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...

Kitchen - Living the dream

Plan

Before

Mock up - done for planning document

Done.

That is a nice feeling.

Lights are on, but no one is at home...

Click image to read letter

It's not that bad is it?

This is the living room as seen by Rita, the meter maid.

Well, we're making progress.

Starting prep work now. I re-routed some cables and put trunking on the walls ready to plaster over cables. Fixed wall boxes to the wall etc.

I'll post soon with a plan of action, as I think come the end of April, I'll be kicking back with a beer in our living room thinking about what to do next (well... maybe I know what we'll be doing next - there are plans to re do the top coat of render outside with something called eco mortar. I'm much better at plastering now, and there are problems with the top coat I've done so I'll go back to that and make it good. There is also the garden to do, which looks like a builders yard... kind of because it is!).

And I expect the snag list will last forever too.

Anyway back on track.

I have permission from conservation to replace the wooden window lintel in the living room. So I'm busy sourcing a piece of oak locally which is 230mm x 240mm x 2.1m. Turns out B&Q don't have any...

The structural engineer was excellent - Marsh Design - use them, they're ace. Quick, well priced and good. Extremely helpful. I'll put some drawings up that he did with loads and stuff - interesting if you like that kind of thing.

So I need to source wood and book a builder to put the beam in.

Also, we got a quote for the fireplace including cleaning, repair, lining, hearth and plate - it was a bit much so I rang up and said 'make it cheaper', so he is. Once he's done that we'll get him in, although finding a replacement jamb for the right side of the fireplace is proving less than easy.

So a vague plan of action for the immediate is to continue prepping the living room with sockets and trunking etc. ready to plaster, clean beams and wood. Also, we have brother in law Ben Ward coming for a few days at the end of next week to help wire brush down and rake out the pointing on the stone wall behind the dining table and stairs. Hopefully a one day job, but planning for 2 in case.

After that it's pointing of that wall and final prep for plastering the living room - there might be a spanner in the works there though as we can't do that until builders have replaced beam. hmmm.

I'll be taking a week off work to get 2 coats of plaster done on the walls - that is when things will suddenly move on I think.

Anyway, tea break over, must get on.

toodle pip.

insert interesting title here

Hello.

Here we are, the first post of 2010 – the year we finish our house (stop smirking).

It’s only the 30^th of January but we have already been cracking on with mainly the snag list in the kitchen.

First up was playing in the snow and having snow days at work (or not at work!).

Brill if nippy. We had ice on the inside of the windows for quite a while, but we now have working radiators (uosatirs anyway). Schveet and hot.

Secondly we bought a new bed. Having had a brilliant Christmas at both parents’ and enjoyed luxurious beds, we were shocked to land our backsides on the dipfest that was our nackered, tied-together-with-underwear timber frame bed. So with some Christmas money in hand we headed for ikea and bought the one we wanted... which for a change was also the cheapest... wooooop.

An evening was spent putting that together and good night sleeps have been had by all (both).

The first ‘real’ job we did was the breakfast bar. We had ummed and ahhhed for a while about whether to put the breakfast bar in as it might make the kitchen rather awkward and small. But we decided to go for it one Friday night a couple of weeks ago... although we weren’t sure how we were going to fix it as we had no legs (we did, we had four between us, 2 each, but none that the breakfast bar could use). I (Ben) woke with a flash of inspiration in the middle of the night, and Saturday morning we were out at B&Q buying parts. I also thought it was a naff idea and wouldn’t work and so complained the whole way around the store. Hannah was more confident.

The rest of the Saturday both Hannah and I crafted our breakfast bar. It consists of a wooden batten on the wall at one end, and 4mm metal rope and some hooks at the other end. Yup, we hung the breakfast bar from the ceiling, and it really works! It’s fantastic being able to sit at a table and eat. Brill.

So that was 3 weeks ago.

2 weeks ago I didn’t have much time on the Saturday as we had a ‘tidy up morning’ at church, but did manage to put a window sill in front of the sink in the kitchen. A surprising difference it makes too, rather than a dirty hole full of crap... (put own crude jokes here).

Last week we were looking after Freddie (our friends’ son) on the Saturday afternoon but had enough time to re-hang the door which goes in to the living room. I borrowed an electric planer from pops evans, which is older than me, but still does a great job. Thanks dad.

Monday and Thursday last week I got on with making a door for the bedroom. It’s an ok effort, not as good as a pro, and the quality of wood is a bit naff to be honest, but it does a job and looks ok. I found it tricky as it’s my first ever door that i have made and hung on my own, but it came out ok on the whole.

Today, Saturday I have been back on in the kitchen finishing off the pantry wall. We had originally planned to put green glass block in the wall, but have since decided we can’t be bothered. So i’ve got to work and plaster boarded the wall, made the door frame and put prependuit on the plasterboard ready for the lime putty coat to go on on Monday night. I have done the same around the back door too... a job that had just got left.

In other news we have got a quote from a man to sort out the fire place for us as it needs some serious TLC and stone work beyond my skills, as well as a liner etc for the stove so I’m happy to pay someone to do all that.

We have also had a structural engineer come around today to take a look at the (non existent) lintel above the window in the living room. We’re going to have to go through conservation and get permission to replace it. They might say go for original materials (oak beam) or to show the changing history of the building and go with a steel beam. Watch this space with that. I’ll be on to them first thing Monday morning to get the info so we can get moving quickly on that.

I have a master plan which would mean the house is almost done by the middle of April. Very attainable plan it is too. So we’re quite excited that the end is in sight (kind of).

And final news, someone grassed us up to the council so have to move our trailer off the road. Chuffers. And we have a cat, to catch Osama the Mouse (hides in holes and we can’t find him). The cat is a she cat called George, but looks uncannily like my childhood family cat Garfield, so names get interchanged.

Cool.

Until next time, stay classy San Diego.