Breaking into the dining room

One minute we have a window into the dining room and the next - it's gone!

Ed the plasterer moves in

Ed the plasterer has always looked a bit off colour to me, he has a ghostly palour of powdery off white about him. I am assured this is not a physical condition but a thick coating of plaster dust! Poor man.



The back bedroom with 60mm of Gyproc Super insulation boards.

Doors continued...

The door company was very apologetic, they had ordered an express door because I had asked for a quick turn around unfortunately, no one informed me that this would be at the expense of the door I really wanted. They are now changing the door and ordering the one I wanted. It would take another 6-7 weeks - oh god! never mind, bear the pain for a bit longer. At least we will be able to keep the existing doors in situ until the new doors arrive.

Sliding doors

The sliding doors arrived early this morning along with my kitchen units! This is not what I was expecting as delivery was not confirmed and the floor is still to be finished, it is most inconvenient for the builders. As a result, an unfortunate person from the kitchen suppliers had to listen to an earful of my unhappiness.


The worst was yet to come - it was only after the doors were fitted we realise that they had in fact delivered the wrong door! Could this be a case of being duped by a double glazing company with a cheaper door? I don't know and I was not able to find out until the following week as they had all gone home for the weekend.

What fine specimens!

The men in all their glory stopping to pose for a snap with the bewildered home owner.

Come on lads - there's a lot to be done by tomorrow, the doors are arriving and there is a lot of screed and concrete to be laid.

Nearly there lads - put that shirt back on Vlad what will the neighbours say!

Spaghetti of underfloor heating pipes

Vlad the builder clipping together the heating pipes.

Floor insulation

Julien the electrician on top of the floor insulation. There is over 120mm of Celotex there, it should keep my feet warm in the winter months!

Things are taking shape

After a very stressful week and a half in which I was in no mood to post a blog, we are now finally seeing things take shape and feeling a lot better for it.

It took us a whole week to decide on the type of window to have at the back and what to do about the rendering. Instead of the super duper triple glazed, low maintenance all glass Svarre windows we liked we have now opted for the traditional double glazed sash from Solberg in Denmark. It's easier to fit and less costly.

It's taken an age to work out the type of insulation to install for the internal walls in the back bedroom. I have now decided on 60mm of Gyproc Super with Gyp Liner Universal. As space is an issue for us in this room, we are using a lower thickness than that recommended by specifiers. At least British Gypsum offered me advice unlike the hard to get hold of people at Knauf Insulation who are not good at returning phone calls.

Stress and worries

The stress is now getting to us.

With no windows on the top floor and no sign of us being able to make a decision on what to do here, we are getting more and more frustrated about the whole situation.

Big mistake!

If you are doing a whole house refurb, never start from the bottom and work your way up – do it the logical way and start from the top and go down.

We are now in a situation where we have the builders working on the top floor of our house and they have had to take out two windows! What a mistake. The lead time for windows is between 7-8 weeks and we are struggling to decide on the windows to buy. Do we go for the triple glazed modern option for the back of the house or do we stay with the traditional sash look. It's all a balancing act between the type of window and how much work is involved in making it look good once installed.

Ohh we have a new roof!

The new roof is un-veiled behind all the orange plastic.

The kitchen floor is getting a make over...
The pipes are laid...