I wanna be a door'ed

Up the house tonight, again doing an impersonation of burglars, snooping around in the dark with a torch.  It's a bit better than that as we can open the doors downstairs with a key.  There wasn't much to see downstairs however, except as the heating had been on for a couple of days the house didn't feel cold, in fact it was warmer than the ice box we are renting.

Because the front door had been fitted we weren't able to get in as we didn't have a key.  But it was awesome to see the front door on, this must be contributing the sense of warmth.

Then, brain wave, we tried the key we had in the front door and something magical happened, it opened.  In addition to that some of the light switches activated temporary lights.  This blogs photos are of the front door and the insides taken with temporary lighting, wired into the mains electric and operated from the light switches.

So when we turned up, this is what we saw, awesome!

Once inside we could take a photo of the back living area with an internal light on...

The tiles have been delivered, now the garage looks like a Topps Tiles franchise...

A new finish, architrave starting to be fitted to the doors...

And finally, another view of the front door, this time from the inside.  Also a chance to see how the glass roof ties into the door, albeit in the dark...

Needless to say we were very excited to see the front door on.

The heat is on

Quite literally, as you can see from the photo below.  The under floor heating has been commissioned and switched on low to help dry the house out.

The boiler is a bit of a beast, I don't know much about them but this one looks big.

Aside from the heating, other things are moving apace...it's that time of year to deck the halls with bells of holly, well we have been hauling the decks (sorry), the deck has been started.

From below the deck looks like this...

Work has picked up again on the stone wall to the front and right hand side...

I could post loads of pictures of plastered walls as they are things of beauty.  But, the plastering has now been done in the cantilever room, there are lots of angles and it is fairly complex, here is an example of what they have been able to do

Oh go on then, here is one more...

Finally, now that the cantilevered room has been finished, this is what that view looks like...

At most, it will be 55 days before we move in.

Day in the life

First day off work as part of the Christmas break.  It was one of those days were you wonder how you have time to go to work with all the stuff you can get done.

Anyway, my day helping get the house done....

7.50 am - the appliances are delivered to the rented house

10.45 am - the kitchen arrives at the build site.  I spent an hour carrying the pre-assembled units into the house, actually around the side, down the mud bank and into a bedroom until they are needed in early January.

This was tough, it was raining, slippy underfoot and it was a two man job to carry each unit.  I have gone soft working in a office.

Above, the power socket that will rise out of the kitchen worktop.

One of the full height kitchen units.

The rest of the bits and bobs for the kitchen.

There was an army of guys on site doing all sorts.  Boiler installation, 2nd fix electrics, roofing, plastering, and off loading all the deckboards to start work on the deck.

Had a bit of soup for lunch...too much detail?

1.45 pm - site meeting with John the architect and Anthony the contractor.  We agreed that we would be moving in end of January - start of February.  Couple of decisions made relating to tiles, architrave, steps.  Met the tiler, he is hoping to start the bathrooms next week.

I left the site with the boiler testing about to start.

3.10 pm left the site and headed for Topps Tiles to arrange for delivery.  After a few phone calls managed to get the tiles scheduled for Sun/Mon delivery.  Result.  Below are most of the tiles, we have about 5 tonnes of tiles.

3.50 pm off to Terry Reffells the bathroom suppliers.  To help the tiler we need the bath and both shower trays on site for Monday.  They agreed to deliver last thing on Friday.  Bosh.

Finished off the day with an email to John and Anthony confirming the above plans, and emailed the estate agent to hand in notice on the house.

Just to be clear, we are moving in around the end of January / start of February - mental!

Good day.

Papa was a rolling stone

While progress may not be as quick as we would like, there is progress nonetheless.

The progress we do have however is very noticeable as we are pretty much at the stage where every thing we do is a finish.  This blog has a few finishes, plus a bit of work in progress.

On the subject of work in progress, get well soon Keith, Rhian's father.  He has had a major operation and is in recovery.  See you soon Keith, we need a clerk of works, so when you are ready get your wellies on and get down here.

These photos were taken over the last week, so detail may have changed through the photos.

The photos below are of the side window in the front living room, a testament to the vision of the architect, angles and views.

Next, the windows.  Not new work but we did speak to Bob the window guy today and he demo'd the folding doors in Ellie's bedroom, see below....

Now some of the smaller, but important changes....

Above, doors frames.

A light switch.  A small thing, but progress is progress.

There has been some work outside with the start of the patio and paths to the rear.

In the front living room we will install a log burner, which means we need a fireplace.  Bricks were reclaimed, the guys have done a great job cleaning and pointing them for our fireplace.

Out in the fields

No words, just photos of the house from beyond our boundary in the forest....

And finally, a view out into the trees...