Wow a video!

A short video montage of some photos from today - the ensuite, the false ceiling and a panorama of the big room:




That panorama photo in full:

More Photos

The UFH - not much to show for over 3 grand! A bit of swirly red piping and the manifold from the previous post. This was the 23rd November.

The screed company let us down on the saturday. The driver didn't turn in so no delivery but no-one told our guys so everyone was hanging around waiting. Eventually we found out and after some argy bargy, Martin's screed guy got onto Tarmac for a delivery monday afternoon... and here it is. Monday 26th.


Luverly and smooth - trouble is a dog got in chasing our cat overnight and got footprints right across here!! Geoff got rid fo the worst of them near the front door but we'll have some sanding and filling to do when it's done. This stuff is Tarmac Truflo.

Now the floor cost another £2K. We were going to use normal sand and cement screed but a few things swayed us. Firstly, we can turn the heating on after 3 days with this stuff - it's 3 WEEKS with the sand and cement - and we have no other heating downstairs. Secondly, we want Karndean flooring on top and that needs a smooth surface - so hopefully we'll save a few quid not needing the floor levelling (well - apart from the dog prints that is!). Lastly, this is the recommended screed for UFH as being liquid it runs round the pipes and you're not supposed to get cold spots. Unfortunately, what is not supposed to happen is the floor to get very wet.... then we had 80mph winds and torrential rain all weekend, the temporary roofing got blown off and we had 1/2inch of standing water. Geoff made temporary repairs on sunday and on monday finished most of the roof so Sarah and Stephen mopped up and it's been virtually dry since - we still have a bit of a leak around the Velux so a bit more work to do but it's coming.

By the friday Geoff had got us some stairs and on the saturday we moved back in.... hmm..
Here is a slightly dark picture of the main room. The shuttering is where the new doorway will be, but until the uPVC company and Geoff agree which order the rear porch roof is getting done in, we have no doorway as such....

Piccies

Well, finally managed to hook up the big PC and transfer the photos from the camera. We don't have a wide angle lens so it's hard to photograph the big room, but when I get a chance in daylight I'll try and do a panorama shot again.


18th november 9am



18th November 4pm20th November (yes the fridge has been moved!):

All the insulation ready to go in on top of the new slab - 150mm of the stuff!!! (20th November)

Concrete! 20th November

A hole for the pipes into the island.
Tanking on top of the insulation ready for the UFH pipework (23rd November)
The UFH manifold. Water comes in top left (the valves are the wrong colour on this picture!) and goes back to the boiler bottom left and is distributed to the heating zones from all the verticals.

Catch up....

Blimey, no posts for 3 weeks.....

The last time I posted, the floor had been ripped up in the old lounge and the stairs had gone. Well it took the best part of that week to clear and level the soil ready for the new slab. The following week, the kitchen came out and the floor came up. Few words but a massive upheaval. The rest of that week was getting ready and laying the concrete slab - which went in tuesday afternoon - very late, and a big concern to Martin in case it wasn't set in time to lay the UFH.

Anyway, come wednesday PM and although the concrete wasn't the flattest ever, Martin declares it OK. They measure up and find the floor is 50mm too low. My fault for 20mm as I changed to Anhydrite Screed which is thinner (but mainly, because we can turn the heating on after 3 days instead of 21 for sand and cement and because it leaves a level surface for the Karndean....) not sure where the other 20mm came from, but there we go... So Martin rushes off to the local builder's merchants and orders a load of 50mm thick polystyrene sheets, so we'll have 150mm of insulation under the UFH! Very eco.

So thursday and the insulation goes down, but.... Martin is again concerned that the floor is not stable enough for the screed, which can crack, so friday morning he arranges for the screed expert to come and check - if it's no good either the insulation will have to come up and the floor raised and levelled, or we go to sand and cement...

Friday morning and the screed expert tells Martin to stop being a pansy! The floor is fine - all go for the screed saturday morning.

Saturday morning - no screed. Later saturday morning - no screed. the driver hasn't turned up to collect it from the depot. Cue many phone calls to Lafarge (the supplier) with the end result being that Martin arranges for Tarmac to deliver on monday afternoon.

Now bear in mind we've been away for two weeks, I am due back with the kids monday pm and we'll have a liquid floor and no stairs, so we agree with Martin to go into a hotel at Lafarge's expense until at least weds when the stairs can be installed.

Monday pm and the screed is laid and everyone goes home (apart from Sarah who goes to the hotel to meet us) and we're all fairly happy.

Tuesday morning, Sarah goes to the house to find the floor is still completely liquid and a dog has got in, chasing a cat. We trace the cat prints to Holly, our moggy, and we suspect next door's dog is the culprit - so our expensive, very smooth floor, has a load of footprints across it - FANTASTIC.

Anyway, Geoff manages to float some of the worst out as the floor is still very wet. We wait until Wednesday.

Come Wednesday (28th), the floor is now drying out so Geoff starts to install the stairs. We now have
no bathroom
no kitchen
1 electrical socket
no indoor access to the toilet (we have to go outside to get to it)

So we stay in the hotel and book through to friday night!

Thursday - and we turn the heating on after a few conversations between Geoff and Martin finally sorts out how to connect them initially (despite the complicated manifold, for now it's just a flow and return!)

By friday, we have most of the stairs in (although we still have the sub-landing as there was not enough head room under the landing, it will still need raising but not much now - the stairs look great, Geoff is doing a good job putting them together).

Saturday afternoon and we return to the house..... and the lounge is 1/2 inch deep in water. It has rained all day and the temporary cover on the rear roof has been blown off and water has peed into the lounge - all over the expensive new floor....... So we mop as much of it as we can, hide in the snug - which is dry and closed off (the guys built most of the dividing wall during the week and blocked the gaps with insulation and polystyrene)

Saturday night and the one electrical socket cries enough at being expected to power everything and we lose power - and the boiler! So I clamber downstairs in the dark (the torch has got lost), disconnect everything, turn the power back on to get lights, and plug things back in one at a time until we discover the dodgy extension - another cold night for the fish in the bedroom!

We pester Geoff to come out on Sunday and make good the temporary roof - which he does. So we mop a bit more and turn the fan heater in the snug up to full. We have some of the polystyrene down on the floor, and the UFH is starting to work, so the snug is almost... well, snug! Sunday evening - and we run out of heating oil! I think someone dislikes me......

Monday morning and full tilt. Geoff gets the guttering up on the main roof so the rear roof only has it's own rain to deal with and not the run off, Pip has grouted some of the en-suite and got the cabinet for the sink in - wow, it's starting to look the biz now. We got some more oil and the UFH is starting to do it's thing now - the floor is warming up and drying out nicely now.

Came downstairs this morning and it wasn't ice cold - the UFH is starting to have an effect - pretty good at 35-40 degrees instead of the 55 it will run at eventually. Still having to put shoes on to go to the loo or clean my teeth - oh, and take a torch! The lead flashing on the rear roof should go in today so we'll be just about watertight there. the front bay window is ready to go in, as is the front door glass, so we may be almost watertight by the end of the week! And by friday we should have full temperature to the UFH. Still on the old boiler which is disappointing but pip is concentrating on getting us a loo and sink in the en-suite.

Photos to come but no way to get them from the camera to the laptop which is the only way I have net access at the moment....

Over the worst of it now so things 'can only get better' to borrow a phrase - bout bloody time too!

Bit chilly...

Firstly we gained a new door into the bathroom! This will be a cupboard, but it looks like it was the old doorway.

Here is the boiler and the tank - not much to show for the money, but looking like the most important purchase given the cold!


All the lights......


But here it is - our new, eco-friendly flooring in the lounge......


But at least Pip has started on the tiling - should look nice when they're cleaned! the funny knot at the bottom of the picture is part of the electrical-spaghetti for the bathroom.


Here is our new open-plan landing... I'm sure we were getting shallower stairs, not steeper ones...


Even Holly finds them a challenge!


I don't think we'll keep this layout

Problems

Received the single wall lights for the lounge (plus the doubles for the ensuite). Also got the lounge lights from Peter Morgan. We decided we preferred the lights from Peter and contacted Shades and Shadows to return theirs. They said no as there was nothing wrong with them. We said we didn't want them and would return them in line with their returns policy. They said they would charge a 20% restocking fee which wasn't in their terms and conditions and accused us of abusing the policy as the lights were correct as described and undamaged. We said no, under Distance Selling Regs you have to accept them back since we bought sight unseen and we wouldn't pay the restocking fee as it wasn't in their Ts & Cs. They said 'so we should lose the money because we sent you what you asked for' and 'don't contact us again'.

Simply put, I called the OFT and they said DSR regs meant they had to accept them back and if they wouldn't give me an address to send the lights back to, then to tell them they were available for collection at their cost. We were also advised to ask Paypal to recover the money. We shall see....

Plastered...... almost

The master bed, ensuite and dressing room are coming on. There are plasterers coming tomorrow and we're picking up the lights on Friday so the rooms should be ready for decorating by the weekend. Hopefully the ensuite shower will be plasterboarded by the end of the week and the fittings might even be in. Not sure when it will get tiled but it should be soon. We're moving the kids out this Friday for two weeks whilst one of us goes with them to my parents'. Geoff can then get on with the big work - the last wall, the floors, the kitchen and then the UFH.



This is the Wediboard floor to the shower. It is concrete impregnated plasterboard and is waterproof. It is sealed with special tape and the drain unit comes with the pre-shaped floor. It is probably more expensive than a shower tray but you can tile it to fit in with the rest of the room.

Open plan bathroom....

Well, we got an unplanned wall removal last week when the wall between the bathroom/office and the extension developed a huge crack. When the guys put the beam in the wall became unstable so we agreed to take it down and rebuilt it. I wouldn't advise the open plan approach quite like this:


Now the wall is going back in:



This is the view from downstairs the other side of the shuttering is our front room! Brrr

More Shopping, less walls and water and gas

This is the biggest bargain from eBay. When it arrived it took me 30 seconds to work out what was in the box.... it's huge, nearly 2 foot high. The spray on the end is 4" long alone... and it weighs a ton!

Well, a few more purchase.... This was the light we found at Morgans, but when I saw this ex-display on eBay for half price I had to get it....

These are for over the mirror in the ensuite - we may put it upside down
We've got 8 of these, initially for the wall in the main room, but we may only use 6 or 4 of them and put the remainder in the bathroom. Shades and Shadows dropped the postage when we ordered this lot!
Sarah found these on eBay for the ensuite.

Again, eBay for the ensuite.
The fancy electronic controller took an unplanned dive when the shop were inspecting it (they were good enough to admit it before sending it so all credit to them), so we had to find an alternative. These retail at £300 but Plumbworld eBay some of there stuff too so we got it for £100!

Been a busy week in the house as well.... The extension first floor is now almost fully plasterboarded - all the more annoying that there is a bad leak over the bow window. The electric UFH is going into the ensuite and Sarah has gone mad at the tile shop! Black slate for the floor and gloss black for the walls! All the wiring is in up there too.... However....

The wall between the bathroom/office and the extension developed a huge crack on Wednesday. When the steel went in Geoff decided it was unsafe (we had agreed before that if it moved when the beam went in we'd have it rebuilt) so the whole wall has gone and they'll be rebuilding it this week. So the bath is 'freestanding' at the moment - and the shower is hanging in thin air. We have to clean our teeth downstairs or in the bath as the sink in the bathroom empties over the electric meter.... ooer...

The new water main was laid on friday as was the gas pipe. We should be getting connected to both next week sometime - the gas is scheduled for thurs/fri, but the water needs organising.

Loft floor is going in next week, ready for the boiler and tank (coming Tuesday - eventually) and then getting connected to the water/gas.

We have decided to get out for 2 weeks during November to get the remaining structural stuff done - mainly the floors and heating. Straight after that the kitchen needs to go in

More destruction...

Earlier in the week Geoff said he knock through the bathroom to make the real passage to the extension upstairs....


He didn't mention the wall at the sie of the bath... hmmm....

We did know about the walls in the lounge - we only have one more to come out downstairs... and on to go back in! Now we can really start to see how big tht emain room will be.

Shopping frenzy

An eBay-tastic couple of days. After the success with the basin (got - very nice) and sink unit (not received yet), I guess we got a bit carried away. We have received the tap for the bowl. It is really solid, and from what i can see we got a bargain at £26 delivered, RRP is more like £260! From "the Kitchen and Bathroom Outlet" on eBay. (All suppliers in the links list)



We have also ordered the shower and mixer for the ensuite. Apparently, the control should have been £600, but we got this for £150 - bargain! In theory it can control both a bath and a shower simultaneous with sufficient (1 bar per outlet) pressure. It has preset programs so I can set one temp and the wife can set another. We could even set it to turn on at a certain time. More practically, we can use the second outlet for body jets one day without needing to buy a divertor and shut off valve - they are expensive on their own. The controller came from "bathroomstuff4u" on eBay, the shower itself from HIE Plumbing Direct.
The shower is a neat design. The water comes in through the mounting bracket at the bottom of the rail. Above and below that you can just make out the In-line valves - these mean that you can have one or both of the heads operating at once - so we only really needed to add a thermostatic control as the flow control is built in. The digital controller is overkill, but at £150 it was on a par with any decent concealed thermostatic control.

Finally, we chose this light at Morgans months ago, but it's RRP is £200! So when we got the chance to nab one for £50 we had to take it. From "airmyncc" on eBay.



The single basin came from "i-bathrooms" and the vanity unit from "bathroombits4u".

Transformation...

The outside is really looking the part now. The only thing left here is the porch. We are happy with the doors and especially pleased with the bow window.
Here are the doors in close up. All the glass is Pilkington K-glass.

The inside of the extension is coming on upstairs. The arch is the entrance to the dressing room and the gap at the end is the door to the ensuite.

This will be our main bedroom eventually. The sparky was in today wiring this lot up so we have had to settle on the electrics. Geoff is asking for the rest of the house now! A long evening ahead....

Shower, Plasterboard, Doors....

Well it's been a busy week. The stud walls for the upstairs have gone in, including the shower cubicle in the en-suite. We had a lot of chats about this before we settled on building it ready to be a steam room although it will only have a shower to start. Part of the reason is the cost of shower doors and trays. We originally had a 12x12 cubicle with Mermaid panels on the walls and an Impeydeck pre-formed underfloor which would then be tiled, a small 400mm glass screen at one side of the entrance (leaving 800mm gap) basically like a wetroom.

The simple answer was it was very expensive even with fairly basic sanitary ware.

We have decided to use WEDI style impregnated plasterboard to make the cubicle, which is now the full 1700mm wide, but 1000mm deep. We will build a bench out of it at the opposite end to the shower head and the whole cubicle will be tiled (many hours searching e-Bay for mosaic tiles...). There are 2 stub walls either side leaving an 800mm opening with a small step. If we ever get the steam generator, a door will go in the gap, but for now we'll leave it open.

Revised Layout:
We were going to use built-in furniture to house the cistern and sit the basin on, but we found this on eBay and went for it!
And finally, we bought this for the downstairs toilet:
The big doors are in downstairs as well, and the velux, and the roof is on but I haven't been home in daylight to take photos... hopefully tonight.