Well, we have been living 'normally' in the house for 18 months plus now, so here are the gas and electricity numbers

Electricity:

We have the TV and computers on for much of the time plus I like lights!  Which probably explains the electricity consumption - I expect the lights explain most of the seasonal variation.

Gas:

The gas obviously varies a lot - during July and August it is probably just the hot water and hob.  I don't know how the peak of 125KwH compares to other people but the combined bill is acceptable for having doubled the house size...

Deadline approaching

Well, next Tuesday is the end of July.... so are we going to get it all?

Well the kitchen is looking better. The breakfast bar went on yesterday and we gave it the first of 3 coats of oil. The wood is Iroko. Before the first oiling it was not much darker than the floor, which looked odd, but it is darkening up nicely and should be a nice contrast when it's had the next 2 coats - plus we got a decent chopping board from the offcut! Just for scale, the breakfast bar is 3.6m x 62cm, so it's pretty big. And now we shouldn't keep banging our heads on the lights!

The bathroom has been tiled, but still needs grouting. More worrying, we still have a leak from the flat roof at the back - it tends to come in to the rear hall and run down to the thermostat. The granite has been ordered for the kitchen - the missing bit of worktop, the upstands and the splashback. The last handles have been ordered, but we are still missing the dishwasher door.

Phil has been busy finishing up everywhere, but we still have some work to do outside. The extractor for the bathroom has been capped, but the ensuite fan has not been sorted, there is still just a hole in the wall, plus there are still some bricks to finish the eaves - lets hope the birds have gone! We do have window beads everywhere now I think, all the doors and on and fit with handles.

Martin is up tonight to check on the UFH manifold and refit it once the gauge has been (re)moved - plus a beer to say thank you! We still haven't had Eric back to do the final flush of the heating before we get the boiler company in to comission it all - plus the upstairs thermostat is not connected....

Floors and sofas

Well, we still have no electrician, and the heating is still off downstairs (although maintaining a good 15-17 degrees even so!), but we have half a floor in the big room and we unwrapped the sofas. The rest of the room should be laid today along with the front hall - another 48 hours then the heating can go back on. The snug should get primed today, screed today/tomorrow and start laying on Wednesday I hope, so that should be done by Friday - heating on for Sunday. Then the rear hall and utility next week, maybe earlier. Carpets are scheduled for w/c 28th.

Geoff collects the doors for the kitchen cupboards today/tomorrow so the big room should start to come together over the next week. Still no sparky though, so no light fittings (bare bulbs), no extractor and the fridge on an extension..... but moving out of the bedroom will be a massive change.

Heating controls

Been a mixed week. The bath surround has almost been completed - just waiting for the tiles to be delivered now. Some plastering in the snug - once that's been skimmed, it will be ready for decorating. The kids room is still the tool store so no chance to decorate yet. The rear hall now has skirting boards so a few bits of plastic trim around the windows and the radiator and that's done (plus another coat of paint!). The light is up and (I think) it just needs the circuit breaking closing to make it work. The utility needs the door panel fitting, the radiator and the tiling round the sink then it's time for the washing machine, drier and fridge and the units.

The big thing this weekend was the thermostats came on-line! We now have control of the heating downstairs, and even after one day it's better. With UFH you don't turn it on and off, you 'set it back' - ie. turn it down - overnight. So we are running the main room at 22 degrees from 6am to 10.30pm and 16 degrees overnight. The thermostats take care of warming up and cooling down so the room should be at the chosen temp at the chosen time. This morning it was 20 degrees at 6am so tomorrow it will switch on earlier!

The controls come from Heatmiser in Darwen, Lancs.... very swish they are too!


Parlo ripped the landing apart yesterday taking out the old bathroom doorway to keep the ceiling level throughout the landing. He started plasterboarding as well so that should be boarded and ready for skimming today (?). Hopefully they will get on with the raidators today but the plumber has gone AWOL at the moment. And, yet again, we are waiting for the sparky's next visit...... Still plenty to do, but nothing that should hold the build up now.... apart from the isolator switch bank for the appliances, which all have their own fused spur anyway, it's mainly fittings now - switches, lights, etc.....

Ah.... the ensuite. Although we had success with one lot of UFH, the en-suite Walkwarm system failed to start. We are waiting to find out what's wrong. Worst case is the ribbon of wire was damaged, in which case the tiles will have to come up..... so we're going to wait until the bathroom is ready before we even think about that.

That sinking feeling....

The new drain for the utility. It used to half a 1 1/2 inch waste sunk underground running into a drain int he rear hall. Apparently, this is illegal - only 4in pipes can be underground, so we're getting another new drain laid.

The rear porch is coming on. Now they need to join the sloping roof of the old rear hall to the new flat section and install the box gutters etc.


The front hall on sunday night

and on monday night

We have stripped the stairwell wallpaper, and luckily the plaster is not that bad - just have to find a safe way of painting... time for a longer broom handle on the roller.


The kitchen..... here is the island run with temporary worktop and a gap for the dishwasher. You can see the sink at the end - not the usual installation, it woudl normally face into a corner with walls either side.


The whole kitchen. Top left are two 1000mm drawer units and a 600 drawer line cupboard, the drawer unit int he middle will have the hob on it. Then the corner unit before the run of tall units - oven, oven, larder with pull out wirework, fridge, broom cupboard, then a cupboard run to cover the UFH manifold.


The sink in place - a bit dusty! But you can see how big the main bowl is.


The tall unit run.


The sink complete with tap, soap dispenser and remote switch for the garbage disposal (an InSinkErator ISE65 - must be American with a name like that)


That ISE65 - didn't realise it was that big - good job it's a big cupboard. The clear plastic tube goes to the remote switch - it is an air switch.


Hopefully we'll have the hob in today and the rest of the units ready for the electrician to connect things by the weekend - maybe even a fridge!!!

Completely Plastered.....

The rear porch is the only major bit of build left to do. We're going for a flat roof to save some money, but the top half is conservatory style - just waiting for it to come from the window company and be fitted.


Here is the cupboard at the top of the stairs. It's a bit smaller than we hoped because the landing needed cutting down to give us clearance up the stairs for building regs, but the cupboard in the bathroom is pretty big which will make up for it.


The ensuite. It looks a bit cramped on the photo, but it isn't in the flesh - the gap into the cubicle is 800mm wide.


This is the secret door at the bottom of the stairs so we can get things up without going round corners.


The main room - not my best photo, but it's all plastered now.


The new front door - it's brown on the outside to match the windows.


All those wires..... New consumer unit is huge to accommodate them all.



The new drain outside. Inspected and passed yesterday so ready to be finished off.



All of this is (almost) just in time. The fridge comes tomorrow, the appliances Monday and the bath on Tuesday. Flooring is booked in for 16th feb - we've found a really good deal on Amtico at T J Flooring (via eBay)

Honey Oak - Ground floor (except snug):



Ceramic dark tiles - bathroom floor:

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!