Taking Breath after the First Week

One of my aims in doing this project was to do it at my own speed.  There is no point, I reasoned, in having a tight timescale and creating stress for myself if I'm actually in no particular hurry to get the house finished.  I want to take the time and enjoy this, I thought in my innocence.  We've now owned the house for eight days, and I've never been busier!  Clearly it is not going as I expected.

The plan this week was to get the electrical supply protected on Monday, so that we could safely erect scaffolding on Tuesday and commence roof work on Wednesday.  Unknown to me the roofer knew the track record of the electricity supplier and so arranged the scaffolding for Wednesday instead - wise man!  Due to van failure, the electrical work did not happen on Monday and on Tuesday when I phoned it became clear that Monday's work had not been rescheduled...  After a few pleading phone calls, the emergency team came out late on Tuesday - dark and raining - and kindly did it.

While the scaffolding was going up on Wednesday, I had a call from a chimney sweep company who will check and sweep two of our chimneys so that I can light a fire or two to warm the house up.   The scaffolding finished early on Thursday, so the roofers started and by the end of Friday the former roof lay on the ground in the garden building site, with the naked rafters now covered with tarpaulin.  As work progressed I continued the removal of the ivy which was now possible using the scaffolding, although annoyingly there is still some ivy remaining just below the working platform twenty feet up.  Barry the carpenter ("chippy") visited on Friday and will be happy to do other work on the house.  He also surprised me by saying that he would come on Saturday and Sunday to do the soffits and fascia.  This caused me to have to turn up on Saturday to finish removal of the ivy in the region of the electrical supply bracket, as well as being able to tidy up when the old soffits and fascia were removed.

The chippy removed the fascia and soffit except where there was still ivy, where he left the soffit for me.  The power cables (ours and next door's) came away from the rotten fascia very easily but the real issue was where these cables disappeared into the ivy and emerged at the bracket two feet lower.  Gradually I removed the soffit and the dead ivy stems from both sides of the corner bracket and was down to the last three feet when there was a bang and a flash - the supply for next door had some bare cable!  That was enough for me - time to call the electricity supplier again - this time as an emergency.  (Anyone remember the Flanders and Swann song "The gasman cometh"?)

I forgot to mention that the roofing contractor's mate called Chris asked if I had a plasterer, as his brother in law was a plasterer called Phil who lived just along the road...  (Is there a slang term for a plasterer?)  So Phil came along on Saturday morning and seemed very keen and capable - another contractor found.  Then Phil asked if I had an electrician or a plumber, and to my surprise while I was waiting for the electricity lineman at 4.30pm, Neil the Sparky turned up to have a look - another contractor found.  Eventually the electricity lineman and his mate arrived; it turned out they were the ones who should have done the job on Monday!  They condemned the existing supply cables as dangerous (for both houses) and connected a temporary supply, leaving the way clear for the ivy removal, and departed at 6.45pm.

Thus it was that I have just spent nine hours working at the house on a Saturday.  This week has seen far more progress than I would have dared to expect even on a tight timescale, never mind my relaxed approach.  At this rate the roof will be done in a week and we are off to a flying start, with several contractors lined up, but I am shattered.

The Original State of Our House

Having owned this house for all of one day, I have taken lots of photos to record for posterity the original state of the inside of the house, as I have done some work outside and posted a number of photos already.  Here are a few of my efforts today of the general condition, mostly showing signs of lots of damp:

Kitchen fireplace

Kitchen floor

Main Bedroom

3rd Bedroom (one of four holes in ceilings)

Hall Arch from stairs

Lounge

Paper holding plaster to wall!

Small Bathroom

Stairs with 2nd bedroom on left

Interesting wooden corner feature in plaster

Completion of the purchase at last!

This house is now ours, eleven weeks after we first saw it, and I'm off to collect the keys.  Equally importantly, for the first time in our lives, we own a house and have no mortgage - it's a good feeling!  Unfortunately Jane is away today and tomorrow, so I won't be able to carry her over the threshold when we go in for the first time.

Now the real work starts.  So far I have been doing detailed planning and some tinkering on the outside, like getting some ivy down.  I'm now about to take the architect inside as soon as I've got the key.  Next week we hope to have scaffolding erected and the roofer will start work, and I'll use the scaffolding to get rid of the rest of the ivy.  The condition of the roof trusses will be of considerable interest, as will the extent of damage due to water ingress.  I will also get the roofer's carpenter to have a look at the joists (all of upstairs, plus the lounge downstairs) as that is the other major unknown at present.  Just as the stonework behind the ivy was in surprisingly good condition, I am hoping that the joists won't be found to be rotten.

Earlier this week I cut back all of the growth (mostly ivy) along the low stone wall at the front, revealing the coping stones (with cement "repairs").  I almost had an accident when the "For Sale" board broke its Ty-Wrap and fell onto the pavement, to the concern of an old woman a few yards away.  I propped the board up again, but any concern I had about its security was removed an hour later when a man with a van came and took it away.  I also cleared the overgrown front garden of the bottles, cans and litter accumulated over a fair time.  The score was about 50 each of drink cans, glass bottles and plastic bottles, but the following morning someone had dumped two portions of chips, a bit of chicken, a paper wrapper and a drinks can.  Sigh... 

In the course of this work I had conversations with over a dozen people passing by, so it took longer than it might have done.  Clearly, work on this house is going to be a topic of considerable local interest.  Two of these people assumed that the entire building was going to be demolished, and were surprised when I said that it was listed.  Another woman told me about the owner in the sixties who had two Old English Sheepdogs; the garden was well laid out, and the dogs used to sit behind the wrought iron front gates to greet passing schoolchildren like her.  "You mean these gates?" I said, pointing to two rusty gates hidden in the undergrowth!

Exchange and Further Restoration Plans

At last! We have actually exchanged contracts this afternoon, with completion in two weeks.  I think I'll sleep well tonight; I realise that although I was sure it would happen, both our sale and our purchase have been taking their toll on me as things dragged on.  Solicitors... don't get me started.

Further Restoration Plans

We had intended to build a new extension containing the kitchen as the current kitchen is in the falling down extension.  However, following due consideration whilst lying awake at nights, Jane suggested putting the kitchen in the room across the back of the house itself, which we had been terming the dining room.

This change has a major affect on our plans: we had intended to do the extension and some of the house, move in and then finish the house soon after.  The moving date is fairly critical as we are in rented accommodation until April 2011, but we can extend by some time to be agreed.  The issue is that the owner will not want to extend the let to between October 2011 and Spring 2012 as the rental market tails off.  Hence we must move out by the end of August if we are not to stay in it until 2012.

To move in we obviously need a kitchen, so the critical path for moving in was doing the extension.  However (if allowed by the CO), we will now aim to do the entire house first, including the kitchen, and then we can move in, with the extension not being a critical path item.  This is very good news as our builder is not available until April anyway, and also there might be delays in the permission for the extension.

Another change is that I had intended to do a limecrete floor to what will now be the kitchen and raise its level by six inches.  Further investigation reveals that the floor is actually quite level and so, provided that the tiles clean up OK and I can reduce the height of the ground outside, we can live with the existing floor. That's one argument less to have with the CO, and a lot of money saved!

Teetering on the brink of progress

Awaiting exchange of contracts to buy, but still expect to complete on Oct 22nd simultaneously with our sale.  I have a contractor ready, and the LBC application is going in, so hopefully the work on the roof will start immediately following completion.  Every time it rains I have been in total frustration at the thought of the holes in the roof...

However, I have to confess that frustration got the better of me last weekend.  I had seen on one of my frequent visits that the dead ivy was coming away from the wall in some places.  Then, lying awake one night, I realised that if it ALL became detached from the wall then there would be a huge weight of ivy hanging from the corner of the roof where it is entwined with the gutter, slates and rafters.  This could only be bad news, so to protect my intended investment I decided to have a go at the ivy without delay. It took me just over two hours, including the left side and tidying up, using my loppers mostly as it was mostly too thick for secateurs.  The following photos show the before and after:

As you can see, I have hacked a line across the ivy back to the wall about ten feet up (OK, I know it's not horizontal), and also removed the ivy from around the bay window and along the bay roof where it was growing under the lead flashing. The cut channel will reduce the weight of potential "hanging ivy" by a good amount if it does decide to fall off, and it also pleases me to see the shape of the windows revealed!

I'm sure the vendor won't mind (or even know), so I'll probably have another go next week.  I didn't want to stand on the flashing but I'll take some boards next time so I can get around the bedroom window.  I will cut another line about five feet higher up on the left and round the corner but I can't go any higher as (a) my ladder won't reach and (b) there are unprotected electricity cables running to the top corner.  (I have already asked the electricity supplier to protect them so that we can put up the scaffolding to do the roof.)

Meanwhile, back to waiting for the good news.  Just how long can this sort of thing take?

UPDATED 12 OCT: Here's a later photo of both halves (ours is just the left hand) after a large part of the ivy just fell off last week (well, I gave it a slight helping hand):