Day 3 Progress slows

I guess optimism is for the weak or something like that. I'm sure there is some very clever quote I should put up about optimism and how it's ultimately doomed, but I can't be bothered to find one at this time on a Friday afternoon with a glass of white wine sitting in front of me.

The builders continued their hard work and they did a few bits and pieces, but most of the day was spent at the lumber yard. Apparently, in the words of Jack (head builder of The Good Builder Company), "all the wood like a bunch of bananas". So they spent most of the day looking for new joists for the ceiling. Mission accomplished all we had to show for it was a big pile of wood and another piece of vintage porn found in the destruction ala 1991.

Day 2: The Destruction Continues

Well it's the second day of the builders and I can't exactly say that I've gone off them, but we've had a few ups and downs. On the up...there is more destruction! More stuff has come out and it's really starting to feel like we're making progress. Plus ex-next door neighbour Luke popped round with his dog Heidi who officially approved of the new fence (i.e. she hiked a leg and christened it as hers...now there's a girl that knows what she likes). How can a visit from a dog not be an up? Here's how it's looking:

The down: We found out that the rushing water sound under the floor was a cracked mains water pipe spewing water into the space under the house. While I was tempted to dig a swimming pool I didn't fancy paddling with mice/rats so the builder has fixed it. The other down...after taking out a radiator the builders for got to cap the open pipe so when the central heating kicked on in the evening we had black, smelly water spewing across the dining room floor. YUM!! So we have no hot water at the moment and things are getting quite dusty, but onwards and upward!!

Backyard Fence Finito

Ok so two posts in one day does feel a tad excessive, but this is just a brief update really. The fence is in! Hooray. It's looking good despite a teeny tiny eensy weensy disagreement with the fence guy about the height of the fence...about 6 inches of disagreement. *Insert sarcastic comment about men here* Anyways...we're still trying to decide the color, but am pretty happy with it! Let me know what you think and any color suggestions!

Day 1 of the Builders

Well that day has finally arrived and it can't have come soon enough if you ask me! The builders are in and they've been very busy ripping out walls, ceilings and floors. We're already getting a really good feeling for how it's going to look when it's done and we're really happy with it. The rooms feel fantastic. Here's Day 1's summary of progress...

Before:

After:

Oh and can I say that I love that they are very tidy. Plastic dustsheets stopping the kitchen from turning into a mess, neatly stacking the rubbish and taking lots of it away each day. These are my kind of builders!  Day two update in the AM!

The Fence Man is my new BFF

Well today is official kick off day for the work on the house. This morning saw the kind of chaos only normally associated with a BOGOF offer on cheetoos at the trailer park Piggly Wiggly. At 8am I was desperately trying to clean my kitchen so the builders didn't think we were total dirtbags. Yes I realize that it was only the guys coming to rip out our fence, but my mama raised me right or at least raised me to know that a clean kitchen is important.

Not long after Rob, the garden guy, showed up with two of his team and then the carpenter arrived so Dom could talk him through all the ins and outs of the piece of architectural beauty we wanted, which would be best enjoyed when running up to use the bathroom. So when I left he was happily chatting away to the carpenter and the last thing I heard him murmur was "So what is your opinion on open string vs closed string stairs in an open space?"

As you can imagine I was all a flutter on the bus on the way home wanting to see the chaos wrecked upon my rotting horrible fence. It really was amazing and I can't believe how different it feels. Despite it not being the nicest day it just felt so open and sunny and totally different than my backyard. Here is how it looks when I got home:

Definitely thinking of raising an army and colonizing next door's garden. After all isn't colonization what the British do best?

Ps. I also love the fence guy because he put down dust sheets and vacuumed up all the dirt his team trekked through my house!

The Builders Cometh Soon (aka let the panic begin)

Well I know it's been a while since I've posted, but this is because the house is, and has been for a couple of week, in complete chaos. Now most of you will know that I don't use this word lightly. Currently the iMac is being used as the tv in our bedroom (who knew I could watch almost all of Time Team online!) and it is a bit hard to type when I can barely see the keyboard. Also, we've been trying to find the right guy to sort out the fence, ripping out shelving, stripping wall paper, packing up most of our worldly goods downstairs and a million other things in preparation for the builders.

So there has been much hard grafting and grumbling going on in the household of late. Spending nine hours steaming wallpaper while hubby is sunning himself in France with a cider in his hand does not lead to marital bliss. It does lead to a reallly derelict looking living room though! I have now realised that my dining room was at one point baby blue and before that a particularly grim shade of green. the good news is that the space feels humongous after ripping out the cupboards. Here are some after pics:

        

And the after shot!

Backyard progress

Well as you can probably guess we've been spending a lot of time in the backyard and by a lot of time I mean like every weekend for a month. This is pretty amazing in itself because in order to do that it meant that we had to have decent weather. In fact we had really nice weather so it was actually really nice to be productive outside. Here is a before picture of the garden just to remind you about what it looked like before we got started:

 Just a small selection of the rubble sacks we ended up with. I liked to consider it a modern art piece...

Here's what it looks like now. So lots of progress, but still lots to go. Despite getting rid of what must be 1.5 tonnes of gravel I can't believe we still have to seive the dirt to get rid of more. I think they are breeding there are so many of them. Good news is the fence is going soon!

        

The view from the far back corner up towards the house. Wow!