Sunday 19 September 2010

Two weeks no post, so sorry

A combo of busy-ness and stress got in the way of posting - we even uploaded pics last week!

The guys have been working very hard, specially Darren, managing the whole endeavour on the ground).

the stairs are in, and look fabulous! The blue you see in these pics is paper carefully wrapped around the handrail to avoid staining and damage, and the treads are covered in hardboard for similar reasons.
hallwayhallway 2
In the first you can see the front door, the beam and the curved wall of the bathroom; in the second the corridor through to the door to the spare room.

Every window is in now, even the door to the courtyard, though unfortunately there seems to be a very slight bend in this, and despite the guys best efforts it may cock up the airtightness test and need replacing. Ho hum.
door to courtyard

Last weekend we slaved to get the kitchen part of the floor finished so the purple English Rose double sink unit would be ready for the plumber's work (it's still waiting, though in position).
paintjob
The floor is done with a coat of 50:50 Treatex matt clear and spruce stain first, then another of the matt clear; the wall is Earthborn clay emulsion in fresh Air (brilliant coverage).
As well as the ceiling over the kitchen we (=Clare) did a roll over all the holes where the light fittings were due to go, so we don't have to cut in round them when finishing painting the ceiling.
weekend's accomplishments

english rose in situ
(The colour isn't quite right - less burgundy, more aubergine, though not quite that either).

This weekend we've done most of the rest of the floor upstairs (there are a few areas we couldn't get to due to the ever-present piles of insulation). We did it much better this time after our trial run last week!

Everywhere is plaster-boarded and almost everywhere plastered; all the light-fittings are in upstairs, and several sockets have been corrected (meant to be brushed metal upstairs not white plastic). So between Monday morning and Tuesday night they only have to plumb in all the loos, the kitchen sinks;
fit a fuse-board and complete the electrics (including ANY lights in the shower-room);
finish the plastering;
finish the railing round the stairs;railing
finish fitting the hot water tank and the MVHR (for which parts awaited AGAIN). mvhr, tank
On Monday our ecokitchen arrives and the hob and oven need to be fitted in that (should be v easy for an electrician though). The hood needs to get up on the wall.

And the yard needs clearing.

basinbath

No worries about guests on Friday, then.... At least it's family!

Sunday 5 September 2010

Our week off

We've both had most of the week off (I worked Friday, but that's all) as we had previously hoped to be moving in this week. Instead, it's been a productive week in other ways (including seeing Toy Story, The Girl Who Played with Fire and Scott Pilgrim and the Evil Exs and chilling together).

Our oven has arrived, we are waiting for the extraction hood, and the other kitchen unit is confirmed for mid-September (we need to order the hob to go in it).

We've painted the stairs (really this is more workshop p*rn for you, Tony!)
painting stairsstairs painted

The rooflet has fallen off the door to the road, happily missing Darren who just moments before walked under it!
rooflet off

Most of the ducting is in (and the MVHR due to arrive this week...).
ductingbedroom ceiling
We've got kitchen windows kitchen windows
A sliding door onto the (imaginary) balcony
balcony window
and a lovely over-stair opening window we will never be able to reach!
overstairs window

The two little windows in the south wall upstairs are rather darker than we expected, but we like them.
coloured windows

And the floating engineered oak floor is partly down upstairs. Looks lovely!
flooring!

We've done some sample paint squares upstairs too, deciding between white and fresh air (a bit cooler). We've ordered the Treatex Hard Wax oil for the floor (spruce ie white half/half with plain).

And we've handed in our notice for the end of September and arranged for our stuff to arrive from storage on 22nd Sept. We should be in for Alice and Ben's birthday visit! (Though chaos will certainly still reign).