Balcony Finished

Despite some rather wet weather, work on the balcony was completed today. Unfortunately I was not home early enough to photograph it, so you will have to make do with two views from yesterday morning, with the deck partially laid, but no handrails, balusters or steps :

Another great thing from yesterday was a phone call from the window company to say they had a cancellation slot and could come and fit our remaining window. They turned up within 2 hours, and it is done :

At around lunch time the deck was fully laid and the crew were just about to start putting in the handrails. Installation of the window was complete. I took advantage of this combination of circumstances and enlisted the help of everyone to manoeuvre the old staircase out of the double doors, onto the new deck, off the edge between two posts where it wasn't too high, then down into the basement room. It has been lying around in the house since it was de-installed as there was no other doorway that it would go through. Until today, the only possible exit for it had a 10' drop on the other side ! It is now ready for temporary use as access to the basement room (probably not), sale (maybe) or "Stroud Freecycle" (most likely). With a 4 man lift, moving it was no real problem. As they say - more hands make light work.

The only slight downside on the day is that attempts to cure the water ingress under the double doors have not been successful. The window fitters left me a tube of silicon to seal around the inside, but in retrospect I don't want to do this as it will just cause the water to disappear somewhere else (into the stone, down the cavity - who knows ?).

Photos of the finished balcony tomorrow......