I guess one sign of progress is the number of issues that now crop up each week. I suppose it is inevitable that once the builder starts to transfer “Delamere” from a perfect set of drawings to the real world of concrete and steel, blocks and timber. Things don’t always fit like they are supposed to! (Mind you, I never seemed to have a problem when I built my architectural masterpieces in Lego aged 7.)
But things do get sorted and maybe that is the biggest lesson to hang on to here. Clive & I are dealing with the stress in very different ways and at times we have both felt quite isolated without our usual gang of girlfriends/drinking buddies, family distractions and – ironically – household jobs to get through. I have to confess that the silence from this blog is probably a reflection that I really was struggling through September to stay in love with the project. Every call with Rob seemed to throw up yet more issues – and I learned the hard way that not every problem exists in isolation. For instance:
Problem: Need more light in the new kitchen.
Solution: Install a rooflight above the island. Great!
Actually, that requires moving a roof steel to the right of the island.
Which requires new drawings from the Structural Engineer (now on holiday).
Which means a delay in getting the order into the steel fabricator and missing our “slot”
All of which means nearly 5 weeks’ delay before all of the steels were finally in place and the window supplier could then complete his survey.
Lesson? Well, I guess one might be: don’t move rooms around once your plans are agreed!!
But things do change as you see each room emerge from the ground. and I’d have hated to simply stick with the original, much smaller, kitchen upstairs. Instead, I’ve now definitely learned to ask much more of the possible downstream impact of each change or decision we take. Had I understood the knock on for the rest of the project, I’d have avoided all of this by simply having two shorter rooflights – one either side of the planned steel beam.
And then there are the windows. Having spent months choosing the right “special” colour for the frames, we got a call from the windows supplier to say that due to materials shortage, the manufacturer can’t deliver them till after February 2022! The thought of pushing the whole build out another 4-5 months made me feel physically sick. But there’s always a choice, isn’t there? “What colour is in stock now?” was our response. And so the windows order was confirmed as RAL 9007 – no doubt a beautiful silvery grey. RAL 9002 was over-rated, anyway!
Clearly, we’re still going through a lot of change but it is definitely a case of onwards and upwards!
6th October 2021
Building 'Delamere' 