Easter - Goodbye Builders

We arrived at Easter with the shell of the house complete, and reluctantly had to say goodbye to Pat and Alan, dictated by the diminishing budget.  The plasterers have almost finished the outside render - just a tiny bit left which requires an extra order of plaster arriving next week.

 

The plumber's signed off the heating - both the boiler and the underfloor heating - so we can now start to warm the place up a tiny bit and speed up the drying out process.  There's a huge amount of water in the structure to be dried out.

 Now we must concentrate on choosing bathroom tiles (starting with the upstairs family bathroom), and ordering the kitchen units.  Lots of decisions!  And Adrian's made a start on building the staircase ... to be continued ...

Bits and bobs

More painting ... our bedroom and bathroom is the next room that's being painted.  It took a bit of deciding on the shade, but Adrian and I are really pleased with our lovely green.

I should also give Adrian credit last weekend (straight after returning from Japan) for the hours he spent sorting out the heating controls, both in the loft and the underfloor heating network.

 

Thanks should also go to Pat and Alan, of course, for insulating the whole ground floor and laying the underfloor heating pipes, plus countless other jobs (eg preparing the rainwater harvesting tank, and digging up the side path and installing more drain pipes).  We'll certainly miss them after Easter and progress will inevitably slow down!

We have a floor

Today is another milestone in the project - delivery of the liquid screed throughout the entire downstairs, giving us a completely level ground floor. 

It was quite a mathematical challenge, combining both the old, irregular, floors of the original house, and the newly built extension (there was a variation of 81mm in depth from the thinnest to the thickest floor).  It turned out that the original calculations needed tweaking, after Thursday's more accurate laser measurements, requiring quite a significantly larger amount of screed.  So, more cost, and an extra day's wait while a second lorry-full could be scheduled, but it's a big relief to have it done.  And it turned out to be pink! 

This shows the footprint in the hallway marking where the foot of the stairs will be.

 

Adrian avoided having to hire a skip, required for any excess screed, by building his own structure out of left-over SIPS panels and a huge tarpaulin.

This picture shows a glimpse of the green we've painted in our bedroom.

24-hours until we can walk on it - meaning a whole weekend when Adrian can't step foot inside the house! - but there are plenty of outside jobs to be getting on with (despite the rain).  Adrian's main task (apart from fixing the grinding-to-a-halt Audi) has been to connect the pump in the rainwater harvest tank, which can then be attached to the drainpipes off the house just as soon as the outside rendering is done and the drain pipes fixed on.  Next week's weather forecast doesn't look too promising (too rainy), but it would be nice to have it all looking good on the outside by Easter, in a week.  We'll see.

Cabin Fever

Seven months in the caravan and the girls are definitely getting 'cabin fever'.  They really want their own space back.  What do you do when one girl wants complete darkness at bedtime (can't even bear the glow from the clock radio) and the other wants a bit of light from somewhere?  One girl likes peace and quiet, the other hums to herself!  Emma announced last week that she was going to 'live on the trampoline' ... well, she does her homework on it.

I was pleased with myself after managing to 'bake' Caravan Flapjacks for Emma's school Comic Relief cake sale.  Shame they turned out a bit more like crumble topping!  Salvaged a few for Emma to decorate.

 

Whilst Adrian was away this week he asked us three girls to write a list of remaining jobs in the house in priority order.  We all agree number one is stairs.  After that, top of my list is a shower (with more than two minutes of warm water).  Hannah and Emma both unanimously asked for doors on their rooms!  The kitchen is surprisingly low down the list ... after bedrooms and a bathroom.  I've just been told that even though next week we are having 'Express Liquid Screed', which can be walked on after just 24 hours, it can't have anything too heavy put on it for FOUR WEEKS!  This means it will be the end of April before we can get our furniture out of storage, or fit the kitchen.  Bother.  But at least it will give us time to complete all the painting and decorating.  Anyone fancy bringing a paintbrush????  (Or having the girls over to play?  Or cooking us a nice dinner?)  There's a faint glimmer of light at the end of a very long tunnel, but it still feels as though there is a very long way to go ... keep going!!!

Final weeks with builders

Two weeks since my last post, things have progressed hugely.  The plasterers have finished inside, floor insulation has been laid downstairs and a start made on the underfloor heating. 

 The downstairs bathroom - no more pink loo!

The race is on to complete everything downstairs before the liquid screed is delivered on Friday 27 March, leaving four final days for Pat and Alan to complete as much as they can before Easter ... then we're on our own!!!

Adrian has been in Japan this past week, but thankfully everything went smoothly in his absence.  He managed to replace the faulty caravan water pump before he left.  (Unusual to have suffered with no COLD water when it broke - ironically boiling hot showers!)

 

It was lovely to see Dad, Pen & Jen who came for the day on Mothering Sunday, after Adrian had flown off to Japan very early that morning.  What did we do for the day?  Painting, of course!  (Or playing Monopoly, if you were Penny, Hannah and Emma - lovely Nanny time.) Here's a picture of Jen in action - in her very fetching shower cap!

Laundry on the move

As I knew would eventually happen, the washing machine and tumble dryer from the downstairs bathroom have finally had to move up to the caravan awning, so that the room can be properly prepared for boarding and plastering. The toilet is still in use (just!) but thankfully the brand new toilet in the family bathroom upstairs is all plumbed in - if you don't mind climbing a ladder to reach it.  The washing machine is now plumbed in, draining into the garden soakaway.

 

The entrance hall scaffolding came down on Saturday revealing our lovely 'Truffle' wall.  Adrian has put up a temporary bannister as it felt a bit dangerous without!

   The lower half of the entrance hall can now be plastered.

I've decided to make this my new vantage spot for regular updates on progress, as the work continues downstairs. I wonder what it will look like in a month's time???

Shattered

As well as a description of our state of mind, the title of this post refers to the unfortunate incident this week when our replacement extension window was finally delivered - and instantly broken!  At least it isn't going to hold up progress as the window can be repaired (again!) at any time.  And at least it happened before Pat and Alan had gone to the trouble of fitting it (again!).

 

Who'd have thought it?  Turns out the only interior design item so far discovered that Adrian and I simply can't agree on is ... chandelier lampshades!  Trying to choose the right option for our extremely long drop hallway is proving impossible!  A cluster of small shades, versus two or three large statement ones; colourful versus earthy.   You'll have to wait and see what we eventually manage to agree on.

Hannah's comment of the week is to do with using the cold caravan toilet: "Look, Mum, my wee is steaming!"