Welcome to Week 62 in our 36 Week project…. It’s all about finishing now.
bathroom niches have their lightstiled flooring is down in the bathrooms, but no shower screens yetfiddly short tiles cut to finish the floor, but no mirrormaster vanity unit has been moved, but no lightsRich tiled the utility splashback .... and started the tiling in the kitchen
looks much more kitchen-like; requests for moral support go unheeded…
Lots of pressure to Buy Things like… doorbells. Have you ever given much thought to them? The button bit can be a nice design piece, and there are many many different types to choose from. But the ringer, chime, sounder, whatever you call it, has three flavours: school bell, electric programmable with a bijillion different “songs”, or an antique from eBay. We went for a chrome schoolbell in the end. Boring, but necessary.
doorbell: brick mounted or doorframe mounted?garden getting cleared graduallytiling and water buttthinking herb garden thoughtsmore herbs: got a recommendation or favourite to share in comments below?horrible scary crack filledsecurity lights installedoak beam in lieu of bricks to support garage installed
There was an area on the back porch where the supports under the structural oak were slightly shy of the windows leaving a 20 mm gap. There was 10 mm tolerance generally for windows abutting to structure in the specification, and the guys managed to put it all on one side, making the 20 mm of air. The windows were installed just after Christmas, and this gap had been glaring at us ever since. One transgression for the Quirky House Police, but it’s filled now and looks much better.
Paul filled the gap with surgical precisionplinth splits for guttering downpipes restored
The bricklayers elevate their work to an artform. I hope that they’ve enjoyed working on this place, because they’ve had a lot to think about. Mind you, this week’s daily quizzes were mostly about war films which really tested my memory of dates, battles and geography. Oh yeah, ….. and what is the only airport in the States with an actual airplane in it? And whom is it named after? But check out the symmetry around every wall and detail as you look at any photo with bricks in. Genius.
study is finished with flooring and electricsmassive patch panel in the utility room to centralise all the data pointsfireplace with temporary buildout, but the room looks miles better with a coat of paintcolours look alright in the kitchen into family room — Dulux Trade is A-OKmaster bedroom detailwardrobe rails inelectrics are getting there one socket at a time, but not sure about the labelling…
We’re moving in on the Thursday of week 63. In theory. Kitchen commissioning on Monday morning, air permeability test in the afternoon. Tuesday is the contractor’s last formal day on the interior. Wednesday is cleaning, and Thursday we’re in.
When we first started this project I had visions of the finished product being presented in a more defined way. I kinda expected a ta-da! moment. I thought we’d have some time to think about the job, to go around with the contractor in a logical way to see if anything was overlooked, to snag it, to rectify the snags, and to move in with a huge smile. As it is, it’s rushed, the project manager is on holiday, the electricians are still (incredibly shockingly and disappointingly) not finished, snagging hasn’t started, the air-test is going on unsupervised and might fail our SAP calcs for us, and there is still a ton of work to do outside both within and outside the contract. Like, there is no drive and no lawn, but these will be done by others. There are no curtains, yet. And, strangely, there is no TV aerial which somehow counts as AV equipment which was conveniently client-specified but not highlighted until now.
There have been many parts of this project when we’ve seen our naive decisions come to fruition, and some have worked out just fab and the product is marvellous. But mostly, I really just haven’t wanted to look at bits and pieces in case we’d made a poor stab at something. I feel far more fear than excitement or pleasure at moving in just now. Maybe it’s just the fact we’re coming to the end of a period of exam hell with the kids and staffing challenges with the business all at once conveniently coordinated with the week we’re moving in. Maybe it’s because it’s the hottest week of the year. Maybe it’s that the budget is starting to burst at the seams. Maybe in five years’ time this feeling of unease and self-doubt will have morphed imperceptibly into something more comfortable, settled and positive. I hope my future self laughs heartily on reading today’s momentary dip in my attempt to retain a consistently high level of relentless positivity throughout this long journey. This future self will be enormously grateful and very happy in our family home that we’ve had built the way we wanted and was intended to provide the centre of gravity for the six of us at least for many many years to come.
Clinton celebrated a penultimately significant birthday on the weekend by going back to school: blacksmithing school. He’s always happiest when he’s making and building and doing. So with some stout shoes and safety glasses, off he went to the Quinnells’ at Fire and Iron to get stuck in to Make Stuff. The course was about blacksmithing technique but with an artist kind of vibe; the goal was to take home a few cool pieces at the end of the two days. With a little guidance from the instructors, he’s gone and made something quite amazing, unique and special. You’ll have to wait for the great unveiling in a future post, but I will hint that it’s for the house.
Iron Man
The long-awaited visit from British Telecom to attach the house to the rest of the planet was scheduled for Monday. Matt the Engineer arrived promptly first thing to rig up the line. Jamie got stuck in to finish off the trench, and James and I deciphered where the electricians had cunningly hidden the location for the BT box (spoiler: in the garage). So Matt got busy connecting, and Jamie filled in the trench afterwards. Apparently there’s a dial tone and everything!
we love a good trench
Other outdoor work included laying more paving slabs and turning on the outdoor lights.
replacing a wobbly slab
Steve’s team came to install the wood burner in the middle of the week. Cue much amusement from the guys wanting to know when the fish will be delivered. Installation went off mostly without a hitch with a little drilling out of the brickwork for ducting and a little bricking up for a base that the thing sits upon. It’s a closed system, so we don’t need air bricks to the room, but there is a need to supply air to the appliance itself, and another need to vent out the chamber so it doesn’t overheat, especially since we’re sticking a great big TV above it (eventually). The extra size of the exterior brickwork plinth at the bottom made it a little challenging for the guys to connect the bottom duct since it was so long, so they had to come back the day after and finish the job. It looks great as it is but we’ll add to it in time: eventually the build-out sections will be built bigger so the TV is set back behind the stove. We’re going to develop this design with Steve now that this portion of the job is complete, but at least it’s safe at the moment and passes all its HETAS requirements for building control. It’s a complicated design, but Dave’s watching over it, and it will be awesome.
Rais 900 all alonewhere it will livewoodburner, mid-installtemporary buildout and ready to go
The mechanical ventilation system failed it’s commission a couple of weeks ago, which was slightly scary. The pipes are all running in the void between the concrete first floor and the ground floor ceiling, and getting to them now would destroy a ton of decorating. The system runs to all the wet areas including the downstairs coats cupboard where all the electrical controls are housed. The problem was that there wasn’t enough suction on the longer runs to the other side of the house and to the kitchen, so it failed its installation tests. We have been waiting on tenterhooks seeing how the company would deal with this, and they came back this week to fix it. Their solution was to fit a second motor in the loft to give it enough oomph. So now we’ve got double-spiders up there, all labelled up nice and pretty, and it sucks like fury. Hooray!
fancy MEV
You may have noticed in one of the photos above that the exterior light was ON! Yes, the lights are on at long last. Lewis was characteristically sanguine about showing me the gleaming little LEDs and lovely warm Edisons outside, but I am pretty sure he’s kinda proud of getting near the end, and I think I even caught a sly smile or two in there somewhere. It’s another threshold of making the house look like a home.
I’ll take you on a tour of some of the mostly-finished rooms….
shoes-off policy upstairs now that the floor protection is upGareth’s roomGregory’s roomfirst floor hallwaythe glorious linen cupboard!Gillian’s roomup close and personal with a newel postboys’ bathroom with burglar PIR in hallway
master vanity needs shifting to the right 100 mm
It was all looking marvellous indeed! But then… the heavens opened. This time last year, you’ll remember that the storm drains on the local roads up the hill failed, and my neighbours got flooded out with the grounds guys altruistically running bricks to them to raise their furniture before the water got to their beds and sofas. Since then, much repair work has been done, and one neighbour was able to move back in just after Christmas; the other is due to move back in at the end of the summer.
This year it was our turn for drama.
The water was either down to the oak frame or the windows, and it was only in a few places. First we phoned Neil who has built a bijillion of oak frames in his career, and he was totally cool about it. Although he’s never seen anything like it, he offered some suggestions and kept a cool head. He was down onsite two days after we called, and he agreed to do some sealing around the edges as a failsafe. He came with Grant and an enormous ladder on the weekend to put the CT1 in some gaps and seal it up, so we won’t be seeing this sort of thing again. The next step is to talk to the window company about the seals around the windows, but that’s a little more complicated because there are so many materials (mastick, sealant, bronze frames) to contend with. Ben’s on it and we should come up with a solution to cover that side as well soon. This belt-and-braces approach should mean we’ve got an air and water tight arrangement, and this is important as we look forward to the all-important Air Test for the SAP calcs in a couple of weeks.
The brick guys returned to repair the damage we did to taking out the piers, and to fill the extra holes the in the bricks made by the electricians in their quest to find good spots for outdoor lights and power. They should finish up next week so they’re only here for a wee bit, but I didn’t get away lightly…. “Who was the last man to walk on the moon?”, asked Paul in the morning. With a completely blank mind, I said Charlie Duke whom I knew was an astronaut, but I also knew was the wrong answer. I’ve even read Andrew Smith’s Moon Dust, and I SHOULD know these things! When I came back onsite in the afternoon to drop off some thing or other, it was “What’s so significant about the River Roe in the States?” Galling, because I’m American, and I’m sure he picks these questions because of it. I will leave you to go and find the answers yourselves!
chipping out the decimated brickworkredoing their own work
And James has got all comfortable in his man-cave in the kitchen.
Not long to go now. Three weeks until we move in. There hasn’t been a light bulb lit yet which is worrying, but they’re all getting wired in at least.
sorting narrow from wide beam
hooray for lights in the upstairs hallwayfamily room lights/James’ new digsWhere do these go, Jimbo?fancy floor lights under the stairscill lights in the kitchen
But the biggest thing this week was saying goodbye to the old garage. It put James out of a home and his new office is now sitting in pieces in the family room. He doesn’t really sit at his desk very much now that we’re coming up to the close–lots of managing lots of trades all the time. I’m sooooo glad to see the garage go. What a beast! Jamie says the beams were in excellent nick which is surprising given the decrepit state of the rest of the structure: cracks in the floor, leaky roof, cracks in the brickwork. It’s main problem was that it sat right on the sweet spot for the garden. When our future selves are sitting out on the new patio with a cold drink in hand, we’ll shake our heads and remember it fondly, I’m sure!
We had the happiest labourer ever onsite this week. John, I think he was called, and he was a luck-of-the-draw-from-an-agency bloke. I guess he was used to working in London where these guys are normally tasked with horrible jobs like moving supplies up and down 7 flights of stairs a gazillion times on a given day in the middle of summer, so this surely seemed a picnic in comparison. When James and Jamie allowed him to drive the dumper around and get involved in the garage demo, well, he was just over the moon! Like a total kid, smiling all day long, as if he were hiding in a candy store at Christmas, not doing a day’s work around on a building site with big machinery. It’s a pleasure to have him onsite and his enthusiasm was totally contagious.
roof’s off3 lorry loads to remove most of itTa-Da!
by the end of the week, even the concrete base was gone
Inside, some final pieces are coming together. In preparation for the fireplace installation next week, the electricians put the wires through the ceiling towards where the sockets will live for the hi-fi. These wires will get boxed in, and it’s lovely that they’re away from all the scary heat from the stove area. Dave’s done drawings, so everyone knows what the finished product will look like.
wires ready for boxing
Additional boxing will be put on the other side of the room to hide the gas pipe. We put this in to future proof any requirement for gas in the room. Like if we wanted to change our lovely wood-burner to gas if it was too hot for instance. Or if we just wanted a change. Originally this pipe wouldn’t have been in the way because we’d intended to cover this area with a low set of built-in units. But with (more than a few) changes in design, this pipe got a little orphaned. Boxing is not a great position to be in, it smacks of afterthought, but it’s the best solution we’ve got at the moment.
orphaned gas pipe
The plumbers are making their way round the bathrooms. The WC was transformed from Box to Room over the course of the week.
boxroom
Lots more to think about outside. Like clearing,….
earth – (and) – child
We’ve got to decide if we want to spend the extra cash on swapping the porch soffits from painted ply to oak tongue and groove. What do you think?
porch: ply or T&G?more soffit decisions
More work was done on the brick slips, and they’re all finished now–hooray! Thanks Clive. A bit of fancy mortar and we’re done.
front slips are instill getting large deliveries….
Work on the bridges is looming. We’ve got a design through from the engineers, and it looks like we’ll be able to drive the space shuttle across them they’re designed so robustly (is that a word?). I’m not sure we need something so bomb-proof. There’s is a ton of extra hardcore to get rid of, so we can use that to fill, and I’ve still got lots of 450 mm diameter corrugated plastic pipe to use too. I’m sure James and Jamie are sick to death of moving it around site anyway. It’s turned a little Where’s Wally with these dang pipes.
450 mm pipes
It was half term this week, and I must say a big thank you to the kids for being so great and leaving Mummy alone to get on with site visits, curtain choosing, counting pennies on spreadsheets, and generally being preoccupied. They should be getting on with GCSE and A-level revision anyway, right? We did manage to get out and about one day, the highlight being a great big Surrey snail round Ranmore Common (we’re very easy to please). Sadly the ice cream van had scarpered due to impending summer storms which we managed to dodge. I’m very grateful to the kids for being so self-sufficient. I definitely owe them some cakes when this is done!
I’ve put this one in here because Dad might like the digger-as-sundial on a weekend when there’s nothing going on onsite.
Without going into too much drama about tempers flaring, lines of communication being tested, inspections on the edge and deadlines looming, …, despite all this, it’s all mostly going to plan. This week’s post will be mostly pictorial as I’m struggling to write anything at all coherent in the rush to finish this project. Loose ends include all electricals as we haven’t seen a blub a-flickerin’ yet, the entire fireplace concept, some of the big wood pieces from Neil, the sanitaryware, tiling and the drive. On the positive side, the Moldovian chippies Adrian and Vadim are generally fantastic and are busy getting on with doorframe, skirting and ironmongery. Terry and Josh finished the stairs too–I don’t think they’ll be in a hurry to fit any more capping in the hand and floor rails, but Josh remains undeterred, even when faced with a chisel in his hand and a trip to Epsom hospital. Didn’t stop him smiling when he returned to site to finish the day’s work.
The cornice company arrived early in the week and transformed some of the rooms.
awesome coving, but, oops, poor decision on light placementdoes this work around the units?drawing room looking more formal
Finishing touches around the staircase are being decided with things like skirting beading, window/stair boards, and capping under the newels. James is great at making use of extra pieces to create some of the finishing touches. And it’s only when you see these things installed that you can get a feel for what the finished product looks like. Most things have been fantastic, and some require small tweaks, like the window board used on to top the plasterwork in the front bay. We’ve decided that the trim should have a profile more like the stairs, so this bit of boarding will be replaced, but it was excellent to have the flexibility and chance to check out the profile and have the option. This exercise prompted some deep thinking about what exactly we’re trying to do in the space.
is it a window board or a stair board?
Likewise with the trim between the structural oak and the floorboards. Initially, I wasn’t keen to have so many different kinds of oak hanging around, so I didn’t want the trim in at all when we started the finishes. And James’ advice was not to have too many different trims or the whole thing looks cluttered. But now I feel that if each piece does what it’s expected, then it follows the ethos of honest materials in the house, and it should be ok to have a little bit of trim that matches around the house, and it will blend in better in time. We opted for the little bead around the structural oak in the photo. The floors remain protected, and the windows will have a layer of dust on until the final sparkle-clean, so it’s hard to tell what the final finish will be anyway!
beading on the floorunder-newel
Vadim and Adrian have been boxing in pipework and building wardrobes around them. We’ve decided on a semi-complicated painting scheme with the interiors being darker shades of each room’s trim.
Gemma’s wardrobeGillian’s wardrobedouble checking the spec on ironmongery
Looking forward to snagging the kitchen next week. We’ll discuss a few trimming bits, and do a double check on things like the work-surface edge.
discussion piece: is this pencil or bevel?
The bathrooms are looking good, but we’re finding a few things that could have been better designed. Like,…. the door slamming into the unit when entering the bathroom. We’ll have to install a rubber baby buggy bumper on the back side of the door along with advice to tell the boys to be jolly careful without entering their bathroom with too much energy (shouldn’t be a problem, they’re a bit slow int he mornings). Much consultation with Allison in the States and friends in the UK to generate a survey of vanity unit heights in an attempt to get ours right. We’ve decided 900 to top of unit is a good height–a little higher than most, so it won’t be our family keeping the local chiropractors in business.
boys’ bathroom
In a dull moment, the guys found time to remove the plinth they’d lovingly installed before we changed our minds. Our MO seems to be build it, then remove it….
plinthless fire
…. just like the piers!
looks better now
Clinton never really liked the piers in the front; they were only put there to carry the rainwater downpipes into the ground in a clean swoop. So, taking advice from the architect and structural engineer who both said that they weren’t critical to the structure, we decided to take the bold (= expensive) move to remove them. This leaves an obvious problem for the bricklayers who now need to come back and make these areas pretty again. But the overhang looks much less fussy now, and we’re happy with it. At least we were until a giant gaping crack appeared around the first floor cavity trays.
omg
On further advice, we adopted a suck-it-and-see approach, and the whole thing looks pretty stable despite the crack. It hasn’t shifted since it first appeared, so should be ok. After all, there is an enormous great big steel holding up this side of the house, and the roof is all complete as one separate structure spread across the whole building. It SHOULD be ok. At least it is when I close my eyes. And a little mortar in the joint before we move in and all will be well. Right?
Lee, Jamie, Djokovich, and the groundwork gang were back to lay the paving for the patio. Their work was hampered by the water board inspector who deemed it fit to ask the guys to dig the main supply to the house a little deeper. This was an enormous pain which required un-building of the garage and some of the edging stones the guys had laid last week. The inspector didn’t stop there, took a deeper look at some of the work and started going off on other trench work depths, like the supply into the taps in the garden. He even had a go at some of the pipework internally, which never happens apparently. Usually the inspector has a cursory look around near where the water enters the building and leaves the M&E team to get on with things downstream. The groundwork guys have done hundreds of jobs like this without fuss, and the plumbing team was livid by the time the inspector finally passed it all, and all the trenchwork could be filled in. They’d none of them ever seen anything like it. Clearly this house has been jinxed from the start. The guy earned a few choice nicknames around site, and luckily for him some of the spare pieces of wood lying around didn’t get airborne.
high water table in the mains trenchon the positive side, slabs are looking good
We’re even venturing into town to look at furniture and light fittings. Mostly these experiences highlight that fact that neither of us like shopping very much, nor do we like going into town unless it’s work related. We’re much more country-bumpkins these days. Either we’re super boring (likely), or we just dread the time it takes to travel around aimlessly looking at one low-profile uncomfortable sofa after another. I think Clinton was definitely going to lose the plot entirely if he got close to one more Edison bulb singeing his retinas. The best way forward is to continue on our current course of clicking our way through doing most of the furnishings.
There are a few teething problems, but I’m sure it’s nothing that won’t be overcome in time. The most imperative thing that needs a little attention is the presence of the hole that’s been drilled for the ducting. James had organised a massive 7″ core drill to be onsite for the job, but the work that was carried out didn’t use that tool, so we’ve got a preliminary hole for the moment. This will have a lovely grille over the front of it in a couple of weeks, and eventually it will be covered by hydrangea or otherwise. But for now, we don’t want any little beasties crawling in and making a home before we do.
hole and bits
Terry and Josh have been working hard on the stairs. There is an incredible amount of chipping, gluing, measuring and fitting involved. And inherently, there is a lot of up and down, up and down, so it must be tiring. The bottom steps were set into place and they look ever so graceful. We can actually use the stairs now, but they’re still covered up with protection, and I think James will keep the ladder up as long as possible to prevent boots from risking accidental chamfering off of the square nosings. It’s interesting to see the scaffolding morph into different positions as required during a working day.
The fiddly CNC’d secondary newel posts arrived as well, and Mike and Clive have covered them in a lovely coat of their favourite, Osmo. They look a bit lonely off the stairs, but they look great in the pdf files–can’t wait to see them go in.
tool bedsecondary newelsnot-quite-fitted
graceful first step
Some of the floor on the landing doesn’t quite meet up with the oak. It is extremely difficult to foresee these join details in planning the house, and lots of these things will emerge in the coming weeks as we race towards the finish line. So today’s decision was to choose a wood detail to act as a mini-skirting. We could have a full-height skirting just like the rest of the house. Or, we could fit a cut-down bit of architrave of the same profile as the rest of the house, or even a tiny bull-nose piece of oak that joins the floor and the beam. Since the structural oak remains the most substantial feature of the build, and the goal is to expose as much of it as possible, we’ve gone ahead and chosen the bull-nose, but as low as possible so we don’t have to chop the dowels, and as thin as possible so it doesn’t look silly.
More site meetings, more baking. Ben’s been very patient with us over the time it takes to make these little decisions. Hopefully by the end of the project we’ll get the process dialled and each one won’t take so long. But for now, seeing bits and pieces in situ helps a lot, and sometimes this means climbing up ladders and holding bits of wood up to see how they look!
keeping the troops going on cake at a timethe things you do for clients, Ben
We finally bit the bullet and removed the oak collar on the clad sections in the master bedroom. Hands in the air, we fully admit to being over-enthusiastic with Neil when we designed the piece. Although the king-post and curved webs were awesomely built, and Terry, Josh and James spent a week installing it, we felt adding them was a decision made in haste so we asked them to take it down. I’m more than a little embarrassed about this decision, but it had to be done. Now it feels like we can breathe in the room.
The guys initially thought they’d have to take down a load of plasterboard and really fight with the screws that held the cladding to the oak. But in the end, they managed to cut the insulation and plasterboard in a nice straight line along some temporary battens put up temporarily alongside the cladding, and the oak was drilled out with a minimum of destruction. Very impressive. We now have to hang fire until Neil can manufacture the new cladding and get it to site. This stuff will be slightly thicker so it meets in the middle thereby covering up the central steel beam.
… and we can finally breathe again
makings of a really nice bird house from the old oak beams
The sun is swinging around towards the front of the house during the day, and it belts in through the front bay in the afternoons making all sorts of lovely shadows and lines.
The bathrooms are getting tiled and painted, and the bedrooms are getting their dressing of trim in the skirting and wardrobes.
Next week will see the groundworkers returning. They’ll start on the patio around the back, and they’ll swing up to the side of the house before they hit the front. Then it’s the all-important bridges. Tony the structural engineer is putting the finishing touches on the design before issuing instructions to Tim and his team. The goal at the moment is to devote resources to the interior as much as possible and leave the drive until last.
Tim had the club tiles moved up another rung this week. It’s a tiny little detail, and it took a lot of effort to move everything up just one course, but we’re very grateful and it looks great–thanks, Tim!
front of the houseback of the house in the sun
We finished the week with a trip to Rye to visit Nick and see how the painting is coming on. He’s so accommodating and patient with our numpty questions, making us cups of tea, even talking about Gillian about her GCSE final piece and taking us for a tour of Rye Creative. It’s lovely to see the painting again and to have a little bit of input into the work. Gillian and Matt joined us, and after a lovely lunch at The Globe, we spent the afternoon wandering around Rye Harbour, dodging waves, looking for jellies and doing a spot of geocaching. The weather closed in near the end, and it was great to finally see Rye in a bit of sun for a while as in all the previous times I’ve been down there, I’ve been treated to a bit of horizontal rain and lashing gales.
creating some new ideastools of the tradebig beachhow do you work this thing again?
It’s official: we’ve Given Notice on our rental house. This event sparked a flurry of activity in the household. Given that we’ve moved out of the old house in the first place (after 15 years of living there–there should be a law that people are forced to move every five years in an effort to decouple themselves from years of rubbish that “is perfect for car-booting” or “I’ll save for the grandkids” (grandkids?? OMG what am I thinking?)), then to the first rental for 7 months and now to this one for what will have been the last year and half by the time we move again, there is no way on god’s green earth that I will cart around (and pay to be moved) old hosepipes, used bunk beds, boxes of duplo and out-dated TVs a fourth time. This just will not happen. The only thing for it was to get the kids on board and take everything out of the garage for a well-needed sort out.
the boys are not quite on board
I have to admit that by later afternoon when we decided to ebay the barbie dolls one at a time, I kind of lost the plot.
The biggest event this week was the stairs. After Clive and Mike thoroughly Osmo-ed all the individual parts, they handed over to Josh, Terry, and James to gingerly squeeze them into the hallway. There were a few headaches along the way such as design of the last newell in the SW corner. It fits so that the corner of the wall is in the middle of the newell making it appear to kind of wrap around the wall. I’m not sure where the communication gap lay, because it never even hit my radar until I saw Colin onsite, but the post was delivered as if it were flush with the wall thereby leaving an exposed unfinished edge into the hallway. When the guys rang Colin at the joinery company around midday to ask what to do, I kid you not, Colin hopped in his car, zoomed up to site straight from their base in ANDOVER! and sorted the problem immediately. I cannot believe he dropped everything so fast and made the solution happen. Terry says the new newell will be here early next week. This jaw-dropping effort, coupled with the effort made to give Tony the blacksmith scale drawings and meeting with him at his forge, have made the job a complete pleasure. Colin–you’re a rock star!
the same awesome company made the stairs and doorfront room workshopforlorn stairs with added newellunderbelly will be covered with plasterboard
How much do you think a solid oak staircase weighs? Clearly less than four guys can lift on a random afternoon in April.
that looks healthy and safe to me
More bits were added as the week went on. You can see the long aprons that cover up the first floor buildup being installed at the end of the week on the time-lapse. Handrails, newells, starting steps, nosings, stringers…. stairs are a very esoteric thing when you consider all the measured parts. The guys have labelled each with a Sharpie on the edges to help so that they get installed correctly and to limit the chance of some going walkies. The fancy secondary newells are due onsite soon, and Tony will be back to fit the balusters around the middle of May.
Taking any chance to visit the forge again and see how Tony was getting on with the balusters, I was off like a shot on Tuesday to approve paint. All the parts are finished, and they’re ready for powder coating. I still have reservations about powder coating in principle, because it’s not the natural metal finish we were originally after. But solid bronze balusters would completely break the budget and steel would rust, so neither were ever a real option. With bronze, we would never have had the pleasure meeting Tony and learning about metalwork. The colour he’s chosen is a kind of off-black with tiny flecks in, and it’s more of a satin finish than a gloss. I’m sure it will be amazing.
finished balusterworking platform
It does feel like the space has shrunk in some ways, but since stairs give the house a backbone, it feels in other ways like they’ve always been there. Shame to see Terry’s temporary banister taken down!
Clive and Mike have been painting things and they are concentrating on bedrooms. I haven’t gone into too much detail of how we ultimately chose these colours, but we found that it’s much easier to knock out what you don’t like than it is to choose what you do like. All the rooms are Marble White with trim in one of the darker shades on the Dulux Trade range. No Farrow & Ball here–they want £195 just to have a conversation, so we’re DIY-ing again like the lights. Mike calls each room by its shade: Mineral Haze, Quartz Flint (or whatever it is, clearly not enough headspace devoted to decoration, note to self, perhaps saving that £195 was a mistake…..), and I call them by the kid who will live there: Gemma, Gareth etc. They’ve pretty much finished Gemma’s bedroom and it will be great to see the others come to life as they work their way around the house.
pre-paint…… and now the Potters Clay room (sorry, Gems)another room pre-paint
When choosing the skirting last year, we had a devil of a time working out which profile to use in the bedrooms. We wanted to save a bit of cash and make a decorative statement by using painted skirting, but we couldn’t find a profile we liked. After much costing and quoting (sorry, Tim!), we threw our hands in the air and found a company to make the same lambs-tongue profile as downstairs but in softwood. More expensive than off-the-shelf, but less than solid oak. It’s great to see them in, and amazing to see them painted at long last. I just hope it doesn’t look too twee or artificial in paint. The window subframes and the cills remain oak, and of course, the flooring is oak, so it should be a good balance in theory.
Mike loves Osmo
Other random bits of the week include finishing off the hallways with skirting and architrave.
And the WC buildup on the back plinth magicked itself into completion. The drawing is actually with Dave, but James figured it was a simple amendment to make the cill and the top of the buildout be the same level, so he predicted where the additional boarding would go, and just built it. Looks fine to me.
and he kindly left the pipes exposed for the plumber
The tilers have been beavering away in the upstairs bathrooms. This meant choosing the final position for the lights and mirrors so they can drill the electrics through the tiles. And of course, we have no idea what these mirrors or lights are yet, and less of an idea of committing to their location. Awesome planning on our parts as usual. Not. So double-quick to the internet and my graphics package to sketch out what was required. I think I’ve got it under control, but buying these things is pretty complicated as well because as this was our first foray into Fancy Stuff For The House and not just lumber and bricks, I wasn’t quite sure how the purchasing stream worked. As an exercise, it was good to get these things solid and communicated well to all parts of the team so everyone knows what to expect. In fact this whole buying thing sat alongside a review and future purchase of the electrical fittings which was interesting and time-consuming, but also rewarding because it’s forced me to know exactly what light goes where right down to the temperature colour and flange finish. This is a convoluted way of saying that although the tiling looks great, the work going on behind the scenes has been hectic.
I met Kevin onsite on Monday, and the guys have been putting up tiles steadily all week. By Friday they’d almost finished two bathrooms. By next week, it might just be most of the way there.
lucky boys’ bathroomboys’ nichesa “bold” colour in the master ensuite, says Richaccommodating my light fitting design in the master ensuite
Artur finished off fitting the kitchen and utility and left us this week, and handed over to Jason the marble guy who spent an afternoon templating the worktops. It will take about a week at least before they’re installed. We discussed in massive detail locations for the cuts for the hob and downdraft extractor, and it all hinged around fitting the ducting that runs from the extract, through its remote motor and out to the wall. The ducting quotes we got through originally were quite high, so I naturally tried sourcing it myself. Firstly understanding the function of each component and then finding a guy who would take the project (and my naivety) on board were interesting enough, but when it came to actually looking at the space onsite and taking responsibility for the spot where the colossal 200 mm diameter hole that’s going to be cut out of the brickwork for this part of the kitchen installation will be, I completely lost my nerve and quickly came to realise I was totally out of my depth. So I promptly handed this part back to Claire at the kitchen company. She was entirely professional and diplomatic, I would have been seething at some dippy client putting my project back a week, but it is now rather a hot potato as timing is an issue; the motor and its ducting are dropped in before the worktop is installed, so unless the gear arrives double quick, it might indeed hold up this part of the supply chain. Full marks for enthusiasm on my part, nil for effectiveness.
utility looking oututility looking indot marks the spotvirgin brickwork where a 200 mm dia ducting hole will live
The roofers came back to relocate the club tiles and the whole tile hanging face is almost there. There are six rows above the club tiles and six rows below, but it still seems a little low, so I think they’ll be back.
And I haven’t taken a photo of the front door for a while, so just to remember what it looks like, here’s an image out of the winter shadow an in the sun now that spring is here.
Other parts of the exterior of the building are coming along too. The nice weather helps to make the site look good, and the guys are doing a great job of keeping everything tidy. And when they’re in the middle of a job, most of the bits and pieces are kept together and out of other trades’ ways. It’s amusing to see little empires of woodwork, electrical bits, decorating, and piping in different rooms.
artsy wheelbarrowselectrical detritus in the front porchpanels are coming on
The roofers finished the scalloping on the back windows. They’ve only got the garage flat roof and the club tiles to go.
sunny scalloping on the back of the house
The garage door arrived–hooray! The installers were super jolly and put the thing up in a day. There was a massive design moment at the beginning of the project when we had to decide if to make the door high and bespoke as it is, or to make it a standard size with a brick soldier course on top. The higher door keeps the top in line with the tops of the windows along the face, but it was the expensive option, and I hope that you agree that it makes sense to spend the extra cash on the extra height.
door arrivaldoor installed
The plumbing team has been quietly getting on with the boiler and fittings all without any fuss whatsoever. It’s funny to come to site, say good morning to Sid who’s mostly been doing this final bit, and for him to get right down to business with a fast-paced “Now, where do you want this exterior tap?” These guys don’t hang around! But you can see that the services are all ready to go in a happy configuration of geometry.
boiler arrangementtap located on the garage wall
The Sparks have been working hard on the trunking while the other trades are busy in other rooms. They’d rather be cutting out holes for LED down-lights, but this needs doing as well, so now the cables are set in trunking within the coats cupboard. How we finish this area is up for grabs as it’s not plastered. But trunking and plaster don’t usually mix and the whole wall will be painted to seal in the dust, then boxed in to finish it off.
trunking
The kitchen arrived at the appointed hour without fanfare; just a couple of guys who quietly discovered that there was no trolley packed in with the kitchen units. The only solution was to carry each unit by hand, so Artur simply slung them on his back and carried them in. It turned out that he was in charge of fitting the units and most of the appliances as well in the coming week.
that’s the kitchen in therebit of rubble doesn’t get in the waybefore the kitchen arrivesthe contents of the truck land in the kitchen spaceappliances and more kitchen units
Eventually Artur fitted the whole thing single-handedly. I’ve never had a kitchen this nice and it’s a real luxury. Or hopefully it will be if we made the right decisions. I said to Dave onsite this week that when asked if I was excited about all this recent action that a very large part of me doesn’t want to look at it while it’s being installed in case I change my mind or don’t like some part of the design. But the other part of me is jumping up and down inside and really excited about running the family from this little area.
Some bits like the humungous drawers make it feel really usable and very real. I recall Auntie Eileen saying she really hoped that I’d make a good go of the kitchen when we finally got round to doing the house. That was a very kind thought and I hope she would approve of this incarnation.
magic drawersthree days of work and it’s almost all in — amazing
We knew that the overhang on the peninsula was going to be tight with regard to the big dining table in the room, but it’s only now that the units are in that we can line up a mock table to get a feel for the size. One of the things yet to do is site the pendant and LED spots over it. This isn’t easy and requires a fair degree of commitment on table location. We haven’t quite decided where the lights should be, but one thing is for sure: the overhang and the table together don’t provide enough space to get around comfortably, so the overhang will have to go. That means my two bar stools will go too.
burlap mock table
Part of the ironmongery order arrived last week and was installed while we were away. It’s nice to go around and be surprised by the existence of doors. Sometimes it’s the boundaries that make the space feel like well-defined areas. One nice touch was a set of parliament hinges on the family room doubles.
that’a nice hinge
The shower trays went in while we were away too. We wanted the master ensuite tray to be 100 mm bigger than the well was built for, and this was always going to be a problem with the underfloor heating. The idea was to chip out enough of the concrete floor to accommodate the tray while avoiding puncturing the heating tubing set in the concrete. This was a tricky job that James wasn’t too keen on doing. I wouldn’t be keen on it either; I recall the words “catastrophic” and “potential” and “failure” being used in discussions about this bit. But it was done, and done very well as usual, and the trays are all in sitting in their seals of silicon.
shower tray
The decorators started with the Marble White in the bedrooms, and the skirting went in.
white on white in Bed 05
The stairs arrived as well.
newellsbottom treadsCNC’d area to fit treads…… and the bit that fits into it
Lots of decisions behind the scenes, and we’re not keeping up with the pace. The pressure is on and everyone can see the horizon now!
The roof is almost completely done. The colour is great, the guys are working hard–even on a Sunday, and the leadwork is gorgeous. The guys tell me there are loads of cuts which is slowing progress at this stage. You can hear them cutting from across the train tracks into the woods as we walk up to site. Most of the cut tiles are fitted all around the fiddly dormers that were built, needed a redesign from Dave, unbuilt, rebuilt, and now leaded and tiled. Loads of effort but they really make the building.
leadwork over oak and under the tilesfiddly
Tony has been busy experimenting with the curlicues on the balusters. He works out a listed building that has always been a forge since it was built in the 1400s , and he’s working in tandem with our joinery company that I visited back in Week 24. The joinery company works in the complete opposite way with a spotless factory full to the brim with machination, lasers and CNCs. You couldn’t get a pair of trades working more differently. And they’re both getting on famously! It would be nice to think that we’ve started a symbiotic relationship in stairmaking here.
Gregory visiting the forge with meCAD drawings to scale for Tony to work with (that’s our lamp in the back all restored too)ta-da!
The stair design is super complicated with three types of balusters, intricate oak interim newel posts, and all the other bits of the stairs like treads, goings, aprons, strings and nosings. It’s an artform. One of our decisions to make was about the thickness of the upstairs flooring: 15 mm or 20 mm? This had a massive implication for the staircase which has a 10-week leadtime. 5 mm! But it has a big effect on stairs. It was a job for Ben to coordinate all these overlapping decisions in the correct order so everything arrives on time. Not inconsequential, and I’m glad I’m not doing it (I couldn’t).
So I’ve had my sharpies out to ensure that everyone knows exactly where each type of item is going. This might sound pedantic, but it’s not a simple task to create this masterpiece when its taking two manufacturers, Ben to coordinate, Tim to purchase, and James onsite to make the whole thing work. Ultimately it will be a really special part of the house.
Another Big Thing going in is the bronze double doors to the back bay. They look great now, but I know that when the glass goes in and the lead lines don’t match, I’m going to really have to work on my non-cringe attitude towards it. But, …. it’s the way it is, it’s in the drawings, and we’re leaving it. But before all that happens, we’ve got to protect the casements, so the doors are drilled and fitted, and then they’re tucked away in the garage for safekeeping until the rest of the building is watertight or at least until the wet trades are out of the building. Access will be an issue too when these go in because we don’t want the whole of everyone to be opening and closing them all day long, nor do we want to have them propped open and potentially bashed into accidentally.
There are masses of guys onsite every day now, and parking is becoming an issue down our tiny little lane. Most of the neighbours have been super patient and we’re grateful for that. It’s only temporary! James even got his shears out to cut back some of the overgrown (we haven’t lived in the house for almost two years now so no-one has been around to do this) shrubbery across the way so that cars can pass more easily.
liability?
We’ve had MANY meetings about electrics. But a single team will be onsite now to finish the first fix. In hindsight, we should have been much more proactive in wiring this house from the start. We should have got sorted with lamps, circuits, control and all permutations of data and TV sockets that are going in, right down to the smoke alarms long before we put spade to earth.
One of the questions Paul asked today was what height do you want the doorbell? Well, what height SHOULD you put a doorbell? It was all down to Clinton pointing his finger at Paul’s shoulder through an imaginary doorbell and saying, “Here.” So the guys got their drill out and put it through the building at Paul’s shoulder-height. Effective, but bonkers.
electrical pow-wowwiring for the study“Where do you want your outside lights, Madam?” “Er,…. ?”cloaks closet / IT hub
The screed for the front floor was laid on Friday to set over the weekend. The guys moved the ladder to the other side so we all avoid the area until it’s rock-solid.
screedhi-tech job this screed laying
Meanwhile the plasterers are in the bedrooms making them look like, well, rooms. They covered up the windows with masses of really thick black tape and card to protect them. This is all well and good, but the house is now completely dark. They’ve brought in masses of lights to help, and these are good because they highlight every imperfection. Clearly, there aren’t many imperfections when they’re done. They’re a totally jolly team which is amazing considering it’s totally hard and messy work. They’ll be in over the weekend (which is awesome) so that it goes off in time for Monday and all the chaos that ensues for next week.
electrical cutoutsportable lightingblackouta LOT going on this weekall packed up after plastering
It’s lovely to just walk around and see what’s changed from day to day–even down to where they put stuff. I think that we’ll be using the house in much the same way as they do; they’re putting their gear out of high traffic areas, just like we’ll be doing when we move in. I’m taking notes….
OK so maybe we won’t store off-cuts in the master bedroom…tableau of M&E and insulation in the kitchenDizzy has been onsite from the beginning and is now residing in the kitchen
New Year, new resolve, ….. we WILL be living in this house before this year is out. Having seen the potential of this place in 1999 and bought it and moved in by Feb 2000, we’re finally going to have this noose around our necks lifted. We’ve hemmed and hawed for so long about the most cost effective way to renovate or fix or whatever, and we’ve lived in such an ambiguous state for so many years, that it’s quite incredible to think that it will ever be FINISHED. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there’s finished, Finished and FINISHED, but just to have a house that doesn’t leak and looks half way decent will be a huge improvement on previous years. After all, the kids know nothing else!
And of course, it will be way better than half way decent. You can see from the time-lapses that there is a bunch of activity onsite these days: electricians, carpenters, flooring, heating, windows….. It’s starting to really crack on.
The window guys started on 9 Jan, so all the oak subframes had to be installed beforehand.
family roomthey will eventually fade to grey
James has kept a bit of celotex on the sills to protect them once they’re in.
shocking weatherdoor frames being built and getting installed
Terry and Josh have been quietly getting on with wardrobes upstairs and kitchen framing downstairs.
kitchen studs
The window guys arrived en masse in a team of four or five depending on the day. The last time we saw this gear was up North, and it’s weird to see the frames and glass in the house at long last.
test pane
One of the guys was a specialist pointer: each of the windows has a silicone bead running around the frame between it and the oak and another between the frame and the glass. I’ll get a macro shot of the beading next week, but there is a precise technique and the finished product is gorgeous.
waiting patiently for installationmaster bedroommaster panebrave man with a hammer
master bedroom from inside
There are still loads of things to do around and about. The roof tiles should arrive this month, but since it’s a stand-alone piece outside the Critical Path, it kind of doesn’t matter when they go on. The building will look very different when it’s got its hat on.
roofline
The first floor is being covered with celotex insulation prior to the underfloor heating next week. Wednesday is screed day, and this works perfectly with the windows guys because they’re awaiting delivery of more gear from Grantham which arrives the following week, so they’ll take a little break from this job while the floor sets. All very time-dependent and complicated.
bathroom
We had a stairs meeting this week with Tony the Blacksmith and Colin and Gary from the joinery company. The goal was to sign off on the plans and get into production which is 10 – 12 weeks from sign to installation. Tony brought models of his spindles and had a great conversation with the joiners. In a total Goldilocks moment, we’ve decided to use the middle sized section of spindle. Plans were signed, and production lines confirmed, so we’re looking at end of March to see these in real life. Tony says he’s making progress with the lantern as well.
oodles of spindles
It also snowed this week.
disgusting weatherfrozen camera housingsnow on scaffold through the new windowsdoor handlesfront bay–with windows (most of them…)
Tim said early on not to worry and that the Christmas lights would be on. And they are! We’ve got a tree with lights–what’s the problem?! The roofing guys even built us a present out of battening to go under the tree.
Tim’s present
Despite the amended programme, this has been a big chunky cracking-on kind of week. First of all, the saga about the levels not quite matching up in the first floor between the front oak structural frame and the rest of the house came to a close. The fix was debated (for five weeks) around our architect and structural engineer, the warranty company (mostly the warranty company) and the oak structural engineer, and finally, they reached an agreement on how it was to be built. James and the guys have built and sealed shuttering around what will be a slab of concrete set in situ. The metal mesh that gives it structure arrived today, James has bound all the intersections with little bits of wire, and now all that’s left is to pour and set over the Christmas break.
pre-pour
Masses of celotex is being laid to insulate the ground floor. On Monday (Tuesday?) next week this will have a web of underfloor heating rods wound round and round, and before we break for Christmas, the screed will be poured.
each piece is cut to shape with a teensy power sawkitchen spacewipe your feet first
They’ve removed the scaffolding in the hallway and you can see from the floor right up to the rafters. Terry’s done a marvellous job making it safe with a designer hand rail.
Josh and celotexTerry’s fancy banisterBen and Keith chatting about the concrete slab
The electricians have wired up most of the upstairs, and now there is a web of grey cable run round the rafters. There has been some discussion about where the shaver sockets will go in the bathrooms, and I’m sure this is just the first of many decisions that will be made on the hoof. (We decided in cabinets in the kids’ bathrooms and on the wall above the tile in ours in case you’re wondering.) They’ve even got a sweepstakes on how many times I’ll change my mind on socket locations in the house. Five was the first guess, three was another, and even a very optimistic zero was mentioned. We’ll see. Just don’t want the whole place looking like Swiss cheese so I’m trying my best not to dither. One of the jobs on the weekend is to run round with a can of spray-paint and set the locations of sockets and switches.
Sparkys’ debate
The leadwork is starting to be installed around the window frames. The large frames in the kitchen and family room won’t be in until the new year because the floor screed needs to dry out and we don’t want to damage them.
leadwork before it’s scalloped
I usually get time to visit site in the afternoon, and since sunset starts around 2:30 in what’s now mid-December, the light is usually really good for a while. It’s obvious that the oak frame and the widows are pretty special and make this build unique, and that the quality of the workmanship is excellent. This quality issue partly accounts for why it’s gone over schedule. But sometimes I’m amazed at just how gorgeous the whole thing is, and it’s quite humbling to just sit and have a look. I’m sure the builders think I’m nuts just standing there and staring.
a glimpse of future awesomeness
James has finished the panels, and they’ll be sealed in with compriband and fixed to the frame. But they’re right in line with the sunset, so it makes the whole thing reflected a lovely pink.
I’m not sure where the communication gap lay, because it never even hit my radar until I saw Colin onsite, but the post was delivered as if it were flush with the wall thereby leaving an exposed unfinished edge into the hallway. When the guys rang Colin at the joinery company around midday to ask what to do, I kid you not, Colin hopped in his car, zoomed up to site straight from their base in ANDOVER! and sorted the problem immediately. I cannot believe he dropped everything so fast and made the solution happen. Terry says the new newell will be here early next week. This jaw-dropping effort, coupled with the effort made to give 
