Stu was off on the Monday, so Wayne and I concentrated on plaster boarding the bathroom and bedroom two. Dave and Luke the plasterers were in for the week, and their plan was to have all the first floor rooms and the landing plastered.

Stu spent Tuesday plaster boarding out bedroom one, while I put in the final stud walls and door frame for bedroom one.  By the end of the day we had finished our work, and the way was clear for Dave and Luke to crack on with their work.  Wayne installed the front door and side panel, which made a nice difference, as from the exterior it gave everything the finished look, while inside, we didn’t have any more cold winds blowing through the place.  Warmth at last.

On Thursday we had a laugh at someone else’s expense, which doesn’t sound nice, but let me explain.  The client had a spa tub delivered.  The same spa that was meant to be delivered back in August, which would have made life easy as the extension had not been built back then.  But now, there was an extension, and it was in the way of the delivery men.  According to them, the spa wouldn’t go through the passage between the garage and the extension.  Not that they attempted having a go.  They did a lot of looking and measuring, but no actual attempts.  I had to move all my timber cutting tools out of their way, which inconvenienced me, but did they say thank you, no.  Next, they wanted us to put our scaffold boards across the ground to make life easier for them, did they say thank you, no.  The delivery man seemed to forget we had our own work to do, and seemed to think we were one of his skivvies on his delivery team!  Then he started to blame us for building the extension, which meant he couldn’t get the spa through.  Nothing to do with him being two months late, unbelievable, and he had no manners!  When the client said they would take responsibility for taking it through to the back garden, well, it was the quickest he had moved all morning.  He was packed up and gone within 10 minutes!  After he had gone, the client, with some help from family and friends had no problem in taking the spa through, and they had it in place in around 15 minutes.  Let’s just hope Wayne doesn’t carry out his threat to bring his Speedo’s and take a dip!

The rest of the week was spent plaster boarding the kitchen and putting in the timber stud work for the cupboard under the stairs and the final lounge walls and door frame.  We also had the joy of putting in the insulation between the floor joists and into the stud work.  It is probably one of the worst jobs, the stuff gets all over you and your clothes, and even wearing face masks doesn’t stop the stuff getting on your chest and causing you to cough.  Bring on a nice warm shower when you get home!  Dave and Luke were true to their word, and had all the first floor plastered.

On Monday it was just Stu and I, so we set about starting the stud work on the ground floor, focusing on getting the kitchen stud walls up and ready for the first fix electrics and plumbing later in the week.  On Tuesday Dean the electrician was on site, starting on his first fix electrics, while Wayne and Stu finished off the facia on the front elevation and also the cloaking of the bedroom and bathroom window.  They also went round and siliconed all the windows while we had the scaffolding for its last day, before it was taken down on the Wednesday.  So that was all the exterior work on the extension completed.  We could now totally focus on moving the interior work on.

On Wednesday Wayne and Stu plaster boarded the ceilings in the first floor rooms, while I worked on finishing the bathroom stud work.  On Thursday and Friday we had the plumbers in doing the first fix for the central heating system and also the hot and cold feeds to the kitchen and bathroom.  We also had the stairs delivered, so while I had the afternoon off to visit the dentists, Wayne and Stu set about putting the stairs together and fixing them in place.

Friday was a worry to start with, but then got better as the day progressed, but we ended up no further along work wise than where we finished off at the end of Thursday.  The reason?  We had a problem with the stairs.  When we stood on the forth step of the stairs, our head would disappear between the first floor joists, so you could only get up the stairs if you were about 3ft in height!  It was a mix of both the architect and us getting it wrong.  We had missed putting in a sloping bulk head, which if we had done in the first place, would of meant you could just about get up the stairs without banging your head.  But the architect had not allowed enough room at the base of the stairs for the inter connecting interior door that was going in, so as it stood, with the stairs in their current position we couldn’t put the door in.  So we spent all of Friday adjusting the first floor joists, putting in the sloping bulk head and moving the stairs 500mm to the right so everything ended up as it should have been.  We all make mistakes, and it is important to learn from them, and I don’t intend having to move another set of stairs anytime soon!

Monday, and the sunshine was back with us again.  Wayne made a start on finishing the last of the gable end brick work.  While Stu looked after Wayne, I made a start on dressing the lead on the roof.  Unfortunately the rain came back on the Tuesday, so we couldn’t finish the work we started on Monday, so we all dropped back in doors and layed the chipboard flooring on the first floor.  I then got prices for plasterboard, insulation and the CLS stud work timber.  David form EH Smith came in the cheapest as usual, so I placed my order, and arranged delivery for the Wednesday.  In the afternoon we had the Cellotex floor insulation, sand and cement delivered ready for Dave the Plasterer to screed the floor on the Thursday.

Wayne was not on site on Wednesday so Stu and I set about putting down the damp proof membrane on the ground floor area, cut to size and layed the Cellotex floor insulation, and finished off by rolling out the chicken wire.  Everything was now ready for Dave the following day.  But before we left we had the pleasure of getting 30 sheets of plasterboard and 10 rolls of insulation that had been delivered up onto the first floor!  Wayne certainly knows when to take a day off!