The cladding is up!

The cladding going up

At the end of last week, our house was looking somewhat denuded, its cladding having been scraped off the outside. The plan was to replace it before the weekend.

It didn't happen. Well, you know it didn't happen and we were told that it would probably be Monday (today) that it would go up - weather permitting.

You can imagine how we felt this morning, when we were greeted with rain, we honestly thought that it was going to stop play.

We couldn't have been more wrong. As you can see, the cladding - which is a curious product that looks like packs of noodles before they're dropped into hot water - began going up about ten this morning, if not before.

By lunchtime, the whole lot had gone up and while the job isn't finished - it still has to be rendered, the rain had little, if any effect on the boys.

By the time we'd returned from our shopping, there it was, all present and accounted for.

To say we're pleased is an understatement, but there's more.

Not only did they finish putting the cladding up, but they also finished putting in our wood burner.

Well, they haven't quite finished that either, but they have got it all hooked up to the exhaust with its nice new satin black pipe and frilly forty-five degree elbows on - and they managed to get the chimney sorted while they were at it.

Outside now, there's a nice shiny new cover to the chimney. It's wearing what looks like a hat for a Chinese robot, but it will definitely stop birds nesting in our pipe - or so we're told.

Like anyone with a new toy, we wanted to fire it up and see it going, but there's still more to do - hopefully it'll be ready by the end of the week, but hey, any time soon will do.

Our wood burner's nice new hat

As you can see, there's still a gaping hole between our kitchen and the master bedroom, which isn't supposed to be there. Next there needs to be reinforced concrete put in with extra metal bracing, but once the concrete's hardened, we have been told to give it a blast - well, a gentle one anyway - with some windows open to get rid of any fumes that will be produced when the paint bakes.

So, tomorrow, the scaffolding goes up and hopefully, the rendering too, which will make us watertight for the winter. Then, the hole in the ceiling gets filled, fireproof plasterboard goes up, which we can skim ready for decorating and then it's all systems go as far as that's concerned.

After that, it's first fix electrics, followed by plumbing, new bathroom, new office and ... and ... and ...

It's all very exciting!