Conservatory 1
Sunday 8th Aug 2010 / 14:43
The ‘conservatory’ in all it’s glory. Only the door has been removed.
Over on the far right the ground has already been cleared of plants and the temporary drainage pipe that I installed about eight years ago can be seen sticking up at an angle. I created the dog leg in it by heating it up with a blow lamp and bending it.
Conservatory 2
Sunday 8th Aug 2010 / 15:31
After only three QUARTERS of an hour, most of the glass has been removed. Curiously, despite being of the highest quality of construction and having been tirelessly maintained, the timber has fallen to pieces without the glass to support it. The wall has been hit with the sledge hammer and then pushed over.
The fine looking sack truck is Dad’s. You can just see modification 1a, attachment of wood to prevent it being scratched.
Conservatory 3
Sun 8 Aug 2010 / 17:51
Further destruction of timber. More wall pushed over, smashed with the sledgehammer and barrowed away by my assistant.
Conservatory 4
Sun 8 Aug 2010 / 16:17
Taking the roof off
Conservatory 5
Sun 8 Aug 2010 / 17:51
Done.
Cherry tree removal 9
Mandy logged it all up (for the wood burner), chopped up all the branches and put them in the burning pile. The pile of brambles in the foreground was intertwined with the tree.
Steel #3
Friday 27th April 2012 / 11:50
All nicely cemented in.
Electrics 3
Sunday 9 June 2013 / 11:13
New grey wires come from the front, where the consumer unit is, to the back, where the extension is. There are two socket rings, two lighting rings, cooker feed and garage feed.
Windows and doors
Sunday 22nd April 2012 / 12:31
Top rated glass has to be fitted the right way round as it has a reflective coating on one side to minimise heat loss.
Kitchen removal
Sunday 8th April 2012
Further removal fridge, freezer and cheese grater
6 Blockwork
Sunday 5th April 2015 / 11:19
Off to Mum and Dad’s for an Easter Sunday lunch soon, and then round to see Benjamin as it’s his birthday.
Rain water drainage 4
Tuesday, 20th September 2011 / 07:20
At long last, after a break of nearly a year, William and his band of men, Ben, Orien and Neil are back. It’s an uplifting sight to see a digger, albeit a Korean one, with it’s bucket dipping down into the soil. Yesterday they started digging the trench which will take the rain water drainage pipe down to the ditch. There’s no point having a soak away here as the water table is high; makes much more sense to pipe it straight into the ditch. The water will flow into Bartley Water and will eventually pass the ends of the gardens of my friends who live in Rushington before flowing into the end of Southampton Water at Eling.
There’s just about enough fall from the new pipes on the extension to the ditch. It only needs to be 1:100. The trench is about 550 mm deep at the ditch end.
Rain water drainage 5
Tuesday, 20th September 2011 / 07:25
Pipe will go under the fence and come out in the ditch. Posts to left are driven to the left of the pipe run so that the depth can be gauged.
Skip
Friday 9th March 2012 / 10:00
Great excitement. The old skip is being taken away and a new one replaces it. The full skip was packed really well and was well over the top. I was slightly disappointed that the lorry didn’t appear to struggle to pick it up.
When they swap a skip they first hoist the full skip on top of the empty one on the lorry, then they lift both full and empty skips back onto the ground and then just pick the full one off the top of the stack.
6 Bathroom 4
Sunday 15th March 2015 / 15:16
This is the grout for the walls. It’s very good, but you have to mix an activator to it and then you have just over an hour to work it into the gaps. It’s very expensive too.
6 Bathroom 3
Sunday 9th November 2014 / 19:18
Shower mixing valve and pipework. My rule is: never use an elbow if you can make a bend instead. Bends don’t leak and they don’t reduce flow rate as much.
Rain water drainage 6
Wednesday, 21st September 2011 / 07:25
The new pipe goes diagonally across the garden to avoid tree roots. Large roots have been left and the pipe runs underneath.
5 Bathroom
Monday 10 February 2014 / 20:02
The new bath is installed, using the new hot water supply from the boiler, so the old immersion heater is decomissioned. It’s so heavy, even with no water in it and the reason is that it’s half full of scale. I’ve cut the to off the tank and I later removed 25kg of scale. It’s surprising it ever managed to heat enough water for a bath for all those years.
Rain water drainage 7
Thursday, 22nd September 2011 / 07:29
Trench back filled with gravel and soil.