Big House Adventure: Post-Apocalyptic Life in our House: An Ode to 'Auf Wiedersehen, Pet'

Most Christmases we've bought ourselves a DVD box set and spend the dark nights of January watching it. ' Outnumbered' and 'Green Wing' are two such series. This year Jules went all retro and bought 'Auf Wiedersehen, Pet'.

Cue lyrics 'Working on site from morning till night..... that's living alright.' So this blog is dedicated to all those living on a building site.

Well I confess I haven't watched this year's choice; largely it's been Jules late night TV of choice while I've pretty much passed out in hibernation mode. I start to come back when the clocks turn. Anyway the lyrics seem very apt considering all that's happened since the New Year.

I first wrote a draft of the blog in February, but it was so depressing I've waited until we've got something positive to say to publish! But for continuity I have to include the original blog, and I did promise to give you it all; good and bad.

The February draft started “Our project is turning out to be so boringly predictable, like the plethora of building shows, it's mind numbing. Planning issues, financial issues, weather issues and then throw in a hideous vomit bug that debilitates most of the Lerway team for two weeks. I don't think they'd want to film that bit though.

(You get the gist!)

Firstly we've been sitting tight during the hideous storms that have hit Britain. We have got used to the buffeting of the wind and staccato of the relentless rain. We've been really lucky compared to many as we've not flooded, and not blown away. But the tragic story of the teenage girl who was killed in a static – her family also renovating their house – when a tree fell on her has been in my head, a lot. The worst night, just about Valentine's Day, the wind drove huge gusts against the end of Eric that we sleep in. Well to be more precise we didn't sleep a wink that night. I heard creaking that I don't want to hear again. And I will never read the description of the trees 'roaring' in the wind again without thinking of that night. They truly roared; for hours on end.

(Close your eyes and say 'There's no place like home; there's no place like home)

But thankfully we didn't end up in Kansas.

The build itself has been agonisingly slow. A few hours here, and a few hours there. The bricks below damp proof course went down in two hours; great. But then we suffered great swathes of “nothing doing”. The drainage, including the soakaway, was dug which churned up the already sodden garden. The soakway – a large deep hole in the ground where water from the gutters is meant to run to – is actually full of water and not soaking away at all!

A pile (!)

Ringbeam

Will ill watching the muck away lorry

The soakaway that doesn't soak away

So at the end of February we still are not 'out of the ground'. The foundations are laid (we just threw £20k into the ground and watched it disappear!) and we have two steel joists sticking out of the ground. At the end of the week the block and beam floor will be laid and then the brickies can start getting the structure up.

Finances are also a challenge. Without going into the nitty-gritty everything is costing more and taking longer than expected (again so predictably 'Grand Designs'). We've had to readdress the plan and make some hard decisions about what to do and not to do. The lovely double storey bay has been scrapped for example. This is the double storey bay that we fought for in our second Planning Application (that in horrible irony got approval this week). We're also going to focus on getting the existing house ready to move into then take longer to get the extension liveable.

Let's say this is no longer a 6 or 9 month project. There'll be no gorgeous reveal at the end, where we take visitors through a fully finished property! It'll be years of working on rooms as we learn the skills ourselves. We're up for it, mind! Not ones to shy from hard work we're planning polished concrete floors that I will do, and we're working with tradesman on a consultative basis to help us get it done. Where's Bob the Builder or the lovely Nick Knowles when you need them?

And in amongst the blows to our plans – the finances and the weather – four of us contracted the worst vomiting bug I've ever encountered. A full two weeks of illness in Eric was truly depressing. Our close proximity to one another with the sick bowls, flat Coca Cola and constant washing of dirty bedlinen was something I never wish to repeat. Truly soul destroying.

(Oh woe is us!)

That's over now and morale was restored with a sleepover with Nana Mo, a visit from Granny Annie, a trip to Southwold and a family party complete with the impromptu rock and roll gig – Dad on cajon, Anne on drums, Jules on guitar and Sue/Tam on tambourine!”

That was February's draft.

So that's January and February done with; March brought with it some better weather and activity on site. We now have brickwork up to first joist level, a large skeleton of steelwork and holes for windows! Suddenly views that we imagined are real. To see the birth of something you've imagined every day and night for seven months is just exhilarating! And the perfect antidote to the days where nothing happens. Which is frequent.

It's not an extension; it's a swimming pool

We've commissioned, with our last pennies, some beautiful windows in an anthracite grey colour. We've got a plumber and electrician sorted out for the next Phase. And last weekend Jules completed a monumental demolition of the front conservatory. Saving £2.5k in the process by doing it ourselves.

A friend commented when visiting the first house Jules and I bought together that it looked like it smiled. Well Jules commented after his backbreaking work on the conservatory that he feels our house now smiles; amen to that!

In other news we're loosing more teeth; Hattie's first top tooth has come out and Livvy's lost a few more! All to give way to adult teeth I'm happy to say and not because they're rotten. Abi has just sung in the Royal Festival Hall, London and we've celebrated Jules, William and my birthdays. Tomorrow is the littlest hobo's sixth birthday. I'd like to bet that we'll be in by the next birthday – Abi's at the end of June. Not sure I'm going to win that bet.......

Happy Easter everyone!

Here follows the usual download from my iphone......