The bedroom begins to take shape (Sept - Nov 2007)

After a long silence we are back, and there is some progress to report on. We've been busy working on the upstairs part of the house, since the partially completed bathroom is workable for now. The first job was to install the remaining two joists (which we couldn't do until the stairs were out of the way).Then the old joists were gradually removed, and new floorboards put into place bit by bit.

At the same time, we had three skylights installed upstairs (this was one thing we didn't do ourselves - we got the experts in). This was a real boost - suddenly the upper floor was flooded with light, and it was all done in two days.

Because of the low sloping roof, the skylights are very accessible - you can stick quite a lot of your body through each window and it almost feels like you are outside! It's a nice view as well.
We already had put insulation into the roof, last autumn, but it didn't comply with the Building Regulations. The minimum 200m thickness required by the Regs was too deep for our roof, as we needed to maximise the space available because of the low roof height. So we forked out for some special super thin stuff which was stapled with a staple gun in and around the roof trusses.

6000 staples later, the top room was all silvery and futuristic, and very warm!
Installing plasterboard onto the walls surprisingly turned out to be one of the most difficult tasks we have faced so far. The combination of the heavy yet fragile plasterboard with walls at a 45 degree angle, densely packed layers of insulation, and cheap screws created a major challenge. While I busted a gut trying to hold each sheet of plasterboard in place, George (stronger than me but with better, um, 'screwing' skills) was in charge of the drill - but some screws twisted and broke while others wouldn't even go in at all, the drill kept overheating from the strain, the plasterboard broke, gaps appeared between sheets of plasterboard as they slipped gradually down the wall - we had really met our match!

The screws did not like the insulation at all - they twisted themselves into it very tightly and turned into candy floss sticks! They wouldn't go into the wooden trusses underneath the insulation when they got into this state, so many of them had to be pulled out of the plasterboard, leaving gaping holes behind.

We are getting through it by attacking the task in small doses, and our skills have improved slightly with practice, but we are going to be relying heavily on a professional plasterer to create the illusion of smooth walls!

In with the new, out with the old (August 2007)

Now we wouldn't be so arrogant as to suggest that we are good builders, but we feel sufficiently qualified to rubbish the work of the previous builders in this house. At least we are trying to do a good job! The previous guys were clearly trying to take shortcuts wherever they could - converting this property into flats and selling them on as quickly as possible.

So destroying their handiwork has not exactly been heart-wrenching for us, and getting rid of the nasty old bathroom has been a particular highlight. First we had to remove the old pipes, now no longer connected to the mains supply. It was like spaghetti junction in the roof with copper pipes everywhere. For some reason the water pipes went all the way up into the roof, around the back of the bathroom, up a bit further, back down to the boiler in the kitchen, then back up again to feed the bathroom!

So, George cut into the pipes upstairs (still containing water), while I stood underneath in the kitchen/living room holding buckets to catch the flow and stop murky water splashing all over the couch, computer, etc. Removing the drainage pipes was by far the worst task, unsurprisingly. Once cut and drained as much as possible, I had to push these pipes through the external wall while George waited outside to collect them. Each time I banged on the pipe to push it through the brickwork, gobs of foul-smelling sludge splattered all over every surface inside, including me! It was a very large, nasty clean-up job - there was even grey sludge on each slat of the venetian blinds in the bathroom.

Unpleasant, but so satisfying! The next task was to remove the old bathroom suite. The basin and steel bath came out whole without too much trouble, but the toilet had to be smashed up. The stench of stagnant water that had been sitting in the unused toilet bowl for a few days was quite overpowering!

We then moved onto the walls. We discovered a layer of tiles hidden under the tongue and groove panelling! And there were tiles under the laminate floor as well. The bathroom was only built about 15 years ago, so the tiles must have been covered over pretty early on. Even though it seemed ridiculous we could understand why someone would want to cover them up - they were quite ugly!

It became a lot darker in the roof once the pale-coloured walls had gone, even with the light shining through the hole in the brickwork where the toilet drainage pipe had been.
And an angel came down from the heavens... Actually it's George bricking up the toilet hole (it was a sunny day - a rare and wondrous event this summer).
North end of old bathroom with basin and bath removed...

...and now no walls or floor!
It's amazing how much rubbish is produced by demolishing one small bathroom! And this pile was created before the floor and all of the walls were removed. We decided that this lot was too much for us to take to the dump, so we called Ecojunk. You do have to pay them to take the stuff away, but it's cheaper and much easier than a skip, and they aim to recycle 80% of the junk collected.

The next job was to remove the stairs.

Going, going...

...gone!

Some of you may have wondered how we manage to take stuff to the tip when we do not own a car. It's actually very easy - we just hire a car from our local car club, Streetcar. You can book a car by internet or phone and be driving it 10 minutes later. There are 10 different cars within 8 minutes walk of our house, and you can hire one for as little as half an hour. It's so easy and cheap (£4.95 per hour including everything even petrol), and without the car club we would have definitely been forced to buy a car.

The only downside is that the Streetcar vehicles, being Volkswagon Golfs, are not always large enough for our needs. The first time we discovered this was at the builders merchants and faced with collecting 10 sheets of roof insulation whose size we had slightly misjudged. The only option was to tie the insulation sheets to the top of the car, using some rope that we bought from the builders merchants shop. The only way we could tie them down securely was by winding down all 4 car windows and threading the rope around and around. Then we had to climb back into the car through the windows because the car doors were now tied shut by the rope - it was quite embarrassing having to do this in the middle of the builders yard!

A new bathroom at last (August 2007)

Our new bathroom is (mostly) in! It took much longer than expected. There is so much intricate work involved with installing a new bathroom, and we were learning all the way along. Plumbing seems to be one of those jobs that is "easy when you know how". I guess that's why professional plumbers earn so much! We did employ a professional, for the end of the job - to divert the water supply from the old pipes to the new pipes. George's new pipes held up well, and we now have a working bath, basin and toilet! We can't install the shower until we've built the next bit of wall. And we can't build the next wall until the stairs are removed. So in the meantime we are showering at work and the gym, and having the occasional bath at home when we have no other option.

Plumbing has not been much fun, overall. But I got my five minutes of amusement when I learned some new plumbing terms. Did you know that pipes can be described as male or female? Male = a fitting that is inserted into another fitting. Female = (you guessed it) a fitting into which another fitting is inserted. Nipple, cock, elbow; the list goes on. Plumbers are so admirably matter-of-fact - why use fancy words when a body part analogy will suffice?


One of the most infuriating things about this flat is the complete absence of right angles and straight surfaces. We had to build this wall to create a square set of angles, in order to install the bathroom furniture. We also had to make a specially shaped, sloping platform for the toilet to sit on, to make it level (unlike the floor).

This nifty drill really makes light work of an otherwise tricky task - making a new hole for the toilet drainage pipe.
Just look at that - isn't it perfect?
The slow business of installing the bathroom furniture.

And - a finished bathroom (sort of)! No tiles on either floor or walls, no mirror, no lighting, no ceiling, no door, no shower. But we have running water, and storage space!!

Filling the first bath. It takes about half an hour to fill it (the water pressure is still bad); we share the same bath water to economise on time and water. We've rigged up a makeshift shower curtain to stop splashes affecting the new plasterboard.

It's a very open plan bathroom at the moment - there are just two partial walls between it and the living room. Bathing in what is essentially a building site is surprisingly enjoyable - the room is full of light (during the day) and you can look up at the sky while lying in the water. Up until mid-afternoon the sun pours in - it's going to be a really pleasant room when it's finished.

We now have just one half of the back room to store tools, ladders etc. We also walk through here to access the bathroom at the moment; the proper entry to the bathroom is currently blocked by the stairs.

Not much DIY (July 2007)

We've had our flat for just over one year, and what a short year it's been. There's still so much to do on the house - everything has taken longer than we thought (surprise, surprise), and we have been struggling to keep the momentum going since Summer started. That's mainly because we've had a lot of other distractions that Summer tends to bring.

A particularly welcome distraction was the return of our Christmas feline house-guests while their owners were on holiday. Little George and Jess stayed for a whole week this time, and although it sometimes felt a bit crowded with all four of us in our one-room flat we all had good fun. The building site turned out to be a veritable cat's playground; full of dark holes to hide in, tight gaps to squeeze through and high beams to jump onto (see below). This provided much amusement for both cat and human. Luckily at one year of age they were sensible enough (just) to avoid harming themselves on the numerous sharp tools lying around. Our newly bought copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was not so lucky. We arrived home one day to find that a corner of the book's hardback cover had mysteriously disappeared, with small teeth marks serving as the only clue to the culprit!

At the end of July we took a day off the DIY to go to Sundae on the Common. This is a festival unlike any other. In addition to the usual music and fairground attractions, this annual festival offers unlimited free Ben & Jerry's ice cream! There was also a stall providing free pancakes, which went rather well with the free icecream. Although, it is interesting how little icecream you can actually eat before you start feeling sick, even when it's free!

Not only does the Ben & Jerry's festival provide good music, free ice cream and amusing activities like toe wrestling, but it offers all this for the staggeringly small ticket price of £12. AND, it's all carbon neutral (including the ice cream).

Thousands of you, one of me: I make that Pimm's O'Clock! What better way to recycle an old Routemaster London Bus than to fill it with booze and surround it with a mini white picket fence? As for the double deckchairs, they will definitely be going on next summer's shopping list.

Cycle city (July 2007)

It's been a good summer for cycling, despite the awful weather (it hailed two weeks ago!). On Sunday 17 June we were woken up at 6am by the sound of helicopters circling above the house. We didn't realise until we heard lots of voices outside that the London to Brighton Bike Ride was going past our house! It took 4 hours for all 27,000 participants to ride past, and it was quite a spectacle.

On 6-8 July, London hosted the Tour de France for the first time. Transport for London needed lots of staff to help out with the event, so I volunteered, even though I didn't really know anything about the Tour de France at the time! I now know a lot more about it, and I am completely hooked! It's the biggest annual sporting event in the world (in terms of spectator numbers), and one of the most gruelling - the 200 or so riders travel 3,500km over 3 weeks and have to cope with vertical climbs of up to 2000m on some of the race stages. The Tour is famous for its arduous race schedule, dangerous mountain stages, crazy roadside spectators, drug controversies, spectacular crashes and beautiful scenery. The complex point scoring system, interesting team tactics and nail-biting sprint finishes make for riveting viewing. There is one kiwi cyclist competing (Julian Dean), five Brits and several Aussies (many of whom have already dropped out). Check out the Tour de France website, and more info on http://tour.itv.com/.

London hosted the start of the Tour (Prologue and Stage 1), which meant a whole week of activity. One of my tasks was to cycle the Prologue circuit and the first part of the 200km Stage 1 route during the preceding week, in order to identify any hazards, 'guerilla' advertising, etc. During the day of the Prologue, I managed a team of seven people providing event and travel information to the general public. The whole event was a fantastic experience and it was so exciting to be part of such a big event. For London, and TfL, it was essentially a dress rehearsal for the Olympics (on a smaller scale). After weeks of miserable weather, London turned on the sun for the one weekend when it really mattered! An estimated 2 million people turned up to watch the event in London, with a further 2 million watching along the rest of the Stage 1 route through the Kent countryside.

The Prologue was a 7.9km time trial around central London where the cyclists started the race one minute apart. The winner, Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland), was the only rider to complete the circuit in under 9 minutes. Here is one of the guys whizzing past Windsor House, where I work (the big brown building left of centre).

After being on my feet for about 10 hours in the sun on the Saturday at the Prologue, I was exhausted. But I couldn't miss the Grand Départ on the Sunday, when the riders and their huge entourage set off en masse to begin Stage 1 of the Tour. So I got up early on the Sunday morning to get a good spot. It was worth it - I had an excellent view.

Ken Livingstone, our London Mayor, is standing (left hand side) in the red car, just ahead of the riders.
Here come the riders! Fabian Cancellara (winner of yesterday's Prologue race) is in the yellow jersey, and one of our British hopefuls, Mark Cavendish (Isle of Man), is in the pink jersey on the far left. It was all over in about 20 seconds, but it was colourful while it lasted!

I had a great spot right by Big Ben. I didn't need to look at my watch at all; I only needed to listen out for the reassuring quarter-hour chime.

After the riders had departed, everyone retired to the parks to watch the 5 hour race on big screens. The deckchairs were popular!

Plumbing and plastering (June 2007)

Nice new floorboards, the beginnings of a new wall, and best of all, no more orange!
Man and machine! This massive drill is for making holes in our external brick walls, for the new drainage pipes.

We had to cut into the existing drainage pipe from the kitchen sink, in order to connect the new bathroom basin to it. The drainage pipe was seriously blocked and stank to high heaven! Clearing out the blockage turned out to be a very messy task, requiring the purchase of some industrial-strength drain unblocking products. Not one of our favourite jobs.

Plastering was also a challenge - there really is an art to it. We had to rely on sanding to get a smooth finish. Plaster dust really gets everywhere! And it turned George into a ghost.

This is the beginning of our new bathroom. The bath is plumbed in, and the floor and wall are mostly in (still to be tiled).

No more bedroom (April - June 2007)

Since April we have been sleeping in the living room. Needless to say, it's pretty cramped! The entire contents of our bedroom are either in this room, the attic or the tip. The computer sits on top of a chest of drawers containing T-shirts and jeans. It's actually surprisingly comfortable, and you certainly don't have to travel far to get a drink in the middle of the night!
What was once our bedroom is now a proper building site. We ripped out the south side of the wall between the bedroom and kitchen/living room, in order to build supports for the rest of the joists.
The demolition of this wall created lots of mess, and firewood! The amount of heavy rubble and loose concrete inside the wall was quite staggering. Around this point we gave up trying to keep the floors clean all the time. No more bare feet in the house. We do our best, but as soon as we do any cleaning, the dust comes straight back again. The kitchen/living room doesn't escape a dusting whenever we're working in the other room, because the wall between the two rooms has a big gap along the top and side. Every time we need to use anything - clothes, shoes, computer, kitchen items, books - it has to be wiped clean first.

The next thing to be removed was the carpet and underlays, revealing old, splitting floorboards underneath.
The back room is now completely open to the stairs, as is the bathroom. This is not a place for the inhibited! When one of us really does need privacy in the bathroom, the other person has to either go outside or stay in the living room with the door closed.

We took up all the old floorboards and discovered a maze of old pipework and electric cables. There was a huge amount of rubble lying on top of Claire's ceiling between the floor joists. We also found old junk left behind by previous builders, and even a chisel which we believe dates back to Victorian times!
New soundproofing
Disaster! For weeks we had been tiptoeing around the stripped out floor and being really careful to step only on the joists. Just as we were putting the new floorboards back down, I slipped and put my foot through Claire's ceiling! You can see through the hole to Claire's bed directly below.

We had to get an emergency builder to fix the hole, one extra expense that we didn't need. Oh well, it would probably be impossible to get through a DIY project as big as this without having any mishaps!

Wallpaper stripping. Our iron was sacrificed for this task, a small price to pay for getting rid of that awful orange.