Bizarre House Work

One thing we didn’t know when we bought this place is just how bad the previous work that had been done on the place really was. As time goes on, we’re realising it more and more.

In the current bathroom work, we’ve found that the floor in there is extremely non-level, and in some places has up to an 8° slope. And the corners aren’t square either. Come to that, neither are the walls. And while I know that’s not down to work done by the previous owners, it’s still a pain in the tits.

As for the work done by the previous owners, some of it is nothing short of bizarre. For instance, because the place was originally built with nowhere near enough power sockets, they had rigged up what amounted to an extension lead with two lots of wall-mounted double sockets coming off it. And they’d done that in just about every room.

There are also under-cupboard lights in the kitchen which were running from a power-feed that should be only going to be boiler. According to the electrician (who went an interesting shade of white when he saw it) that is a serious no-no.

I’ve written about the heating system before, where the wiring and pipework are – what’s the best word? – interesting. Yes, interesting – that’ll just about cover it.

Now in the bathroom we’ve found that they replaced the toilet with a new one (which, incidentally means they chose an avocado-green suite, it wasn’t forced upon them at house-purchase time) and fixed the difference in pipe-sizes with a plastic collar filled with solid cement.

All told, very bizarre people. Still, at least we’re getting these things sorted out slowly but surely.

Oh God, When Will It End?

We’re now in the third week of the work in the bathroom, and it has to be said that the sense of humour is slowly failing. We’re at the point now where we just want it to be over and done with.

I think some of this is because we’re so nearly there – the builder is in today (and possibly tomorrow) to finish things off, then the plumber’s here Wednesday/Thursday to finish off putting in the other bits of the new suite (Sink/pedestal and toilet), and then to move around a couple of radiators. So we should be done by the end of the week.

At that point it’s “just” painting and tiling to be done, but we’re doing those – so we have to choose the colours and buy the tiles. But at least the main dollop of work will be completed.

But really now we just want to time-travel forwards to Friday so that it’s all done and we can get going on our own bits of work.

Building Work – Yet Again

The saga of the re-done bathroom is still ongoing. The plumber came round yesterday in the end – he’d been held back on a previous job which turned into a nightmare, so we’re about 1½ days behind schedule on that score. But the pipework and wiring is now in place for the new shower, the old heating pipes have been chopped out of the floor and capped off (and then covered in cement to level the floor off again – Lord, I hope they don’t leak…) and everything seems to be in place for the work to be done today.

The new bathroom suite is here, arrived at 8:30, and all seems to be intact and ready to go. The bath and shower are the priority items to be done today, and if the rest of the suite gets installed as well, that’s just a bonus.

So we’ll just see how it goes. With a bit of luck, most of the work will be done by the end of today, and then the builder will be in tomorrow to finish off the end of the new wall once the bath is installed, so we’ve got a good smooth finish to it all. You never know, at that point there might even be a photo or two…

Illuminated

Yesterday we had the electrician back in to sort out the lights and so on in the new bathroom. Over the weekend there wasn’t any light in there (well, except for a table lamp that we put in there on an extension lead to tide us over) so it’s been good to get the new light fitting installed and working.

He was also putting in the power for the new shower, and installing a new bathroom cabinet/mirror (it’s got a couple of small low-wattage lights in, hence needing the electrician to install the thing) except that ended up having problems – somehow, the brackets on the inside weren’t aligned, so all the shelves were on a (roughly) 20° slope. Fortunately we’ve been able to get it replaced (the brackets were spot-welded or something to the cabinet, and thus not moveable) but it means that we’ll be having the electrician here again tomorrow to fit it.

We’ve also got the plumber arriving for the rest of the week, changing over radiators, installing the shower, and removing the old radiator pipes from the bathroom floor so we can get it all levelled off and ready for the new flooring at some point.

Progress on the bathroom has been utterly fantastic – we’ve been using it as a kind of testing ground for the builder and his colleagues, so that we know who we’ll use when it comes to the big kitchen extension next year – and so far they’ve passed the test with flying colours.

Building Work – Again

So far, the building work seems to be going pretty well. In fact, other than levelling the floor (which can only be done once the old radiator pipes have been chopped out and sealed) I think they’re going to be finished today.

We get the new bathroom suite delivered next week, and hopefully the plumber will be able to get it all sorted before my parents come up here next weekend. After all, it’s the first time they’ll have seen the place, so it would be nice for them to see it with a working (and vaguely sorted) bathroom. But we’ll just have to wait and see on that one, I suppose.

The changes to the rooms are really impressive though – it’s beginning to feel like we’re actually getting somewhere with it all, even though the room won’t be fully completed for another couple of weeks at least. After all, there’s still the tiling to be done, and the new floor-covering to be put in, as well as painting and generally getting it all finished. But the building work was the big thing that needed doing before anything else could get under way, and that’s the bit that should be pretty much completed today.

Progress, at last.

Building Work – Day Two

By the end of Day One, the separating wall was down, all the tiles were off the walls, the shower-cubicle was gone, one of the doorways was blocked up, and the floor was patched-up where the wall had been.

Today, they’re going to be blocking up one of the windows, taking up the tiles on the floor, and a bundle of other things.

In short, the progress has been amazing. Well, to my mind it’s been amazing anyway. We’re really pleased with how things are going, and with the size of the merged room.

Yes, things are going well.