkshire, a desert state, drowning in the rains of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of sunshine and leisure time. I have a dream that my children will one day live in a house where they will not be judged by the colour of their living room walls even if they will be beautifully plastered and painted but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.”


I share in Martin Luther King's dream and while the big guy didn't have access to Google calendar I do so have firmed up a plan of action on his behalf.


'Holiday' is booked... hopefully things will go swimmingly.

Lintel part 2, and some other bits.

Lintel is in. Jolly good. It is quite large and makes a statement in the room, but i think once the walls are plastered etc. it will look really nice. Most importantly it is holding the wall up (well, once the acros are removed hopefully it will!) and was fitted without anything falling down!







Here are some snaps of the old lintel looking rather sorry for itself...

George didn't seem too impressed

At night, if you listen really carefully you can hear the worms saying "yum yum yum"

The front and bottom edge

It might not be very interesting to look at, but for those who remember how the cabling was going into the old fuse board will appreciate the tidiness of these images!



In other news, my back is feeling a fair bit better so hoping to get my 2 weeks over easter to press on, and we have had to move the trailer from the front of the house (bowling green side) as Susan is getting a new fence fitted today and we wouldn't have been able to get it out! So a 7:15am shift about returned the trailer to its unlawful home on mount road. My plan is to remove our number plate, leaving Hannah's parents one on show ;) "I know nooothing" - as Manuel would say.

And finally...

every now again i'll come across an old photo and think "what are we doing, it wasn't bad at all how it was!

Before

During.

After.......

Stuff about lintel removal

I got home from work to a dust filled house yesterday through which I could just about make out the figure of some one bashing big holes out of the wall by the window. Turned out it was Andy the builder, which was good, and oddly enough his Geordie wife who was very nice and whose sister lives just up the road from Hannah's parents by the Ship pub. Always nice to talk to a Geordie.

Any hoo.

Andy had managed to exchange the incorrect beam for the correct one and had managed to get it in to the living room, but was awaiting the availability of his chum to lift it into place.

Hannah and I went up to Shildon so I could get my back treated and by the time we got back at 1am the beam was in place - so some how they managed it. The ceiling was still held up by acros and the beam hadn't yet been packed or mortared, but he called this morning to say he was on his way to do that today.

So that is that. A nice bit of progress. even if there is a good layer of muck and dust across the house - and the cat gets ever more grubbier!

here are some pics, but I've not taken one of the lintel which was removed - which is amazing. it is so rotten and infested that one end of it is pretty much dust! I'll get a snap of that and post it soon. There are also some pics of the new fireplace - which is almost done. More on that once the stove is fitted hopefully.

Sicknote

Hallo,

Well, it's been frustratingly slow, yet busy.

The past four weekends I have paid visits to London, Coniston, Liverpool, Gateshead/Chester-le-Street and Leicester. So as far as DIY is concerned nothing has happened over weekends.

I also managed to hurt my back 2 weeks ago which means I've not been able to lift, twist, bend or walk particularly well! This is a real pain in the .. back. I'm getting a little concerned that we will be living in a building site for a long time if I can't get cracking with plastering the living room soon - and before I do that there are various bits and bobs that need doing - like rewiring the living room, running speaker, network and AV cables through the living room and fixing stairs.

I planned to get a lot done over Easter and take 2 weeks holiday to do it, but if the back isn't up to it I'll have to hold off - but as all weekends in August are booked up, as are 2 in July, 1 in June, 2 in May and 3 in April with more inevitable to be taken up time is already very precious! I'm maybe prematurely worrying, but my dream of sitting back with a cooled beer in my living room on the 12th of June to watch the start of England's victorious World Cup campaign does seem to be slipping away.

Any hoo, so "what has been happening?" I can't hear you shout...

Steve the fireplace man has just about finished but still has a days work to do in clearing up and actually fitting the stove. The stove is purchased but we are waiting for delivery which should be in the next couple of days. It is a 4.7KWh AGA defra approved wood burning stove. Kirklees is a smoke control zone, so to legally burn wood you have to have a super efficient stove - which inevitable costs more! Apparently it works by burning the smoke twice, or something like that I read somewhere. I might do a little more reading. We purchased it from a local stove shop who did an excellent job in price matching the web and were very helpful. So big up to the pot belly stove shop on Lockwood road in Huddersfield. Hopefully Steve will be back to install it this week - after he has put a stove in a thatched cottage in Suffolk apparently - erk! Spot the hazard.

Phil my electrician chum has spent a couple of mornings installing a consumer unit in the kitchen to replace the fuse board and testing the installation and all the cabling. He has done a fantastic job - so neat, you'd think he had been doing it man and boy...

My circuits have all been tested apart from the living room stuff ( I think anyway!) and so far have come up as being all good. Had a lack of continuity on the upstairs ring negative which was a dodgy connection in a socket, and a low resistance on the insulation on the negative on the kitchen lighting circuit - but that was a trapped cable in one of the kitchen light fittings which has now been fixed up too. So it's looking good. I need to change some of the cabling in the living room, but this is easy enough and should only be an evenings work and will comply with all the rules and regs. brill.

What else? mm oh yes, the beam. Turns out I can't read structural engineers drawings and ordered the wrong size of wood. Gutted. So with a bit of messing about I am getting it exchanged for the correct size. The builder is hopefully picking it up today and installing it this afternoon, but we'll see... you never really know do you?!

To be fair, the builder has been very good. He has fitted 2 conservation friendly ridge air vents on the roof which seem to be doing their job of alleviating the damp in the roof space. He also managed to carry the  beam I had ordered out of the house on his own - I am more than impressed by this. Me and another chap struggled with it to get it in the house. Admittedly, apparently his head was very red and close to exploding, but lived to tell the tale. Hannah did note that he was 'beefcake', which apparently I'm lacking.

Hopefully this new beam will be the badgers nadgers and do the job so we can get it ticked off.

That's all for now. Photos to follow soon... maybe.

Builders and roofers and carpenters and sparkies, these are a few of my favourite things

busy busy busy, but not so much on the house it seems!

We have had a run of weekends where we have been involved in doing other things, be it family 'do's', people staying, church events, extra work or working towards world peace they have all meant time spent on the house has been precious.

But perhaps in a way it is good timing as there is only so much I can do at the moment due to needing work completed by contractors first.

So, lets start with the update.

Having put the christmas decorations away I become evermore concerned about the damp timbers in the roof space, so called up on an expert in timber and damp - patrick doyle of holmfirth. A hugely knowledgeable guy, very friendlyand helpful. Certaintly buy him a pint if ever you seem him. He popped round one thursday morning and took a look and confirmed my thinking that the problem was a build up of condensation in the roof space - mostly from the bathroom. The tradition roof design is to have some space under the eaves where a natural draft can enter - but not on our house, not a mm. He offered several solutions, many of which wouldn't get past conservation, but did suggest some ridge vent tiles for the roof. I thought this was a jolly good idea and promptly got in touch with conservation who have OK'd the alteration without the need for listed building consent (LBC). Brill.

Conservation can be a pain sometimes - see previous posts! but recently I hace found them to be excellent - helpfull and informative. I think if one goes to them and asks them what they want first it can be quite an easy life - recently I have a fireplace jamb, new lintel and vent tiles approved over email and very quickly. Top marks to them.

Next up we have the fireplace. Wanting to support local business we headed to the local stove shop and asked their advice about fixing up our fireplace and they put us on to a chap called Steve. He came and spec'd and priced and we thought it was alright. He is replacing the right jamb, cleaning up the other stone work, cleaning the inside of the foreplace, repointing if necesarry and laying a hearth. He is also putting in a lining and plate ready for the stove, which he will also attach. He'ss also strapping the left jamb for added strength. An all in deal. Apart from the right jamb and the lining I could have done it myself, but it would have taken ages and ages, not be as good and be absolutely filthy, so as it was such a major feature of the house and ultimately a selling point, we wanted it spot on, so we booked him and he is currently doing the work.

He's replaced the jamb and layed the hearth and judging by the soot and muck all over the living room, and the soot dust over the kitchen, I guess he has started cleaning the inside too - put it's covered over with a plastic sheet at the moment why the mortar goes off.





He's a helpful, friendly chap and seems to know what he's doing, and doing a good job, so a nother recomendation for him.

Next up, lintel.

We got several quotes from various people around the country for an oak beam and by far the cheapest was a company called yorkshire oak frames. They weren't the quickest at responding - but probably because it was a small one off order but it was worth chasing them as they have delivered the goods! It is a mighty lump of oak which is an effort for 2 men to just hold, never mind move about! Thankfully I have employed a builder to solve the problem of actually fitting it. Jolly good.



It turns out he can also fit ridge vents, so he's doing that at the same time. Jolly good.

Umm what else. Oh yes, got an electrician to fit a consumer unit. he's going to do that on Monday hopefully. He's also going to let me know what i'll need to change to what I've done to enable it to be signed off part P. Basically, if all goes to plan, he's going to employ me as a labourer, I do the work how he says and then he comes and checks it and signs it off. THe main point here being that i don't have to pay him to do any work, only the signing off bit. I did make tentative suggestions towards this idea in the summer before I started wiring, but it seems i asked the wrong partner in the pair as the other one didn't suggest it and i thought it a little cheeky to ask. So, depending on how much I've done wrong and what needs changing, this could all work out rather well. And at the very least we'll have a consumer unit which means everything won't be running off one socket :) never turn on the fridge, washing machine oven and kettle at the same time - it can't handle it!

I think that is it for contractors, I'm not planning on getting anyone else in and once theyare done I can get on plastering the living room. I have planned a hardcore, but realisitic schedule for 2 weeks over easter to get the living room and outside of the house plastered. TIme for big changes then, and i'm looking forward to making progress again.

I have been doing some work.

Ben Ward cam and stayed for a weekend a couple of weeks ago and helped me and hannah clean up the stone wall going up the stairs and behind the dining table. It is an excellent job and we got it done relatively quickly - a long day and an evening. We're pleased, and I don't think we're going to point it as it looks nice as it is! we'll see how much muck and dust falls out.




Ben also helped pick up some firewood from a friends house and helped put some plasterboard up over the landing - stirling work. I got the landing ceiling plasterboarded in a long morning/early afternoon andwas really pleased. I don't like plasterboarding, and it was hard work and tricky doing it over the stairs, but it'll be much much easier to plaster and avoids the mareish situation encountered in the bedroom. I wish i had done the same in there now, but live and learn... I just didn't know!



I have also put a studd wall up and plasterboarded the vestibule wall - this took a while, but i can't remember why.



So, i think that is all for now. Got to dash, so until next time...