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Some witty comments about the date of the Lee Green LTN being installed...

It is in written in every room. They clearly lived and breathed Millwall. Here it is on a bedroom wall post stripping. He left me his 2010 flag in the shed too.

More progress here in our kitchen. Floor screwed down and decoupling mat down. Must say I'm regretting not going for a Green floor now. Would have brought the garden inside. Holes drilled for the lights and ceiling speaker. Plasterer and tiler come this weekend.
I've spotted a couple of things that I would have done differently. I always actively avoid conflict so hate bringing these things up as not sure if I'm being pedantic or there's an actual case to remediate. It's offending my OCD that the lights and speaker aren't in alignment but it's because of the joists. The sockets are in on the walls that are getting plastered.

The ceiling is up and the wall that'll be behind the range has had some plasterboard attached. Starting to look like a room again.

Rudbeckia is coming out. Not drooping yet but providing some nice colour.

Some more progress here today. Quite a lot of the various unstable levels of plaster are off, ceiling now insulated, chasing has been done for the cables and the majority of electrical first fix has been done. Some battens for the lowered ceiling have been cut and installed as has some of the extractor hood ducting dry fitted as well.
For those wondering about the UFH screed mix, it was specd as an 8:1 sand cement ratio called "biscuit mix" apparently. Seems its legit as the builder, plumber and Google all seem to acknowledge.

White Vitra Coat dots?

That'll be a very very very expensive one for the insurance company. Trying to get into the park whilst blitzed?

Crossing paths with people is inevitable and being alone for such a long period of time makes you want to chat to whoever you come accross and ride side by side for a short period of time which is acceptable. Paths almost inevitably go seperate ways at the next turn anyway.
I wonder if someone got uncomfortable with something they saw and dobbed him in?

Maybe I've monumentally misunderstood what the plan is and that's what's happening. All I've asked for from the builder and plumber is warm feet in winter and a seamless transition between the floorboards in the hallway and tiles in the kitchen. The builder was talking of some self levelling screed so maybe the ply is only temporary. I've been so busy at work and with the children that I haven't really had the head space to ask the questions.
I've been skip diving on the street over the last few years on a mission to reinstall some original features and have amassed a collection of original architrave which has been stripped by PJ Pine in Crystal Palace and ready for installation on the rear of the door heading back into the hallway.

It's more a try and take the chill out of the tiles type system.🤣 Hopefully will do something. I do need to get some proper calcs done for the rest of the house though. As you can probably tell, I'm not known for my good ideas and this project is a huge mishmash of weird ideas that probably don't work. I assume that's what's happening anyway re the floor and the ply is staying there.

No heat calcs but as long as it takes the chill off the floor on a cold winter morning, then it's all good. It's only 4.2sqm There's a huge sheet of insulation under the pipes so should be good. All the heatloss will be through the sweet single glazed door 😂. The ply will be going down over the top of the pipes, then ditramat (sp?) then 60x40cm Limestone tiles over the top.

UFH going down here today. I was under the impression they'd be using aluminium spreader plates between the joists but they're not doing that and just stapling straight to the insulation and expecting the builder to put some sort of mix in over the top to more accurately dissapate the heat. Not sure the builder knows this yet. Trying to tee everything up with builders and plumbers and getting everyone talking and agreeing to who is doing what is a bit of an art and a good builder is like a conductor in an orchestra. This is my first time having any major work done. Not sure I'd ever be able to cope with a new build or an extension. Plans on all sides seem to constantly be changing.
Have noticed that all trades seem to offer a critique of each others work.

Does he go north of the river?

He can do indeed but depends on how north.

I'm very happy with how it's turned out. You'll see some of what will be inside the boiler cupboard. The house is/was such a horrible mess of bodges from the previous owners that I vowed that I'd do everything as well as my meagre wage will allow and wait for the best tradespeople even if it's a very long way away. UFH and manifold not down yet but they've done a huge ammount of work for two people for one day.

Our plumber seems to have a bit of a fan boy following on Instagram and our works are on his story today.
Worth a follow if you're on that platform as he works on some interesting stuff.

https://instagram.com/unequaled_heating

Busy day on our tiny kitchen project today. 6" x 2" subfloor framing finished and some insulation put down. Ply sheets down (but obvs not fixed down yet) so the plumber can start the UFH and first fix tomorrow.
The heating and riser pipes to the upper floors will be going into the ceiling (which will be lowered ever so slightly).
Seems that there was also some wallpapering done in 2016. Big Millwall fan.

So the new lowered suspended subfloor has now been started. The existing sleeper wall things removed and rebuilt today. The builders were waiting for mortar to set so didn't attach the joists but they've all been cut to size. Hopefully fully framed out tomorrow so the plumber can come for some first fix and UFH on Wednesday. Not sure I would have gone to the effort of lowering everything if all of the services hadn't had to be moved anyway.
All of the electrical circuits seem to contain things they shouldn't so everything seems to need to be remediated.

Yeah, I have nothing but respect for anyone that does it professionally. Moving 30 rubble sacks into the car was pretty tough but it would be pretty relentless doing it day in day out. The economics of doing it as a business would be pretty marginal especially if two in a truck.

I've heard that's a good one from a mate in Bexley. The ones I went to in Bromley were a 15 min drive (Churchfields and Waldo Rd). All staff were excellent. Helpful, friendly and polite. The sites were clean and tidy and free of unpleasant odour.
Great day out with some sun on the skin, some rain on the skin and plenty of physical labour. 10/10.

I hadn't really appreciated how quickly the waste builds up when stripping a kitchen and the garden was very quickly filling up with bags and I love my garden and wanted it back. I dislike skips so decided to hire a Zipcar and take it to the recycling center myself as the builder has been neatly seperating stuff into rubble sacks. We're in Catford however Lewisham Council make it pretty much impossible to visit their sites with rubble.
A quick call to Bromley council to confirm that they were OK accepting waste from out of the borough and I was good to go.
4 trips with the seat down in a Golf, 2 of which I had to pay for as they were general rubble @ £37 each/200kg each time according to the weighbridge. £51 for car hire. The other 2 trips weren't chargeable as they were wood, metal and other electrical sundries that are accepted FOC.
I assume they let people from out of borough use their sites as the rogues will just dump it in the lanes if not.
All in all, some good exercise yesterday and a bit of a novelty mixing with the professionals on the weighbridge. £125 all up for what I reckon would have been a medium sized skips worth of waste.

Peat free. Better for the environment.
Not quite so good at getting things going.

Montenegro incoming for CS. What an absolute beast.

It's unsupported with so many variables and propensity for things to go wrong / different route choices. Where people are sleeping on the side of the road etc. It's a life changing thing.

That's the wooden floor and joists gone and the majority of shoddy wiring and pipework gone.
Looks like a course of bricks has been taken off the sleeper walls as well. Dust curtain now on the other side of the doorway. Boiler drained down now as well.