Week 7, day 1: Open plan upstairs
16th June 2014
After Monday last week, big changes happened upstairs, and one of the consequences was that I was not able to get at my computer to blog. On Wednesday last week, they started to take down the built in wardrobes in the middle of upstairs, and they took out about 60cm of ceiling from front to back of the room, close to the external wall by the new part. This is to get ready for acro-props going in. We didn't really understand our instructions to empty the wardrobes - we'd emptied the bottom and most of the clothes - but this apparently was not enough. When we got home, we realised what they had tried to do and how empty wardrobes would have facilitated it!
Photo 1: From the front of the house through to the bedroom at the back, as seen through what used to be the wardrobe.
Photo 2: From the back bedroom you can see through the wardrobe to the front bedroom, but also you can see how the unempty wardrobes held the process up.
At the end of Wednesday, we were given instructions to FULLY empty the wardrobes. So, after a 12 hour day at work, I got home at 9pm and started to finish emptying the wardrobes. We kept a few items of clothing and hung them in the airing cupboard. Everything else was packed up and is in bags under the bed, under my desk, on the dining table in the conservatory or under the dining table. We are going to have to be very un-picky when we are choosing what to wear over the next few weeks! When the builders arrived on Thursday morning, I proudly told them we'd emptied the wardrobes fully. First thing he does is open the airing cupboard, which is still full of clothes, towels, duvets and bags. He just looked at me and I said "it isn't a wardrobe - you said I had to empty the wardrobes!". Turns out, he'd meant we needed to empty all cupboards in the middle of the house, including the airing cupboard. The labourer set to work emptying the contents onto the bed, but he was not feeling well. Shortly after I left for work, he was sent home with an infected wisdom tooth and the one builder set to dismantle all the remaining internal walls upstairs, leaving the bathroom in tact for a little privacy. The house looked very different upon returning from work that day!
Photos 3 and 4: Our new, open plan one bedroom house with en suite. In the corner to the left of the bed is my computer desk - crammed full of stuff and difficult to access now. The electronics that is going on on the carpet, is replacing the fuse in the plug for the projector. I accidentally left the dust-jacket black sack on the projector when I turned it on and it fused the plug. Oops. And on the opening day of the World Cup as well! Good job it was easy to fix.
Photo 5: As well as dismantling the internal walls, the roof space in the new part was finished, adding a couple more supporting trusses. This is now ready for the steel to go in, and then the gable wall and roof to be finished.
Due to the infected wisdom tooth, they did not come on Friday or Monday. The tooth was extracted on Monday. On Friday night, in the early hours of Saturday morning, whilst home alone, a thunderstorm started and continued for over 2 and a half hours. Within 10 minutes of being woken up, the electricity went off. Presuming this was a power cut, I sat tight, listening to music and willing the storm to pass. Every time I thought it was passing, it would return louder than before and much closer. There are no curtains in the back window of the bedroom, and there is double storey metal scaffolding in the extension. Lightening and metal poles don't mix well. Thankfully, the lightening didn't strike the house. However, the power cut wasn't a power cut. The rain had come into the extension and got some exposed wires wet, including a junction box type thing. The downstairs lights and whole house sockets circuits were blown and there was nothing I could do to fix it, so I went out for the day. Thankfully we had the cooker plug that we could plug extension leads into (so we could watch the England game in the evening!). Once the wires had dried out, the electricity was allowed back on. An adventure my heart could have done without. We are now hoping for no rain until the steel is in and the roof is on now...
Photo 1: From the front of the house through to the bedroom at the back, as seen through what used to be the wardrobe.
Photo 2: From the back bedroom you can see through the wardrobe to the front bedroom, but also you can see how the unempty wardrobes held the process up.
At the end of Wednesday, we were given instructions to FULLY empty the wardrobes. So, after a 12 hour day at work, I got home at 9pm and started to finish emptying the wardrobes. We kept a few items of clothing and hung them in the airing cupboard. Everything else was packed up and is in bags under the bed, under my desk, on the dining table in the conservatory or under the dining table. We are going to have to be very un-picky when we are choosing what to wear over the next few weeks! When the builders arrived on Thursday morning, I proudly told them we'd emptied the wardrobes fully. First thing he does is open the airing cupboard, which is still full of clothes, towels, duvets and bags. He just looked at me and I said "it isn't a wardrobe - you said I had to empty the wardrobes!". Turns out, he'd meant we needed to empty all cupboards in the middle of the house, including the airing cupboard. The labourer set to work emptying the contents onto the bed, but he was not feeling well. Shortly after I left for work, he was sent home with an infected wisdom tooth and the one builder set to dismantle all the remaining internal walls upstairs, leaving the bathroom in tact for a little privacy. The house looked very different upon returning from work that day!
Photos 3 and 4: Our new, open plan one bedroom house with en suite. In the corner to the left of the bed is my computer desk - crammed full of stuff and difficult to access now. The electronics that is going on on the carpet, is replacing the fuse in the plug for the projector. I accidentally left the dust-jacket black sack on the projector when I turned it on and it fused the plug. Oops. And on the opening day of the World Cup as well! Good job it was easy to fix.
Photo 5: As well as dismantling the internal walls, the roof space in the new part was finished, adding a couple more supporting trusses. This is now ready for the steel to go in, and then the gable wall and roof to be finished.
Due to the infected wisdom tooth, they did not come on Friday or Monday. The tooth was extracted on Monday. On Friday night, in the early hours of Saturday morning, whilst home alone, a thunderstorm started and continued for over 2 and a half hours. Within 10 minutes of being woken up, the electricity went off. Presuming this was a power cut, I sat tight, listening to music and willing the storm to pass. Every time I thought it was passing, it would return louder than before and much closer. There are no curtains in the back window of the bedroom, and there is double storey metal scaffolding in the extension. Lightening and metal poles don't mix well. Thankfully, the lightening didn't strike the house. However, the power cut wasn't a power cut. The rain had come into the extension and got some exposed wires wet, including a junction box type thing. The downstairs lights and whole house sockets circuits were blown and there was nothing I could do to fix it, so I went out for the day. Thankfully we had the cooker plug that we could plug extension leads into (so we could watch the England game in the evening!). Once the wires had dried out, the electricity was allowed back on. An adventure my heart could have done without. We are now hoping for no rain until the steel is in and the roof is on now...