DAY 13

DAY 13 - Storms hit the UK and more importantly hit our house. The tarpaulin holds out most of the weather but we still awoke to find a torrent of water pouring in the kids room. Everything is now boxed up and pulled away from any wall. The construction continues with vigor which is a relief. The additional costs for the new wall, lintels and front window is a mere £700 which considering we thought the build would put a premium on to add to his margins, we are very happy with. This week sees the front of the house being knocked out and rebuilt and we are assured that the floor joints will be completed by Friday.

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Day 7 - bad news

DAY 7 - 40% of the new flooring joists are laid. Builder concerned about front wall and it’s ability to hold up new floor. Building inspector visits and agrees with our brick work. It seems that the fire that gutted the upstairs 25 years ago has dried out the bricks and made them weaker. The result is that the entire wall on the first floor will need to be rebuilt at extra cost and then rerendered and painted - more cost. We are also required to strengthen the window lintels at a cost of £200 per lintel. Bad day for the budget.

To date we have budgeted the top floor at £31500…on Saturday, Alex the builder will give us the bad news about how much the wall will cost.

Asides builders Diary

Day 5

DAY 5 - End of roof is removed and covered in tarpalines, joints are slowly being laided. Ceiling on ground level (where we are living) are prooving too weak to hold themselves up - thus they are starting to fall in. Inspection of current windows lintels uncover structural problems. New lintels will need to be installed. Extra costs.

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