Day 26, Monday 23rd February

Happily,Neil the foreman appears unaware that a few hundred people walked through his site yesterday. We covered our tracks well, collecting 25 bibles, 8 coffee cups, 3 umbrellas and 2 toddlers that had been left behind after the walk through and moving on 4 people patiently waiting for the service to start.

Everything cranks up in to life. The asbestos people worked Saturday (morning only- something that is being queried!) and that means they will be away from us tomorrow. Longer than they thought initially, but shorter than they then forecast it would take. It will be a relief to all to see them go.

The specialist plasterer is working away on some repairs to cornicing, team boiler are back, the electricican and his mate are carrying on with the cabling and the chippies are busy replacing some of the joists that have a little dry rot in them.

Team boiler and the electrician are all from West Midlands so they communicate happily together in an impenetrable series of tuneful grunts, with all sound coming out of the nose, nothing whatsoever coming out of the mouth.

Overall the floor joists have done very well for being 125 years old with only 7 or 8 needing replaced.

I bump in to the Building Contractors big boss in the toilet (as you do) and he says that he will be putting pen to paper this week to officially flag up a 2 week delay.
This is disappointing news but not really unexepected. Where we are now and finishing on the 27th March are not compatible situations and to be honest if its only 2 weeks we'll be happy. The delay is down to a combination of factors,including asbestos, we'll see what shakes out when the official letter is written.

HEATINGATE - ITS FINALLY,FINALLY SORTED, YES,REALLY,IT IS
The whole heating thing has been a protracted process, but finally, finally a solution appears to have been arrived at. We won't now be laying down the original floorboards (which is a shame) but instead laying down a chipboard floor instead. This will allow heat to flow more easily through the floor and in to the space. There will be 4 radiators upstairs and the cinema seats will need to be rejigged to accomodate them. The good news is that ground floor and balcony will be seperately controllable so we won't need to heat the whole space without reason. The original floorboards have value and can be sold.


All of a sudden 3 decisions pertaining to different aspects of the work need to be made very quickly and I'm grateful to Will and Rupert who are always quick to respond with thoughts and advice. 3 heads are definitely better than one.