so, where are we...the house is now a work site. the builder has been in and removed the bathroom suite and kitchen units. as we are knocking out the wall between the dining room and the kitchen to make one big work / live space at the back of the house, he has also knocked holes in the wall and installed padstones, which will take the weight of the impending steel girder. (we are still awaiting go ahead from the council before we fully knock out the wall).
warning. i am in the mood to rant i therefore am about to start on our experience re structural engineers, namely those that have done our council application. (should you be not interested in this, please skip to the next paragraph.) firstly, if anyone is looking for a career where you do little for a lot of cash, become a structural engineer. we needed to fill in a council required building regs form in order to knock the wall out safely and be able to sell on our house in future. after asking about and no one being able to recommend a structural engineer (for reasons which become clear) we finally picked at random from an online website. they quoted us for the work and from chats with others, it was a standard amount. an extortionate £525 for the drawings plus £90 for the council application plus £65 for the SER certificate. then they needed architect drawings provided on which to base the engineer drawings. really, what did they do for the £525 except turn up with (i kid you not) a biro pen and the back of an envelope on which to take down a rough drawing and measurements? so over the proverbial barrel we had them do the architect drawings as well (after checking this was common practice) and a mere £450 later these had been done. however, if this wasn't enough money (c£1.1k) to have fleeced for what ostensibly was about half a days work (at a push) they then had the cheek to charge us printing costs for the 2 sheets of A3 paper £9 - the worlds most expensive printer, i could have done this at work for free - and then to cap it off, the £2.25 for stamps. what a rip. at least we haven't paid them yet :-)) and if you're after the name of this delight i will publish it once the form is complete and in my little pauper hand.
ok rant over!
back to the house and i think this is the most worried i have been. kingarth is now completely uninhabitable and covered in dirt. if we do not start to put it back together soon i may start to stress that our january deadline is unrealistic.
on a more up beat note, we have started to strip with earnest. the dining room is now wallpaper free, and the interesting (?!) bamboo print from the lounge is three quarters away. slate floor and retro metro wall tiles have been ordered and will be delivered next week. the kitchen will arrive over the week and the wall coming down is scheduled in for next sat. b&q is becoming a second home.
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| preparing for the wall op |
