Work has Restarted!

The following day, the architect / structural engineer met the builder and Ian "on site". For 2 hours, there were inspections, deliberations, technical building conversations and speculations.

The result of all the above was relatively positive. Much of the remedial work could be done from the inside of the house - although unplanned for, does mean that subject to confirmation of the foundations, work can restart.

The builder, architect and Ian left the site, with the main open point being to investigate the foundations from inside the building.

Keen to progress, the builder came back later in the afternoon, removed a 6' x 5' section of the floor - including the joists - and dug the foundations. The news was good. Although no foundations were present, it turns out the building is build on top of a bed of rock!

The next day, I was visiting a neighbour in Mugdock whose kitchen overlooks our cottage. She told me that she has spent the morning watching a team of builders on the roof stripping tiles and removing the chimney. so I sat with my coffee and pollenta cake watching the deconstruction of my home. Can anyone remember the Billy Connolly sketch, when he woke up in a friends flat in Finnieston, looked out the window, and saw the house he was born in get pulled down? well, I got that surreal feeling.

When we were visiting the same neighbours on Sunday, we decided, after testing the emotional water with Maja, to let her go across to see what was going on. All she could say on seeing the house void of any rooms was "where are all the corners?"

"In the back garden." was Ians reply.

She thought it was hysterical. I think it may be useful letting her see the changes, as she is finally on board.

Now, the tiles are off the roof, the chimney is down, including the structure inside the building, the final measures for the new roof structure have been taken and the order for the truss (wooden structures that form the roof) manufacturer has been placed.

While no doubt there will be more snags to overcome (the telephone line to the house, for example, will need to be removed and moved, as it enters the building in an inconvenient place once the new roof structure is put up), but for now, no more major incidents to deal with.

Work Begins....Stops

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS. LOVELY JUGS MARGO

When we put the plans out to tender, it became clear that we needed a builder to take on the complete job, we have neither the time nor more importantly the experience for such an undertaking.

During discussions, we have now learned to call builders "the contractors", and home "the site".

We were lucky to have been recommended a contractor, firstly through our architect, and secondly, by some happy clients and their neighbours. So the decision to go ahead with the company we wanted was not too difficult

I have to say at this point that I also work heavily on gut instinct, it has served me well in the past.

The first few days were relatively quiet looking from the outside. I was visiting a friend in the street and with the exception of some vans parked in the drive, it was business as usual.

However later in the day, when I met up with the builder I could see that our house, site, was void of some of the internal walls, said walls were now heaped in the back garden.

From this ...


To this ...

Left site very excited, definitely underway now.

One day later the problems are now clearly visible ....

In general, the overall construction of the timber that forms the house is not to the standard that would be acceptable today.

The uprights, which span from the floor to the ceiling and transfer the weight of the roof to the foundations, are constructed from various types of wood, many of them not of sufficient size and / or material - these will need to be replaced / added to.

The lintels around the windows - all of them! are not lintels. There are blocks of wood not properly supported and not doing very much to support the weight above the windows. These will need to be replaced. Luckily, most of the windows will need to be replaced anyway due to layout changes, so this is not a big problem.

There are questions over the fixing of the the plywood to the timber frame which forms the wooden skin of the building. Structurally, these sheets of wood are important to stop the building "racking" (imagine squashing a square to a rhombus shape - this is "racking"). There is no real evidence that the required "nailing schedule" has been followed. A "nailing schedule" defines which type and what distance nails to use to fix the ply to the frame - getting it right ensures the structure, getting it wrong, well ...

There are also questions over how the brick skin is "tied" to the wooden frame. Again, no evidence this has been adequately done.

Given the "standard" of the construction, we are now concerned about the foundations. Likely not a problem, but will need to be checked before continuing. This means creating a hole inside the building and digging a "trial pit" to expose the foundations (if they are there!) to check all is well.

What does all this mean? Worst case, the building would need to be taken down - i.e. start from scratch.

So, work has stopped and the architect / structural engineer has been recalled to review the situation.

Week One... Reality bites

Steve and David first time either of them have made the bed.

Firstly a big thanks to the team who moved us from Mugdock to Strathblane, namely:

Drew, Peter, George and his son Graeme, who were based in Mugdock,dismantling and loading the truck.

Steve, Scott, Simon and David in Strathblane, offloading the truck and building/ fitting the furniture. Not forgeting Margo, for the buns, and the Horrocks for looking after, and feeding Maja.

I collected the keys for the new house on the 1st March, gradually, with the help of my trusted local mothers, brought in and emptied many boxes.

More importantly, Rhona, thanks for making me take a couple of hours off, pulling the gang together and providing great food and wine for Anne and I on our birthday.

Our wee Maja hates the new house and does not want the builders to go near her bedroom in Mugdock, leaving notes on walls to that end.

I was also struggling to find what's known as FLEA insurance (Fire, Lightning, Explosion, Earthquake and Aircraft) for the soon to be empty property.

Insurers are jittery when properties are empty for more than around 90 days.

Boxes and furniture were going everywhere,to my mother in law and my mother's house (hope your attic doesn't cave in mum, I know a great builder if it does!), others to Strathblane.

By Friday I had almost crashed the car, fallen down a flight of stairs, and bizarrely, went out to collect a meal from the Chinese restaurant and brought home a couple of bags of groceries from Tesco instead, blaming Ian for my mistake when he was looking for his satay.
Stressed and emotional we decided to use our tried and trusted coping mechanism...
Pop Maja off to bed and open a bottle of wine.
I believe that may have saved our sanity and our marriage.