The Builders Part 6

The Builders had a week off last week, because the boss-man, Billy, was at the Ideal Home Exhibition. However work has resumed in earnest this week.
The framework has been erected and the roof structure installed on Monday, but I didn't realised that it would take so long to put in the glass. All the window and door glass is now in place and work has started on the roof, and the first significant snag has been encountered. Two of the angled panes of glass for the complex roof structure are the wrong size, and these need to go in before the panels higher up the roof.. No clue at the moment how long they will take to arrive. While this has been going on, the plumber has prepared the pipes for the radiators, and the electrician has been installing the wiring for the lights and power sockets.
Mrs EP has done the rounds of lighting showrooms - one problem is that numerous types of light bulbs are now being phased out (blame the EU), and of course for a glass roofed structure, one needs lamps that direct the light downward and don't attempt to illuminate the night sky!
What I did discover is that you can now get an equivalent of a standard 60 watt bulb comprising a small halogen lamp inside a standard 60 watt sized envelope with a bayonet cap. For the same light output it consumes a little less than the old bulb, but can hardly be considered "energy saving" in view of the extra materials and energy used in its manufacture, but it does escape the EU ban on standard tungsten 60 watt bulbs. Useful knowledge for when my stock of 60 watt bulbs runs out as we have about 15 currently in use around the house.

The Builders, Part 2

On schedule so far. the old conservatory was down in  half a day. The foundation squad arrived today at 7.30! The dwarf brick wall has been knocked down and we now know it had no real foundations! The floor now being dug up, and there was no proper damp course.
It's a good job I didn't accept the quotation which merely proposed to extend the existing dwarf wall and then level up the floor by flooding cement over the whole area. No doubt the cost of putting in proper foundations would have been "extra".

The noise makes it hard to think! It's even hard to read and comprehend the news so any serious blogging is out of the question!

The Builders have arrived

We are having an all glass conservatory built on the back of the house, in direct contradiction to those who claim we should be downsizing at our age. The existing wooden structure, which was there when we bought the house twenty or more years ago, had reached the end of its useful life and was not worth repairing. The new one will be about twice the size, extending along the rear of both the lounge and dining room, and hopefully will look quite nice.
The builder has arrived and demolition is in progress; he says that it will all be gone by this evening and that the foundation diggers will arrive tomorrow or Wednesday. This particular builder constructed a conservatory for a friend, I liked what he did and it seems that, weather permitting, he keeps his promises on time-scales. He also quoted a price for the overall job and detailed what would NOT be included - the flooring and light fittings, which we will get and he will install. All the other quotes were for a very basic conservatory, and whatever you mentioned seemed to be some undefined extra amount. Our friend had no problems with the deal, so I hopeful that this project won't double in cost line in the manner of all too many building contracts.

The building will cost a large part of our savings, and we have thought long and hard about it. However, with our savings decreasing in value by more than 5% p.a. and the likelihood that we will no longer be able to get travel/medical insurance to go on expensive worldwide holiday trips, it seems a good investment. House prices may not be rising, but in this area they are steady. The old structure would have perhaps discouraged a buyer at some future date whilst the new one will add its value to our home. Meanwhile, we will get the pleasure of being able to use it throughout more of the year than at present, knowing that its value, if not appreciating, is certainly not declining at over 5% p.a. like the money in the bank. Short of some major medical emergency requiring private treatment or my erstwhile employer's pension fund going broke, we should be all right and I'll still be able to buy the odd electronic gadget from time to time.

Time will tell whether we are right.