A final farewell from the pioneering Mercedes

BP Day 35

End of the seventh week and although we still progress, its not easy to see what all's been done. The new shower room is plastered and finishing seems so close. Just a few details and it could all be there.
Unfortunately the bathroom man didn't varnish the wood in the master en suite last weekend, so closing in on finishing in there seems to be delayed. Got to get on as in ten days we have to get back into our room!

Good place for a brolley

Molsheim - Home of the Bugatti

Navigator points the way

Getting into the Bugatti for the trials

Lying down on the job!
The banking at Brooklands

The MG races up the hill.

BP Day 30

Six weeks on and the bathrooms are looking almost ready. The shower head etc. is in the en suite and the little shower room upstairs is looking very good with its basin unit installed as well. Plastering and painting are almost all that's left to do - apart from the mirror over the basin. Then the door goes back on and the wardrobe is finished off next to the shower room.

The ensuite will get its wood surfaces polished and varnished this weekend ready for the basins to be installed next week. What excitement! I made a picture of the bathroom detail tiles. Good, aren't they!

The days of the kitchen project being resumed draw nearer.

Waiting for the all clear

BP Day 27

BP Day 26

Paul the tiler has done a great job today, getting the en suite almost finished. Two crises have appeared:

1) the floor tiles wont be in the shop until Friday, so Paul may not be able to lay them due to other job commitments. Maybe James can, but then again maybe we should wait until Paul is available. He will be back for the kitchen, and James can finish evrything else off as the wc is wall mounted, not on the floor.

2) the detail tiles are a different thickness to the wall tiles. This problem came up this morning while I was out shopping. After phone calls and initial huge disappointment as I really like the little glass tiles we chose, David resolved the issue as he had done this before. Apparently we need special double sided tape which offsets the glass tiles to the correct depth so we don't get the ridges. Thank goodness for that! You can see where the horizontal stripe of these tiles will go. Apparently, it isn't a problem in the shower where we have the vertical stripes as the tiles here are not quite so thick!

We're hoping that upstairs will soon be ready so we can get the new wood floor laid and move back in. James needs to finish off the shower room - this week, we hope, so we can start up there and work downwards as things get ready.

BP Day 24

BP Day 22

James worked on Sunday to get the new shower room ready for the tiler on Monday morning. Paul the tiler arrived and had the guest WC tiled as far as he could go in no time. Then he moved upstairs to the shower room and did the same. James began making the wooden edging for the ensuite cupboards and put up the ‘flyover’. Today Paul has tiled the two floors and everything is looking very good. After some discussion and a hilarious ten minutes of simulated sitting on a loo (!) we decided that the second shelf was safe to put up; but because of the light in the flyover, James would make it about half the width. The ensuite tiles arrive at the end of the week, so James aims to have it all ready for Paul next Monday. Meantime he can put in the loos etc in the other rooms.
The structural engineer came yesterday and after pulling up a small area of kitchen floor he declared that the foundation was strong enough to the support the RSJ and luckily the support would fit behind the soil pipe so there will be a flush wall along that side of the kitchen. Bad news is that he is on holiday until 3rd September, but by the end of that week the RSJ should be in and James doesn’t anticipate too much delay as he can get everything else absolutely ready beforehand. The kitchen cupboards will arrive here that week and we can store them in the hall and the garage.

BP Day 20

A month into the project and another room takes shape. The en suite shower room looks very good and James is going to work on Sunday to get it ready for the tiler on Monday! Quite amazing how fast things are progressing. Only two men working this week but they have achieved an enormous amount.

Going up the Brooklands hill climb

BP Day 18

Not too many workers this week as the tiles aren't here. But the floor in the bathroom has been levelled and James has started the framework for the shower room upstairs. The forms for the beam are filled in and James will get them to the council for approval. Then the structural engineers will swing into action - with not too much delay, hopefully.

And another

A very pointy end!

BP Day 15

At the end of week three we have three new rooms: a bathroom, a dressing room and a guest loo. Its quite exciting, but it looks nothing on the the photos. Now we have a small delay on the bathroom tiles, which is very frustrating as James had the tiler all lined up for next week. At least he has managed to get some of the 'furniture' in; i.e. the cupboards under the basins etc.

The kitchen saga continues, with James waiting for the council to come and look at the foundations to approve our steel girder. Keep your fingers crossed.