Lead Pipes Woes Part 8

Water board contractors came today and dug up the street and took out the bit of lead pipe in the road and replaced with blue plastic. I must say it was fascinating to watch them dig up the concrete on the footpath ... we could have done our own garden path MUCH better ... but, hey ho - you watch and learn. One of the annoying things though was that they dug no-where nearly as deep as we had been told we had to, (neither did they add a trace wire to their pipe as we had been instructed to). They are not following their own advice! You can see our blue pipe being connected to their new blue pipe on the photo at the bottom left. They were also very efficient in filling the whole up again ... I think it will take us a little while yet ...

And here's Sunshine pulling out the left-over lead pipe from under our hallway floor - my was it heavy! And on the other end of the hallway, under the stairs, blue pipe waiting to be connected to a connecter that leads into the kitchen (which Sunshine promtly connected after I took this photo). So apart from what (we believe) is a small amount of lead in the kitchen*, we are now a lead-free household :)

*Kitchen overhaul is planned for next spring/summer so we will deal with all the lead at some point.

Hallway Part 15

The new floor boards are going down today! How exciting! Sunshine is doing the nailing mostly by hand this time - he used an angled nailer the last time - but actually its quite difficult to use an angled nailer in a narrow corridoor. Also, our walls are not the straightest in the world so there was a lot of pre-laying thinking involved in working out what the best "straight line" to align the boards up to would be ... you can just see the bit of brown string to the right of Sunshine's mallet that is being used as a guide - which runs all the way to the front door.

I'm so pleased though - it feels like we've turned a corner in the hallway (considering this was the "room" we first started with last summer...

Hallway Part 14

Another busy weekend on the hallway front. Over the last week Sunshine has been doing things like levelling out the joists so they all sit flat and don't creak). Then early today, Sunshine and I spent a big chunk of time clearing out under the floors (wish I'd taken a photo of how much "dust-of-ages" was down there in the first place!). The bulk of the houses where we live are Victorian, so under the floorboards is often bare earth. Luckily for us (unlucky for some!), ours was one of a stretch of about 7 houses bombed out in WW2 and then re-bulit in the 50s in the same Victorian style as the rest of the houses in the neigbourhood. Means we have a much better quality of construction, electrics and plumbing; including concrete under the floors ... so we cleaned and insulated the water and central heating pipes in preparation for ...

... laying down more insulation... Our lovely neighbour and friend, David P came round and helped Sunshine staple in netting; lay down insulation and the vapour barrier membrane. Sunshine has had to then put down some boards temporarily so we can walk along the hallway (much easier when you can see the joists...). Current exclamation to all guests walking in the door is "Don't step in the lava!"

Lead Pipe Woes Part 7 and Hallway Part 13

Sunshine's dad came round again today to help fill up some of the pathway ditch-making. He even inscribed our names in the concrete! How sweet...

The Water Board man also came to inspect our work and he was very happy (He gave us a 9/10 considering we did it all ourselves) - so we should be getting our supply changed within the next couple of weeks.

In other news we tidied up the hallway a bit and Sunshine managed to give the stairs a bit more support by wedging in a longer piece of floorboard under the stair post and some extra wood underneath.Things are on the move again ...

Hallway Part 12

So here we go again with the hallway - finally ready to get all the old floorboards up - only to realise that the staircase main post seems to only be supported by a bit of floorboard ... yikes!

Lead Pipe Woes Part 6

Ah! Things moving along now ... Big grey pipe and bendy duct installed under the front door...

And new drinking-water blue pipe (and insulation to keep it from freezing if there is any ground frost) slowly but surely installed.

Neither was as easy as it looks on the photos - lots of jigging and poking and shoving ... but its finally done! Can call the Water Board now to come and disconnect the lead pipe and connect the plastic pipe! Whoopee!

Lead Pipe Woes Part 5

In an attempt to get our lead pipe replacement mission moving along, Sunshine's dad came by today to give us some advice and help dig out the bits that needed digging out around the front step ... Thank you Dave!

Loft Island Part 3

After having built the bulk of the loft island last month, Sunshine decided to extend it round the loft hatch so we had somewhere secure to step onto as we came up the loft ladder. This also means we have the island extend all the way up to a wall which means we can have a shelving unit there. As with last time, here is Sunshine cutting OSBs to build C-beams, and installing and insulating them. For some reason I seem to have forgotten to take any photos of him cutting the large loft sheets to size and screwing them in ... but he did it! I swear! And now we have a loft island that goes round the loft entrance and all the way to the western wall :)