Like most new houses our house has a Utility room, which I suppose are for doing the washing etc.  However our’s was pretty useless.  Why?  Well there was no sink and it wasn’t big enough to do anything in.  Therefore today started the removal of the wall in order to make the kitchen larger.

First job (a few days ago) was to remove the radiator that was in the utility and attached to the wall the seperate the utility from the kitchen.  A simple whole in the ceiling, drain the central heating and then lop off the pipes got the job done.

Next, today was the removal of the wall itself, being careful not to upset the electrics in the wall.  It was literally a hack it down job making sure that the edges were neat and tidy etc.  We are now left with wires dangling out from the ceiling until the spark arrives later in the week.

It really has made a difference in the kitchen though and it looks much much bigger.  The idea being that in the near future we are going to put a kitchen island/table in the middle which we can eat of and no doubt there will have to be a TV in there too (Helen!).

For the last 4 months we have been having to put up with much disruption from Rowland Homes as they are constructing a new 25 house development very near to our house.  There has been lots of noise and disruption but most of all there has been a massive safety risk due to the way that the site has handled the delivery of materials and the general running of things.  Let me explain.

I have had many people say what do you expect when you move onto a new housing estate, surely you are to expect there to be some disruption and upset.  Usually I would agree with them there, but the thing is, is that this is not the builder that constructed out property.  When all the residents moved into this location we were all assured by Bryant Homes that they would be nothing being developed on a patch of land near to our homes.  Yet 12 months down the line we hear that Rowland Homes had planning permission and work would start after Christmas.  Being lied to like this was very disappointing.

During the planning of this small development from Rowland Homes access to the site was clearly not considered enough.  The only access to the site now is through an already completed phase of the Bryant Estate which is just narrow residential roads.  These are roads that have parked cars on them, kids playing in the street and all sorts of other hazards that clearly are going to play a massive health and safety role in the consideration of access to a site.  Quite how the council have approved this to be safe is beyond me.

Anyway to top it all the safety standards set out by Rowland Homes themselves on their safety board outside the development are clearly not being adhered to at all.  Take point number 10 on the safety board, which is also clearly highlighted with a key blue square on the board to – “No vehicles to be reversed without a banksman”. This clearly does not happen at all.  I have several photos and video footage of this not happening.  With children playing in the streets and so many parked cars around (as well as other trucks around parked outside our homes) this is highly dangerous and not conforming to the health and safety policy that was laid out by Rowland Homes themselves in a discussion with local residents a few months ago.

As you can see from the Photos below lorries are clearly using residential roads and space in order to unload bricks, roof tiles and other materials.  Yesterday we had a forklift truck zooming around the residential roads (very dangerous in my opinion) with no banks man present at all, loading and unloading palettes of what looked like roof tiles.  On more than one occasion these ended up blocking peoples driveways.

All in all I am disgusted with Rowland Homes and the way in which they have run this development.  The residents of the area, although not happy that the new development was going ahead, accepted this some time ago with the hope that Rowland Homes could run the site safely and efficiently.  This is clearly not happening and at the moment the evidence presented here suggested that Rowland Homes are not adhering to basic health and safety rules and Rowland Homes are not true to their word by carrying out their operations to the guidelines that they stated, both by word of mouth to the residents and on the written safety information signs that they display at their sites.

We all look forward to what the council and health and safety excecutive will have to say about the lack of consideration for health and safety by Rowland Homes at this development.

About 2 months before Christmas it became clear that the derelict land that was next door but one to our house was going to be development by Roland Homes.  Since then the whole thing has been a nightmare and it has brought to my attention the terrible way in which Rowland Homes have gone about working with the local residents in order to keep disruption to a minimum.

Work started back in late October 2008 when the company were preparing the site for development of around 22 4 and 5 bed homes we are led to believe.  The company had large lorries ( and by large I mean really large!) coming down a residential road that leads to around 20 homes.  As you can imagine the width of the road is not wide and there are usually cars parked down the side of the road and often children playing on bikes and other toys.  Lorries were coming down at speeds in excess of 30 mph which was incredibly dangerous.  As I wrote late last year in the post entitled “What A Day” the disruption has been horrendous.

First of all the staff that Rowland have working for them are most unpleasant and have not taken into account the disruption that is being caused to the residents.  On that day back in August several of them were verbally offensive towards 1 or 2 of the residents, swearing at them and also making rude hand gestures.

Also at this time we were ensured by the director of Rowland Homes himself that every time lorries were turning in and around the entrance to the new development and around all of the houses and cars belonging to the residents, a banks-man would be used in order to safely direct the lorry into position.  I would say that this happens about 30% of the time.  You can see in the video above, there is no banks-man present.

Well today the situation was getting back to the same again hence the reason why I am motivated to write this blog post.  A delivery wagon came along the road with what I assume were breeze blocks for building with and parked right across the front of mine a next doors drive ways.  He could easily have parked across the other side of the road where there are no driveways or better still pulled into the development and unloaded there, but no they had to cover our driveway.  This prompted a call to Rowland Homes and we were told that this would be actioned.  Sure enought 10 minuntes later the lorry was moved.

It is just disappointing, that although this development is going to happen, Rowland Homes have gone about it in a poor way, blaming any problems on the tradesman that they are contracting out and not taking responsibility for what is happening.  I don’t think that develops a good company image, but maybe that is just me.

It has taken a while and a lot of organising from my wife but finally we now have a wonderful garage conversion which has created a home gym room and also a lovely larger dining room.

Yesterday was the ‘icing on the cake’ as the carpet fitters came and fit the carpet in the gym.  The laminate was already down and the painting already completed.  It is amazing the extra space and room that the new rooms give to the house.  It just feels bigger all over.  OK, we have lost a garage but we have gained two great living spaces.  Highly recommended to anyone considering this.

Well, what a day!  It all started with an early get up for both of us and from then on it has been non stop.  It has had hard work, snow, arguments, confrontations, excellent neighbour bonding and much more.  Let me explain all.

I was up very early in the morning (for a holiday morning anyway) at around 0730 to the noise of heavy plant machines moving around outside the window.  If was day 2 of the garage conversion today and the materials for the ‘floating floor’ were arriving with construction soon after.  But the day started with this far from my mind.

Is I mentioned there were large lorries coming past my window first thing in the morning as there is a new development of houses being constructed at the end of our road.  Well I say the end of the road but it is really only a few metres away.  There has been an on going dispute with the planning of this development with all the residents in the area (including me) and at this point we had to get the council planning officer down to the site to sort out some problems as there was very large lorries coming through at rather fast speeds and a lot of agro from the workmen, including swearing at residents etc.  Rowland Homes have gone down in my estimation now because of that.  Anyway that is a post for later in the week when I have got time to post more on the subject.

With the residents planning officer and CEO from Rowland Homes debate going on for about 2 hours in the street it was already 1100.  Then it was time to clean the birds and rabbits (although we never got around to the rabbits).  In the meanwhile the delivery for the materials for the garage was delayed and therefore work wouldn’t start till the afternoon.

It was freezing cleaning the aviary out this afternoon, especially for my pregnant wife who did ever so well to muck in and help out as much as she could.  Every 3 -4 months the birds aviary needs a really good clean out, more than the daily checking over and cleaning that it usually gets.  It took ages cleaning all of the water and feeding bowls, mopping the floor of the aviary and also cleaning the cabinet that is inside.  Anyway 2 hours later and two very cold people later (!) we have the job done and the birds we all in a nice clean home again.  The problem is having to shepherd the birds in and out of the shed part while you are cleaning as to prevent them flying off.  So with all this time going on we never got round to the rabbits at all.  They are tomorrows priority although they don’t seem bothered.

Next the delivery arrived for the garage and so that was hoisted onto the drive way and the man was paid.  The floor was then battened out ready for leveling, glueing and boarding tomorrow.

That left my meeting with a client about a site at around tea time and the day was gone.  Oh and I finished the day getting my hair cut.  Busy busy busy!

Today the workers started on the garage conversion.  Arriving home this evening from a late evening at work, I was confronted with the impressive new look to our home.

Like most garages ours was just sat there filled with junk and really doing very little.  Therefore we decided with the baby on the way we may as well make full use of that space by converting the space in to two rooms.  The garage runs the fill length of the house from front to back and therefore would split into 2 rooms (one small and one larger) very well.  We are going to use one as a dining room and the other as a home gym.

First job when the builders arrived first thing this morning was to remove the garage door and then start digging down for the foundations for the wall were the garage door was.  The the bricks started going down, leaving room for the window which we had already had delivered.  A few hours later and after some hard graft the new wall was constructed and the window in place.  Once the glass was put in, from the outside it looked like it had always been there.

Then came the knocking through to the house.  We have a cupboard downstairs which backs onto the garage and therefore it was there that we were going to knock through into the garage to created the entrance to the new rooms.  A few minutes with a rather wicked circular saw and some brute force and ignorance and the wall was knocked through.  A metal lintel was then cemented in place and hey presto, the garage and the house are united again!

Next job is the raise the floor next week and I will report back on progress then.  For the first time now as you go into what was the garage you get a feel for what the rooms are going to be like.

View the photo set on Flickr of all the work.