I haven't written a post in a while, because there has been so much going on. But I feel I need to upload all the pictures I've taken over the past few weeks, so they don't go missing and so I forget about all these important moments during the build.
The work has evolved itself into three phases.
Phase 1. Is the front extension base up to slab height (playroom, hall, porch and dining room).
Phase 2. Is the back extension up to slab height which stretches out across the entire back of the house, for approx 1m out.
Phase 3. Is the garage up to slab height, which is to the right-handside of the house as you face it. the foundations for this took way longer than expected, because there was a hidden 1m deep chunk of concrete under the old garage. The building inspector said it couldn't be used as the foundations for the new, bigger garage so it needed to be cut through, and new foundations poured.
The new garage wraps around what is currently our large utility area. We are debating knocking the utility room down this year, and getting the garage done. The garage will have a separate roof to the main house. Our bedroom is above the garage, so there will be an upstairs door opening into a large hallway, so it will need to tie into part of the new roof, so some of the existing house roof will need to be removed to allow this. Which is why we keep going round in circles about what to do!
My dad has just left now and we have got all the main dirty work done, which is great. We are contemplating getting some builders in to build up the walls to keep progress moving a bit. Then they can do the fussy tieing in etc. Meanwhile we'll be doing bits and bobs until the new year, and that's when we'll get cracking. We've had to think much further down the line at certain things, like where the new drains for the kitchen will be going. I'd like the sink and dishwasher in the kitchen island, which means the new drain needs to come from the middle of what is currently our bedroom. Awkward.
Next on our list is moving the 30 tonnes of soil we have sat in our front garden. We call it mud mountain. Strangely, it doesn't bother me at all having it there. It bothers Steve more. Which I'm amazed by, he's so laid back. So he's spoken to a good friend who has a large wagon we can use, to shift it all up to Steve's dads. He has a big garden and paddock which will lose our soil easily, but we are really lucky to have this available to us, as it's usually between £50-£100 per tonne to dispose. Saving us lots of money!
Once the soil has gone, we can concentrate on tidying up the front garden a bit, and then get the slabs poured. We have all the stuff ready to go, we just need to buy blocks the month after ready to start with the walls!
This is going to be a long slow slog, but we are both looking forward to doing it bit by bit.
Below are the pictures of what Steve and my dad achieved over the last 10 weeks...
