8c - The internals - structural engineer

And lastly I move on to something I didn't mention in 8a - a structural engineer. Now that the extension is almost weatherproof it has gone very dark in the extension but it has also gone very dark in the kitchen/diner. We now have to have lights on all the time so we can see and this got me thinking about this in the long term and I wasn't keen on what I was visualising, so I thought;
 'What if we take the back wall down as it'll let light through from the kitchen'

I mooted the idea with the parents and they also thought it a good idea and as there is nothing in the new kitchen against that wall we decided to speak to the builders to see what costs would be involved. To our surprise the cost isn't huge, certainly its manageable and less than we thought so my dad has now spoken to a structural engineer friend of his who is also coming round Monday to discuss this with me and the contractor too, but it looks likely we will take down the existing back wall of our house which will open up the whole downstairs pretty much. in affect we will be dual aspect front and back as we are also putting a door into the party wall of the lounge and kitchen. In affect we will have pretty much a completely new downstairs by the time its all done!

8b - The internals - plumbing.

The plumber will need me to make decisions on what type of toilet we want in the wet room and what type of hand basin is going in, he will also want my thoughts on where I want the manifold - to do with the underfloor heating- to go and the siting of the new boiler.
They also want us to ship out for a couple of days so they can take it all out and install it in one go thus lessening the affects on us. Except they want to do it during the weekdays, which will be a bit more interesting getting the kids to school on time!
It'll be exciting to have a new heating system in place though, one that might actually have some heating effect as our current one is over 15 years old!

8a - The internals - electrics

So the head contractor rings me up this week and asks my availability next week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday as he wants to discuss electrics and plumbing as the electrician is starting Tuesday and the plumber on Wednesday and he also wants to start the internal walls layout. I said that I was working all those days!! aghhhh.

So Monday afternoon, after work, I'm meeting with the electrician and head contractor to talk electrics. This is good,  as we are now moving towards the internal side of things taking place but its also scary because the decisions I make now affect the layout of our bedroom quite considerably.
"Why so?" I hear you ask, as it's only plug sockets and lights.
Well, Andy has a lot of equipment that needs to be plugged in either constantly or almost constantly and they require their own plug socket, this would include:

• Specialised air pressure mattress for the bed - to protect Andy's skin as he can't turn himself, it rolls air through the mattress which relieves the pressure on Andy's body
• Ventilator - supports Andy's breathing overnight allowing his body to rest more.
• Humidifier - warms the air pushed through the vent. 

These 3 are vital and need their own plug all the time, but then there is the:

• Overnight feed pump - Andy has a supplement overnight to ensure he's met his nutritional needs, it goes on in the small hours so it acts a breakfast replacement.
• Suction machine - is used to pull up secretions off Andy's chest when he is unable to cough it up and should remain fully charged at all times
• Nebuliser - Is used to loosen secretions on Andy's chest, Andy has a neb through the night so that would need its own plug to reduce staff disturbance. 

That's 6 items already and we haven't even discussed machinery such as the physio vest that is used daily to keep Andy's chest clear and cough assist machine which is used daily to force Andy to cough, thus helping to clear his chest. Also, something called a Niagara board, which is for massaging out Andy's hands and arms which help him keep the range of movement he has. I'm sure there's other things too that I'm forgetting but this doesn't include our own personal stuff such as charging phones or a radio/telly. Hmmmm.

7 - going on up!

On the left side of the picture you can see the joists and rafters and then on the right hand side, correspondingly, you can see the roof tiles in place!

6c - Taking shape

The inside view of the extension. The utility room is partially down, one reason for it not being knocked down properly was because it has a burglar alarm attached to the door so that had to be sorted so as not to cause issues with the rest of the system!
The joists and rafters are up completely apart from the gable end that is by the neighbours as they have to brick it first and then put those joists in. They are bricking from inside the extension rather than outside the extension because otherwise they would have to go into the neighbours property.

6b - Taking shape

Clockwise from top:

1) Front entrance with view of the joists and rafters
2 + 3) views of the back with outside skin and joists and rafters.

6a - Taking shape.

From top clockwise: 

1) View from the back garden - this wall will be our bedroom and the kitchen walls.

2) View to the front from the back - this will be our bedroom, wet room, w/c and a hallway.

3) View from the front - front door and w/c window (tricky to see as its hidden by black sheeting!)

4) View of the back with outside bricks on

5) View of the kitchen space.

5 - personal swimming pool

How much rain have we had lately!!! Crikey, it's been driving me nuts because it holds the building work up. Here is our own swimming pool, although it's not really very safe, haha.

I kinda like the irony of the tropical picture background and our wet swimming extension!!

4 - Damproof course and concrete!

As it says in the title!!!

3 - first lay of bricks

So this picture shows the shape of the extension with the first level of breeze blogs up. At this point of the build we still have our utility room up. it turned out that having the utility room up wasn't a big problem for the builders to work around until the rafters were being put in!
Nathan proudly showing me around it.