Wouldn't it be good

[Shocking pun alert!]

Got back from holiday to find everything pretty much finished. Including the cedar cladding, which looks (and smells) fantastic.

Holiday

Green Day or Madonna - take your pick ;)

For once, the absence of posts is not down to my laziness. Just got back from two weeks on holiday in the south of England.

So instead of a picture of the house, here's some pictures from Cornwall

One Step Beyond

Work on the patio is nearly complete. After considerable debate about where to put the steps up to the garden, we decided to put them everywhere.



and now, just about finished.



The walls are made from the granite cobbles/bricks that formed part of the original wall, built along with the house in the 1930s. We did that cos we're cheapskates and didn't want to buy any new ones, but actually it's worked out really well and the colours in the granite match up really well with the colours in the flagstones.

Last week saw the most torrential rain i think i've ever seen in the UK. Not far from where we live flash floods swept through flats and houses and even washed cars down the road. When we were planning the patio, John had suggested installing a 'field drain' to make sure we could get rid of all the water. It was unbelievably effective - the water just drained straight away and the patio was clear within minutes of the rain stopping. Couldn't have asked for a better test. And the roof didn't leak :)

Flag(stone) Day

There's not many songs about patios. Flag(stone) Day was the closest i could get.

Tam and Gary are busy laying the patio.



In other news the kitchen is just about done. Shaun was back today working through the list of minor issues, and the kitchen looks great. Bizarre light switch behaviour sorted out too.

The Boys Are Back In Town

What's the collective noun for builders? A milkandtwosugars of builders?

Full set here today: Tam laying the patio; Gary cleaning the old granite cobbles for reuse on the garden wall; Shaun the joiner working his way around the list of niggles; Davie up on the roof slating; Stuart fixing up a few holes in the plaster; Aaron digging, carrying, helping on the roof and generally helping out wherever needed; John in and out ordering bits and bobs and organising the troops. At this rate we'll run out of coffee cups.

As usual, Adam wanted to help, so he's busy shoveling earth into the skip.



It's funny how different the kids are. Matthew is dimly aware that something might be going on in the house because sometimes he's had more obstacles to dribble the football around. Adam could tell you exactly what insulation went into the walls, how the floor was made, what size the bricks were and would happily spend all day 'helping' the builders.

Rox In The Box

The guys are outside doing the prep work for the patio at the back of the house. Current plan is for this to be done before the rest of the external work on the house. It'll give everyone a more stable platform to work on. So it's more digging, more moving hardcore and sand.



Meanwhile the kitchen is nearing completion. Like any project, there's a list of niggles to sort out, but most of these are really pretty minor (I hope!) In anticipation of those all being ironed out this week, we've started moving furniture in and using the room. Which is nice.

Breakfast time:

On The Floor

For most of the last 3 months the builder's radio has been an ever-present companion. Whilst the actual radio might change, and even the radio station (although it's mostly been Forth One) the one unwavering constant is that at some point in the day Jennifer Lopez will warble 'On The Floor'. Some days more than once. In fact, I've heard it so often now that I find myself whistling it on the way to get the kids from school. Somebody pass me a shotgun.

Anyway, today is radio-free 'cos the builders are all elsewhere. Instead we have Guy, the flooring man (and his pal John) installing our floor.

And so, in honour of 'Jenny from the block', here's the floor.

Kitchen:



Starting the wooden flooring:



And now, finished:

End Times

Can see the finishing line in sight. Kitchen nearly finished off - just a few little details to sort out. Steve's identical twin brother, Steve-the-Plumber is here putting the radiators in, plumbing in the sink, dishwasher etc. Davie and Aaron up on the roof again.



Stuart back too, plastering the pillar and fixing up a few little things. It's all coming together.

One Week

What a difference a week makes. This time last week, we'd left a house with a gas leak and no kitchen. Now we're leak-free and most of the kitchen is done.



Still got all the flooring to go down, and I've got a lot of painting to do, but otherwise we're nearly done. Meanwhile, the drainage channel outside was finished and tested/approved by the council, and work continues on the garage. Feels like the home stretch.

Going Underground

As the ceiling dries out, the guys are outside digging a drainage channel to carry all the rainwater into the main drain. If i was a tree-hugger, we'd be keeping it and reusing it somehow. Or perhaps flogging it to people in England ;)

Why Does It Always Rain on Me?

It's been an eventful few days. We had a wedding to go to (congratulations Natalie & Ian!) and as we left the house on Thursday we'd just discovered that we had a gas leak under the kitchen & bathroom floor. Later that day, I got a text from both Rod and Steve to let me know that it was all sorted. Phew. Had visions of coming back to a large crater.

Then, on Saturday our neighbour Linda rang us to tell us that we had water pouring in through the extension roof. We were over 400 miles away, so there wasn't a lot we could do about it. Linda mopped up and put buckets out to catch the worst of it. On Sunday Rod and John were here first thing to assess the damage and try to work out where the water is getting in. By the time we got back on sunday it was starting to dry out, but then the Scottish summer kicked in again, and the water started leaking through once more.







So now we have a half-finished kitchen and a leaky roof. So many song titles sprang to mind. Purple Rain, Riders On The Storm, Fixing a Hole, Who'll Stop The Rain, Waterfall, Fall Down (Like The Rain), Dry The Rain, Buckets Of Rain...
In the end, Why Does It Always Rain on Me seemed most appropriate.

Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box

[And before anyone objects to the spelling, that really is how the song title is written]

Kitchen arrived yesterday. And because the carcases are pre-built, they take up a lot of space. As do all the appliances. The net result is that they're packed like sardines...



In the meantime the utility room is part finished. Those with an Ikea catalog will recognise the units. Unfortunately, nearly half the stuff we got was damaged in some way or other. No problem returning/exchanging it, just fed up of going back and forth to Ikea. Now we're waiting on the remaining doors to be sent to us. Sigh.

Long Time Gone

It's been a while since I last posted. Mainly that's because I've been too busy! Most of last week was spent watching plaster go on, and then waiting for it to dry. Watched plaster never dries!

To recreate the experience, stare at this picture for 5 minutes, then go away for an hour, and look at it again. Repeat.



The plan was to get the utility room fully painted before monday, and as much of the kitchen/dining room as we could manage.



Then, when it finally got too dark to paint, we switched to assembling the Ikea units for the utility room. Here's a couple waiting to go in.

Smooth Operator

Stuart the plasterer, plastering!

Big Decision

I spent part of Saturday knocking tiles off the old kitchen wall. We're expecting the plasterer next week, and the sooner he gets that done the sooner we can get a kitchen again, so i thought I'd make myself useful.

Not much left of the kitchen any more!



The internal wall for the utility room is up now, so the basic shape is there.



All this means that it's time to start choosing paint. Hence the title of this post. There's is no vote - it's not a democracy. It's not even a democracy in this house ;)

Break On Through (To The Other Side)

Big day. What used to be the kitchen wall at the back of the house was knocked down. This is the first time we've really been able to see what the new kitchen will look like, and the first time the new and old bits are connected. Pretty exciting (for us anyway!)

Knocking the wall down:

White Room

Looks more and more like a real room every day :)

Lean On Me

Big bits of metal went in today. Because the existing external wall is coming down, we need to put in a steel girder to support the roof, and that means we need something that will hold up both the existing girder and the new one. At one point it sounded like we might be able to just have one long girder all the way across the back, but to meet building regulations that would have to be something fit for putting into the Forth rail bridge. So instead we have two, and a steel pillar in the middle.

Getting ready to lift:



Steve hamming it up for the camera:



The beam in place:

Silver Lining

Another couple of busy days. Flooring down now, which makes an incredible difference to how the place looks - suddenly it looks less like a building site and more like a house.



Lots and lots of insulation going into the floor and walls. Here's Gary fitting a panel.

Beginning To See The Light

Earlier this week, our Thunderbirds-style launch hatch got a lid on it:



From the outside:



It's hard to take a picture that shows the effect inside the room, but we're really glad we decided to go with it after changing our minds several times. Really brings the light into the room.

Sign Your Name

Smoke On The Water (Proofing)

Today our new roof was being treated to the first part of the process to make it waterproof. More roofing to come, but this will help when the weather returns to it's normal self.



As the song says, there was a fire in the sky



In other developments, we now have a lot of concrete down.