The Bathroom Diaries: Week 2

Brick plinths, negotiations and a little bit of anxiety to add into the mix.

Photo by Max Vakhtbovycn from Pexels

If you’re new to The Stylish Home, The Bathroom Diaries is an additional weekly post every Sunday, sharing the progress of our first-ever renovation journey, documenting the creation of my dream bathroom.

If you missed week 1 of The Bathroom Diaries you can catch up here:

---

The Bathroom Diaries: Week 1

---

Week 2 has started and we have actual builders on site!

Monday 7th October:

As I head to the office (Monday’s are one of my office days), I leave my other half with the builders to get “cracking on” with the bathroom extension. The footings have been dug and it should all be systems go.

Blissfully unaware of what’s happening at home (which might not be a bad thing), I arrived home this evening rather disappointed after the first day of having builders on-site. Things hadn't quite gone as well as I'd hoped.

I’ll admit it; I am a control-freak! There, I’ve said it.

Possibly linked to my OCD, I really struggle with asking for help, or in this case, needing the support of experts.

To date, all the renovation work on the house (and garden) has been carried out by myself and my other half.

So, this is a big deal, especially with managing my anxiety, which is currently through the roof!

I understand that with a build, curveballs are inevitable and not everything will go to plan; however, I wasn’t quite expecting the first curveball to rear its ugly head on day one.

It seems the initial markings for the footings needed to be amended, resulting in the footings needing to be made slightly bigger than we’d initially anticipated.

Although all the hard work my other half put in last week hasn’t gone to waste, it’s a little frustrating that more time was needed to make them wider before we could start with anything else.

However, by the end of the day, both footings have been increased in size and concrete poured in, ready for the base of the brick pillars which are due to be constructed tomorrow.

Tuesday 8th October:

Had a good catch-up with the builder this morning, who has put my mind at rest following yesterdays events. This also helped with my anxiety, and cleared the air.

I’m not one for dragging things out. Once I’ve said my piece, it’s forgotten about, and I’m happy to move on.

Today was a good day.

The brick pillars were started, some blocks have been removed from the existing (outside) bathroom wall for pads to be added to support the steels, which will be put in place by the end of the week (fingers crossed). By exposing the floor of our existing bathroom, we can work out the placement for the new extension floor.

I was even able to start contacting building merchants for some materials, negotiating the best possible price (which I love doing), and really felt we have made some real progress today.

It’s interesting how pricing can vary between suppliers for exactly the same products, and when it comes to building suppliers, it’s really about being bold when it comes to negotiating.

Just from ringing round I was able to save over £400!

Wednesday 9th October:

The brick pillars have been constructed to full height, and brick pads have been added into the section of wall which was cut out yesterday. This is to support the weight of the steels, which will be going in place tomorrow.

Thursday 10th October:

The steels have been initially placed in position.

To allow the brick pillars to fully cure, acrow props are supporting the steels and will be lowered into position next week.

Very little will now be happening until the scaffolding has been erected.

Unfortunately, scaffolders are in high demand at the moment. After being quoted over £4,500 for scaffolding, a more reasonable quote came in at just over a quarter of the original. It’s a no brainer, although the compromise is that the scaffolding can’t be erected until Friday next week.

Not ideal, as things have progressed really well this week; however, saving quite literally thousands of pounds is a compromise I’m happy to make.

---

With that in mind, it’s highly unlikely I’ll have a post to share with you next week, so I’ll be back in two weeks time where I can hopefully share that the scaffolding is up and further progress have been made.

Until then….

Thanks

Please do tap on the heart 🤎 if you have enjoyed reading this post, a comment or re-stack click helps even more with visibility in getting my work shared with more readers 😊.