September 2010 - Where Has The Summer Gone?

It's been quite a while since I updated the blog and it's been pretty slow going here to be honest. We had a week off in August to do the processing for the Kennel Club's International Agility Festival followed by another week at Kelmarsh when we went to help out at the show, and when we came home to Scotland we had another week of holidays taken up by day trips round the Borders to places we hadn't been before. And now it's mid September and the summer is all but over!

Some small steps have been made as far as the build is concerned. The sanitary wear in 2 of the ensuite bathrooms is in the process of being fitted, 2 of the bedrooms have been painted, and the underfloor heating has been laid in the 3rd bedroom and ensuite. Next week I intend to start fitting the wooden flooring in that bedroom and then I can make a start on the main bedroom. We've also ordered all of the remaining tiles for the upstairs bathrooms.

Outside we have had builders in for the last couple of weeks working on the rear patio / dog run and front and rear entrances. The rear patio is about half finished but there is still quite a lot of work to do to complete the entrances (we only have a trench at the front so far!). New building regulations (Part M) state that we have to have a disabled (wheelchair) access into one of the entrance doors so we are also having to have a ramp built with a less than 1 : 12 gradient to connect the pavement to the front door. It'll be good to have the dog run sorted and fenced before the wet, muddy weather sets in.

Here are some photos of the build progress:

Bedroom 3

Underfloor heating fitted

Bedrooom 3 showing doors to cupboard and ensuite

Bedroom 3 ensuite with cistern and frame in place for WC, wall mounted sink and shower cubicle,

Master Bedroom

Double ended spa bath and double sinks

Frames for wall mounted bidet and WC fitted. Shower cubicle is opposite

Rear patio / dog run

Ground prepared

Gravel laid as a base

Quite a few slabs have been laid

But there are still quite a lot to go

March 2010 - Ground Floor Screeding

On Monday the ground floor screeding was finally done. Luckily it was a nice day (as there was an outside bit to do) and the last few days have also been sunny and dry which has helped to dry the screed out. Unfortunately it's still not going to be ready to start tiling on Monday so we have put the tilers back 3 - 4 weeks but there are still other jobs to be getting on with. The screed was delivered in 2 loads and unfortunately there was a long wait between loads. The first load had already started to dry out so there is a noticeable join in the middle of the kitchen and the screeding company are going to have to come up again to smooth this out.

Here are some photos of the screeding being done and the dried out floor a couple of days later.

Screed being laid in the kitchen

Wet screed in the family room

Dry Screed in the kitchen (see the join where the second batch started that will have to be smoothed out)

Dry Screed in the dining room

Downstairs wet room showing where the wet room tray will go and the floor drain

February 2010 - Underfloor Heating, oh and a year since we bought the plot ......

The weather has been pretty grim these last few days. It starting raining last Thursday pm and didn't stop raining until Saturday pm so the ground is like a swamp. Living in a caravan in this weather and having 7 soggy dogs to deal with is pretty grim I can tell you!

Work started a couple of weeks ago on the underfloor heating and below are some photos of the work completed. Firstly the entire ground floor had to be cleared and hoovered, and then Celotex insulation boards have been laid throughout the ground floor. Then a damp proof membrane was laid on top, and the underfloor heating pipes laid as per the heating company's detailed drawings. Doesn't sound a lot but it was quite time consuming work with just me doing it.

I finally finished the inside last Friday and today, after the rain finally stopped I completed the heating for the eventual breakfast room that is outside currently. It wasn't worth trying to lay the heating for this room later on when we do the breakfast room so this has been done now.

I've just started checking that there are no leaks in the system! In theory there should not be as none of the pipework has been damaged to my knowledge but sod's law there will be something wrong if it's left to chance.

Below are some photos of the different stages.

Kitchen / Family Room

Celotex Insulation

Damp Proof Membrane and Underfloor Heating Pipes laid

Manifolds in what will be the cupboard under the stairs

Tomorrow the ground floor screeding will be done, and then hopefully we can start fitting out the downstairs. The final delivery (stairs, internal doors, skirting etc.) from Scotframe is due on Friday and the tilers are due to start the follow Monday so hopefully things will start to pick up now. I'm hoping the get the ground floor in a habitable state in the next 4 weeks. Maybe we'll be in for Easter! :-)

I will try to get the downstairs painted before the tilers arrive but this can be done afterwards if necessary. In view of the need to get this house finished we have decided just to paint everything magnolia for the time being and colours can then be changed later if we feel like it.

The kitchen is on order and we expect that around 18th March. As soon as the tiling is complete that will be good to start. We haven't ordered the main kitchen worktops yet as we want granite and so have decided to wait until the units have been fitted so they can be made to measure.

We already have most of the sanitary wear for the bathrooms but we need to order the shower doors and trays for upstairs, a bath for the main bathroom, 4 of the showers, and all of the taps.