5th November

So after last weekend off due to a visit from our friends, we were back on it this weekend. My Dad went up mid week and started digging the trench ready for the gas supply being installed a week on Thursday. So our first job was to finish that. It was real donkey work. We dug down 18” at a width of 12” for 5 meters. The ground was as hard as hell breaking shale and road stone mainly. However we managed it and the trench is now in, hands full of blisters as a reward for our efforts.

We found out this week that we are potentially going to need full building regulation approval for the renovation and the whole house has to be brought up to 2017 spec. I had some fairly scary thoughts about what would need to be replaced but after a conversation with John he is going to speak to a private building control company and arrange a site visit. We’ll take it from there.

Sharon had the day off on Saturday and went and did the Christmas shopping. My Dad and I went up and started the task of removing the floors from the 2 bedrooms above the living room where the fire started. Obviously we worked back on ourselves as do not to fall down in to the living room or get stuck at the wrong side of the bedroom without being able to get back. It was also quite dangerous as the floor joists were charred and very weak but again we managed it. We then moved on to removing the charred joists. We took a circular saw to them, split them in the middle and then pulled them out. We left the joists in below the bedroom walls and removed the boards around them before acro propping them up and finally removing them. It looks really weird when you walk in the living room and 2 bedroom walls are suspended in mid air above you.

John also turned up yesterday to take another couple of trailers full of bricks and chiselled off plaster to his caravan park. On his second visit of the day we managed to get his van and trailer stuck in the front garden. Took us about half an hour and lots of digging, bricks, pushing and grunting before he finally got out. I reckon he probably took another 5 or 6 tonnes yesterday. A massive help. We also had the site inspection from Uncle Spok today and I think we passed 👍

Next we turned our attention to removing all the plaster from the stairs. Slowly but surely we are removing anything that’s burnt and charred so hopefully the smell will start to disappear. It’s loads better than it was but its still apparent. We managed to get the whole staircase and hall stripped and the door casings out at the bottom of the stairs and thrown on to the ever growing pile of wood round the back. We got everything swept up and bagged up before calling it a day.

We decide to go up today for a couple of hours as John wanted to come up and measure up for windows. We decided we were going to stay until 1pm. Sharon came with me and my Dad and worked hard as ever, clearing and fetching and carrying for us as well as being chief Tea maker. We started off by removing the rest of the chimney breast in the kitchen before moving on upstairs and taking all the plaster off the walls in the main bedroom. Another few tonnes of rubble but again we managed to get it all bagged and thrown outside. John duly turned up and measured up all of our windows with the exception of the 2 kitchen ones as we are going to remove them, build the sides up and replace with one larger window. He has also measured all the joists and various other items. He’s going to speak to building control tomorrow and get prices for windows. Also had a visit from Spok and Denise and they were well surprised how quickly it is changing.

We packed up about 1.30pm and dropped my Dad off and went home for some lunch. We decided to go back and give the whole place a good sweep out and we knew Spok and Paul were coming up about 4 to burn some rubbish. We managed to get all tidied up and swept out and all the rubbish bagged, there’s probably about another 3 tonnes for John next week now.

Paul and Spok arrived about 3.30 and lit the bonfire 🔥. It wasn’t long before it was well ablaze and lots of rubbish was being burned. I helped carry some of the wood down and chucked it on while Sharon made us a cup of tea with a mince pie made by Lynne. I nipped Sharon home about 6pm and went back. We had a cracking night and managed to burn almost all the rubbish on the back including all the charred wood we stripped out of the house as well as all the trees and bushes cut down by Paul over the last few weeks.

All in all a tremendous weekend, long shift today which wasn’t really planned but we’ve achieved no end.

Thanks to everyone who’s been involved and kept coming up to help and support us, it really helps push us along.

Until next weekend .....Read more