in denial

The latches and handles were fitted to the doors some time back. The last of the painting was finished two weeks ago. Aside from an issue with the shower hose (ruddy thing!) its done. Finished. The bathroom is being fully exploited; showers, laundry, a welcome ground floor loo. The bedroom however is sitting empty. Its availability has come as a bit of a shock. We wander into it every so often and stare in wonderment and disbelief at the extra space; trying to imagine what we'll do with it all. We then slip quietly back into the house in full denial. One of these days...

floored

The Inspector of Floors has made a visit. He carried out the coefficient of friction test and the drool test. The floors seem to have passed. He approves of the whitish oil finish to the timber flooring and the high contrast classic pattern in the shower room. The 3 year old suggested a game of chess, which apparently he knows how to play. Wonders never cease...

And speaking of wonders, the shower is functional. Praise be to modern-ish plumbing!

leckie!

The electrics have been hooked up for a few days now. Making the late night painting sessions a bit easier.

Snaps of the finishes coming soon...

home-stretch

Since the last rant post there's been a lot of progress. The log-jam that was the shower panel arrived and was in fact drillable (!!!) allowing all the rest of the pieces to fall into place. Plumbing is done, plasterboarding finished, taped & filled, and painting and finish joinery has been commenced in full. The timber flooring has been put down and skirting boards fitted. After much angst, many phone calls and the joiner driving 2 hours to fetch them from the courier's depot, the doors have arrived. Progress. Now if we could only find some decent light fixtures...

hurry up & wait

Away for two weeks, we came back to significant progress by those who toiled away in our absence. The joiners finished the exterior cladding and guttering and the internal timber framing, insulated the walls and roof and hung the drywall. This was followed by taping and filling.





In fact, more was accomplished while we were away than since we've been back--going on two weeks now. We should go away more often...




Upon our return, decisions had to be made (quickly!!) regarding things that are soon required (lights, paint, doors) and panic ordering ensued.

In the meantime, the laminated glass back panel onto which the shower in mounted in the World's Greatest Showering Cubicle required alteration as it didn't come with the blank, drillable panel that it was supposed to.





[Begin rant...]
This shower has caused problems from the start: it took forever to arrive, came flat packed instead of assembled (so the large, inconvenient, gaping hole left in the external wall to accomodate it's delivery was utterly unnecessary), has large gaps at the top so a homemade lid is required to keep water getting between the shower and the wall, and, as mentioned before, came with the wrong back panel. The latter of these was not really a problem as, according to the manufacturer, the panel provided could be drilled. Imagine our suprise when this supposedly drillable panel shattered into a million pieces once drilling commenced! Ahhhggg! Our poor plumber will be having nightmares of showering in glass for weeks. Not to mention the endless guilt he feels at having halted our project dead in its tracks and leaving us to sleep in the same room as a very greedy 7-month old who wakes hourly to make sure the all-night breakfast buffet is still sleeping next to him for an additional week or two (really S., it wasn't your fault...).
[...rant complete]

We love our shower and look forward to spending the first hour of every morning wallowing in this marvel of 20th century technology and celebrate its long anticipated arrival into our home. We have no regrets. However...it's been a complete pain in the #*%.

But I suppose that is to be expected in The Land of the Bath.

An apparently drillable panel (according to the manufacturer) has been ordered and is now eagerly awaited. Once the panel is installed, the shower and the last bit of plumbing can be completed, the last piece of plasterboard can be hung, taped and filled, and then the painting will commence. Followed by installation of the flooring, skirting boards, window sills, doors and facings, a bit more painting and then final fix of the electrics (plates & fixtures), et voila!

Fini. (typed with fingers crossed, touching wood, tossing salt over shoulders, turning three times to the left, and performing any other superstitious jinx avoiding gesticulations one can think of)



In the meantime's meantime, the 3 year old has been in an extremely excited state since our return. Now that the extension can be accessed directly from the living room he's often found taking important dimensions for the amendments which he still believes are required to the design.







And finally, a first glimpse of our bathroom suite (without seat) as installed last Saturday.


Now that's progress...

first fixin'

It's been a busy couple of weeks with the joiners cracking on with the cladding and moving to the inside. They have made themselves at home, enjoying the relatively dry and mostly midge-free shelter and invited a couple of swallows with them.










In addition to building the internal partitions and endless dwanging they have raised a wee oak branch to top of the rafters. This latter addition specified by the Landscape Architect as an essential pagan/Celtic rite to ward off whatever sinister spirits lurk in the Scandinavian pine supporting the roof. Perhaps that's why the birds have taken up residence--much to the L.A.'s dismay.





Both the plumber and electrician have visited to make their first fixes so that the joiners can now get the flooring in and plasterboard up. We're off for a couple weeks of holiday and expect it to be finished when we get back...



...we can dream, no?

timmmberrrrr.......

The timber cladding has been fixed to the gable and the roof finished. We're that much closer to being wind & water tight. Windows are being glazed and silled (if that's a word) for fitting this week.





The gigantic shower cubicle has arrived so now the hole left for putting it in through can be closed. The Architect was told by some twit of a company rep that the thing would come complete--no assembly required. Obviously he was wrong--much to the Joiner's annoyance at having left a gaping hole in the framing for no apparent reason and to the Plumber's annoyance as he now has to put it together.


Apparently, the first step of cubicle assemblage is to dance with it...

site agent's diary

The three year old likes the window height...


Its 'perfect'.





He also reckons that his tipper truck operator's license is not too far off.

wooley thinking

A mountain of sheep's wool insulation has arrived.


















It works for many of the locals...


so why not us?

undercover

Over the course of the last week quite a bit has happened.






The sarking has been put across the trusses, the roof paper's been tacked on, battens & purlins have been fixed, and the 'wrinkly tin' is being fit.













A bit of earthmoving has also been achieved along with the commissioning of the new septic tank. Yes, our waste has a new destination. It's still not completely covered up yet as a few bit and pieces have yet to arrive but our fearless plumber assures us that it's good to see if it works before we cover it up completely. Now to convince the three year old that he can't play in the big hole...

trussed

The trusses have arrived and been put into place.







The basic shape/size is now apparent.







Inside, the ceiling heights can now be imagined.




A bit of a lull as we wait for the digger to return and backfill. Maybe then our garden will look less like the Somme.

framed view

The kit's up and it's starting to take shape.

fits & spurts

The building process seems to happen in flurries of activity followed by periods of patiently (or perhaps impatiently) waiting. The couple of weeks that resulted in the production of the underbuilding has been followed by 6 weeks of drying out and queuing. A three week hiatus is recommended (but generally ignored) before fixing the timber frame to the blockwork. Being swots, we took notice. Of course if the joiners were raring to go at week 2 we'd have sanctioned the fixing of the frame. That's the kind of opportunist expansionists we are.

In the meantime we've found other uses for our new patio: dance venue, bike riding circuit, slug-free locale for herb growing, half-court hoops venue. It's amazing what one can do with a bit of hard standing in a land of bogginess.

We've also taken up crater-making as a pastime--much to the delight of the three year old. It seems finding a home for our 10 person capacity septic tank has been more difficult than expected. Why a 10 person tank for a three bedroom cottage? Flexibility of course. It means we can have 6 more children or exploit the development potential of our croft--i.e. build another house with 5 bedrooms. Likely scenarios? Probably not. But the 6 or 8 person tank we really wanted wasn't made by the manufacturer we ordered the original 4 person tank from. So, to avoid a rather ridiculous re-stocking charge we super-sized our septic capacity. In this age of excess, why not?

Well, I'll tell you why not: rock. Yes, as mentioned in a previous post, we live on a beach. A beach under which large swathes of toridonian sandstone (which is not as soft as it sounds) flow. Furthermore, due to the nature of our "soil" (also mentioned before) over-digging is required to avoid self levelling. These two factors resulted in the first hole being immense but due to the presence of the aforementioned rock, 150mm (6 in) too shallow. So on to a second hole closer to the house to minimize the required amount of fall in the pipework and therefore the depth of the hole. The depth was achieved, albeit with significantly more effort from a digger two sizes too small for the task at hand. Which probably means a significantly larger invoice. Perhaps the re-stocking charge was a less fraught option.

So the timber has been purchased, delivered (to the wrong address of course) and stacked in the byre to dry out for the next flurry of activity due to commence tomorrow. The joiners have finished off with those in the queue before us and we're next. Watch this space...

heavy plant to the rescue...

progress...

Despite a week of gales and rain work has continued apace.

Three courses of blockwork and the slab are in the ground.

We'll give it a bit of time to cure and then onwards and upwards.

In the meantime...we might as well jump!

good footing

We have footings. After watching the essentially subtractive progress up to this point it’s nice to see something actually being added.

Reinforced concrete footings there for all the world to see. But hopefully not for too long…

the site foreman

The 3 year old loves the building work.


So much so that he has appointed himself as Site Foreman.

He’s always there to issue instructions, inspect the works, check the lines, supervise the subs, and even pitch in and help if required.

He’s also taken it upon himself to issue a revised plan.

He tells me the toilet’s in the wrong place and he’s shifted it to a more appropriate location.

Upstart.