Monthly Archives: October 2015

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Lots to tell

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So the new gable roof is motoring along. The first half is up and covered and the block work is done, and the interior of the new third bedroom is coming together. They have cut through the existing roof to link the new roof up. And we are just waiting for tiles and bricks (which are sat waiting) for it to be completed.

A monster beam has turned up to support the second gable. This will be part of a vaulted ceiling and so needs a beam running the full width of the house (old bit and extension) to support it. It turned up yesterday, is 8 metres long and weighs 4.5 tonnes. Looks impressive enough sat where it is – but somehow has to be moved up to the top of the first floor. And there’s no room to get a crane in! Should be entertaining.

8 metres and 4.5 tonnes...

8 metres and 4.5 tonnes…

The roof lantern also turned up today. One present we couldn’t unwrap <sad face>, as it was unloaded from the delivery truck and straight off to our storage unit.

Some other cool bits and pieces have been arriving. All of the kitchen units are in storage waiting for the guys to cut through, but our new kitchen sink and tap are here – and look fab. Very sleek.

And my gorgeous, wonderful wife bought me a new lamp for my birthday to go on the desk that will go in the study. It’s exactly what I have been looking for – handblown green glass and all.

And even the fab builders remembered my birthday. Thanks guys – but you are still very noisy!!!

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Gable roof

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So the gable roof is starting to take shape. The first steels have gone in to support the roof of the two storey extension and the wood supports for the first gable end are up.

And we have begun the break through from outside. Slightly earlier than expected, but the steels and joists need to be supported somehow. So the wall of the current little bedroom has had the first taste of its fate…

 

And because we are so excited about it – I thought we would finish with a couple more photos showing our new lounge. Skylight gets delivered this Friday and will hopefully be going up in the week or two following…

Demolition derby

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The ‘smashing’ builders have been at it again – removing yet another room from our house (have I misunderstood the ‘build’ part???). Seriously though – very exciting day today as the old utility room has gone, so we can really get an idea of the size of our new lounge – even more than looking down on the roof from the scaffolding.

And the guys have also got up to roof level and have started putting first floor stud work and roof joists in.

Flat roof

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This week has been about the new lounge. The structure is all up, the joists are all in place, the flat roof is going up and the up stand for the skylight is in place. Up until now, we have had a pretty good idea of how the new room is going to look, but it’s only now that we can see just how big it is.

This is also helped because the next level of scaffolding is now up and there are some great views from up there. Next week should be pushing on with the remainder of the brick works and hopefully moving towards the joists for the new gables.

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The Rain Pavilion

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So we finally got to see the Rain Pavilion today.

Now I know the project was a major team effort with lots of Brookes students working on various aspects. But it’s really hard not to focus on the two architecture students who came up with the original concept that won the competition, and worked on taking the design through to its finished form. Namely Alex Horsman, and our very own, the insanely talented, Charlotte Birch. It was amazing to see the Pavilion in all its glory with Charlotte, see little kids playing on it and people walking past it taking photos and knowing that they couldn’t do that without the efforts of these two wonderful ladies.

So some very proud people in Oxford today – there is still a little bit of finishing to do round the edges of the pavilion and unfortunately the water wasn’t switched on but it was a real privilege to be there with Charlotte

And it’s not just us that think it’s stunning. There are plenty of others who agree with us:

Oxford Brookes website

The Oxford Mail

and plenty of admiring comments on Twitter, such as this one, this one or this one.

 

NOTE: I have a video of the pavilion which I am trying to upload, but no matter what I do it uploads rotated by 90 degrees. Watch this space in case I manage to beat the computer into submission and I’ll post the correctly orientated video.

 

Isabelle update

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It’s getting harder to post updates during the week as it is dark when I leave home in the morning and dark when I get home, so photos of progress are tricky at least until we break through from the extension into the house. There has been some really exciting progress this week and we’ll share that this weekend.

But much more importantly, Isabelle has gone home from hospital!!

YAY!!!

Her op went well last week and although she was subdued over the weekend (hardly surprisingly) Lyndsay told me last night that she had chatted non-stop on the way home last night. We’ve all been thinking about Isabelle and Lyndsay, Iain and Cameron a lot all week and we are so happy that everything is going well.

A massive thank you to the doctors and nurses at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham who have been absolutely fabulous according to Lyndsay.

Keep getting well Isabelle and we’ll see you soon.

Love from all of us

xxxxx

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Where is door?

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So most of the recent work has been on the new lounge and mainly putting up the steels to support the roof lantern. We have now got our first view of the size of it (obviously we knew the dimensions when we specified them, but it’s different seeing it for real) and it is massive!!

But the best bit for the Fawlty Towers loving women of the house was the loss of the utility room door – cue many renditions of “Where is door? Door is gone”, “Are you Orally men?” and “You are big Orang utan”

Door is gone!

Door is gone!

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Get Well Soon Isabelle

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The House project has in some ways taken over Maddie and my lives, but some things are just way more important.

Our gorgeous niece Isabelle had an operation today on her spine. Her mum (my sister) has called to let us know Izzy is out of surgery and groggy but the operation went well. Izzy is an absolute star, a true character and we all love her loads. Her older brother Cameron is cool too and their mum and dad aren’t too bad either. So Isabelle, Cameron, Lyndsay and Iain, just to let you know that the Jacksons, Birch-Jacksons and Birches all love you loads and are thinking of you all. 

Get well soon Isabelle – we all love you.xxxx

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The real madness begins

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So the beam known as the beast has gone up and the guys are starting to build the steel framework to hold the roof lantern in the new lounge.

And a by product of all of these steels – Alex and Shaun think about demolishing some of the walls with fire…

But the real madness has happened inside. As part of our renovation project to make our house bigger, it is gradually getting smaller… the utility room’s days are numbered so there has been a rejig and Maddie and I are rapidly heading towards living in one room. I realised we had no photos of the inside as it originally was, so as we started rearranging everything to free up the utility room for demolition, I finally got round to taking some, albeit even the before photos show a house in chaos:

And now we have a lounge-cum-dining room-cum-kitchen and a fridge freezer in the old dining room

Rainy Monday

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Rubbish weather today so little the guys can do with brickwork. So they started putting up the stud work downstairs. Not the biggest job given how open plan the design for the ground floor is. But we now have the outline of the utility room and downstairs loo. Sorry about the dark photos but its an icky day and the downstairs is pretty dark at the moment.