Stu and I started the week in Peterborough by creating a larger opening for some friends of mine in their kitchen/diner. Kitchen/diner openings are all the fashion you know! Our first job was to take out the door and the door lining and then set about using some metal acros and strong boys to support the wall while we removed some brick work to make way for a new lintel. Once we had the lintel in place, we pointed up with some cement and left things to dry and settle over night before moving on with the next stage. The following day we set about removing the remaining brick work so as to create the new sized opening. While I had a tidy up and tried to sweep up as much dust as possible, Stu put up some new plasterboard. That was the job done, with John coming out on Saturday morning to do the plastering.
On Wednesday we were back to our single storey extension to action some snagging points which were putting down some more screed so as to join up the new extension floor with the existing floor. While Stu was doing that I was plastering a few small returns which John and J had left due to time constraints the previous week. By lunch time we were all done, and as England’s final group game of the World Cup was on that afternoon, like the rest of the country, we downed tools and headed off to find a TV.
On Thursday and Friday Stu was laying the new laminate flooring and finishing off with the skirting which finished off the last of the jobs we had to do on the extension, and the Building Inspector duly carried out his final inspection and was happy to sign off the job as completed. While Stu was doing his thing, I drew up some plans and a shopping list of materials for the raised decking area that we are to put in. On the Friday in scorching sunshine and high temperatures I had the pleasure of boreing out holes by hand to sink the decking posts into. The sweat was pouring off me and I was drinking a litre of water an hour trying to keep refreshed, but I was certainly lacking my usual get up and go in those conditions, the hot weather just sapping your energy.
