MERRY CHRISTMAS

Monday 23rd, rugs down, beds made, waiting for the first guests to arrive. Fridge to fill, tree to get, and turkey to collect on Christmas eve.  

Boxing day, we have been out for a long walk along Aberlady Bay, and now back to another grand feast.

Photos in next post.

17th, Tuesday....... plumber's been, electrician's been

I have a kitchen, and have done my first lot of washing in the machine for over 11 months (I have had access to other machines, not done without clean clothes for that period) thank you to my daughter, Mahala, who provided us with a splendid washing and drying service.

Dishwasher running.  Sparkly plates and glasses.

I am painting and cleaning - windows, floors, walls etc.

Here are some pics:

new cooker and clean windows

washing machine and dishwasher, and new fridge 

Pantry

the china cupboard (at back) and the temporary under sink cuphoard

another portrait of my new cooker

the kitchen sink.........

Friday 13th, again!

• George our bricklayer has been and taken down some of the fireplace to enable the stove installers to do their work.  
• The gas man is coming tonight to fit the cooker
• Bonk & Co. have very kindly changed the 5" liner, and associated parts, back to the 6" liner, Mark is collecting it now.
• The plumber is coming on Saturday
• The electricians come on Monday
• Stove installers sometime next week, then George will be back to refit the bricks into the chimney.

We will be in the house for Christmas, with all the family around us.  And I can have a glass of champagne (or two)!

Back to some bits of painting about the place and helping Mark to do the shelves in pantry when he has come back with the shelving.

Photos as and when.

Now, where were we.......

Ah yes, last push, two weeks to Christmas and the family arriving.  

Have just reorganised the kitchen jumble so I can get boxes marked 'KITCHEN, and FRAGILE, GLASS' in there.  

Have scrubbed the brick chimney, so that is nice and clean.  Filled in bits of plasterwork that are missing, or damaged, and am looking forward to electrician and telephone people coming tomorrow, as well as the stove installer, so nice busy day.

Have booked a pre-christmas massage next week, so I will be relaxed and hopefully about to make beds in a nice cosy house.

Cooker and Fridge in kitchen.........

my lovely new cooker repackaged

and the fridge, with its box around it to keep it safe.... (and warm - ha ha)

9th December

Today we have finished unloading the storage boxes, two came on Friday and two today.  

We have unpacked 20 boxes of books and installed them on the shelves........

before

and after....

But still more boxes to unpack and the last two shelves from IKEA don't seem to have their rods so we have called a halt for today.

the bedroom stacked

the bedroom another view, most of the stuff on the left is for the kitchen

the cupboard for the glasses etc in the background and the old bathroom cupboard which will be temporarily under the sink

We have also been measuring up for the shelves in the pantry.

Tomorrow is S and F day - hopefully they arrive at 9.30 tomorrow.  Then once the gas man has been I will be "cooking with gas!!!!!"

Thursday, 5th December, long and slow

The outside has been rendered, now and the scratching off is taking place.

11.47 rendering process on back of house, top edge

14.37

15.33

This took most of yesterday.

George has rebuilt the fireplace opening..........

Picture when I can get into building.

3rd December

No photos today - but yesterday the white coat of render went on part of the front of the house.

George has come today and is going to sort the fireplace - has discovered that the old ash box site was in situ and so that needs to be filled in before he can start to build up.  I am just about to make him a cup of tea, milk, no sugar. Not a builders cup of tea which usually has two or three spoons of sugar! 

I am out all day, so will see tomorrow how the rendering has got on.

Jolly 1st December 2013 only 6 weeks and we can celebrate a year since work first started.......

1st of December, a Sunday, and chaps are working on our house.  We now have CENTRAL HEATING and HOT WATER.........

Thank you Stephen Miller for getting it up and running - now working our how to get it to work - have managed to turn everything off, now need to check all the radiators are working?  One for John the builder, I think.

Doors up (again)

The first coat (under render) has gone up and it's anticipated that the white coat will start tomorrow, for the next couple of days, with the big team on the job.  

Of course, not all things go right - the new sink is a right-hand one instead of a left-hand one.  So I hope that we can get Howdens to change it.

And the furniture was supposed to be coming tomorrow afternoon, but if the gang are plastering we will have to delay it.

We had a senior moment in IKEA and bought a set of shelves without picking up all the uprights - went back and of course someone has been in and taken the remaining 14 uprights.  Hope there will be some more in tomorrow.  
And the chimney has only room for a 5" liner and the liner we have is a 6" one, but the smaller one is will be in stock tomorrow!  

George all lined up for restoring the chimney next Sunday.

Off for a shower now

Tuesday, 26th November

Paid for Fisher Peykel Classic Fridge Freezer Ice and Water fridge and Rangemaster Hi Lite 90 Dual Fuel Range Cooker from Appliance City today - delivery week beginning 9th December.

Organised to get our stuff out of storage, starting next Monday afternoon. Wonder what we will find that we can't live without...... having had most of our worldly goods in store since this time two years ago, and the rest since July last year.

The wood burning stove comes tonight.  The combi-boiler should be commissioned tonight, and there will be hot water and warmth!

Doors are going back up; the worktop will be adjusted to the right height; second coat of white paint on ceilings/walls in sitting room.

We put up shower curtain in the bathroom last night.  Thank you IKEA.

Not making daily posts............ Monday 25th November

I am not making daily posts  for two reasons.  Firstly I have been away, this time to sunny Yorkshire; and secondly, not much to show you.

However, the boiler has been mostly installed - just the connection of the external pipe to the gas box and the boiler, which will happen this afternoon.

Don't know what has happened to builder this cold and very frosty morning. (Just heard he is buying more insulation for the roof panel).

frost edged leaves in the garden

But the tricky placing of the upper panel below the roof has taken a long time, as the roof itself is not level at the edges.  Now it is too cold to put the render on, so once all the insulation and the Renderlath is on its all go on the interior.

and the extract pipe for the boiler.

Nice bit of paint on the new render around the base of the building.......

Tomorrow the wood burning stove gets delivered, and on Wednesday George, our bricklayer comes to look at installing it and tidying up the brickwork on the chimney.  We are having it three bricks up from the floor, so that it is not really sitting on a hearth.  See a couple of posts ago for a picture of what the stove looks like.

We have abandoned doing anything else to the floors, as the Epimac sits in the uneven furrows and looks a rather unpleasant yellow.  I won't say what it reminds me of....... So, it will be lots of rugs.

That said, we can now organise to have our furniture moved out of store...... next Monday actually!  And I am organising the delivery of the fridge freezer and the cooker.  Pictures of these in the next post.

Thanks to everyone who has sent comments, they are much appreciated.  

15th November.......

Sorry about the silence.  I have been in London for a bit of R & R, which was great.  Went to see the Cheapside Hoard, nothing like some fantastic sparkling jewels to cheer you up.  Especially when they are accompanied by period portraits showing how the jewels would be worn.

However, back to the house. No photos today as the camera is still in the car; I had taken some pictures of the interior of the chimney to show the people at Bonk and Co. from where we have bought our Barbas wood burning stove, then left the camera in the car afterwards.  (Car in garage having a service!) Stove is now paid for and we are just waiting for the floors to be finished so that we can get George, our bricklayer, to come and deal with the fireplace and fit the stove for us.  Not quite our room, and rather a small picture, but hope you get the idea.

The gas engineer has started to connect the gas, and put up the boiler, but it is not completed - can't understand why things can be finished off once they have been started.  Anal retention syndrome, maybe. So many bits done, but nothing completed.  No wonder I am slightly crazy.

Today we will be mostly........ doing some more on the exterior and working on the floor finish ready for varnishing, if we think it is good enough!

The en-suite shower has been fibre glassed, don't quite know what the next step is.  I think it is deciding on a gel-coat colour for the final coat.  Were going for a pale grey, but think now we could go for some jolly colour.

Yesterday we also went to have a look at sofas... have decided on The Sixty Seven from G Plan, but have to do a bit of measuring to see whether there is enough room for the large sofa, or whether we would go for the smaller sofa, and two armchairs?  Then have to decide what colour?

Look back for more interesting events soon.........

Nice and frosty this morning - outside tap frozen.

Work on the exterior continues, sitting room walls base coat rendered, and the men are working on the kitchen wall.  They will all be done by this evening.  
And I have been painting - the bathroom with deep blue paint and have been working on the designs to go on the walls.

And a few random pictures too.

sitting room

sitting room

master bedroom

floats

and more floats

icy bits still frozen this afternoon

watching paint drying!

Not quite Christo

Not quite how Christo would wrap, but two walls nicely tucked up to protect the first coat render from 'weather'.  We had heavy rain and wind over weekend and this morning the garden was white with frost.

Forecast for today, sunny and dry, tomorrow, wet.

the front of the house, hiding the front door

Garden wall insulated and ready for the lath

 

detail of the lath

bedroom wall - lath in process

sitting room wall with the Renderlath lath in situ

detail of Rendalath and its securing bolts