1930s Semi by the Sea: Building Works Progress

We just completed the 4th week of our renovation works. A local company called Challenger Construction is doing the renovation for us and we’ve had a stream of builders, plumbers, electricians and plasterers in over the past few weeks.

The way the project is run is like this:
•Challenger have a project manager named Paul (out of our long list of Pauls, he is Paul No. 1) who is running the works
•Every Friday my husband goes down to check on progress and meet with various specialists to answer questions & provide specifications for things (like socket locations)
•Now that the worst of the building works are over I will also start going down every Friday to review and discuss progress (we decided to spare our baby the stress and noise of the first few weeks)
•Every Monday I have a phone call with Paul to go over outstanding questions we have, and provide answers to questions he has
•Then we contact each other as things come up

So far it’s worked out fairly well, and as expected the first weeks of a renovation are the most chaotic and grubby. Our carpets, kitchen, bathroom and wallpaper were all stripped out in a flurry of dirt and mayhem. Doorways were cut, a redundant chimney breast was removed, steel lintels went in to support the structural changes, floorboards were pulled up for wiring and to lay pipes, a few walls were knocked down – then the sanding and plastering started.

Our house looks like a wreck. But a promising wreck. Our decision to create a doorway in between the living room and dining room has opened up the ground floor beautifully. And the removal of a cumbersome chimneybreast in the kitchen has done wonders for the symmetry of that room.

It’s hard to tell if we’re actually on schedule since there are so many things happening in tandem. I feel like we should be further ahead on plastering in order to keep things moving and unless we have a large decorating team in I’m not quite sure how the walls will be done in time to allow for the floors to be completed in the last week. But I have to trust that Paul No.1 has it under control and that our Friday visits and Monday calls are enough because making more frequent visits to a building site with a baby strapped to your front is very, very difficult due to the levels of dust, grime, deadly wires, nails and noise.

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