We are making progress with our extension build in Sawtry, but we could be making more progress if the builder’s merchants got their act together.  I had ordered two cavity lintels from a merchant the previous week, ordering earlier than usual knowing that one of the lintels sizes, which is 3300mm would have to be ordered into stock.  I was told the lintels would be delivered into them on the Monday so we could pick them up on Tuesday and continue with our brick and block work.  By Monday lunch time Stu and I had the brick and block work up to lintel level, we just needed our lintels.  I phoned the merchants to make sure we were still on for picking up the lintels Tuesday am.  The answer was no.  The lintels would not be into the merchant’s yard until Tuesday.  Great!  As there was nothing more we could do, we had to take Tuesday off.  On Wednesday morning I was in the merchant’s yard for 07.30 to pick up the lintels.  As the 3300mm lintel is not exactly a small thing, I was a bit bemused as not to see it laying in the yard.  I loaded the 2100mm lintel up, but couldn’t see the 3300mm lintel.  I asked one of the yard lads where the lintel was, but he looked even more bemused than me.  But then again I think that’s how they look most of the time!  I went into the office to make further enquires.  The bemused look was starting to spread, and after some worried looking through paper work it became clear that they didn’t have the lintel.  I had been in the yard for 30 minutes now and was minus the lintel I had come to collect.  Obviously starting to realise the cock up they had made, the merchants started making some worried phone calls to subsidiary merchants to see if anyone else had one in stock.  Very fortunately for them one of their other merchants did have one in stock.  So I made my way across Fengate to pick the lintel up.  All fun and games!

We got the lintels bedded onto the walls and we ran in the brick and block work to plate height so we were in a position to make a start on the roof.  On Thursday we go the two wall plates fixed into position and made a start on running in the timber joists.  On Friday we got all the joists cut and fixed into position, leaving the openings for the two Velux windows to fit into.  As this is a shallow pitch single storey roof we have to do more work than usual on this roof to allow for the extra ventilation.  We had a good system going between us; I was up on the roof doing the fixing while Stu was at ground level cutting all the baton and ply sheeting to size.  We fixed the cross baton timbers into place to provide the through ventilation, and then fixed some plywood sheeting to the top of the batons, ready for some felt, more batons and roof tiles.  After a couple of hours with the sun beating down on us we got all our work finished.  Everything was dead on square and I was impressed with what we had done for the day and the finish of the roof (although I would say that!).  So just as we finished for the day I heard the ice cream van going up the road.  So I ran out to get a couple of large ice creams for a job well done.  Well, it would have been rude not too!

Not a lot to add this week.  Stu and I were still working on building up the extension brick and block work to plate height.  Waiting for the lintels to arrive on site for the window and door, plus the roof materials so we can make a start on that.  I should have more to write about next week.

We were back to concentrate on our single storey extension this week, and it was only a four day week due to a Bank Holiday Monday.  On the Tuesday Stu and I put in the block and beam floor.  Stu cut out all the openings into the existing house brick work so we could slot the concrete beams into position.  After the beams were in, it was just a case of in filling the beams with the concrete blocks to provide the new floor area.
 

The rest of the week was spent doing the exterior face brick work.  Stu the cement technician was on the mixer serving up barrows of his finest recipe cement, and in between was loading out the site with bricks and blocks and making up the window and door frames, while I was on brick laying duty.  I was a bit rusty on the brick laying at the start of the week, but soon got up to speed by the end of the week and things were progressing nicely.  A nice simple week.

On Monday and Tuesday Stu and I were finishing off the bathroom refurbishment.  The only thing left to do is fix the shower head to the wall once the missing parts arrive from the shower manufacturer.

On Wednesday we were back over towards Northampton fitting a new front door for a previous client, while on Thursday we working near Cambridge fitting a waste disposal unit.  So that tidies up all the little jobs we had outstanding, so next week we can get back to the extension we have started and make a start on the block and beam floor and start getting some brick and block work up.