DIY SOS....

.... or the more extravagant American version - Extreme Makeover. If you've ever seen one of these shows with different workmen everywhere you look, all tripping over each other in a small space, then you can picture what it's been like at the house this week!

We've had two builders outside working on the second extension, two joiners making doorframes inside, and roof battens outside, two electricians, a plumber, a plasterer, and a decorator. Not to mention occasional visitors such as Daniel who came to do the second measuring for the fitted wardrobes, and the two window fitters who've been there today!

It's been a very busy and very chaotic week, but at the end of it, things have really moved on. We now have lights on the top two floors - including a bathroom mirror with a remote control, and many different colour settings on the flourescent lights down each side (bathroom disco anyone?) I'm sure it didn't mention that on the website when I ordered it!

We've had quite a bit of decorating done by Dean - although there was a slight miscommunication about the colour in our bedroom, which was dark grey briefly midweek! Now corrected. We have new windows in the front of the house - cream woodgrain effect ones, which look so much better than the old leaded white uPVC ones. All the new bathroom fixtures have been delivered, so we need the plumber to come and make a start on that as soon as he can, and hopefully the roofers will be on site this week to put the slates on the extension at the back.

We still have a very long way to go, but it now seems that things are moving really quickly, which is great! More photos to come soon.

Jay

Let There Be Light!

 Ok, so we did say we wanted lots of light in the loft conversion, but this may be a step too far!

As you can probably guess, from the picture - looking up from the current master bedroom - things have definitely started moving.

We had a few days away last week, and had a call from the builder asking if the door between the house and conservatory was locked. We told him it was, which was just as well, as they were in the process of breaking into the conservatory to put scaffolding legs straight through the roof!

The chimney and chimney breast has been removed all the way through the house, all the upstairs ceilings have been removed so they can be lowered to create more head height in what will become the master suite in the loft, and they're currently removing the roof so it can be felted and replaced. We seem to be steaming ahead.

I've said all along that I was glad we didn't have to live in the house while it was being renovated, but I've never been as glad as today when Lee - our builder -  told us that without doubt the two messiest jobs you could have done were to remove a chimney breast and lower a ceiling - and we've done both!

There's no mevement on the extensions yet as he's still working on another job, but the joiners are going full steam ahead with the loft, and as soon as Lee finishes up, he'll move to ours full time. In the meantime he has some of his workers moving between the two projects to try and keep ours going.

We finally feel like we're getting somewhere!

Jay.

Watching TV Can Seriously Damage Your Health

.... or at least your nerves! I blame my friend Nicky. After we'd been having a chat about everything we were wanting to do to mum's house - two separate extensions, a loft conversion and lots of internal reconfiguring, Nicky introduced me to her guilty pleasure. It was something I'd never tried before, and neither had Al, but we quickly became addicted to the daily BBC1 show 'Homes Under the Hammer'

In case you've never come across it, the premise is fairly simple - and repetitive - the two presenters follow three homes (or properties as I believe it's compulsory to call them these days) as they're bought at auction, valued, renovated and revalued to see if a profit has been made. The show is weirdly addictive, partly because it gives me design ideas for mum's house, but also because I'm addicted to checking out how much everything costs.

While we're not interested in the profit element as we're obviously going to be living in mum's house (which I point blank refuse to call a property,) what does interest us is the designs, and especially the renovation costs. This is where the nerve shredding bad-for-your-health thing comes in - I have violent mood swings from despair to ecstasy depending on how the renovation unfolds. We usually watch the show together, so Al's there to laugh at me when I start shouting at the screen - sometimes at the annoying presenters - but more often at how much it costs to do a similar sized extension to the one we'd like. If it's more than our budget I'll be sitting with my head in my hands, and if it's way under our budget then I have a massive grin on my face. Whenever the developers go over budget - which happens a lot - I worry that the same thing will happen to us as we don't have much of a contingency fund.

I know watching this show isn't doing me any good, and I really should cancel the Tivo series link and give it up, and I will ... just a few more episodes, then I'll go cold turkey, I promise!

Jay