Muck, rubble and mud!

IMPORTANT NOTE - this post relates to the work undertake by Hampton Construction (not Jon Avory & Sons).

Lack of blogging does not mean lack of work. I nearly said progress - now that would be pushing it!

No, between work, sourcing lots of things for the house (solar panels, radiators, etc), Steve swanning of to Botswana (see here for some pretty pics), both being under the weather and generally being emotionally knackered, we simply ain't had the time!

Ahead of EDF (we could be very rude but won't cos we might just end up in court as it is - they are sooooooo bad!) coming in to switch the leccy supply to the whole terrace (our two cottages and our our neighbour's Debbie and Tony's supply), the ever increasing mountain of rubble had to be taken off site. Enter one man and his grab truck. Now, this thing really can do some damage. Its a good job we needed to redo the drive!




Anyone who has watched any of those property developing programmes or Grand Designs will be familiar with the term 'unforeseens'. So are we.

The first 'unforeseen' was actually a foreseen that we hoped would not materialse. But it did. The back wall of no. 4 has been knocked about so much it couldn't withstand our new alterations, so, down it must come and a new wall up in its place. But that can't happen until the existing leccy cables running along its length are removed.

So, the leccy cables had to be done. Having finished the waste and rain water trenching and piping, much of the back garden had to be dug up again, even deeper this time, to lay the new leccy cale underground the whole length of the cottages. EDF came along today and laid the new leccy cable underground. You've got to admit, the back garden does have a certain something!


So, to a real unforeseen. Our builder, Max, was concerned about the state of the concrete floor. And with good reason. It took us a week to pick ourselves off the floor and decide to go ahead with this extra spend (and boy was it an 'extra'). The old floor came up and the bare earth (no foundations on these fen cottages) and in came the digger. Yep, a digger in your living room! I wonder what Liz is thinking she's going to put in that hole?


Above you can see the acros supporting the new steels that have just gone in having just taken out the main wall through the cottage to create our one large open plan living space. So, whilst Max played on his over-sized Tonka toy, Vas and Pete barrowed out the waste to create, another mound of muck and rubble! This is less than a quarter of what needs to come out. Its gonna be some pile!

And how are we feeling? Surprisingly calm! We have loads to think about. We're constantly thinking ahead looking at things we need to order in so things start to deliver as and when Max and the lads need them. We ain't really needing much yet - there's still much more coming out than going in!

We've had our stressful moments, especially when having to think about major overspends on unforeseens, but we settle back down once the decision is made and await the next one!