Exteriors and Interiors

Plastering is nearly complete inside the extension and the outside of the house is looking heaps better after some initial layers of paint.

The builders are also starting to gut the inside of the house, starting on the old bathroom and the old kitchen, which will now be a utility room.

They've also been pulling out glass fibre from the roof which is probably 100 years old.

Roof lanterns

In order to ensure the dining room still gets enough light and the kitchen gets plenty in too, we've finally had our roof lanterns installed.

They will have uplights in them once they're done and the electrics are in giving of a nice glow at night.

We're both really happy with how they look.

Roof on

The build of the extension is going ahead nicely. We've had the roof go on since I last blogged about it. It's not completely finished yet, still some more bitumen to go on but largely there.

They've also been working on the new drainage system under the foundations so that been some mucky, hard work for them.

More when I have it.

Walls up

The builders have managed to get the walls built up this week, he's really happy with the progress he's making, and so are we.

He thinks he should had the roof on by next week and make it all watertight, so going great guns at the moment.

Pictures of the progress so far below.

Foundations are in!

So it's taken 3 months but the foundations are finally in!

The piling company came yesterday and put in the cages, which you can see below, which have anti-heave under them. It's basically glorified polystyrene. They then proceeded to fill all the trenches with concrete which set overnight.

We had to lock the cats in to make sure we didn't have half a kitty sticking out of wet cement.

Anyway, very happy to have that all out of the way, so onward and upward now with the build!

Piling

So the extension is about to start again after a brief hiatus.

The piling contractors came today and brought all their machinery for the next few days of work. They made a test hole 8m into the ground, using a boring machine.

This is going to form the base of the foundations in order to combat the issue with the tree next door.

Fingers crossed nothing else comes up and the extension will be done before Christmas.

Garden Turf

So before we start on the next big project on the house, renovating the kitchen and bathroom, we wanted to get the bottom of the garden sorted out and turf it, as it had really overgrown with weeds. The picture above might look pretty, but those are all weeds.

So we weed whacked these all out, cut down a dead tree and removed a tree stump. Over a few weeks, we then got a garden services company to come in and poison the roots and prep the area. I then installed the new garden fence just before they started. This is what it looked like after the first day.

And this is what the finished product looks like, garden turf laid and down! We're very happy with how it looks. The guys over at Mr Green Gardening Services did a really great job. 

We just have to water it loads and make sure that it doesn't flake out. Shouldn't be too hard with all the wet weather we've been having in the UK.