Rolling stones

Work began this morning to remove the ruins of the end outbuilding. The back wall's being retained and two buttresses are being constructed to stabilise it. This is part of phase 2 (or is it 1b?) work to create the beer garden. The overall plan is to pave the current courtyard area beside the ex-boiler house. Later, the boiler house will be removed as will the breeze block wall at the end of the courtyard. A wall built with stone reclaimed from today's operation will be built later. Of course the boiler house and breeze block wall are both listed (listing applies to the site not specific buildings) so we can't go ahead with that part of the project until planning permission and listed building consent are given.

Also now requiring planning permission and listed building consent is the conversion of the old owners' accommodation into a suite. That'll delay work a bit, but there are other things we can get on with such as refitting the laundry store above room 9 and setting up room 8 as our office.

Pop goes the Henry

The removal of all unnecessary debris from the old owners rooms has been completed and we have a shell. Q*** V*** and D** are here and plans are being shown, coffee drunk and presentations made.
Work will start on the beer garden on Monday. This will also include tidying up the half demolished outbuildings at the rear of the hotel. Work will also begin to sort out the mess the previous roofers left. The main slating work is adequate, but much of the leadwork and guttering was very poor.
After a brief investigation above the office ceiling, we brought out our splendid British made vacuum cleaner (called Henry) to clear up the dust. Henry was duly plugged in, switched on, went "weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee -BANG!" and is now on the skip.

Seeing the wood for the trees

The lower room of the old owners rooms has been stripped out. As we thought, the middle wall used to be an external wall and it has a window in the middle of it. V**** the architect suggested this as a feature in the bathroom which will be in the middle of the suite. The rest of the room is now a shell with bare walls and beams. Q**** is coming tomorrow to see how things are going.

The floor outside rm 9 has been reinstated and appears OK apart from minor problems with one board. We hope to have this room usable by friday.

Deconstruction

The old owners rooms were partially demolished today. These two rooms will form a suite, though the layout is difficult. The rooms are entered off a turn on the main stair and then you go up a short flight of stairs to one room and down a short flight of stairs to the other. The plan is to have the upper room as the bedroom and the lower one partially as ensuite and more beds. In the short term we'll move in there to allow the development of the rooms we're in as a family and double ensuite. Later there are plans to open up the roof area of the old owners area to make more room up there.

Meanwhile Q*** s roofer arrived and declared Roofing Direct's effort a disaster area. I won't all have to be redone, but there are substantial shortcomings.

Ye canny change the laws of physics

So, the water board folks arrived to fit a new 30mm meter in place of the 15mm one. They dug a big pit around the old meter and were about to fit the new one, when I checked that the connecting pipes were also 30mm.
Workmen - "No, no they're 25mm"
Me - "So what's the point of fitting a 30mm meter to a 25mm pipe then?"
Workmen - "Oh, it won't make any difference. The 30mm meter will give a better flow rate than the 15mm. Far better"
Me - "Maybe so, but not as good as if it was connected to the right size of pipe"
Workmen - "Oh, no, it won't make any difference. The 30mm meter will give you much better flow rate. Beautiful plumage"

OK, they didn't say that last bit. I phoned their supervisor who, for an employee of a water company seemed also to have great difficulty getting his head round the concept that the flow rate of water in a pipe is determined by its narrowest point.

They're fitting the new meter now, but it looks as if the pipe from the stopcock in the street may have to be replaced.

Nearly there

Hot water was reconnected yesterday. We confidently predicted that this would mean we wouldn't get any guests, but we have two.
The water is a direct fed pressurised system (relatively new to the UK, but commonplace elsewhere) and the result is that the flow rate's much better. It'll be even better when the new bigger water meter is installed.
One slightly odd side effect of these unvented systems is that the hot water comes out looking like soda water - slightly fizzy and almost white in colour. We hope this doesn't freak the guests out too much (it's less noticeable in the bedrooms anyway).

Pouring cold water

The plumbers have now turned their attention to the hot water system and have begun by disconnecting the old system and going home. So we had to turn away 7 tourists who were looking for accommodation because there was no hot water. Fortunately the coffee machine still works or I'd be REALLY tetchy!
Work continues to remove the old heating pipes. The wee ones can be cut with an alligator saw (like a big motorised hacksaw) but the big ones need an angle grinder.
Q****** is back on Thursday to discuss our plans and V**** the architect is coming on Friday - so we need to do a brainstorm of how we want the place to look and work before then.

Flame on!

So the heating's working and seems to do the job, though the layout of some of the zones seems to have been done to suit the plumbers rather than us.

Q**** the project manager turned up yesterday. Various suggestions were made, one of which is to get the beer garden done as soon as possible. Because listing applies to the entire site rather than specific buildings we need listed building consent to remove the boiler shed, so we may have to leave it for the moment.

The rest of the short to medium term plans involve creating the new bedroom out of the old owners' accommodation. This is a difficult site and will probably involve re-laying the stairs to meet fire regulations. Once that's done we can move in there and create a family room and a double room (with ensuites) from the four rooms we're in just now.

Wires and roofs

The electrician was in today wiring up the new heating system - no easy matter due to the multiple zones and multiple boilers. Meanwhile the leaks in the roof continue. We've decided that even if the roofers are coming back we don't really want to see them. The plumbers had a roofer to make the holes in the roof for the boiler chimneys - we're going to get him back to see if we can at least make the place watertight.

The big cast iron radiators have been taken out and will be collected by architectural salvage tomorrow. Most of the new ones are installed - the pipework's nearly done and the guys hope to have the system running by the weekend.

Project management arrives (about time too)

In a project of this (or any) size where there are several different tradesmen working together, it's as well to have some means to co-ordinate them. For example we've nearly finished the heating, but on reflection it might have been better to have the function room floor re-laid before putting pipes under it.

Q***** the project manager was staying at the hotel as a guest and got involved in our plans. I suspect that this will turn out to be one of our better decisions because it takes the day to day co-ordination of the project out of our hands leaving us free to run the business.