First Steps March 5th to April 2018

I assume that readers will have read the blog introduction which gives  some idea of the story leading up to the start of the build. The last step in pre-build planning was to find a builder.  Tenders were put out to several likely building companies. I had no idea where to start so the Architect suggested a few he had previously worked with, and one was chosen. I have to say that the main reason was that his tender was the lowest. But he has won awards, though I don't know what for, or who provided them. Too late to do my homework now. But he did take me to look at a couple of other projects he had done, and one in particular caught my fancy, mostly because it was a very thin though very tall building on a relatively small plot.   The tendering process took most of 2016, and the build was due to start in February/March 2017. I then decided, for a couple of reasons, to postpone the build until February/March 2018. Of course, we all know what happened in June 2016. So, new costings had to be done in late 2017,  and naturally costs had risen, but this couldn't  be helped,  had to  be accepted and somehow budgeted for.  

View from a back bedroom window with the garage on the left. The left hand side of the greenhouse marks the east boundary of the plot, and  the greenhouse is in the backgarden of number 79 where I currently live..

2 Polish builders arrive to start demolishing the garage, wearing very little in the way of protective clothing.

A head for heights comes in useful in the demolition business..

Lovely roof tiles removed and left in a broken heap. Sad that none of the roof could be recycled, possibly because it would add costs to prevent breakages , remove bits of concrete, sort, and  deliver to a salvage yard. A pity . I managed to salvage a dozen or so before they disappeared into the demolition lorry, to use in the new tiny back garden of the new house.

The roof  almost gone. The timber is to be recycled by the Brighton Wood Recycling Project so that's good. 

Only the walls to knock down now. The building site foreman indicated to me that a machine would be used to knock the walls inwards. The Polish builders must have said Pah! to that and just used sledgehammers and brute strength. Unfortunately I wasn't at home to take a photo. 

Sarah surveys the empty site. It feels a bit melancholy to say goodbye after almost 15years.

Time to put it all in the lorry and take it away