Good progress but a lack of tiles and a broken extractor fan have halted any real progress

But since the last time the lights have been done

Lights !

and look good – here’s and artistic shot.

..note the empty wine glass...

Due to the lack of tiles we got bored and started to move things back into the kitchen

I am told the microwave is not staying there....

including the radio

and the Joesph Joseph stuff arrived…..more of in the next post

...nice...!

Units are now placed in their final positions

The Laundry Room is coming along

Pull out larder

..and the rest of the kitchen

Plus we have sinks……

..the tap will be changed !

...a waste disposal unit

And an extractor fan…whats not to like  !!

More updates to follow.

Looks like a kitchen

The bad news from the installers on Friday was the floor is not level and from end to end there is a difference on 47m/m. This is unfortunate as I always fancied a snooker table….

Walking uphill....

The rest of the kitchen is ready for install on Monday

So progress should be swift – more updates to follow.

Impressively the guys showed up just after eight this morning – and surveyed the empty shell of the kitchen before bashing nine bells out of it.

A lonely cooker

Good work was achieved around the utility room and cooker – although there was a casualty – the utility room light which was shattered like a spicy popadum on a Friday night at the Raj – minus the argument over the end of evening bill.

Antique light fitting goes for a burton

The bashing of nine bells out of the kitchen was rescued by the chap from the cooker cleaning company – who really did a good job with the cooker – see below – not bad for the first real clean in eight years….and yes I know what your thinking…I do try to have a shave at least once a week.

Ohhhh, that's shiney

From our expereince with building work it can get embarrassing letting people into your house – especially if cupboards or units are being removed or they are getting to placed not normally seen on a daily basis – as there is always something left behind, in or on top of them. These could range from a mysteriously empty package of Halloween Jaffa cakes through to signed photo of Barry Manlow with kisses.

Fortunately (phew) that’s not been the case today – as we only found the following:-

• A new non-electric toothbrush
• Baby Toy feeding bottle – or bot-bot as it might have been called originally
• A plastic egg poacher insert
• A plastic pig timer with only one ear – broken – the timer, not sure where the missing ear is
• …and a pair of my underpants….clean I think

Missing items now found

Tomorrow the guys are planning to get on with the electrics and plastering.

To save dirtying the newly cleaned cooker the Leonard comune are off into Hertford to consume the food delights the town has to offer….so beer and kebabs…lovely.

Packing starts

It’s quite amazing how much crap kitchen stuff we found – too many unused ‘cookie-cutters’ and more cake tins than Mcvitte’s. Nigella would have had a field day.

The Kitchen bare

In order to survive the kitchen ripout – cooking essentials have been setup next door (the TV room not the neighbours!) and include a kettle, microwave and breakfast cereals. It’s more like a caravan than a TV room.

The stove is staying

The utility room (below) is also having a makeover – please note the new boiler with dodgy wiring – all to be sorted over the next few weeks.

Progress updates hopefully daily…….

Where's me table...?

I love the Quasimodo one that finishes with “..but he’s a dead ringer for his brother.” (Cheers Barry!) so this week it gives me great pleasure to resurrect a wonderful old news item from the Two Ronnies – circa 1982.

“During the weekend burglars have struck at the Headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, stealing all the toilets. A police spokesman said they have absolutely nothing to go on…”

Alas – We have bought the wrong toilets……………..and have nothing to go on…

It’s not a particularly welcome feeling knowing that you have failed in the basic ordering process and you feel a complete spaz idiot that you didn’t know there are different toilets in this world (apart from Japan, of course).

Don’t worry I am a complete expert on the waste pipe connectivity options… now, and we have two new toilets on order.

And now for some good news – the lights on the rear of the house are working…

Lights 1

It may not be Glastonbury, but I like…

Lights 2

And we are ready for the bath – which will be winched into place next week.

BTW the round thing in the picture is a paint pot – not the bath – that’s a bit bigger…

...without Bath

Problems also happened this week around the underfloor heating which the tilers boys managed to break during the tiling work. No biggie – the boys managed to resource the equivalent of a puncture repair kit for underfloor heating and are back on Monday to finish. Sounds swish, but wasn’t.

Wot no tiles !

Bathroom work is nearly finished as the next two pictures demonstrate.

Bathroom 1

Bathroom 2

Finally, the lights are up in Steph’s bedroom – nice if you like that sort of thing – have a good week.

Spider lights

Happy Mothers Day…x

PS. I have two toilets for sale – never used, never taken out of the boxes, have interesting waste connections…….offers welcome…pls

For the one person who might be interested in the reason for the non-updates – work load and travel are cited as the reasons – but lets not dwell on this – lets find out what has been happening to the ‘dwellings’

…(did you see what I did there..;-))

So after Mata-Land now we have barelands – all the kitchen wall cabinets have been removed to allow for the plastering of the kitchen ceiling.

A serious lack of wall space

..and it was nice to see the bright green colour we decorated the kitchen when we first moved in…ahh memories..

Progress have also been swift in the new bathroom – already for the tiling. The new bath was delivered and made a pretty snug fit into the space.

Tubbs has arrived

Now the decoration in the girls bedrooms is nearly finished, for those of you with sensitive eyes a pair of sunglasses might be required for the next couple of pictures !!

Steph's colour scheme

…and Charlie’s……you just wait until the carpet is down….

...Pink...and...er Purple

There are loads and loads of updates to give – including the tilers breaking the underfloor heating, the mysterious shrinkage of the bathroom door, Steph’s wizzo ceiling lights and the blocking up of the lounge – these will be in the next update coming up this weekend.

Have fun and don’t forget mothers day. !!

To finish a couple of random pictures taken at a Hong Kong temple.

Cables

Also this week the builders have been mainly constructing the bathrooms upstairs but sorry I missed taking pictures of this during the daylight.

That said the back of the house is now free from scaffolding and the result is quite nice.

To the side

Middle

..and the garage

So a short update, this week – due to work – but hopefully I’ll get some time to add some internal pics on Sunday or Monday night – until then a couple of photoshopped images – please enjoy – and until next week.

..oh a bit of black and white

..and a bit of grain-ing

Today we have had two of the roofer guys trying to finish the roof…on a Saturday…..!!!

So what photos do we have…here goes.

From the ground

View to the right

And from further out.

And from the inside

And from the 'existing' first floor

going..going... Charlie's wall

Check out the texture on that scaffolding......