This week the build appears to be turning a corner. After slogging in ankle deep mud for a couple more weeks, and with another five 16 ton grab lorries hauling great piles of muck off our driveway, the majority of the excavation seems to be complete. Darren appear confident that no more muck lorries will be needed.
The upshot then is a fully cleaned out and excavated hole where the kitchen used to be. The back wall, side wall, floor and roof have all come down, leaving a wet, clay and water filled hole. And they've extended the whole to dig out the patio space further out and back together with a trench for a retaining wall footing. The best milestone was seeing the large brick pillar that has dominated the kitchen since we moved in fall to the floor. It will not be missed.
I chipped in a bit too. Asbestos cladding for the Aga flue where it ran through the under eaves needed removing, and I decided that I could do it myself and dispose of it via the council. Individuals are allowed to dispose of a small amount of asbestos removed during gardening and so forth and the amount needed seemed to fit the bill. So I offered to spend half a Saturday up a scaffolding tower, instead of paying a big chunk of change for a specialist to do it.
It got done. It was fairly tricky labour for a soft-handed son of the office like me. But with Tyvek suit, mask and gloves on, I managed to crowbar the panels off the flue without much in the way of dust and splintering. Under the panels sat an enormous wasps nest, obviously abandoned, but presumably a potential fire risk of some sort. I managed to get the panels down to ground and into the bags, so job mostly done. Despite my idiocy of firstly going up the scaffolding tower on the outside, having failed to spot the trap door that allowed for a much safer ascent within the tower. And secondly, when trying to take the panels down from the tower, and having installed a plinth on two fat boys and a scaffolding plank, managing to walk backwards past the plank pivot point to find myself accelerating groundward. Luckily no harm done to either me or the boards.
On completing the work I then had an existential crisis, convinced I'd done something so foolish in handling the dreaded asbestos that I had effectively signed my own death warrant. I have subsequently reassured myself that I'll be fine. In any event, the deed is done and I won't find out for years yet. Shrugs.
More excitingly, building materials have started to turn up on site now. Lots of sand and gravel and cement, as the first things to go in will be footings. But also timber and block, which I think will be used to build the retaining wall and possibly the porch in due course. It won't go up super-fast, but it's signalling the start of the construction phase. And everyone says that this phase will go fast. After three months in the depths of winter watching the mud levels rise, I'm looking forward to it.
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