The Bathroom Diaries: Week 1

Surprise deliveries and digging the foundations (or in our case planning the great escape)!

Photo by Jared Rice on Unsplash

We may not have any builders on site (yet!), but preparations are now underway for our bathroom renovation; 1,105 days after submitting the planning application!

If you missed my post back in February where I shared Part 1 of creating my dream bathroom, feel free to have a read (I’ve removed the paywall since it’s now archived).

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My Dream Bathroom: From Outdated Bathroom to Spa-Inspired Sanctuary: Part 1

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The Bathroom Diaries will be an additional weekly post every Sunday, sharing the progress of our first-ever renovation journey, documenting the creation of my dream bathroom.

Thursday 26th September:

The “unofficial” first day of our renovation journal.

07:30am: We receive a surprise delivery of steels. We knew the steels had been ordered and were due for delivery this week, but they were supposed to be delivered to our builders yard, not on-site.

With very limited space in the garage and the footings needing to be dug out, we wanted to keep the garage as clear as possible. The plan was for the steels to be delivered to our builder, who would then bring them over when we were ready for them.

Obviously, there was a breakdown in communication, so the other half had the joy of unloading steels before he’d even had chance to finish his first morning coffee.

Friday 27th September:

The other half is waiting in anticipation for our builder to turn up to mark out where we need to dig down to the footings so brick pillars can be constructed to take the weight of our newly delivered steels.

I leave the office just after 5.00pm and make a call to see how he’s been getting on with starting to break up the garage floor, only to find our builder still hasn’t turned up!

I get home, the builder turns up, and there’s no chance of any breaking up happening today!

Not ideal, as we had a busy weekend planned, and the only opportunity the other half now had was to make a start Saturday morning.

Saturday 28th September:

Breaking up of the garage concrete floor has started! And I’m sure to the delight of our neighbours….

It’s noisy, really noisy, however it needs to be done.

After a few hours some (very slight) progress has been made; this is going to be a very painstacking process (at least for the other half).

Monday 30th September:

The other half had been at it for a large majority of the day and still no signs of reaching the foundations. It wouldn’t be quite so bad, but he has two footings to dig out.

Dug down to around 1m and still no signs of the foundations

Juggling his own work with this project there’s a slight pause in progress for a few days.

Friday 4th October:

Some good news!

Our builder came over with the building inspector to review the first footing and she’s happy with the depth that’s been dug out.

The other half is delighted he’s not got to dig any deeper.

We’ve totally lucked out with our building inspector; she has a brilliant relationship with our builder and has been extremely supportive to date.

So progress has now moved onto footing number two!

Saturday 5th October:

Further digging commences.

I would just like to add that I have supported in moving debris from the ever increasing hole, however also being full of cold this week I’ve not been at full fitness, so have played the important role of capturing content.

Playing the important role of supervising, ensuring everything is being done as it should be!

After just over 2 hours of further digging, the other half had reached the required depth for the second footing.

Second footing dug down to the depth it needs to be

Both footings have now been dug out to the depth as required by the planning officer. It’s literally been back-breaking work (at least for the other half), however, it means we can get started properly next week when the builders arrive.

So that’s one week down and who knows how many more to go.

Hopefully you’ve enjoyed reading this first edition of The Bathroom Diaries.

Let’s see what’s in store for us next week….

Thanks

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