Neph’s new house…
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Yeah… we’re now planning a separate entrance to their dungeon. And major sound-proofing... probably still have to suffer the odour of teenage feet emanating upwards. How do they manage to get all the cleaning product and deodorant on the places where the short and curlies grow, and none of it where it matters?
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@neph93 i believe this project, at completion, deserves to be capped off with a self gift of epic proportions. Iron Heart of course!
What will it be…?
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What will it be…?
That is a nice thought mate, but I shudder to think what my mortgage will be by that time. However… I will dream along:
I believe a cordovan long wallet would be top of the list. I have the medium, Giles doesn’t stock the long, but I bet he could wangle it over from Japan. Next would be one of the leather type III’s... the IHJ-49 or IHJ-64. Probably the 64...
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I know… there are more too. They are very good at letting me know. However all the boarding is coming off and we are insulating the outside of the house, replacing all the boards in a 1940’s configuratiom, and re painting the place a much more attractive colour. So it is fine.
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I thought it probably did not matter that much…And it's an easy fix anyway....
We’ve been fortunate with global warming (jk) and the frost hadn’t set in until last week. But they now have to get under the extension, while avoiding those pillars and dig out clay that has frozen solid. They’ll be doing it by hand soon.
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@neph93 I was curious why I didn't see a frost line. Did the budget include hand digging or is that going to be an extra??
The price is for getting the job done. When that happens they’ll get paid what they quoted. How they get it done is their problem [emoji1]
Yeah, there were barely any sub zero days in November or December and lots of 2-5C days. Unheard of. The temps have dropped firmly with the new year, although we’ve only had high pressure weather so no meaningful snowfall.
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It’s ON!
New wood going in for the first time to level off the floors…
In other, less awesome news, we have discovered that the extension to the living room which was built in 1980 used a dangerously under spec steel i-beam. It needs replacing.
This in itself isn’t a problem except that it would be much easier (and not much more expensive), to rip the whole thing down and start again. However doing so would mean we would need to rebuild a simulacrum of a 1941 style extension. That would mean losing about 7 square meters of living room, the second floor bedroom balcony, and the back door out to the garden, according to the Royal Norwegian Antiquitarian (whom one does not fuck about with). Nothing is ever easy.
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More action that leaves me with mixed feelings. We had a specialist have a look at our chimney. It is a huge, concrete structure that runs through the middle of the house. Or I should say, it was.
The inside is made of clay tiles, and while that was fine in 1940, the expert could tell us that 80% of chimney fires are in this type of chimney. Rehabilitating it would cost four times as much as ripping it out and putting a new, modern system. Add to that the room space we would get back from removing the original (the modern systems are very small and tidy), and it was a no-brainer. Another original feature gone though, which is a little sad.
This is where it used to be:
One extremely positive thing is flooring going in!
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Another original feature gone though, which is a little sad.
This is where it used to be:Houses should also evolve sometimes I think. 100% the right decision given the risks.
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Houses should also evolve sometimes I think. 100% the right decision given the risks.
I think that is a very good point and I appreciate it.
To illustrate the under spec i-beam issue, here is the old one still in situ….
And here is the engineer-approved new one waiting to go in:
In the same shot:
The builders have estimated a 4cm sag which is fairly obvious now they have taken a few walls down. It will be corrected when the new one goes in.
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The 4x4's (?) pass code?
When I put in a similar size steel here, I had to demonstrate to the building regs guy, that I had brick-built piers holding it upswith brick foundations going 3 feet below ground level…..
Luckily the original builders had anticipated this in 1830
:). As we dug down (with the building regs guy peering down the hole), the brick wall that we were making the new opening in expanded in width by 2 half-bricks each course below ground level. When we got to about 2 feet deep and the foundation of the wall was at about 3 feet wide, he said, OK, I've seen enough, that'll do....Over-engineered was their starting point.....
