First foray in to the unknown!

So now there is no turning back! We have to see this though to the end, it'll be great, a really fun ride, nothing that cannot be overcome!  My theme tune for the day? 'Life is for Living' Barclay James Harvest. Thought for the day? 'Reality without imagination is only half of reality'. Are we all set now? Ready for the next instalment?

So I've not really said much about the house itself, although it is probably fairly self explanatory.  Its a Victorian semi, within the conservation area, close to the endowed schools and town centre.  That said, it is a very quiet, leafy area.  Some of the original features of the house remain, namely the windows, deep skirtings, doors etc.   Many have sadly been lost and replaced with  items of little, or no, architectural merit and are a crime against both taste and decency.  Most notable in this category is the fireplace in the lounge.

Lovely isn't it?  Chris (the builder) helped me to 'loosen' this, and between us we managed to remove the hearth, so that it could reside in the garden until such time as I break it up and take it to the tip.  The main body of this had to rest gently against the wall until  a huddle (is that the correct collective noun?) of plumbers (4 of them) was available to wrestle it into the garden to be reunited with the hearth. There it remains in repose. Should anyone wish to remove it, you're very welcome!

As we are in a conservation area, I thought the best approach was to speak to the conservation officer at the council before we did anything, to find out exactly what we were and weren't allowed to do.  I have to say that they have been very helpful, and as it turns out, we are allowed to do pretty much anything without planning permission.  That is except remove, or even trim the very large holly bush in the garden (just look at the photo in the previous post!).  So, I have spoken to several different men, filled in a form, been visited by the tree preservation man, and the forestry man, spoken to another lady, received several emails and phone messages and witnessed a great deal of angst about this bush.  Nonetheless, we have eventually received permission to trim it and thus avoid the £20,000 (???!!!) fine should we have felt the need to cut off one single twig without said permission.  We now await the tree surgeon with baited breath.

Deb and I have stripped the house from top to bottom, and been frequent visitors to the local tip. The lads there know us quite well now, but they are great about helping us to unload and telling where to put everything.

The house has massively high ceilings, and as both Deb and I are slightly vertically challenged, some rather tall ladders are required. Luckily neither of us are bothered by heights. It's the falling we're not so keen on!
We had a real debate about whether to replace the windows with UPVC or to get the originals restored. The cost of UPVC is unbelievable!  Well in fairness, the most basic ones are not too bad, but they look awful. The ones that look decent are prohibitively expensive. So we're restoring.  The house is now looking worse than it did when we bought it, as it's now boarded up!  So the beautiful stained glass windows are staying, and it's my job to try to rescue them.. The sashes have all gone off to Johns' workshop for Denis to work his magic and hopefully they should be back with us soon.

We were advised by an electrician (not the one we are using) who came round to give us a quote, that we 'absolutely must get an isolation switch put in' before any work could be done. I thought this was some bit of new Elfin Safety legislation that had to be complied with.   So upon completion I arranged for British Gas to come and do this. £43 it cost. They were due on 13th Sept. A Friday. Very brave man I thought, messing about with electricity on that particular day. Let's hope he's got his rubber boots on. Well rubber everything really. So I duly waited. And waited. Did he show up? You guessed it. NO!  So I have now been compensated £22 for the inconvenience, and a very large man turned up on 25th Sept.  I have now repaired the cellar floor, which buckled under the weight.

 Anyway, having managed to fit the isolation switch he the decided that some other bit of the supply needed replacing. But he couldn't do it as he was the wrong sort of man.  In more ways than one I thought!  The right sort of man was called ( I wasn't convinced!), and lo and behold! he arrived two hours later. But he wasn't the right sort of man either (told you!), as the mains fuse was what really needed replacing. The right sort of man hasn't arrived yet.  We'll not hold our breath will we girls?  The best of it is that the electrician (Darren) who has already completed first fix electrics, said that we didn't actually need the isolation switch.  How many times have we been told not to believe everything a man tells us? Still, we fall for it every time don't we?!

I have discovered plumbing skills that I didn't know that I had. I'm great at removing things, and am a dab hand with some grips, a wrench and a compression fitting (even the plumber was impressed!). So I removed the bathroom (such as it was) and the water heater thing all by myself, so proud!

 I had to get the roofer and the electrician to bring the bath down stairs though. I think I'd have broken my nails if I'd have tried it myself! The scrap yard is an experience I'm saving for another day!  The central heating system is in now, it took 3 plumbers and an apprentice half a day to put it in and do all the first fix for the new bathroom, kitchen and out house.  Quite impressive I thought, especially as a different plumber told me that it would take a good 10 days just to do the heating!  We did have to start at 7am though. Those of you who know me will be crying with laughter at this point!  I am not known for being particularly joyful or eloquent first thing. In fact I can barely do speech until I have had at least three cups of very strong black coffee and enough time and space to come to terms with the world.  Luckily the plumbers do know me reasonably well, so took pity on me, bought me a bacon roll and sent me to sit quietly in the garden with my coffee until I was able to be civil!  That was about 10.30, by which time they'd just about finished!

So where are we up to? The house is stripped, the windows are under way, the electrics are done, the plumbing is done.  Well almost. Another little foible of the house is that our mains water supply also feeds next door. So every time we turn the water off in our house, the water goes off next door. Joy! I have been trying to contact the next door neighbour since we completed to get it sorted out. Obviously, as a university lecturer she's far too busy to be concerned with such trivialities, even though I have said that we need to move her mains pipe from our back hall so that the plasterers can make good.  The plasterers start next week. Do you think it might suddenly become a little more important when the water is cut off?!!  We shall see!!

So enough of my rambling for now! I will continue soon!