23rd Dec 2010 - Snag, snag, snaggity snag

Well we're in. We've been living here 5 days so far, and life is good.

Snagging continues:
- paint needs touching up and finishing off in practically all the rooms

- some light bulbs not working

- TV now works in 7 out of 11 sockets

- the electric gates now fully work

- no thresholds yet on the tiled floors

- 1 floor tile still cracked

- no mirror in downstairs WC

- no curtains up yet

- 1 pane of glass broken

- 1 pane of glass is opaque and needs to be transparent

- no intumescent strip around the lobby doors

- back panel on walk-in wardrobes needs replacing

- some scratches on fitted kitchen, and 1 drawer not working

- ASHP needs upgrading

- plus a couple of outdoor bits that can't be done yet due to snow (rubbish & tools in drive, few bits of driveway not laid yet where cabels run, etc.)

etc. etc.

Nothing major - but just the normal bits 'n' pieces that need to be fixed and finished. Need to make sure that the builders (who we are actually very happy with) don't take their foot off the gas.

Christmas in 2 days!

18th December 2010 - We live in Fairways!

We moved in during Thursday 16th & Friday 17th December, and spent our first night in the house last night (Friday)! I was still driving the van at 10pm on the Friday night to get in just ahead of the blizzard.

We culminated a "self-build" with a "self-move". Well it saved £3000 and Ken & I almost passed out with exhaustion!

Will update the blog soon...

9th Dec 2010 - Carpets finished, Internet on

The excellent carpet guys finished late last night - it is really beginning to look like a home now.

The internet is now on in the house - BT finally delivered the hub, and it is up and running.

A new, larger pump for the UFH circuit has been installed today. Early indications are that it does seem to have the required oomph to run the UFH in the nether regions of the house, and not just the parts closest to the pump. We'll hopefully know in the morning

7th Dec 2010 - The neighbour's lawn

Oops. The delivery truck from the carpet manufacturer (not the fitters - they were great) made a mess of the neighbour's lawn (not immediate neighbour but 3 houses along). Not good. I am told they had to get a massive tow-truck with snow-chains up to pull him out. Apparently the driver put his insurance details through their letterbox - they don't seem to be in today, so I can't 100% check.

But at least the carpet was delivered ;-)

7th Dec 2010 - Underlay

The painters were in all day Saturday & Sunday (about 4 or 5 guys).

The underlay for the carpet has been delivered:

... and the chippies have finished re-hanging most of the doors and rebating the double doors.

Meanwhile, the UFH guys are still fiddling around trying to get the UFH fully working throughout the downstairs.

3rd December 2010 - Men at work

Well, we lost 2 days with zero work because of the snow, but today we have 6 on site doing the necessary.

- 1st pass clean of the 1st floor
- final skirtings
- letter box
- wet room mirror
- window board in sun room
- this and that

1st Dec - looks pretty, but no work is happening today

Snow. It looks very pretty. But note in the photos that no vans are parked outside - meaning that no work is happening today at all. Yikes. I am told that trades will all be back on site tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

30th November 2010 - Snow

Oh bu**er. We have about 12cm of snow - that is sure to hold up proceedings, if nothing else because contractors are going to find it tricky to get on site, even though the majority of the remaining work is internal stuff.

29th Nov 2010 - Triangle window FINALLY arrives

The triangular window for the sunroom has finally arrived and has been fitted this morning. Hoorah! Of course, they haven't brought the cladding pieces for the middle, but it's sufficient for now - the plasterers were already plastering the returns inside literally within minutes of the triangle being fitted.

The side fences are part done now (although going up a bit slower than expected...)

25th Nov 2010 - Steadily finishing off

Well, currently it's just a question of finishing up all the loose ends. Apart from the minor matter of the triangular window in the sunroom STILL not having arrived from the cr*ppy window company, the rest is just tickling along now.

Things like:

- the painters are steadily finishing

- the Celotex insulation in the loft is now all netted in, to stop bits falling out

- the door bell is fitted

- the UFH is now working in all but one room (need to get it blown through to the study still, somehow)

- chippies have fitted the IKEA stuff in the walk-in wardrobe

- the patch panel for the internet cabling has been fitted

- the smoke alarms are now live

- the sockets are now on the wall for TV, phone & internet

- the garden fencing has been started

- the name plate for the front gates has arrived (fabulous piece of Cornish slate)

- the PIR lights for the porch & lobby are working

- the internal glass has arrived for the little windows from hall into lobby

- the labourer guy has squirted expandable foam stuff into various little holes all over the place to get things sealed up for the air test, which may be next week (if we have a triangular window by then)

- the CCTV for the drains has been done

- the various bits of drainpipe and guttering that needed to be finished off are done

- some of the bathroom mirrors have been fitted

etc. etc. etc.

15th Nov 2010 - Front doors

The beautiful front doors are now installed. Since they are simply from some joinery guy in Cheshire who I found on the interweb, then we are well chuffed. They are awesome, and about £1000 cheaper than doors made in Surrey....

Highly recommended, Mr J Elwell http://www.jonathanelwellinteriors.co.uk/

11th November 2010 - Driveway almost finished

Driveway is almost finished:

10th November 2010 - Garage door & front door

The garage door is fitted:

And the massive, oak double front doors have arrived, and should be fitted soon. It partly depends on the window guys who have to fit side light windows to the front door, and the window guy is so cr*p and is not returning phone calls any longer.

Also this week, we now have the security alarm partly commissioned, the smoke detectors fitted, the decorators putting top coat on the internal woodwork, the groundworkers almost finished the drive, the metal-work guy has measured up for the railings and gates, and the TV aerial bloke is fitting the aerial today.

The water board (Sutton & East Surrey Water) connected us on to the water main last week (cost £1580). However it is leaking at the curbside already, and has been making it rather soggy for the groundworkers finishing the drive. So Scott & Bernie have at least managed to divert the water main leak into the road gulley so it's (mostly) not coming onto our site any longer. Strictly speaking not our concern, since it's leaking on the highway side of the boundary, but it's a major pain for Scott & Bernie and not pleasant for the neighbours.

1st Nov 2010 - Purest green

eBay's finest green mosaic tiles are (finally) fitted in the wetroom:

28th Oct 2010 - The gas is on

The gas meter arrived today with 00000 miles on the clock. Actually, compared to pretty much everything else, the gas meter was trivial to arrange. Once SGN had provided the connection at the road side(£417), I gave EON a buzz and the meter has been supplied & fitted within 10 days and free of charge to boot:

27th Oct 2010 - How illuminating

Illuminations today:

Illuminations in the olden times:

23rd Oct 2010

Another week of work. Most of the big stuff this week has been in the front driveway - digging soakaways, running gas trenches, water board getting ready to connect up, the front wall progressing, the electrics run for the front gates, making up some hard ground for the porch, shaping what will become the lawn around the extension, etc.

And the extension now has the under-floor insulation, the under-floor heating pipes laid and fully screeded. Bob has run the electrics, and we are ready for tackers and plastering in the extension. That is, the extension is beginning to speed up a bit. It still needs windows.

The fan-fold doors in the kitchen have been swapped out too. The original fanfold doors were fitted back in the mid summer, but they were not flush to the floor - i.e. we want the kitchen to be like an infinity pool in one of those Asian 5* hotels. So, the fanfolds have now been taken out and replaced with a new set which have 7cm more glass and therefore 7cm less frame. The "old" fanfold doors are not going to waste though - they will be fitted into the extension shortly. (The extension is 7cm lower, so will (should) also have the infinity pool look once done.)

Various other bits this week: kitchen now has a working extractor hood, a 5 ring hob, and all 3 ovens fitted in. Decorator has done some minor work on the skirtings & architraves - various little bits of filler needed here and there.

And here's an Air Source Heat Pump (not plumbed in yet):

Tony and I have created the 1st pass on the snagging list - so we have an end in sight.

Completion date: well, Tony put in writing that it's December 17th - this is versus the contract date of November 19th. Adrian reckons it should be much closer to the beginning of December. Let's see. Main issue is that we have to give 1 month notice on our rental house - we can't give notice too soon and end up homeless, and can't give notice too late since it will waste rent money.

16th Oct 2010 - Kitchen with granite

The granite for the kitchen is here! OK you geology dudes, when the kitchen shop calls it "Kashmir white" what rock type is that really? Hint - it's stuffed full with red garnets, mostly as phenocrysts but some as porphyroblasts.

16th Oct 2010 - Extension roofed & scaffolding down

The extension is coming along. The roof is fully tiled now, and the scaffolding came down on Friday. Bob the Sparks has started running the electrics in the extension. We are still waiting for useless Kevin to bring the windows...

8th Oct 2010 - Front wall, boiler & kitchen

Another busy week with loads of people working on site.

The front wall is 50% built - it still needs the metal work including the gates, and the Portland cap stones but is jolly nice already:

The plumber is busy putting in the boiler and the Megaflow system, and the details of the air source heat pump are being worked out too:

And the beautiful kitchen is in - and the granite templating lady came today too:

3rd October 2010 - She is exposed

The front hoarding was taken down last Monday, revealing her front view to the world for the first time. She's a biggun:

Work has started on the front boundary wall which will be built of bricks below with black metal railings above. Piers every 3m will be topped with Portland cap stones from Elegant Stone (Type 2, page 29 http://www.elegantstoneltd.co.uk/ )

Oh, and we've had some SERIOUS rain on Friday & Sunday this week - they lost about 1 day of work on the wall.

2nd October 2010 - Painting

Painting is occurring. We have chosen nice paint colours for all the walls from the Dulux DiamondTough range - colours such as Mellow Mocha, and Natural Hessian. The kids get green and blue in their bedrooms. We did choose a grey (Taupe) colour for the study and downstairs WC, but that's the only one we've now changed our mind on.

Here's a picture of the kitchen, part painted. You can also see miles & miles of skirting & architrave lined up, ready to be fitted.

The coving also went up this week, and Stuart - the chippie who also built the roof - has put the handles on about 1/2 the oak doors now too, and they look great:

24th Sept 2010 - Floor tiles laid & Internal doors installed

Almost all the fantastic internal doors have been installed this week. We have beautiful FD30 Howden Dordogne doors, which are really nice and chunky. The whole house has a lovely oak woody smell at the moment, what with the staircase & now all the doors. Very happy with it!

Also about 40% of the floor tiles (Saloni Hydra) have been beautifully laid too. They've done a grout sample and the Mrs has approved it. Grouting will occur on Sunday appartently - our first Sunday working of this project.

24th Sept 2010 - Apex steel at last

At last! All 3 steels for the extension are here:
... and they even managed to fit them all today too. Apparently a mini-crane came and lifted everything up into place. Cool!

22nd September 2010 - Extension steels finally arrive

Well, after a lot of faffing with engineers, the 2 main steels for the extension are finally on site. We are still waiting for the apex window steel, and then we can get cracking again with the extension roof.

Also now we have a temporary secure front door, the plumber is beginning to 2nd fix the bathroom bit 'n' bobs:

15th Sept 2010 - Painting the mist coat

I've been away for a few days on the Isle of Eigg, getting away from it all.

Coming back to the house after a few days it was good to see the plastering almost finished, the painters just finishing the mist coat, and Stuart back getting ready to hang the doors early next week.

Also, Tony now has all the steels on order for the extension at last - all sorted with the new engineer on board. Hopefully steels will be deliverd on Monday-ish, so then we can crack on with the extension roof - also with Stuart.

10th Sept 2010 - Screeding

Screeding has occurred as illustrated above!

And I am also pleased to announce that the new structural engineer is one zillion times better than the previous engineer. We now have the steels on order for the apex window of the extension, and are almost ready to order the trusses or cranked steels for the extension roof. This means that a lot of my panic has gone now. (We still lost about 2 or 3 weeks on the extension though...)

4th Sept - Underfloor heating installation

The pipes for the underfloor heating have been installed. We will have UFH on the ground floor, and rads on floors 1 and 2.

The UFH is the Uponor system, which is a well established provider with a good simple product. We will be using an air source heat pump to run the UFH - since ASHPs are good for heating water to the right temperature levels for UFH.

The screed goes on top of the UFH pipes - hopefully early next week, since it's quite tricky walking around in there at the moment!