Bedroom 2

We know it has been months since we last updated but moving house and the little matter of a forthcoming sailing trip have somewhat hampered our progress.

Will any room ever be finished - but this is as good as it is going to get for a long while now.

We still have the odd piece of filling panel missing, skirting boards to fix, lights, handles on the wardrobes, sockets, curtain rail and doors to go - but ho - nearly there!
However, we do have the MVHR thermostat fitted. There will also be a charging station and a TV fitted onto the teal wall (a special wall strengthening panel has been fitted underneath the plasterboard) so guests will have every comfort at their disposal!

The walls are painted in all different colours, a very pale grey on the window wall, a medium grey on the dressing table wall, a very dark grey in the ensuite (but this is windowless and will need some clever lighting in any case) and a teal blue (to match the towels bought last Christmas).  These four paints were all put together as complementary by Dulux and are in the Trade catalogue as their 'City' collection.

The wall paper, from John Lewis, is a bit hard to define but those are white pencil line yachts - one day there will be curtains to match.

And all this leads into ensuite 2 which was incredibly difficult to photograph, being so small.

We still have two tiles to fit for the splashback (we only had one tile left but Joe at Ocean Bathrooms has very kindly discovered one in his storeroom from when they made up a display in the showroom  so that is waiting to be done).  Also, there going to be a large mirror (with a heating element) where the brown board is, with lighting behind.  










We also still have to fit the lighting in the ceiling and skirting board on the units - but you may have guessed, I am very pleased with my teal towels and bathmat!

External works

These were actually finished when we were back in Littleton in May.

The garden remains unplanted; we had to submit plans to West Dorset District Council for the landscaping, which we duly did on 17th January (they are apparently not interested in what we do at the back; thier only concerns are the front and side borders.  Despite chasing them over Easter, we heard nothing until an e mail on 4th July with further questions.  As we were on the high seas at the time, answering these was our first priority on our return in August.  

In mid September, we received more feedback including:

a) I hadn't stated in the maintenance plan that I would be watering the garden during spells of dry weather (even though it had been clearly stated that this house was for our own occupation)

b) they didn't like the vast expanse of wall on the south face - why hadn't we put a window in there to break it up (er - perhaps it was because it was one of the specific terms of the planning permission, issued by the same body, that there wasn't a window on this face) and so we would need to plant

                                                                      some climbing plants on that border.

We sent back a firm and frosty e mail (sense my tone) asking them if they would be prepared to take responsibility for the stone cladding dropping off if climbing plants took root in the wall.  I will give the landscape officer her due - she phoned us back the very next day, hastily backing off from this suggestion but saying she wished she had been involved in our plans earlier.  I did explode and point out that much time and building had taken place in since 17th January, to which she replied she would be approving our landscaping plans.  I feel very sorry for the councils have to run such vital services on such tight budgets.

The plants have now been ordered, through Castle Gardens, Sherborne, who along with Jane Dean and Barbara Elsmore, have been incredibly helpful, advising me on what is suitable, and will be planted next summer. 

April Update

The blog has been quiet recently; I had intended not to do anything more until the outside landscaping is finished but that may not be for a while yet, (there has been a delay with the delivery of the remainder of the slates) so this is where we are up to on 11th April.

Alutec sent along one of their own chaps who resolved all our problems with the guttering.  There is still a little more to do (some parts were missing) but we are very nearly there and cannot fault Alutec's Customer Service.

All areas below the damp proof course around the house are being rendered with K Rend in Buttermilk.
There is a path immediately in front of the house and then there will be a narrow bed of plants all the way along the front of the path which will help to disguise the render.

Grey slates are being laid longways, one quarter along the next slate.
This all has yet to be pointed.

The walls in the garden are being rendered again with K Rend but in a grey colour to match the slate.
This area will hopefully one day house a hot tub.

In keeping with the levels in the house, this area will have a slate path around three sides with a 'grassy' area in the middle.  There will be a step down to the patio area where the table will be.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will by now be marvelling at the cleanliness of the windows.
Phil, Alex and Vicki fully appreciate how much it took to rid ourselves of the remainder of the Peelguard.
In the foreground on the left hand side there will be some steps down to the workshop.
In between the steps and the hot tub area is Vicki's 'Herb Garden' - four individual planting areas which are completely bricked up and separate from each other so the mint will not be able to encroach on the other plants - thanks to Marc for this wonderful suggestion.

A fence has been built to mark the boundary between ourselves and Woodview.
The rear bed is now ready and filled with topsoil.
The planting plans were submitted to West Dorset District Council on 17th January and we are still awaiting approval.

A general overview of the back of the house.

A raised bed made from contemporary railway sleepers (4 high) at the side of the house; again this will be planted up to disguise the skirt.

Rolux UK

One of the pleasures of this project has been to meet so many fabulous people and today has been no exception.  We have just had a visit from a highly professional team from Rolux UK.  They arrived promptly this morning , despite having driven from Cheshire.  The fitting of the front garage doors went like clockwork; the chaps worked hard and efficiently and we were bowled over when they even took their waste home with them. We cannot recommend this company too highly.  On their initial visit, the salesman impressed us with his understanding of what we wanted, and this has proved to be a very sound decision.  

Here you can just about tell that there are actually two doors - a double width roller (which is concealed extremely neatly in boxing on the inside of the garage) and a single personal door on the left hand side.  The doors panels are 79 mm double skinned, insulated aluminium, with heavy duty 90 mm guides.  All of the aluminium parts are pre-treated and chromatised before being powder coated.  The rolling door is opened by a Somfy 240 v motor with an inbuilt obstacle dectection panel for safety. We still have to finish off the framework around the opening (another little job for BDM, I suspect) but we are very happy to have all this extra secure storage space.

Full marks to Alutec

A quick update on the guttering is that following our concerns we had a visit last week from the sales manager and someone from technical support.  They built a sample panel which still was leaking so following a conference call this morning they are sending their expert gutter fitter to replace all the fittings and to ensure that it works properly.  We are still not quite sure what is causing the problems (they have sold many many metres of this stuff) but we are extremely grateful for their assistance in making sure that it will live up to expectations.  10 / 10 Alutec.

Progress all around

Bedrooms 2 & 3 are now plastered - thank you so much to Tony Buckingham, Justin and Jake who worked like Trojans.  A beautiful smooth finish - and this time I promise to listen to Tony and that the first coat of paint will be a mist coat (when doing the bathrooms I believed the salesman who persuaded me to buy a very expensive paint on the promise that a mist coat wouldn't be needed - but it has peeled in some areas).

Marc is levelling out around the front of the house, preparing the ground for a stone path immediately next to the house with a small border of plants next to the road.  A very stressful job as there are cables only 15 cm down.  The trenches you can see here are for the footings for a stone retaining wall on the road side of the path.

Terry and Ashley have been joined by Danny and are continuing with rendering - here we have the Caselle garage and David's workshop all scratched and finished.

Last but not least we have been preparing the garage for screeding at 07:00 tomorrow.  This involved scraping the garage floor to remove all concrete lumps, endless sweeping, two layers of a thick polythene damp proof membrane, sheets of super strength Kingspan Styrozone - insulation which can take the load of a car; this is rabbited at the edges so it all slots together beautifully.  Finally there will be one more layer of waterproof membrane on top before the screed is poured over.

Kitchen, Guttering, Rendering, Groundworks

Back in January 2015, when we ordered the kitchen, we were extremely optimistic (bless us) about how the build would progress.  Searle and Taylor in Ropley have been extremely patient and have looked after it for many months but really do need the space for other deliveries in their warehouse - so here it is, in the corner of the lounge, where it will remain until the autumn!

Back in November, I waxed lyrical about the soffits, fascia and guttering from a company called Alutec.  Unfortunately, the guttering has not lived up to it's smart look and has never not leaked.  David contacted them in January but was brushed away with reassurances that everything was 'normal'.  After a not inconsiderable amount of wasted time from him, Phil. Marc and Alex, we finally contacted Alutec again, who have looked into our 'symptoms' and have discovered a manufacturing problem.  Needless to say, David is very unhappy that he wasn't listened to earlier; they offered to visit us tomorrow but he is popping back to Plymouth for the day and Phil can't be here either.  Apparently Alutec are too busy all of next week - needless to say we will say if the letter which was e mailed to the CEO earlier today frees up their diary.

Terry and Ashley - expert renderers!

Rendering has begun on the rear of the house (apart from the lounge area) and around the garage, workshop and Caselle garage.  We are using K Rend (K1) which is a cement based render system.  This silicone technology imparts a high degree of water repellency to the render surface, whilst allowing water vapour to pass through the render allowing the substrate to breath.  This water repellent surface should ensure a freshly rendered appearance for a prolonged period.  The finish is drier and this more resistant to algae growth.  In keeping with many of our other choices, this is supposed to be low maintenance; however, now this is on the walls it is even more vital that we sort out the guttering problems asap.

Pete and Andy have been working hard over the past three days sorting out the rear garden, preparing the ground for a path around our handkerchief lawn.  Here Mark is having fun with the digger creating a space for the hot tub adjacent to what will be the patio area.

Stone Cladding is Finished

This morning we bid a sad farewell to Robbie & Co; tremendous personalities (missing you already lads!) but they have promised to pop by when they are in the area again and to keep an eye on what is happening on the blog - especially when the rendering on the rest of the rear of the house is done (which is beginning to start on Monday).  This is the largest stone project EuroBrick have done to date (most of their work is done with brick slips) so Richard from EuroBrick came on a visit last Monday and they are going to use us as a case study for future publicity.

We are just delighted with this work; Robbie and Co couldn't have done a better job and we are very happy for anyone who is considering using this system to come to visit us; we will provide glowing references. They took great pride in their work; paying attention to detail, checking and re-checking every last strip of pointing.  They made a 'tent' out of a large tarpaulin to work under when it was raining and even left us with a very tidy site - all of which is appreciated enormously.  To add to this they were extremely sociable and David has now taken a leaf out of Robbie's book and when he wants something, is calling me his 'little swamp duck' - it works every time!

Vicki cutting rockwool sound insulation - quite an 'itchy' job.

Meanwhile, inside, preparations have gone well for this coming Monday (22nd February) when Tony et al are returning to plaster bedrooms 2 & 3.  These are the simplest rooms to do first as although we have tried to install everything we can think of before they come in, we can still access these rooms from the loft if there is anything we have forgotten.

 David has built 'cages' around the wiring as this shouldn't come into contact with the insulation (fire risk); these panels have extra plasterboard behind them.

Here we have cables Radio Frequency (RF) cables (for the television and DAB radio), cabling to put a light above the mirror, a television socket, internet cables, other sockets, and a socket for the room thermostat (the temperature in every room will be controlled individually).  There is also a piece of plywood which will be covered over with plasterboard but which will provide a strong fixing to support a wall bracket for a TV. 

6 months on - Heating and Water

The first panels were delivered to us exactly 6 months ago today.

Robbie is doing a stunning job with the stone cladding.  Pointing has begun (see lower half of the face) and the house really is toning in extremely well with the nearby properties.  






Minor frustrations (nothing new there then) as we have run out of stone without quite finishing all of the designated areas, but at least the pointing can be done whilst this is being sorted.  Here you can see 'Peaky Blinder' Robbie using a giant 'icing piping' bag to insert the mortar into the gap between the stone.  It is then left for a couple of hours before it is 'tooled' and the surplus brushed away.

If you look closely here, you will see not a blurred photograph, but indeed steam coming out of the vent pipe from the boiler as the underfloor heating is now fully working.  The house is like an oven and we have the upstairs windows open 24 hours a day as we have to take the system up to maximum heat gradually before winding it down again.

And our third triumph of the day is running water - and not just any old water as this is rainwater; it is flowing straight from the massive blue rainwater harvesting tank, which for so many months was adorning the front of the bungalow, but is now buried under the driveway.

Last but not least - the remaining piece of leading has finally been laid on the roof.  It was a little job that only took half an hour for Marc & Alex to complete, but mentally it is a huge thing for us as it is yet another thing we can tick off.

The external appearance of the house is transformed - almost overnight!

thanks to our two lovely lads from Yorkshire - have you ever met two such dapper dressers in the building trade?  

New caps arrived for Robbie and Lee / Charlie's Angels this week (it has been extremely cold with severe frosts).  However, these two have soldiered on to make fabulous progress with permanent good humour and energy; it is an absolute pleasure to have them on site.

Ensuite 1 and Wall

More things are beginning to be finished off:

Still awaiting window cill (in the same material as the vanity unit top), one row of splashback tiles above the vanity unit (to match those along the middle row of the shower), towel rail, glass shower side and mirror - but it is all coming together.

And here is the wall beside the Caselle driveway (the sides of the wall will be rendered to match the garage wall eventually) and the path leading from the side door of the Caselle garage down into the back garden.

Stone Cladding

Late yesterday saw the arrival of our two latest companions - Robbie and Lee had travelled all the way from God's own county, Whitby (although Robbie is originally from Howden for those of you who ever went to Pocklington); they came highly recommended from EuroBrick Cladding Systems in Bristol - the stone cladding company.

You may recall that we had to change suppliers to satisfy NHBC regulations, hence this stone is long overdue and we are very excited at the prospect of having a house which is hopefully nice to look at; we know the neighbours share our feelings!  

What you can see here is the X-Clad, external wall insulation (EWI) system which will be stone faced with 'Rough Dressed Cotswold' Bradstone slips.  When finished we believe the house will look like a normal stone house (hence the need for 'false' lintels).  It is low maintenance and comes with a 25 year product guarantee - but most importantly of course, it has the BBA certification and is fully approved by NHBC.

The insulation used in the backer panel is closed cell extruded polystyrene with a BRE Green Guide Rating of A; it is 17 mm thick, has a thermal conductivity of 0.033W/mk and can support 36 kg per sq metre.

The difference between this illustration and our walls is that our stone slips will be either 3", 6" or 9" high.  We have already decided on the arrangement of the varying sizes (to match in with the stone patterns of the neighbouring houses).  The smallest stones will fit in between the extruding bars and Robbie will simply cut out the unwanted bars with a knife to allow the larger stones to sit flat on the backer panel.

Lee and Robbie, standing in glorious sun shine (it is so bright they have to wear their 'shades')
standing proudly beside the first face.

The bricks are being arranged in a 'Random brought to course' arrangement, which matches that of our neighbour in Tinneys Lane.

And so the gas saga continues....

You couldn't make it up.

On Monday the water board arrived (most efficiently as we had contacted them to suggest that they may want to come to do their bit whilst there is a hole in road) who told us that the gas pipe hadn't been laid deeply enough and that it should be no less than 450 mm down.  You can see from the next photo that we are woefully short of that measurement at 325 mm to the top of the kerb.

We e mailed the gas board yesterday and received a reply this morning telling us that it would be OK.  So we phoned them back and spoke to someone who said that they would send their inspector along to check.

However, we had barely put the phone down from this conversation when two men appeared to fill in the hole in the road - and then before they had even finished we noticed another large lorry lurking at the bottom of the hill - yes, it is the tarmac company to finish it all off.  We are of course, still waiting for the inspector!

A fine example of British workmanship and efficiency at its best.

'Twas on a Monday morning when the gas man came to call........

Almost the entire road has been involved with this week's drama - because the gas board didn't have any idea where the mains supply is situated in the road.  They began to dig a hole in the road just outside our property and carried on ... and carried on .... and carried on - in fact until they reached the other side.  

The gas men (who couldn't have been nicer or more polite and helpful to our long-suffering neighbours - everytime someone wanted to pass by they had to stop digging and cover the trench with a ramp) returned this morning to dig deeper and finally struck 'gold'. Here we have two plumbers vans, a red van from Reeves, and two vans with trailers from the gas board all crowding in on our neighbours and their visitors.  When the chap in the blue jacket arrived to give us a quote for tarmac he just simply parked his car where it is.

Anyhow, the good news is that now the connection has been made, the trench will be filled in sometime in the next five working days and then we will be able to apply for someone to come to fit us with a metre - then we will finally be able to test the heating system.

Meanwhile, Reeves' groundworks chaps are back and things are certainly tidying up:

A fence with a retaining wall behind,
on the boundary between us and Woodview

Caselle garage is now secure with an 'up and over' door,
a side door and a window at the rear.

A retaining wall at the side of the Caselle drive,
which will eventually be rendered to match the garage wall.

The lovely Pete (who has a wicked sense of humour),
apprentice Kevin with Pete's son, Andy, waving in the background.
(They are building steps out of the rear door of the Caselle garage).