New bricks

Thursday, 15 September 2011 00:00

The wait was over. We could finally get the old kitchen demolished and rebuilt. It had to come down because it was falling down. In fact, it had been condemned long before we bought it and it was coming away from the house!

It was Tuesday morning and they turned up. I didn't really know what to expect. I had met the builders before as we had discussed the plans of course, but I didn't expect things to go so quick.

I was working from home because I hadn't got used to the idea of leaving a gang of strangers in our house all day. In reality they were outside more as the bit they were working on wasn't yet part of the house. Within an hour the old conservatory was gone and so was half the kitchen. As they were taking the conservatory down, I noticed that it had once been a veranda sort of thing. The white wooden walls had old balustrade inside and there would have been no windows, just the lean-to roof.

Anyway, by mid morning they had half the kitchen down too and there was a garden full of debris. I went into work at around lunch time and didn't get back til around six. The builders had left by then and there was nothing left of the old extension except for the fire wall and a bit of the back door which was keeping the back wall of the house in place! The floor was still there as well.

That evening we chipped up as many of the old victorian tiles as possible, we intend on laying them in the new build. The next day they started digging a trench for the foundations for the new back wall.

There were four skips in total to remove the debris. To save on a fifth skip they took it upon themselves to burn all the wood scrap in the back garden. They built a huge bonfire, poured petrol on it and burnt the sodding lot. The flames were so fierce that the apples on the trees were cooked on one side! You could pick a cooked apple off the tree and eat it.

The grass is still missing now, three months later. Still, we always knew that we had to do something with the 'lawn'. It has masses of bluebells growing in it every spring. I guess it won't next year.

The building work seemed to go on for ever. We took delivery of 11 Tonnes of shingle or what ever the kitchen floor is made of. The roof went on a week after the wall was built and then the velux windows were fitted. The scariest bit was when they took out the wall between the new kitchen and the old parlour - it needed nine acros to hold the wall in place.

After that we had a weeks wait for the glazing to arrive, but it was warm weather and we just locked the inner doors. Once the windows went in it felt a lot better even though there was still another six inches of concrete to go over the underfloor heating pipes.

We had a new boiler fitted into the new kitchen because the old one was in the bedroom and really annoying. It was old too and wasn't going to last much longer. We decided to keep the old boiler flu in the wall though (see photo) as taking it out and filling it would have looked naff.

So now all we have to do is get a kitchen fitted, tile the floors and paint the rest of the house. Lots to do but at least it's all safe and sound now. View the full gallery here