Minor painting issues

oops :)

Beginning of the end

Revamped outside of the house - cant really claim any credit for this though :)

Ahhhh at last - things do start getting better :)

And to start getting better - we had to go backwards....

Check out the lovely curves we got to hide the horrendous plastering.....

Got to say though - it was very theraputic smashing it and then ripping it all off.

This was meant to be 40mm Celotex tuff-R but close........

This was our handywork following brandering out the rafters to give us enough depth to leave an air gap at the back of the insulation:

And this was me in the process of brandering out the rafters in the back room

This is downstairs hall after I'd ripped off all the old paneling:

And the plasterboard going back on.  check the antique light it did originally have some glass shades but even that didn't help :)

 Base for the step at the back door

wall plate being installed on the inner leaf of blocks (still never got a proper reason for this!)

Steps to the garage (dont meet building control but they seemed good at the time)

This was sorting the lintel in the hallway

And putting in the frame for the false ceiling.  

All rather more positive that the majority of posts recently I'm sure you'll agree :D

Things can only get better.....

ok so one final update on the state of things after builder number one ;)

Spent about 3 hours and took 5 trips under the floor to get this section of joist into place to provide some support for their "structural lintel" which was previous just sitting on the floor boards. To say it was an awkward position doesn't quite do it justice:

This is what was left on the drive once the skip was removed:

Round the side of the house:

 

This is the side of the dormer - no lead at all just the slae

 

And the top wasn't any better, no bottom course, just a couple of random bits of lead:

This is the general state of the gutters, this one was smashed where tje scaffolding was bouncing against it.

 

Back of the house:

This is the the kitchen area of the extension:

 And my lovely new garage and boiler......

How not to use a mac-flash:

 

The bad, the worse and the ugly

So this is where things just started to go wrong.

This was the front bedroom wall where they had framed over the rafters so there wasn't any excuse for it not being straight:


Lots of bits like this where the plaster was knocked back off:



Bits that weren't quite right so just went down the brute force and ignorance route. This is the window frame - as it was a bit tight they just chipped it away:


Then rather than tidy it up they just slapped some silicon on it which looked wonderful. (cant find a pic of that - will need to take one).


This is what they were going to use as a dpm - note sure the holes will be obvious but it was like a pin cushion:





How not to install a structural lintel (yup the same one they made a mess of at the top) - this was sitting on floor boards. The joist on the right was put in by me just to give some kind of support:


It couldn't be in a worse position. There is a wall running in teh direction of the joist - and a another dwarf one running at 90 degrees to it, starting about 4 inches to the right. Took me about 2 hours and 5 trips under the floor to get that in.


And if you've ever wondered what not to do with asbestos soffits, how about this for a prime example:


All done with a electric drill and hole saw :(

And how about this for a nice plumb wall (one to the left of the ladders) :




And thats about it for the how not to do things. Next update its all going forward (although back a lot first!)

update part2

Ok this is the upstairs starting to take shape - this is looking down the side of the showerroom in the rear bedroom




This is the showeroom from the other side (looking towards the back of the house)



Stairs had gone in.....just. Lots of shouting and swearing as they went in.



And this is around the point things started to get noticably worse. This is some of their plasterboarding:


If the gaps were not bad enough- these 2 boards were no supported at all at the edges.



And where they did join it wasn't any better:




This is the infamous lintel that was messed up 3 times (twice after being told what he had to do by the architect. The top 2 are the 8" beams lying flat against the ceiling, instead of being vertical. We had words regarding this but he was adamant that he was right and pretty much said that we didn't know what we were talking about. I got the architect to have a look and he said it had to be fixed. the 2 4"x2"s nailed underneath were his next attempt. there was supposed to be a shoe/hanger but wasn't.


I emailed the architect a picture of this and I was promised it was all going to be fixed. This is what we got next:




Anyway this is the new stairs in all their glory or they would be if there were complete (they bought a straight one and were going to build the winders themselves but that wasn't done when this was taken)


Ok last couple for tonight. this is the loft starting to take shape (although note the interesting hole in hte plasterboard at the top of the coombe:



And this is the showeroom after being plastered:

It was by far the best bit of plasterboarding and plastering that was done.

Major update

Well as you will all know, the last few months haven't gone well but things are looking up - the builders have gone and we are close to choosing a new one to get the job finished. I didn't realise it was so long since the last update so I'll try and show what happened:


This is the start of the roof being opened up for the dormers -

And this is the inside starting to take shape:


And starting to take shape from the outside too. Unfortunately this is when the rest of the house started to get wet as they were incapable of sealing the hole - it was pretty horrific weather though but they still sould have been able to seal it.



This is the extension (garage) starting to take shape:


This is the rear dormer structure complete but covered to keep the rain out (badly but better than the front!)



This is the rear of the extension - looking in from the kitchen window


This is where the loft hatch used to be - now just a hole for the ladders between the new joists:



this is the roof trusses (which they built themselves to keep costs down) for the extension extension:



Preparations for the opening up for the stairs:


If you look just to the right of the tank you'll see where the velux window is going above the stairs.

hole for stairs:


And the remains of the old kitchen after it was demolished -


they dont make kitchens like that any more - took them ages to smash it up :D

I'll split it into 2 posts - dont want to spoil you too much!!!