Our Big Fat Gypsy Christmas

After retrieving our Christmas decorations and tree from the Rectory garage  we managed to give the Garden Room and awning a little festive cheer.

More end-of-year pictures

Pictures to show how far we've come ...

And how far we've still got to go ... !

'Kitchen'

Extension

  Utility room

 Games room

 Study

 Downstairs bathroom

 Downstairs hallway

 Here's to a productive 2015!



End of the Year ...

We went away on our Christmas travels absolutely delighted that the house is really taking shape, especially as Pat and Alan had managed to install all of the upstairs windows, and the front ones, which we hadn't expected until the New Year - it's made such a difference.  The completion of the SIPS panels construction was quite a drama, largely but not in whole due to the delayed delivery of parts which caused problems for everyone involved.  Pat and Alan had to spend quite a bit of time making everything right after the construction crew eventually finished on site, and are understandably anxious that any poor work does not reflect badly on them.  Thank goodness for their attention to detail and pride in their work.

Emma's bedroom

Emma's room looking down the landing to our bedroom

 

Hannah's room with ensuite

Family bathroom

 

Spare bedroom

Our bedroom

When we got home on 27th December we found that Pat had even managed to put in several of the downstairs windows, with the help of Bob the Electrician who had done some wiring work in our absence.  (Alan is taking a well-earned two week break.)  Adrian also has two weeks off 'proper' work (back on 5 Jan), and his tasks include: finish painting the barge boards, fascias and soffits; first fix plumbing (positioning and laying all the hot/cold water & radiator pipes); shopping for all materials required by Pat and Alan next week (eg pipes, gutters & screws); and design the staircase.

So, as the year draws to a close, we are excited to start visualising all of the rooms taking shape, and to start making plans for the next stage of the build.  Life in the caravan/garden room continues to go smoothly - in spite of the freezing temperatures (Jen has just been to stay in the garden room and said she was nice and cosy!) - and we have managed to make things look quite festive.  (Pictures another time.)  Happy New Year to everyone reading this blog ...

Countdown to Christmas

Roof tiles nearly complete ... inside taking shape ...

We've had two sets of visitors stay with us this past week: Cousin Ken whose flights home to Glasgow were cancelled during Friday night's air traffic control debacle; and Cousin Jan over from America for Christmas - both intrepid campers, who didn't mind trekking down the garden with a head torch to use the house toilet at night!

Roofers Day 3

I should be getting dinner ready but instead am excited to share the first glimpses of roof tiles which I managed to photograph before it got dark this afternoon.  Aren't they a lovely colour?

 

This is our chosen pattern of tile hanging - a very Sussex style

 

Here are the stacks of tiles all ready for tomorrow's section.

 

Last night Adrian and I ended up on the roof at 10.00pm, in the rain and wind, trying to secure any loose debris ahead of the predicted storm - which in the event thankfully blew over with no damage.

We also felt we should tackle the huge pile of rubbish which had been left on the front driveway and which we feared could have blown away.  Not a very relaxing evening!

A few inside pictures

Difficult to see what's what at the moment, but here's a glimpse of inside ...

All hands on deck

There are no fewer than 13 builders on site today!  Seven roofers, four SIPS panel people (finally just finishing off, in the nick of time), plus the ever-steady Pat & Alan.  I've had to apologise that I just don't have that many mugs so cups of tea are out of the question.  Great to see some progress though.

 

The windows were delivered last week and are for the time being stored in the girls' old bedroom. 

Unfortunately it now won't be until AFTER Christmas that these can be fitted.  (Too risky to put them in while the roof is being tiled!)  Although the various velux windows have of course had to be put in to be tiled around.

The first of several deliveries of the hundreds of roof tiles required ...

 

The scaffolding tower for the time being in the new entrance hall. 

Adrian is enjoying designing a staircase which he plans to build himself.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying all the usual Christmas things at this time of year, both at home and at work: accompanying the school nativity performances, rehearsing for a Christmas Concert at neighbouring Clapham Church, ferrying Emma to Christmas Parties (Brownies, School Disco etc), deciding whether or not to put Christmas lights on the scaffolding (Adrian's installed a security light, but that's not the same!), trying to remember to plan for Adrian's birthday on the 22nd (!) ...

Start of Month Five

It's beginning to look a lot like ... a house.

 

 

Hannah in the 'loft'!

Sunny but cold. As I trekked up to use the house toilet at 7.30am it was  a magical frosty 1.5 degrees Centigrade - the first time I've ever had to wear woolly gloves to the bathroom!

Catching Up

Last day of November ... this is where we're at:

Front of the house ... all of the remaining SIPS panels are finally on site, with another couple of days required to fit them all together.














Rear of house:

 

Looking through the extension to our bedroom above.  (Adrian using the space busy planing wood for the extension cladding needed next week.)

 

Pat and Alan have built a lovely porch, ready for the tilers to include it with the roof.

At long last, after endless weekends of wet weather, Adrian has managed to make a start on the garden room roof which still needs tiling.  No leaks yet, but it will be good to get it finished!

 



Christmas planning

An advert on the radio yesterday said, "Make your house your home this Christmas".  Hannah replied, with her 12 year-old sarcasm, "I don't think so"!  We are really looking forward to spending Christmas this year with all the Greaneys, up with Adrian's mum and dad in Norfolk - all 14 of us!  Mind you, they are still finishing off their own two-year-project house renovations and haven't yet fitted the kitchen!  The heat is on.  But at least they now have proper bathrooms - bonus.  Bob has put a lot of thought (hopefully while getting on with his building) into delegating tasks to all the grandchildren: Hannah is in charge of fancy serviette folding, Emma the music, cousin Cameron (supervised by Health & Safety trained dad) candles, Jessica the table decorations, Oliver the table place names.  And nearly-three-year-old Abigail?  Being cute, I reckon!  She can help me with the games.

Today is a lovely sunny day (15 degrees C) with a beautiful blue sky. (Things seem so much easier to handle in the sunshine.) Adrian is finally able to get on with tiling the garden room roof, and we have two builders here today (Saturday) trying to catch up with fitting the roof panels.  We are hoping by the skin of our teeth to stick to the schedule of roof tillers and windows being fitted in the second week of December.

Pictures to follow ...

Feeling Low

What a disappointing day. Yesterday's promised delivery of the overdue roof panels only half materialised, and the wrong half for the order of what needs doing.  The crew of lads waiting to put everything together had a mostly wasted day whilst they awaited the second half of the delivery which never came.  Then at the end of the day we were told it would come at 6.30am this morning and maybe we'd like to warn the neighbours, which I (apologetically) duly did.  So, up at 6.00am this morning, the delivery did arrive, at 6.45am, and was duly unloaded, only to find that it was incomplete.  On phoning the SIPS panel company we were eventually told that THE REMAINING PANELS ARE NOT EVEN YET MADE!!!  This is two weeks after the whole panels process should have been completed, and after being continually told that the delivery was due "in a few days", "next week" or "by Friday".  The delay in itself is frustrating enough, but realising that we have been completely lied to (although the SIPS company claim to know nothing about this latest fiasco) is what is most annoying.  Why can't people just do what they're supposed to?????  We've learned that we're way too trusting, assuming that what we've ordered will automatically turn up, and need to be much more demanding.  The main reason we chose this SIPS panel option was the speed of construction (supposedly 2-3 weeks), which started back on 27 October.  Hmffffffff.  We now have the embarrassment of potentially having to delay yet again the roof tiling team, and the windows delivery, while Christmas is rapidly approaching.

On top of that, today has included these other frustrations: the oak beam delivered for the porch construction is noticeably warped and will have to be replaced (hopefully tomorrow whilst the tele-handler is here to manoeuvre it); the timber planks delivered for the extension fascia boards are horribly marked and black so will have to be replaced; when I returned to the house this afternoon I found a JCB repair van parked outside the house because the tele-handler had broken down; a delivery of plasterboard is now blocking the drive, AND it continued to rain, A LOT.

All in all, a bit of a rubbish day.  The little voice in my ear saying "it'll be worth it" is barely audible today - but not completely disappeared. 

Dreaming

All four of us snuggled into the girls' caravan beds at bedtime, enjoying a rare moment of cosy 'family time', Adrian said: "We won't have such a tiny space to enjoy this in the new house."  Hannah replied, "Yes we will.  In the utility room"!

Last picture with no roof ...

And a request for pictures of Dobby up the scaffolding. (Pickle's not so brave and can't climb ladders like his brother.)