Interior Milestones – Lights + Carpet
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- Rubber underlay
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- Bits n bobs
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- Stairs: Tread and risers ready for the roll
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- A sea of underlay
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- Thresholds
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- Rolls cut to length…and breadth
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- Pure, clean, new-smelling carpet. Very satisfying
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- Carpet-clad stairs
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- Finished rooms ready to be furnised
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- Clean up in room 3
It is truly a satisfying day when you get to walk onto a construction site that has, for the past 12 months, been powered from a series of extension cords and to be able to flick a light switch and have the light actually turn on. This, rather than looking around for an extension cord and a portable lamp so you can look at the alcove under the stair to check another seemingly insignificant detail which will ultimately determine the location of 6 different things, including the stair landing and…5 other things.
So, yeah, it has been a while and today that great day came. And it was accompanied by the installation of our carpets. And cats and dogs worth of rain after 6 weeks of dry weather. Not a great combination, muddy boots and clean carpet.
As the project nears completion, all these nice little “finishing touches” start to take place. A few weeks ago we finally got locks fitted to our doors. You may think, so what? But it meant that rather than storing all of our tools in a single room we were able to take delivery of all of the appliances and white-goods and actually lock them up in their respective rooms at the end of a day’s work.
As mentioned in an earlier post, this entire project has been built on a “cost-plus” contract, meaning the project costs what was originally agreed to as the “contract price” (potential cost of works) plus whatever else it takes to carry out the works. The reason for this was that the there were simply too many known unknowns to put a price to them at the start, such as the actual status of the bricks and mortar below the render. In this instance, it all fell apart in our hands, meaning every wall-opening took a lot longer than anticipated.
This has therefore meant that my role has been the ongoing review of the proposed design and documents against the living, breathing building and new construction. Almost every site visit has required multiple decision on our par,t in discussion with the client or builder, to see to it that any changes made will achieve the best and hopefully most cost-effective outcome for the clients. It has definitely been a rewarding process which is now really starting to pay off.
So, it is really great to finally see that all of the on-going, minor, day-to-day inspections and decisions are paying off: The results look great, the client is happy and (almost) nothing is not where is is supposed to be.
The clients move in this week, so wish us all luck.
house of origin 