First site meeting

Well - the meeting went very well. It was VERY exciting to see the space upstairs with all the walls removed - for the first time we can really see how it will be in terms of space and light (in fact, there'll be several more windows and a skylight, so the light'll be even better). Clare says that 1 man (Darren) getting all that done in a week puts our efforts to shame, but I don't think he has another job - plus he knows what he's doing!

Anyway - some pics:






And Darren's opened up the inside of the south wall, the big gable end of Bulwell stone, and you can see the old leading for the pitched roof from this end of the building. (Well, we're endlessly fascinated by such details, even if you aren't!)



Various big things did come up at the meeting - it transpires that in order to have gas upstairs for our cooker, we'd have to have a vented space under the upstairs floor (what we'd call the first floor, but I know in some countries is the 2nd floor, just to confuse us all). This is obviously counter to the whole enterprise - so we made the decision on the spot not to use gas for cooking. We'll be able to use the crappy electric cooker we have in the rental house to start off, and hope to go the induction hob route in the future (when we're less skint).

So we need to get the gas capped off, and we need to do this asap as it affects the ground floor and the changing of the stairs etc. I spent hours on the phone to Scottish Power (our supplier) and various other people they set me on to - until we managed to work out how to arrange it on-line. At which point it became apparent that a different company have to come and remove the gas METER before the second company can come and take the piping back and cap it off outside. This became apparent at the time we really HAD to just set off for our holiday, so I've left it in the hands of my Mum to sort the meter removal and we'll do the rest on-line. (Though our meter details are in cubic feet not metres which may confuse things!)

We've also got to get the electricity meter moved from just inside the front door to just outside. Ho-hum - about £600, it looks like!

Never mind - I'm typing this from Whistler, Canada, and today we get to ski/snowboard where the Olympics have just been and the Paralympics still are! Can't be bad at all, can it?