This week was one of our easier weeks.  On Monday and Tuesday we finished up at Northampton by hanging the last of the doors, fixing all the architrave and skirting and putting in a new loft hatch.  After that we had a good tidy up and we were all finished, for now.  We have a new front door to go back and fit in a few weeks time.
 

On Wednesday and Thursday we were doing some repair work to a roof in Peterborough and fitting some new facia and guttering, and then we had a long weekend by having the Friday off.  Next week we will be starting on a bathroom refurbishment in Sawtry, with a single storey extension lined up after that.  So we have the work coming in to keep us busy.

When we got back to site on the Monday morning we had a weep on the sink waste and a weep on the shower unit.  The sink weep was easy enough for Stu to sort out, but the shower one was a bit trickier.  Stu had to have the plasterboard wall off on the landing so he could access the shower pipe work.  He tracked the weep down and set about putting it right.  While Stu actioned that, I set about laying the last of the tiles. By lunch time, the weeps were sorted and all the tiles laid.  In the afternoon I grouted up the tiles, while Stu siliconed the shower and bath.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I left Stu in the bathroom to fit the bath panels and plumb in the sink and the towel rad while I set about taking out the two in built wardrobes, knocking down the block wall that was at the back of the two built in wardrobes and erecting new stud work so that one bedroom had a new stud wall in it, while the other bedroom gained a larger walk in wardrobe.

I finished off the wardrobe stud work on Thursday by boarding it out with plaster board so John and J the plasterers could do their thing on Friday.  Stu finished off in the bathroom by fitting the toilet and the shower screen.  Friday morning we travelled over in the snowy conditions, which weren’t too bad, until we got to the drive way of where we were working.  Unfortunately this is positioned on a hill, and the van started slipping and sliding as I tried to find grip.  We had travelled for 45 minutes no problem, but nearly became a cropper in the last few metres of the journey!  John and J arrived shortly after wards and set about their work, while Stu and I had a good tidy up and left late morning as there was nothing we could do until the plastering had been finished.

On the Monday and Tuesday we were back in Peterborough doing some extra work for a client which involved putting me putting in a new insulated stud wall in a bedroom while Stu took out an existing rad, and then replaced an old rad with a new double rad.  John and the J the plasterers then turned up to plaster skim the new wall, and skim over the existing artexed ceiling.

On Wednesday we picked up a load of bathroom wall tiles on our way in to work.  The Wednesday and Thursday were just about tiling as the all the walls had to be tiled, plus the new stud work with built in alcoves that we had built, so there were plenty of tile cuts to keep us busy.  On Friday while I continued to tile, Stu set about plumbing in the bath and shower unit, especially as the clients had been without either for nearly two weeks.  Stu got the shower and bath working and although things were not ideal, the clients at least could stay at home and use their facilities instead of the local gyms!

The focus this week was the bathroom refurbishment, so Monday was about taking out all the existing furniture, and stripping off all the wall tiles and seeing what we were going to be left with.  As it turned out, it ended up the worst case scenario with most of the old plaster and cement render coming off with the tiles and leaving us with a lot of exposed brick work, and a lot of mess to tidy up!  The following day we continued our demolition works as it were by taking out the old block built boiler cupboard that encroached space wise into the bathroom.  So by having this out it provided some much needed new floor space.  As it turned out we ended up having the door frame and door out as well as it wasn’t particularly safe after having the block work out.  So this meant putting in a whole new stud wall and door lining.  The client decided the open plan bathroom and landing area was a bit too modern for them!  In the afternoon we had all the old floorboards up to expose the pipe work and for Stu to see what he had to work with.  By the end of the day Stu had run in his new pipe work feeds to the bath, toilet and sink and I followed along laying the new sheet floor boards.
 

On Wednesday we fixed the new stud work wall into position.  While Stu finished that off I bonded out two of the three walls so we had something better to work with when it came to tiling.  The third wall was so bad we decided to plasterboard it instead of trying to spend time bonding it out.  On Thursday Stu primed all the walls with PVA ready for tiling while I plaster skimmed the ceiling.  In the afternoon we layed the new floor tiles.  The next day Stu set about provisionally plumbing in the bath and the shower while I fitted the hidden cistern and then erected some stud work around it with some alcoves built into it to provide storage.  Unfortunately there had been an issue with the wall tiles, and they wouldn’t be into the supplier until Tuesday of next week.  So we will be dropping back to Peterborough to do a couple of days work there before heading back out to Northampton on the Wednesday to make a start on some tiling.

The working week started on Tuesday with Stu plumbing the w.c pipe work into the mains, and then running the hot and cold feeds to the sink.  While Stu was doing that I insulated and plaster boarded the door stud work, and then set about boarding the toilet stud work with MDF so all the pipe work was hidden from sight.  Stu made a start on hanging the w.c door.  On Wednesday Stu finished hanging the w.c door and fitted all the door furniture, then started on a new door for the boiler cupboard. As he was working to an old door frame not everything lined up, so there was plenty of adjustment required to get the door to hang properly.  I fixed the stud work for the sink, and then boarded the stud work with MDF to finish it off, and then plaster skimmed the door wall plasterboard in the afternoon.
 

Thursday was about getting the w.c all finished off.  Stu fitted the sink taps and waste and then set about plumbing it in to the water feeds and waste pipe work.  I was trying to fix the toilet, but kept having problems with the hidden cistern.  It would flush ok, but then it would continue to feed water into the pan on a constant basis and the cistern wouldn’t fill up.  So I had to have the cistern out and strip it all down, put it back together and then hope that it would do the trick and work ok, which it did.  The next niggle was a small water drip from the pan connector and the waste pipe work.  With it being a back to the wall pan, it was hard to see where the drip was coming from, so we had to have the toilet on and off several times trying to remedy the situation.  After a while we got it all fixed in with no more drips or problems, but those two little problems cost us time, which was a pain in the bum but these things happen.
 

On Friday we took care of some of the minor jobs that needed doing before moving onto the bathroom refurb next week.  Between us we finished off the boiler cupboard door, re-pointed some cement work for the flat roof lead work and siliconed around the lead work to give it all a water tight finish, and nearly finished the block paving on the drive area but ended up a few bricks short, typical!.

It was a busy week in a strange way, with one thing and another.  This week Stu and I were starting a refurbishment job over near Northampton, so we had a 45 minute journey each way and joined the ranks of the rush hour traffic brigade, something we are not used to. I don’t normally even see rush hour traffic!  Monday morning we travelled over first thing and met up with the client.  We have a new down stairs w.c to install, kitchen ceiling to come down, insulate and plaster skim.  Knock through a wall in the bedrooms; stud one wall out while making a walk in wardrobe in the other bedroom.  Then we have the bathroom to strip out, re-jig the layout and fit a new bathroom suite with wall and floor tiling.  So we made a list of materials and headed out for some shopping, trying to get as much as possible to save on future trips to the merchants.  We travelled back to Peterborough to do the shopping as we know where everything is.  Once that was done, we popped back to our kitchen job in the afternoon so I could grout the tiles and Stu could fix the handles to the doors.  That was that job finished.
 

Tuesday I set about digging up the drive area and finding the existing underground soil pipe so we could connect into it with our new w.c pipe work.  Once I had exposed the pipes, I then moved inside and set about doing the w.c stud work.  While I was doing this, Stu was running new hot and cold water feeds from the bathroom, under the bedroom floor boards and into the new w.c.
 

On our way over first thing Wednesday  morning, we had only got onto the A605 when the van lost all power and came to a halt at the side of the road.  I called out the AA, and by mid morning the van was in a garage.  I contacted the client to explain, and we had to right the day off.  It was just a case of getting the news on how long the van would be off the road for and more importantly how much it would cost to put right!  The news was pretty good under the circumstances and I could get my van back sometime Friday.  So with that I phoned my Dad and asked if we could borrow his van for Thursday, which he very kindly let us use for the day.  Dads van is not as large as mine, but I got most of my tools in the back but there wasn’t a lot of room left for anything else!  But it served its purpose for the day.  Stu got all the pipe work connected up with the existing, and I got the new hidden cistern plumbed in and all the new stud work fixed into position so all the pipe work was hidden from view.  As I was awaiting a time to pick the van up on the Friday, we took it as another day off under the circumstances.  It was good to get my van back.  You forget how you take things for granted.  My van carries all my tools; they are all easily to hand.  I have all the other bits and pieces on the van that come in handy when you need them.  It carries all size of materials, and doubles up as my office as well.  When you suddenly don’t have that, it certainly makes life harder.  I will be glad to be back to normal next week.

The kitchen had been delivered on the previous Friday with Stu and I spending most of the day taking everything out of its packaging, putting together a few units that had come in pieces and getting most of the base units into their positions. The packaging ended up filling half the skip!  On the Monday we levelled all the base units up, so on the Tuesday I hung the wall units while Stu plumbed in a new radiator.  We also got the first piece of work top into place.

Wednesday we got the second piece of work top cut and into place and then joined it up to the other piece, and then Stu got the sink plumbed in.  While I put all the handles onto the doors and fixed the doors to the units, Stu cut the plinth and pelmet pieces to size and fixed them into position.  By the end of the day the kitchen was pretty much finished.

Thursday I made a start on the tiling while Stu set about fixing all the skirting and architrave into place on all the new stud work and joining it up to the existing.  On Friday I continued to tile up to lunch time, and then I worked through our final snagging list.  Stu’s job was to hang the two, part glazed oak doors.  Bearing in mind the cost of these doors, they weren’t cheap; Stu took his time and did a thorough job.  We couldn’t afford any mistakes at those prices.  Unfortunately we will have to pop back on the Monday afternoon so I can grout the tiles and Stu can fix the door handles. After our two week schedule, we over ran by just one afternoon.  But then again, we did lose a morning to the electricians, so taking that into account we would have finished the job once again to time and schedule.  Can’t be bad!

After a nice two week break over Christmas and New Year it was time to switch the phone back on and get back to work.  The new build we had been working on was now all plaster boarded and John and J the plasterers were making a start on getting everywhere skimmed, so we are leaving them to it.

Stu and I were off to do a refurbishment and new kitchen fitting in Peterborough.  We were doing it for the parents of a client we did an extension for last year.  His parents were impressed with our standard of work and so they got us in to do the work on their newly purchased bungalow.  We had to take out the existing kitchen, remove some stud walls and put back some new stud walls so that they could alter their room layouts, and then supply and fit a new kitchen.  As it has tuned out their revised layout works really well and makes far better use of their living space than the original layout.

Of course we have also had the snow and cold temperatures, but fortunately this hasn’t stopped us from getting on with the job in hand.  Stu and I were doing all the work as usual, with John and J popping over to skim some walls.  The client had got their own electrician in doing some work for them.  I prefer to run the job from start to finish myself, using tradesmen I know and trust to come in and do their work as part of a schedule of works.  Some people don’t understand why there is an issue with them getting in their own trades, but here is a good reason why.  Stu and I took out the kitchen Monday morning, so then the electrician could run his revised sockets.  But this took them longer than they planned, and as a consequence we were tripping over each other in the afternoon as we were trying to take the stud walls down.  On the Tuesday morning they were going to replace the mains fuse board, which I wasn’t aware they were going to do, which meant there would be no power on site.  They said they would be done by around 11am.  So Stu and I went shopping for materials and got back on site for 11am.  Unfortunately the electricians hadn’t finished the fuse board and there was still no power, and we couldn’t do any work.  They then had a problem with the fuse board and did not get finished until around 13.30.  So Stu and I, through no fault of our own had lost out on half a day’s work.  It was only day two and we were already behind.  Then the afternoon was a mad rush to get the stud walls up so John and J had something to plaster Wednesday.  In the end we managed to work through things, but with some better planning and organisation the situation could have been avoided.  But most of the time its Stu and I who are the ones on the receiving end and we get messed about.  One day we might get our own back!!

No exciting news this week on the new build.  Same old same old at the moment, plaster boarding.  Did the first floor last week and working through the ground floor this week, although the floor area is larger on the ground floor so we have more to board.  Stu and I have a system in place, I mix up the board adhesive and cut the boards to size and try to keep ahead of him, and he follows along sticking the boards into position.  We hope to have all the boarding finished in time for Christmas.  After that it’s a case of getting the plasterer in to do his thing.

After Christmas Stu and I are off working in Peterborough, then have some work to do over near Northampton.  So that should keep us busy for a few months.

For those people who have followed the blog this year, that’s if there is anyone!!  I would like to wish everyone a Happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year.

Not a lot to mention this week on the blog.  Stu and I are working hard as usual but all our work still revolves around plaster boarding.  We got all the first floor walls dot and dabbed with plaster board across the week and all the bedrooms are now ready to be plastered.

The sparky was still doing his first fix, but hoped to be completed by the end of this week or early next week.  Now we have the first floor completed, we can move down stairs to the ground floor and do the whole thing all over again!