Mike Little’s Journalized

Wow, the windows are all finished now (well nearly). The first worker to arrive this morning was the guy to do the lead waterproofing, who arrived before 8am. He did an excellent job, and the lead flashing looks really nice. I wonder whether he is still classed as a plumber?

Plumber (n.) One who works in lead; esp., one who furnishes, fits, and repairs lead, iron, or glass pipes, and other apparatus for the conveyance of water, gas, or drainage in buildings.
from Brainy Dictionary

The window fitters finished off the bay window today including all fitting all the trim and making good round the outside of the frame. The only thing left to do now is the plastering inside and the rendering outside.
Unfortunately the builder cannot come back to complete that until Tuesday, which is NOT what we were told when booking the appointment for the fitting. In fact we had to wait until this time (it should have been the end of May originally) in order to fit in with the builder!
We took some pictures before, during, and after the work. I’ll post them in the gallery when I get a chance.

The guys were here at eight o’ clock this morning, and got stuck in straight away. Jan and Jamie went out early on. We knew that the fitters would soon be working in the kitchen leaving us practically nowhere to sit out of the way. So they decided to do some shopping. I went into the cellar and worked on WordPress.
They’ve done really well today. The builder got the base of the bay window built, both inner and outer bricks, internal floor, and internal wall. The fitters have now got all the windows in place, including the bay window! They still need to finish a little for the upstairs window at the front, and a lot to do on the bay window. But still fantastic progress. Someone is coming tomorrow to fit the lead on top of the new bay (to waterproof it).
My Mum is coming tomorrow as she is having her flat rewired, so she is coming to ours to keep out of the way! I suppose it will be quieter here now they’ve got most of the work done, but we weren’t expecting that, and I wasn’t sure just how much peace she would get.
I’ve got to go into the office tomorrow for a meeting, that should be interesting.

We got up bright and early this morning ready for the workmen coming to start fitting the new windows. Unfortunately we received a phone call just before 8am to say that they would be delayed as they were “still waiting some of [our] frames”, and they wouldn’t be arriving until around lunchtime. Hmmm, not a good start.
Anyway, the builder turned up early, measured up, then disappeared for an hour (he told me he would do this). In the end the window crew turned up by 11 and got to work.
So far the builder has removed the old brickwork in the bay, and laid the footings for the new brickwork. The Window crew have completely fitted three windows. A pretty good first day really.

I had a very busy day today at work. I don’t think I stopped all day, I didn’t leave my desk other than for a 10-minute meeting and to visit the toilet! I ate my lunch at my desk too. All this in an attempt to get some things tied up because I am off work for the rest of this week while we have the windows fitted.