If you believe that, you'll believe anything!
Seriously, the break was much needed, and much appreciated, and staying in a warm house was a huge relief after travelling from a cold house to an even colder one. Still, we're back to that [for now]. Our hand-over date is getting ever closer, and we have decided to prioritise the sitting room and utility, so that we have a room in which to live, and another that will function as kitchen/bathroom.
In the intervening month, that plan has been scaled back, as (unfortunately) three of the walls in the sitting room need skimming. The fireplace wall should be done on Tuesday, but I'm holding off engaging a plasterer for the other two until we know whether TV reception means that we need to chase out for a replacement aerial, and that will only happen once we've moved in.
Progress since my last post:
- Wednesday, 7 January: I went to the house to meet with Nick, the business end of the Staplehurst stove people, and could see that Adam had been... No more conifers - yay! Also evident was all the progress that Jason (the joiner) had made; he has reversed all the doors we wanted, bar two, and those two have been taken off their hinges, so are not far away from hanging the "right" way. We took advantage of the need to completely re-wire the place and have moved most of the light switches so that doors can open against the wall [how doors tend to be in newer properties], rather than into the room as was the norm for older places. It may (or may not) be an urban myth, but my understanding was that the doors opening the way they did was so that servants wouldn't chance upon something they shouldn't see? Either way, as we tend to leave doors open, having them flat against the wall suits us better. Jason has also replaced the door frames on both openings from the sitting room, and the one into the study, and fitted the hinged doors to sitting room and study; we are just waiting for the sliding door from the sitting room to the kitchen, but the frame is there. The eaves openings have also been altered, as has the door to the airing cupboard, and he blocked up the door we no longer wanted in the main bedroom. Unfortunately, that blocking off wasn't in the right place, but he's since built it out to lengthen the original wall and create a much smaller niche in the corner. Nick seemed happy with our removal of the old fireplace, and said he would have no problem with installing the smaller version of the woodburner we have in France, rather than the much smaller one that the other stove people recommended. Perhaps that first guy was better than we'd thought? Either way, we're now going with the Dovre 640, and if it does get too hot, we will get to heat the rest of the house and save on gas bills!
- Friday, 9 January: we went to drop off a key for Richard 2 [our second plumber], and the deposit for materials. I'd seen his email address, for some reason, and thought "oh, that's interesting, I wonder...", and we were walking along his road looking for the number when I spotted Eve, the wonderful hairdresser who cuts my hair! Not a coincidence, then, that his email domain was "Headonism". I got a cuddle from her two whippets [we've spoken about them whilst she's done my hair], and I felt even happier with the choice of Richard 2 for the utility transformation. Even if he isn't as good as Jason reckoned, I'm hopeful that he'd do a good job for a client of his girlfriend!
- Saturday, 10 January: We arrive to see more progress from Jason - he'd altered one eaves access, but couldn't lower the other sill; he is reluctant to cut the RSJ that's blocking access [but that's something that I will investigate and see if we can cut away a section: it stops about two-thirds of the way across the opening, so it not weight-bearing at that point]. He came back whilst we were there and was fitting the kitchen sliding door, and altered the blocked-off access to the airing cupboard. Sadly, the pictogram for the sliding mechanism wasn't clear, and he needed to lower the runner by about 1cm, which meant that he needed an extra piece of timber. Naturally, this was discovered after mid-day, when all the builders' merchants would be closed for the day. So, he planned to return the following Saturday... David started using the steamer to shift the wallpaper paste from the walls; the sanding was slow and killing my shoulders, and we still needed to remove remnants/sugar soap the walls, so it seemed worth a try. He's happy with how that's working, so it's all good. I got a coat of paint on the new ceiling in the utility room, and that felt positive, too.
- Sunday, 11 January: Our third pond is back. It's got a little island in the middle, with ferns growing on it. Another day of painting the utility ceiling [for me; two coats, and now it's done (enough)], and wallpaper paste-stripping for David. My shoulder is not up to working for too long, but I'm able to do an hour or so, and if I manage to rest it up for a few hours, I can manage another hour/hour and a half, so we're settling for some progress rather than none from me. The guilt at not doing a full day's work is harder to bear than the pain, but I'm working on 'forgiving' myself, and trying to focus on "any progress is good". It has felt that we're getting nowhere, but Steve showed up to measure for the cabling he needs to earth the boiler once it and the gas supply are connected, and he said "What a difference!" He could clearly see what amounted to impressive progress from his perspective, so that cheered me up immensely - even if most of it was at the hands of other people.
- Wednesday, 14 January: David had a phone conversation with Richard 2, and our loo is now connected to the water supply. [Of course, our water supply at that end of the house is not yet connected to the mains, but we're a lot closer to being able to flush without filling a bucket first; ah, First World problems, eh.]
- Thursday, 15 January: HEAVY winds made me so glad that we no longer have fragile-limbed conifers surrounding our house!
But I have every intention of not leaving it so long till the next update [it will have to be after the weekend, but hopefully not much after].
Have a great weekend, and I hope you enjoy the snow if you get any!
No comments:
Post a Comment