Archive for July 8th, 2009

It’s amazing how a single course of bricks defines the space. The idea of the “wall” is to keep a little distance between the base of the plywood walls and the floor so as to minimize water seeping up. (There will be a damp-proof membrane over the bricks). Once they were down I spent too much time this afternoon sitting on an imaginary chair, at an imaginary desk now I can actually picture how big the room’s gonna be. Speaking of the bricks – how easy is that? (Wouldn’t want to lay another course on top though).

Unfortunately I’m now utterly crippled with my back after carrrying the old shed out of the yard brick-by-brick into my car to the tip and into a big old skip… Radox, paracetamol and lots of wine says I’ll be back tomorrow to build walls.

Oh! – don’t use Hippo Bags for anything serious – they’re TINY! – got about half the wall from the old shed in one and they want to charge me the thick end of £70 to take it away… B*ll*cks to that, I’ll take the contents down the tip – can only be two car-loads.

The insulation arrived from Thermap in St. Helens this afternoon. I’d tried the whole “this is being blogged – any chance of a discount?” bit and was told that I’d need to speak to their marketing department about that as they normally cover the television work… turns out they regularly supply the “real” Grand Designs – ah well, worth a shot!
When the Kingspan arrived I was half-way through laying my first ever course of bricks and was totally panicking about my mix going off – “No worries” says Russ “I’ve carried heavier further” – what a star!

Well, numerous barrow-loads of rubble and 3 trips to the tip later the old shed has gone!