Excuses, Excuses

The builder who is supposed to be doing our pointing brick work (NOT the incredible Dave the Builder) has been testing our patience from day one and I received a new excuse today.  These excuses have delayed the work by over a month and they are getting more inventive each week.  Now, I'm not saying they all aren't real (maybe he just has REALLY bad luck?), but I wanted to keep track of them all in one place due to the amount of them:

1)  "I have to look after my sister's children."
2)  "A water main burst on the tracks and I can't take the train." (this was actually true, however the man has a van)
3)  "I was pulled over by the police and told I can't drive until I fix my exhaust."
4)  We weren't at the house when he arrived late to work one afternoon so instead of calling us to see when we'd be home, he decided to just drive back to Brighton.
5)  "I can't use electrical equipment in the rain."  Hmmmm, there was a lot that needed to be done that didn't require electrical equipment but OK!
6)  Gout

Favela Chic

So they took our scaffolding down today after 2 months.  Our house feels naked now!  Don't get me wrong, I love it but it actually covered up what now looks like a haunted house compared to our neighbors (click the photo below to get a close up).  : )    You can see Mark's great work stripping the windows of their old paint and if you look at the arch over our front door, you can see where Mark has sanded the bricks to bring out the color. 

We're still due a bit more pointing and a final acid wash to clean the bricks.  Then we'll paint the windows and their sills to finally finish the front of the house.  Oooo, and you can see my new white trim at the very top!

Londontown Is Falling Down

We've been sticking close to home due to the London riots (so sad!).  Mark decided yesterday to strip the paint from our windows using a scraper and blow torch which has been pretty successful.  We're trying to save the original windows for now and he's been doing a great job.

Meanwhile, my wonderful parents were visiting so I took a couple of days off DIY to hit the town and see a great show with them (Million Dollar Quartet)!  Today, I finished priming the recently plastered walls so we can begin decorating this weekend. 

When It Rains, It Pours...

Woke up to a rain storm and very leaky roof...

Not to worry though, Dave the Builder had it fixed in no time.

Men at Work(?)

Dave the Builder and Mark have been hard at work for the past two hours today.  But hey, we had a ping-pong table and a video game room at MySpace; everyone should be allowed to have a little fun at work...

They graciously paused their tournament for 10 minutes to help bring the vintage filing cabinet I bought on Ebay (for a song!), up the stairs and into the lounge.  We have a huge stack of files in the front room that fly around our house when the windows are open so this is a very necessary arrival.  Look, it even matches my handbag!

Getting There...

The loft is definitely taking shape!  Today, Dave the Builder installed more insulation and you can now see where the entrance to the space will be, as well as the door for the bathroom.  He has also installed small areas for future storage so all space is being utilized to it's potential.  More updates later this week (our bi-folding doors arrive on Thursday!)...

The balcony start is to the left of the photo

The balcony will eventually go to the very edge of the roof

The bathroom entrance is the structure to the left of the photo.  The loft entrance is to the right of it.

We're Plastered

Plasterer Alan was here today and boy, was he needed!  He attacked our front room while Dave the Builder and Mark recessed the TV wires and plug sockets.  We've been looking at half plastered walls for over a week now, we don't recognize the finished room!

Plasterer Alan

Beautiful!