9.10am: Two builders have arrived. Bert and Grover. They are tackling the roof insulation and plaster-boarding. These guys smoke heavily. I have nothing against smokers...after all...there are many people with habits that are as annoying as wasps at a picnic. The 'gain' with smokers is that they generally have a reduced lifespan. Like wasps.
12.0'clock: Bert and Grover are still working, but there are no other builders here. Top Cat said there'd be more. I guess I could do a bit of home cloning to increase the numbers...I've a good book that offers home cloning as a way of increasing friends and the techniques might be adaptable. This book also offers instructions for cryogenics, which is really good for making interesting ice cubes. These make the perfect gift for a man who has 'got everything else'. It's also a great way to have your mother-in-law present at a party. The book is available to purchase from Amazon.com and you can soon earn back the outlay by breeding combat hamsters (instructions are included).3.30pm: Bert and Grover have just left and say they'll be back tomorrow to continue...
Tuesday:
7.30am: Bert, Grover and Yungan have arrived and work is beginning.
9.30am: Part of the wall between the old garage (soon to be shower room) and downstairs toilet is currently being removed (loud and dusty). The front door is now also being taken out...this opens the house to the world. It'll be boarded up tonight. Apparently more walls will be built today. This is the messiest day of the build so far as it affects the house internally. I am expecting the mess to continue through this week. Next week things should begin to improve. I hope so anyway...I've a friend from Australia coming to stay here next week and two coming from Germany will be around too. Whatever! It keeps us grounded within the physical world!
11am: Door is out (cold and dusty). Bert, Grover and Yungan are working hard.
1.30pm: Top Cat arrived and stayed for awhile. He's saying that the job will be completed by October 6th (my birthday)...all of it...no worries. He's saying again that the walls and plastering will be completed by Friday ...when the floor will be laid. Woodwork, plumbing (shower etc arrives on Monday) windows and doors (front door apparently arrives on Wednesday) are all being sorted the following week. We now have a bet on! 3.30pm: Bert, Grover and Yungan have just left.
Wednesday:
7.45am: Six workmen are here (collectively known as a colony)...they are all working fluently together, which is pretty amazing in such a small space with different construction processes all being effected. Co-ordination seems to be unspoken...they are working like ants (hence the colony analogy)...efficiently and with ease of practise.
11.30: I was thinking last night that I've been here watching the work in progress and have noticed that some of the workmen have been exceptionally efficient or clearly 'masters of their craft'...so I wondered about 'crowning' one, and I may use this blog to do this. It's difficult though...as to be honest ALL of them have worked well so far and ALL deserve credit. However...I'm going to stick with my idea of crowning just one of them King when the job is finished...so watch this space!
3pm: The colony are still working...several workers have been and gone...I think there are five here at the moment. Today the two rooms have been defined. The front room (to be the new lodge) and the extended hallway have been plaster boarded and tomorrow will be plastered. The concrete floor will be laid on Friday. The rear room (shower room) has been partially plaster-boarded so far and is to have a wooden floor.
4.30pm: The workmen all off site now. From a home-owners perspective the builders do a fair job of tidying up at the end of the day. However as there is neither a front door nor windows the workplace is open to the elements and so the noise, dirt and dust fly freely through the whole house.
Thursday:
7.30am: The colony has arrived...four at the moment. This will vary throughout the day. Work has begun. Plasterboard and flooring to the shower room, plastering to the 'new lodge', guttering being fitted externally.
10.30am: A green space ship just landed on our driveway.
3.30pm: The colony are clearing up now...they'll be leaving in about half-an-hour...if they can find their way through the fog.
Friday:
7.30am: The colony has just arrived. They are currently sitting in the van smoking.
Now, I've nothing against smokers...it's just the fumes and stink of fags that I don't like. Last night the fug was in the house after the builders had left. My hair had to be washed free of it, just as it had the night before. They'd smoked outside...but the fumes were inside. I left the doors and windows open through the evening...it was cold, but it was also the only way to clear the air before sleeping.
Now why, if smoking is to be tolerated in the workplace, aren't other personal habits similarly tolerated? Why isn't permission granted for workers to stop work to have a quick bonk ten times a day? Why aren't gamblers permitted to make regular trips to betting shops? Why aren't women provided with hair salons that can be visited ten times during a working day? And so on...? None of these things stink in the way that fag fumes do and none cause any discomfort at all to other people. As I said...I've nothing against the smokers themselves, it's just their habit that I don't like. I don't think they realise that their clothes and their skin actually smells as if they themselves have been shut tightly inside a cardboard box continuously farting like a camel for twenty four hours...and that every breath they exhale smells similarly strongly like fart. And, unlike the unwashed homeless and camels, smokers pay good money to stink like that! This is my blog and I am telling it as it is!
7.40am: Work had begun. The floor is being laid.
8.30am: A box has just been delivered (containing the two external lights and two for the shower room)...as ordered by Big Bird.
10am: I have just received an e-mail from a blog follower:
Hi Chris...I work in Portishead and have been looking out of my office window and think I can spot the smog cloud that is hanging over your house. Maybe you should try and practise the natives trick of sending smoke signals. Keep up the blog it's hilarious! hahaha!!!
11am: Top Cat just came around. He said for the plasterer to work on Sunday to
get the shower room done. Then it’ll be carpenter,
plumber and electrician from Monday. Windows and
doors fitted on
Thursday. Odd bits (and externals)
on Friday or over the weekend to complete. As it stands...he might win his bet. Fingers crossed!
1.45pm: The builders have laid the floor in the new lodge and extended hallway. They've now left the site. On Sunday they are due to return to fix the plasterboard in the shower room.
3.40pm: Another e-mail just received:#Hello from Melba Idaho, thought you'd like to know I can see the pollution from my location also : )
