Putting Your Foot in It!

What happens when you put your foot in it? See below!

I lost my footing when up in the loft installing the downlighters upstairs and this is the result. The only saving grace is that we're also using the plasterers to tile the bathrooms so when they come next they can hopefully put things right.

We have also had the front steps and disabled ramp built outside. Because this is a new build we have to have wheelchair access into the house not to exceed a certain gradient. This has meant that we needed to install a wheelchair ramp as well as steps as the entrance is higher than the pavement. We chose a grey granite slab with a pink fleck that is similar to the stone we have used at the front of the house. The same stone was used to build the steps too. The slabs are a bit damp in the photos so below is the photo from the website showing the colour of the slabs.

Grey / pink granite slab. Actually this photo makes it look more pink than it actually is, so it's somewhere between the 2.

Front Steps

The wheelchair ramp. We are going to put some plants in the space in the middle of the ramp.

Once we get the planting done in the middle of the ramp and round the edges of the paving it will brighten things up a bit. That will probably need to wait until next year now as it can get quite cold up here in winter time and we don't want the plants to die in the frost.

It was also Ari's 14th birthday this week and here is him sitting on the new front steps.

Also on Ari's birthday Dot's litter sister Zap gave birth to her first litter in California. 4 pups, 2 dogs, 2 bitches all black and white.

January 2010 - Snow, Snow, Snow

The weekend before Christmas the snow started in earnest and only really stopped a couple of days ago.

I had intended to get quite a lot done over the Christmas and New Year period but moving out of our Kent house unexpectedly the week before Christmas, and going to a wedding during Christmas week put us about 7 days behind and then because the builders merchants all close down for 2 weeks over Christmas I couldn't get hold of the materials I needed until the New Year.

The 2 most urgent jobs are painting the outside of the house so that the scaffolding can come down, and getting the floor insulation and underfloor heating put down so that the ground floor can be screeded and the finishing off can begin and then there might be some danger of actually predicting a moving in date!

The week the builders merchants reopened after New Year the snow was quite heavy and prevented the lorries from delivering materials so I only really got going again during the second week in January. As the temperatures are below freezing currently and I need to get the house painted as a matter of urgency so that we can get rid of the scaffolding we have had to order oil based masonery paint (piolite) as water based paint cannot be used in these freezing conditions. The paint turned up during lthis week but the weather was pretty dire so not much progress has been made. Putting the paint on with the spray gun I already wasn't successful as the paint gun wasn't up to the job so I have just purchased a heavy duty paint sprayer and I hope it will speed everything up and also be used to paint the inside of the house. If it does the job promised it will be £300 well spent. Just waiting for a dry day now so that I can get going!

The floor insulation was also delivered this week in driving rain and after lugging it all into the house it appears that they have delivered the wrong one so it might all need to be carried back out again!

Other jobs to do currently include fitting the thermal store for our heating system and getting the shower tray / drain sorted out for the downstairs wet room. I'm doing most of these jobs myself so it's going to take a while. So much to do, so little time!

Now that the snow has melted the site is like a swamp and the dogs get plastered in mud. That's pretty much the worse thing about this build at this time of year.

Some snowy photos from last week:

December 2009 - A bit of snow

We've had a bit of snow here in recent days (although not as much as in Kent!) and these photos were taken today when I took the dogs for a run in the field opposite our house.

Bliss

Skye

Ari

Ski

Flo

Star

Dot

And some group photos

December 2009 - Progress But It's Been Cold and Wet!

It's been ages since I updated the blog but working on the build 7 days a week and the pretty dire weather we've had has meant that I haven't had too much time (or photos) to put up.

We have made some progress. The blockwork and stone was completed today after a few abandoned attempts at completing where they either had to give up due to being almost blown off the scaffolding, or torrential (and I mean torrential!) rain stopped play. Anyway, today the sun has shone and the stonework at the front of the house is finally completed. The blocks went up really quickly but the stone took far longer. Just as well we are only having a little bit of stone!

The plasterers have started rendering the outside and have the scratch coat on most of the walls now, and the top coat on 1 wall. They hope to complete the outside in the next few days, weather permitting. They have also been busy plastering the inside of the house. The plastering and coving upstairs is complete and most of the downstairs but there are a few bits still to be completed where there is still a bit of plasterboard to put up.

I have painted the soffits and started to fit the guttering and once that's all completed and the plasterers have gone I can paint the outside of the house. Then we can finally get the scaffolding down that has been the bane of this build. I can't go into that at the moment but once everything is sorted I might tell the sorry tale.

So, apart from the outside jobs what's next to do? Inside the first fix electrics are nigh on complete with just one or 2 bits and pieces to sort out and the next job will be to insulate the ground floor and fit the pipework for the underfloor heating and I'm going to do that myself. The underfloor heating kit is all present and correct awaiting fitting. The floor then needs to be screeded (quotes being gathered) before we look at doing all the fitting out such as painting, and fitting the flooring on the ground floor. It's going to be tiles in the 'dog' areas - hall, kitchen, family room, utility room and the downstairs shower room, and engineered wood in the dining room and lounge where the dogs won't be making an appearance. Makes and models still open to debate! Upstairs we intend to have engineered wood in the bedrooms, hall and upstairs sitting area, and tiles in the bathrooms. Looks like we'll be ordering all of the tiles in the January sales. At least with a new build we won't be hit with the vat increase too much as we will be able to claim the vat back.

We have started ordering the sanitary wear for the bathrooms and have all of the WCs, basins, cisterns and frames (we're having wall hung loos) stored in the shed. We also have a bath on order for the main ensuite but still need to sort out a bath for the main bathroom and all of the shower cubicles and showers. We've managed to source some pretty good deals on the net that helps with the budget.

We also have all of the integrated kitchen appliances as there was a sale on that was too good to miss. The 2 fridge freezers are being stored in the shed at the moment, and the rest has been delivered to Karen's rented apartment in Edinburgh and will need to be moved later.

The kitchen still needs to be ordered but we've decided on the make and model (I think!). We won't be ordering the kitchen until we have somewhere to store it as until the floor is screeded we're struggling for storage space.

So there is still quite a lot to do but we're pretty much on budget at the moment (£500 over) which out of a 220k build budget is pretty good going I think.

Just 1 or 2 pictures to post this time, and I'll try to get some more photos when I get 5 minutes!

These photos are from a week ago when the blockwork was complete but the stonework on the front still had to be finished

Here are some photos of the dogs in the field directly opposite our house. Brilliantly convenient for a quick run!

And here is Karen's Edinburgh apartment where she lives during the week while I freeze to death in the caravan!

October 2009 - Dogs in the Sea

More photos of the dogs having fun in the sea. October is turning out to be quite dry here (long may it continue).

Dot and Star

Dot

Ari and Flo

Bliss

Skye, Ski and Dot

Skye

Ari and Flo

September 2009 - Garage Base Come Temporary Dog Run

Here is a view of what will be the garage taken from the roof. For the time being it is being used as a temporary dog run (as you can see!)

You can just about see the dogs in this photo

And here is a photo of Ski lying in the caravan awning with her foot in her mouth - stupid dog!

September 2009 - John Muir Country Park

Here are some photos of the fabulous John Muir Country Park in Dunbar. Our dogs are in 2 of these photos (if you can spot them). This wonderful park has an endless stretch of mostly completely deserted sandy beach.

September 2009 - More dog photos

More dog photos. The dogs love the beaches round here.

Ski

Dot

Ari and Flo

Ari

August 2009 - Day before the timber frame kit arrives and some dog photos

This post shows the foundations the day before the timber frame kit arrives with our dogs sitting in the future hallway. Whilst on the subject of dogs here is a photo of our dogs on the local beach. Beaches like this were one of the reasons why we were sold on this location.