Day 14

Yet more blocks arrive today. And more cement (of the dry, in bags, variety rather than the wet, in large mixer lorries type).

Plenty of slightly alarming banging and clanking sounds from all around the house as hundreds of blocks are carried up ladders onto the platforms in the scaffolding. This is followed by even more alarming hammering sounds coming from somewhere near the corner of the downstairs toilet, though I'm not entirely sure why.

Had a nice chat with Paul the Builder (builders can be remarkably civil when asking for huge wodges of money, it seems) and he explained all the pain and angst we would be going through in the next few weeks as the work progresses.

Basically the gable end wall of the house will be knocked out at loft and first floor level early next week. They'll then put some great big girders in to support the new bits of house and then some temporary support poles in to stop the end of the roof from falling down. Which is nice.

Can't remember if I've already mentioned this, but it means the end of an upstairs bathroom for us in the process and the loss of our spare bedroom. Intriguingly, the upstairs toilet, which is also against that soon-to-be-ex-wall will be retained, by the expedient of creating a temporary plywood wall to box it in. I have a suspicion it's going to be rather like using an outdoor toilet, but 15 feet up in the air. Interesting.

Anyway, other than the loss of that upstairs wall, the rest of the house should be OK - with the possible exception of the kitchen which just might have a big lump taken out of the same gable wall so they can fit the new girder thing in. Apparently I am to be reassured by the fact Paul has promised to use lots of rockwool insulation and tarpaulin to insulate and protect us. Apparently it'll keep us safe from pretty much everything apart from rain (and probably wind too). Oh good, at least we needn't fear attack from flying sharks.

However, as it transpires, the reprieve for the kitchen is only temporary. In a few weeks, just after half term, apparently, is the point where things get really ugly and we lose the kitchen & downstairs loo while they knock out all the old external walls - and some internal ones - to create the new kitchen. This involves "sealing off" part of the house in a futile attempt to keep the brick dust contained.

Unfortunately, this includes sealing off the bit of the hallway from which I access my study. Paul did generously offer to knock through "some kind of entrace" around the corner, but I haven't the heart to point out that's where the main fuse box is located. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, although if work stays as hectic as it has been the last few days I'll probably end up in meetings most of the next month anyway.

Paul had a good look at the scaffolding and said he was a little "disappointed" with it. I thought this was because he wanted more, but apparently he means that they'd been a little excessive with it. Apparently he was rather hoping for enough space round the side of the house for his men to be able to walk around it.

The architect has presented us with (yet) another entertaining little issue to deal with. Yes, after the window debacle and the back door poser. This time it's something to do with the pitch of the roof on the single storey bit at the back, where our utility and downstairs loo will be. I have to say I didn't follow the problem fully, but it seems that the drawings don't quite match reality and if he does things exactly according to plan, we end up with a roof that's too shallow so rainwater ends up getting blown uphill or something. Lucky it.

Like I said, I was in "nod and smile" mode for most of this, just watching Paul's grin and the way his arms whirled around as he tried to explain (he almost took off at one point) but it's either a question of fudging the angle of the slope or changing tiles to ones that look "a bit like" our existing tiles. Fascinating.