15. Interlude

Not much has been happening on the building front this week, I've been far too busy visiting my wife in hospital, who gave birth to baby Thomas on Wednesday.

Mom and baby are doing fine and should be out of hospital soon, all being well. Which means I need to get back to work so that Thomas can have his own room when he's a bit older...

14. A floor and a roof

The hangers are now bricked in, giving me chance to install the floor joists for the bedroom extension.

Meanwhile, the scaffolders are back to install the final lift.

This allows the brickies to complete the brickwork...

...and me to install the wallplate ready for the roof to go on.

Two days work from the carpenter sees the extension roof complete. Which would probably have taken me two weeks. Money well spent.

13. The bricklayers are back.

Another day's work from the bricklayers sees the rear extension almost up to wall plate.

Meanwhile, I get to work on the existing side elevation...

The old fascia boards and windows are removed, and an opening is made for a new window. Any loose brickwork is removed and the joints are raked out ready for repointing.

Finally, another day from the brickies sees my week of demolition put right. Bricks for the patching up have been reclaimed from elsewhere on the job so the joins can't be seen.

Next week should see the return of the scaffolders for the final lift.

12. Back to knocking stuff down.

The old chimney is taken down.

Stripping back the roof tiles reveals the fascia needs a little tlc...

Strongboys are inserted to hold up the roof while the brickwork below is removed.

The first few rows of tiles are removed for access to the top of the brickwork.

A new 9"x3" timber beam is inserted to hold up the existing roof above the extension.

With the beam and strongboys in place it's safe to start removing the brickwork below. Skip number 10 is full and I realise just getting rid of the rubble has cost well over £1000.

The first lift of scaffold goes up and the bricklayers are back for another day's work. The extension is really starting to take shape now.

Next week I'll be grinding out the mortar on the side of the existing house ready for repointing. Nice.

11. The steel arrives.

The big steel lintel which will span the opening for the folding sliding doors on the rear elevation. At 6 metres long and weighing in at 400kg, it's a monster. It took 3 of us to push it up the drive (Thanks, Jim A).

A bit of adjustment [with a sledgehammer] was required to the wall of the old garage to manoeuvre the lintel to the back of the house.

It's a tight squeeze.

After the best part of a day levering the lintel around, it's finally onto the hired genie lifts.

Nervous moments as nearly half a tonne of steel teeters above my new brickwork. And my head...

The two 60kg universal beams are a walk in the park in comparison.

Steelwork in place, genie lifts back at the hire shop, and no slipped discs or squashed toes. Result.

10. At last. Some building.

Not much of the back of the house left at all now. Thank goodness for acrow props.

The trench is dug for the foundations which sees off skip number 9. The building inspector passes it off, although I did have to underpin the existing structure to make him happy.

3.5 cubic metres of concrete are barrowed in and levelled. Thanks to my dad again for his assistance there.

Finally some building starts. 3 brickies and a labourer make some decent progress.

By the end of day 1 we are half way there with the ground floor of the extension.

Day 2 sees most of the ground floor complete. The padstones are laid ready for the steel which should be arriving next week.

There is even time for some of the internal walls to be started. The bricks have been reclaimed from the walls which were knocked down.

I am happy with the progress and the standard of workmanship, and the brickies are happy they have some beer tokens for the sunny weekend ahead. Excellent.

9. More Demolition

Next stage, demolition of the existing lounge extension...

First the old timber floor comes up.

Then the cast-in-situ reinforced concrete lintel gets shoved off. All 12 feet of it. With a bit of a clatter.

Unfortunately we couldn't save the weighty oak framed window, despite having 4 volunteers at the ready. We had to let it go to avoid the risk of injury. At least the lead, steel and timber will be recycled.

The timber kitchen floor is also removed.

Not much of the old extension left as we say goodbye to skip number 7.

A hired breaker makes short work of the concrete lintel...

...and the concrete floors.

The old walls are taken down to below floor level and the old brickwork is toothed out ready to connect to the new extension. Skip 8 is full. And I am tired.

Next week, digging the footings and my first meeting with the building inspector. With a bit of luck.