Extension Part 6 - The Stop of the Beginning

Alan started work proper on Wednesday. I was awoken to loud bangs - he was filling in our porosity test hole. Then he commenced clearing the area at the back of the house. There were more loud noises as the concrete cladding/plastic sheeting at the bottom of the house wall was taken off - we have no idea what it was for. Then he started to dig the foundations for the utility room.

At about 12.45 he came round to the house. We had a problem. The foundations of the wall at the back were not deep enough - it would be too dangerous to dig down further for the foundations of our utility room. All stop.

Paul was in Jedburgh sorting out getting a blazer for his NPC role next month. He got back about half an hour later. Alan had suggested moving the utility room to also come out the back of the lounge. It is not ideal but is our only option other than abandoning it altogether. A phone call to the architect.

I wandered out in the evening and noticed a large puddle of water at the top right-hand side of the old barn area. I traced it back to a hose coming out of the wall from Margaret's behind us. I could see no way of turning it off so went round to her's to see if she knew about it. She didn't but came round to look. I got Paul to come out too.

Margaret phoned a friend, Derek, and between us we managed to clamp the pipe to stop the leak. We still need a permanent solution, but we haven't found where it is coming from at Margaret's end.

David (architect) came round on Thursday afternoon. He sees no problems moving the utility room, essentially just flipping it. After almost two years of visualising it one way I won't have long to get it clear in my head before it goes up. Alan should be back on Monday to recommence work.