Refurb shut this week.

The refurb will be shut this week as Steve is away on holiday. It will not be open on Saturday either. The building is looking a bit forlorn having been tinned up by Poplar Harca following the burglary. Work will resume Monday the 7th of November.

a setback

After months of uneventful progress and hard work on the Spey Street Refurb there has been a set back - I'll let Colin tell you about it;

Unfortunately 95 Spey Street was targeted last night by thieves wanting the copper piping... Steve and I attended the site from 10pm till around midnight last night. The Police, London Fire Brigade, Poplar HARCA and the Water Board also attended.

Copper piping was removed from the bedsitting room in 95 and some damage was done to the bathroom, however not much was actually taken, the most damage occurred because a service pipe located in the ducting in the bathroom had been cut and therefore a substantial amount of water penetrated both 95 and 93 and also 85 and 87 on the ground floor. Steve managed to locate the stopcocks in the lofts and we had to turn off the water supply to the whole block. Poplar HARCA will attend today to re-cap the service pipe, re-instate the water supply and check for leaks. As you know the site was due to be closed today because Steve is at a funeral so Carlita and/or me will be liaising with HARCA once this work is complete. We will also be discussing, on Steve’s return additional security measures for the site in light of last night.

On the phone today Steve estimated that this would set the project back about 3 weeks - it is fortunate that we were so far ahead.

Volunteers time and effort are making a real difference at Spey Street

To date, we have 20 external trainees registered on the project and 19 Coop members have taken part. Day by day more and more coop members joining in, which is fantastic.

Yesterday, we registered 6 trainees from Women into Construction project. They will be starting next week.

Big thanks to David and Mal, our Spey Street garden looks beautiful and tidy, ready for the summer.

We are open every week Mon-Fri from 8am-4pm also we are open every other Saturday of the week from 9:30am-1pm. Our next opening on Saturday is 22nd of October.

Come and join us!!!!!!! Every little helps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For more information you can contact me (Maihan) on 07949 570 873 or email me at hamedm@phoenixhousing.co.uk

The Young Ones

or at least that's what it sounded like Steve was singing. Steve, Pat, Paul and Erik worked Friday - mostly tidying up and taking the boards off number 85 (the former rubbish store) and putting the windows back in. Erik got on with sanding down and painting the bathroom in number 97. 95 is basically done (and very chi-chi it looks too) - Colin showed it to our first prespective tenant yesterday. There's a lot of interest in the garden flats - but sadly only two of the groundfloor flats have gardens and they won't be available for a long time yet.

Not much can be done about the patio doors - this will require an outside contractor because the hinges weren't there in the flats - so this is still boarded up. By the end of the day 85 did look much better.

Looking forward to seeing you Saturday.

Open Saturday 8th October

The refurb is open for volunteers Saturday 8th October but at least you won't have to move this stuff - it's gone already, the skip came Monday. Hope to see you all there. Paul.

City Too Hot!

Every time Phoenix does a refurb project it seems to cause (by sods law) an unseasonable heatwave. Today Pat and Steve worked (Paul called in for 2 hours between jobs because he was working locally).

95 is nearly completely decorated and once the boiler is commisssioned will be all ready to go - 97 is still being decorated and will require work getting the gas into the flat and a meter putting in. 93 and 99 are lagging slightly - it would be really good if we could find a member with some plumbing skills for the next saturday (or a day in the week say). The College of NorthWest London trainees have continued to come in (Moussa was in Wednesday) but Phoenix members visiting in the week have been few and far between - this is a shame because the kind of work we are doing now - decorating - is the kind that many volunteers feel comfortable doing. If you have these skills please phone Maihan and Come On Down.

That's more like it...

Ladies and Gentlemen I am proud to declare the Saturday Opening (this Saturday -the 24th - this morning) a success. Steve and Eight Phoenix members (Paul, Ray, Steve - another one, Ofa, Ninad, Mike - another one, Amit and Mark White) came and painted and sanded and stripped wallpaper and attempted a little light carpentry and even helped bring down the plasterboard cupboard in 87. A further two members got as far as the shops on the estate and then got lost - it is tricky to find, bring a map. Ken Kamara came down and took photos (and even shot some film of the Phoenix massive grafting away), we hope to post some of these soon.

'It does make a difference.' Muttered (a somewhat abashed) Steve.

If you fancy some more we're here Monday to Fridays and every second Saturday - Come On Down.