Finally some real progress

In the past two weeks the house has been full of people and noise. First the electricians came and pulled up so many floorboards on the first floor that I could see right through the ceiling in some places. Rather useful as it gave me a chance to check out the condition of the joists which, I'm pleased to report, look sound. Once they'd done their bit the new wiring disappeared from view, but the sockets and light fittings are all new. 

Then the plumbers arrived and started ripping out the old boiler and water tanks. In no time they had fitted a new A-rated condensing boiler in the loft space. Because it's a combi-boiler we no longer need any water tanks and the loft suddenly looks quite spacious. Best of all, the old airing cupboard in the second bedroom is empty as well (see before and after pics), which will give us so much more space. 

The pipes and wires for the new boiler run down the corner of the second bedroom and, once boxed in, will be hardly noticeable.

The wall in the kitchen where the old boiler used to be is a mess at the moment, with two big holes and loads of plaster missing, but once that's all fixed it will give us space for another wall unit. More importantly, it gets rid of the condensation that used to stream off the walls.

One of the plumbers' last jobs was to replace the radiator in the living room. Not only is the new radiator now big enough to heat this lovely large space, but it has been repositioned under the window (Photos: first old, then new radiator). For reasons that neither I nor anyone else who saw it could comprehend, the old radiator was stuck behind the door. Perhaps they just ran out of copper pipe - who knows.

There were a few incidents I could have done without - such as when one of the old solder joints popped off just as the plumber was filling up the radiators, leaving a rather large puddle under the floorboards by the front door. Once that was fixed, I went around nervously checking all the pipes as he refilled the system, waiting for another old connection to give way under the pressure. Luckily they all held and the house is wonderfully warm now. Of course I'll have to switch it off when we get the windows replaced, but that's for another day.