Day 16 - Structure Complete

The day started with a hasty meeting about the bathroom.  Having spent most of the night considering our options we delivered our verdict to the plumbers, who straight away got down to moving the pipes they had already laid for the basin and shower.  They were also able to complete the macerator discharge pipe now, which luckily didn't have to change (because they hadn't done that end of it yet).  Then they came inside and connected up all the pipes in the airing cupboard.

Meanwhile, Marcus and Simon carried on with the remainder of the structural work.  They completed the dwarf wall on top of the steel beam which will become the wall of the stairwell.  They removed the purlin from above the stairs, where it will be in the way, and trimmed the joists for the last Velux window.  They also installed a big chunk of timber to support the end of the front ridge beam.

By 15:30 they were taking bags of rubbish to the skip, so we got a quick progress update.  The structure is now all complete, so the building inspector will be coming to inspect it tomorrow.

The next phase is electrical first fix before the chicken-wire goes down with insulation on top.  The evening was spent finalising where the sockets and lights are going to go.

We Have a Problem

Steve the plumber mentioned it first. As he measured up for where the pipes had to go, he said we were a bit tight between the wash basin and the shower. There wouldn't be room to stand in front of the basin, let alone bend over to wash your face.
We checked our plans and realised that we had drawn the wash basin smaller than it really is. So it was our planning error. And something has to be done about it - the bathroom will be unusable if we build it as planned. We have a few options:

• Re-arrange the whole bathroom and put the shower on the opposite wall. This would require a different window (the original has already been ordered).
• Get a smaller shower (we've already bought the big one).
• Get a smaller basin - such as a counter-top one.
• Move the walls to make the bathroom bigger - clearly not a cheap option at this stage.

After a sleepless night and a lot of thinking, we decided to go with a combination of a smaller shower and a minor re-arrangement of the furniture. This will lead to a bit of re-work by the plumbers, and we'll have to sell that big shower enclosure on ebay (what would we do without ebay?) At least now we will have a bathroom that works, even if our shower won't be quite the monster we had been expecting.

Day 15 - Roofers and Plumbers

At 07:55 this morning we had a couple of roofers sitting in their van waiting for Marcus. At 09:00 two plumbers turned up. The plumber had a delay on another of his jobs, so he was shortly joined by a third plumber. So it's been busy up on the scaffolding today! The roofers have finished the dormer cheeks with very neat looking tiles. (The front will be uPVC cladding, so not their problem.) They stopped quite early, but they will be coming back soon to finish off. They couldn't finish today because they needed to use some mortar, which needs a temperature of at least 4 degrees to cure it - which was not available today. The plumbers ran flexible pipes up to the bathroom and spent a lot of time worrying about how they were going to do our macerators. We are using two macerators, one for the shower and one for the toilet. They need separate pipes all the way to the soil stack and use different diameter pipes. The upshot is that the two discharge pipes take completely different routes across the loft and individually required their own set of head-scratching and technical advice from the manufacturers. I'd agree with all advice I've had - if you can possibly avoid a macerator, do.

Meanwhile, Marcus and Simon quietly got on with the rest of the supporting walls in the study and under the East-facing slope of the main roof. This included the stud wall to separate the bedroom and study areas. This is almost complete, and they move on to the wall round the stairs tomorrow.

Day 14 - Two More Windows

Today should have been the roofer again, but he was delayed on another job - he's coming tomorrow. Marcus and Simon spent most of the day putting two Velux windows in the North-facing slope of the study. There being two windows, they spent a lot of time cutting the tiles to fit the space between. A sharp shower in the afternoon tested the waterproofing. They also completed more work on the purlin wall on that side of the study. We can now see much better how the internal walls are going to be arranged, and the reason they're doing some things the way they are. Not all as we would have designed it had we started with a clean sheet - but of course we didn't - we started with a roof that we had to be supported safely.

Day 13 - Simon Alone

Monday 12th January, only Simon was here. Marcus had to go out and order the windows and do other things that builders do when they're not on site. Simon worked away on the details. He erected the stud-work for the bathroom and the supports for the purlin walls across the centre of the house. He also did some other details, such as putting wooden chocks in the ridge steel beam to take the plasterboard, and noggins all over the place.

Day 12 - A Very Busy Day

Just before 8am the skip man arrived with the skip. Unforunately we are at the end of a dead-end road which he didn't realise and he therefore had to reverse all the way out back on to the main road and then reverse down our road. Skip is now at the bottom of the garage ramp. Simon appreared just before the skip man left and then Marcus turned up with Sam the labourer, swiftly followed by the large lorry delivering the tiles for the sides of the dormer. (There was nothing else on the lorry and it looked rather ridiculous with just our few tiles!). Then the roofers appeared. So by the end of the day the dormer roof was completed and watertight but the cheeks will have to wait until they are back on Tuesday. Sam kept busy (and warm, it was freezing) filling the skip and carrying tiles up to the top of the scaffold while Marcus and Simon concentrated on removing the old roof joists. David and I had decided to go up and take a look over the weekend but then David rang to tell me he had done his back in (as of today, he can still hardly walk) so if I wanted to have a look I'd have to do it while M&S were there. So, braving the cold and the ladder, I climbed up to the top of the scaffolding. However, now that they have covered the framework, the only way into the loft is up another ladder and through the window hole. Not a very elegant way to enter my bedroom for the first time. Anyway, once inside I was very impressed. No floor yet (can't have one till all the plumbing and electrics are done) so it was a question of being very careful walking along the floor joists. There was a little bit of our old boarding around and of course as the head height is not much I was able to put my arms above my head and hold on to the new roof joists as well. I even made my way over to the Velux window and had a look outside.

Next week should be busy. The Building Inspector is due back, the roofers are coming on Tuesday to finish their work, more Velux windows should be put in (another 3 to go), the plumber is coming to do his first fix, Marcus may well do his first fix of the electrics (he's a qualified electrician) and with any luck the staircase could be in by the weekend. Fingers crossed.

Day 11 - More Dormer Work

Today was spent putting the sides and front onto the dormer frame (and presumably other bits I don't know about). Not much else to say really, except got Marcus to take a photo of the inside as well.