25/09/15
Finally the insulation has started on the exterior of the main house. 200mm of mineral wool is being wrapped around. Over that will be the silicon render. It doesn’t help that the weather completely turned at the end of August and we’re now fighting strong winds and downpours. Little bit nervous as it needs to be completed prior to the windows going towards end of October. Fingers crossed.
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Inside, the plasterboarding has been proceeding for a fortnight. Most of the house is now boarded and some rooms finished with the skim. The EzyJamb seamless door frames need to be fitter prior to some of the walls being finished - hopefully that will happen this week or next given they’re now on site. More electrics underway as well. 550mm cat flap tunnel installed into the kitchen so cat can have free reign once we’re in.
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The screed floor in the extension was poured and has set meaning once the plasterboarding is done we can hopefully get the tiling underway. The terracotta tiles arrived on site a couple of weeks ago so looking forwad to seeing them start to be laid. Paranoia kicking in as to whether we nailed the correct quantities.
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We’re definitely reaching that point where we just want to get it finished and move in, whether it’s done or not, but have to be patient. It’s always nice to go there and enjoy the view and remind ourselves of the one redeeming feature of the house as it currently is. That and the fact that the odd deer sometimes pokes around in the garden from time to time.
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Finally the insulation has started on the exterior of the main house. 200mm of mineral wool is being wrapped around. Over that will be the silicon render. It doesn’t help that the weather completely turned at the end of August and we’re now fighting strong winds and downpours. Little bit nervous as it needs to be completed prior to the windows going towards end of October. Fingers crossed.
Inside, the plasterboarding has been proceeding for a fortnight. Most of the house is now boarded and some rooms finished with the skim. The EzyJamb seamless door frames need to be fitter prior to some of the walls being finished - hopefully that will happen this week or next given they’re now on site. More electrics underway as well. 550mm cat flap tunnel installed into the kitchen so cat can have free reign once we’re in.
The screed floor in the extension was poured and has set meaning once the plasterboarding is done we can hopefully get the tiling underway. The terracotta tiles arrived on site a couple of weeks ago so looking forwad to seeing them start to be laid. Paranoia kicking in as to whether we nailed the correct quantities.
We’re definitely reaching that point where we just want to get it finished and move in, whether it’s done or not, but have to be patient. It’s always nice to go there and enjoy the view and remind ourselves of the one redeeming feature of the house as it currently is. That and the fact that the odd deer sometimes pokes around in the garden from time to time.
25/08/16
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It’s felt like a lot has been done over the last few weeks, but maybe not as much as we’d have liked. An issue with the cost of the EWI and render has been resolved and that’s due to start very soon. The first floor ceiling has been insulated and plasterboarded. This week should see the entire house being plasterboarded and/or bonded and skimmed depending on room. Outside the extension roof is finally insulated, finished and watertight, with only the decking and balustrading to be fitted a little further down the line. The gulley that runs along the top of this is formed and should move the rainwater to the sides of the roof and down into the guttering.
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Now watertight (albeit there’s still no windows) it means the underfloor heating pipework has been laid in place on top of some thick PIR insulation Following that is the screed pour which should be incoming later this week coming touch wood. Then finally, we can tile. Tiles are sitting somewhere in Essex having arrived from sunny Spain. It will be fun lugging two pallet loads of them down the hill in to the extension.
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In the main house, the UFH was laid and the floors have had 22mm chipboard glued and screwed in place. On top of this will be 6mm Hardiebacker tile board ready for the tiles. We’re running the tile board into the living room as well, despite only engineered wood going there. Reason being is to make up the difference in level where the wood will meet the tiles in the lobby. Plasterboarding about to being in earnest so there should be a tonne of change for the next update. Electric and plumbing work is ongoing elsewhere in anticipation of the plastering. Metal door frames will go in around now as well as they need to be plastered into place. We’ve heard rumbles the staircase is under way but not seen anything to date - this is now going to be Douglas Fir timber which is a nice upgrade from what we originally had in mind. The midway landing is now in place albeit in a basic form, hovering above the temporary stairwell landing that’s needed to do the lobby plastering. It looks like there’s still tonnes to do, but once the plastering is done, the flooring can go in and that’s kind of it until the the windows arrive (mid October). The moment windows are in, we can move in :)
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Above is the general gist of what the materials in the kitchen will end up like. Ash veneered cabinets one side, HPL off white/beige the other. Ikea cabinets for the base units and doors and drawers from the very helpful people at HUSK, Bristol. The idea is to carry the ash from the cabinets to the side wall of the kitchen as big panels forming a wall of wood. That’s the theory. The Spanish terracotta tiles mentioned in an earlier post on the floor, that will carry on through into the lobby. Steel worktop. Hoping it all ties together somehow. The weird soil pipe in the far corner of the kitchen is the extractor pipe from the laundry room below. This will exit the side of the house and be hidden in the kitchen bench/steps out to the terrace.
It’s felt like a lot has been done over the last few weeks, but maybe not as much as we’d have liked. An issue with the cost of the EWI and render has been resolved and that’s due to start very soon. The first floor ceiling has been insulated and plasterboarded. This week should see the entire house being plasterboarded and/or bonded and skimmed depending on room. Outside the extension roof is finally insulated, finished and watertight, with only the decking and balustrading to be fitted a little further down the line. The gulley that runs along the top of this is formed and should move the rainwater to the sides of the roof and down into the guttering.
Now watertight (albeit there’s still no windows) it means the underfloor heating pipework has been laid in place on top of some thick PIR insulation Following that is the screed pour which should be incoming later this week coming touch wood. Then finally, we can tile. Tiles are sitting somewhere in Essex having arrived from sunny Spain. It will be fun lugging two pallet loads of them down the hill in to the extension.
In the main house, the UFH was laid and the floors have had 22mm chipboard glued and screwed in place. On top of this will be 6mm Hardiebacker tile board ready for the tiles. We’re running the tile board into the living room as well, despite only engineered wood going there. Reason being is to make up the difference in level where the wood will meet the tiles in the lobby. Plasterboarding about to being in earnest so there should be a tonne of change for the next update. Electric and plumbing work is ongoing elsewhere in anticipation of the plastering. Metal door frames will go in around now as well as they need to be plastered into place. We’ve heard rumbles the staircase is under way but not seen anything to date - this is now going to be Douglas Fir timber which is a nice upgrade from what we originally had in mind. The midway landing is now in place albeit in a basic form, hovering above the temporary stairwell landing that’s needed to do the lobby plastering. It looks like there’s still tonnes to do, but once the plastering is done, the flooring can go in and that’s kind of it until the the windows arrive (mid October). The moment windows are in, we can move in :)
Above is the general gist of what the materials in the kitchen will end up like. Ash veneered cabinets one side, HPL off white/beige the other. Ikea cabinets for the base units and doors and drawers from the very helpful people at HUSK, Bristol. The idea is to carry the ash from the cabinets to the side wall of the kitchen as big panels forming a wall of wood. That’s the theory. The Spanish terracotta tiles mentioned in an earlier post on the floor, that will carry on through into the lobby. Steel worktop. Hoping it all ties together somehow. The weird soil pipe in the far corner of the kitchen is the extractor pipe from the laundry room below. This will exit the side of the house and be hidden in the kitchen bench/steps out to the terrace.
25/07/19
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The roof of the main house is now pretty much done for the moment. PV panels in and looking good. Incorrect concrete ridgeline tiles were installed that will have to be swapped out for slate. Annoyingly the ridgeline isn’t perfectly flat, which will no doubt annoy us for the rest of our lives. PV panels to be hooked up very shortly, with the inverter located in the loft space. Hopefully we’ll get a small battery at some point and install alongside. In the loft space, the two lots of pitch insulation is almost complete which is great. Floor boarded. Loft hatch fitted etc. Out back, the extension roof is also nearly complete. There’s a load of insualtion to be added on top of the silver membrane prior to it being finished with a grey rubber roof. Eventually we’ll lay a sedum green roof on one half whilst the other half forms the roof terrace. The skylight arrived and is temporarily perched in the front garden ready to be dropped into place.
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There’s been a tonne of stuff happening inside but it doesn’t make for the most interesing shots. Lots more plumbing and electric has been completed. The UFH on the ground floor was installed albeit there’s an issue in the kitchen that needs to be ironed out. Living room has been chipboarded over ready for finish. Elsewhere the plasterboarding is shortly to begin. Doorways are being finished by the joiner ready for the frameless door system to be installed. Windows are touch wood being finally ordered after this weekend after a bit of back and forth. Cue 12 week wait. Can’t be avoided unfortunately. Must be patient. The black stuff in the shot below is hiding a load of wooden battening and building out that has been completed ready for the vertical timber cladding to be fitted. We’re still working out which wood to use but should nail that down soon enough.
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The roof of the main house is now pretty much done for the moment. PV panels in and looking good. Incorrect concrete ridgeline tiles were installed that will have to be swapped out for slate. Annoyingly the ridgeline isn’t perfectly flat, which will no doubt annoy us for the rest of our lives. PV panels to be hooked up very shortly, with the inverter located in the loft space. Hopefully we’ll get a small battery at some point and install alongside. In the loft space, the two lots of pitch insulation is almost complete which is great. Floor boarded. Loft hatch fitted etc. Out back, the extension roof is also nearly complete. There’s a load of insualtion to be added on top of the silver membrane prior to it being finished with a grey rubber roof. Eventually we’ll lay a sedum green roof on one half whilst the other half forms the roof terrace. The skylight arrived and is temporarily perched in the front garden ready to be dropped into place.
There’s been a tonne of stuff happening inside but it doesn’t make for the most interesing shots. Lots more plumbing and electric has been completed. The UFH on the ground floor was installed albeit there’s an issue in the kitchen that needs to be ironed out. Living room has been chipboarded over ready for finish. Elsewhere the plasterboarding is shortly to begin. Doorways are being finished by the joiner ready for the frameless door system to be installed. Windows are touch wood being finally ordered after this weekend after a bit of back and forth. Cue 12 week wait. Can’t be avoided unfortunately. Must be patient. The black stuff in the shot below is hiding a load of wooden battening and building out that has been completed ready for the vertical timber cladding to be fitted. We’re still working out which wood to use but should nail that down soon enough.
25/06/18
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Lots been going on over the last few weeks. The extension parapet walls have been built up to height. All the insulation added around the sides. There is a thick layer of insulation that will sit on the flat roof and be boarded over before finishing with a single ply membrane. The firrings have been fitted that will create the slope back towards the main house for the rainwater to run. This will then run along hidden guttering between extension and main house before exiting each side of the house and down. The extension rooflight reveal has been created and the triple glazed glass unit delivered ready to drop in. It’s a big boy 2m x 1m panel an will let light into what will be the darkest part of the house.
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The enormous steels are mostly now in. One more piece is needed up top which was going in as these pics were taken. There will be one more horizontal piece fitted later at the level of the staircase landing, adding more strength to the large window opening. It’s the first time we saw the reveal open, without any plastic sheeting covering it, and the light really poured in. The new living room opening was also without plastic for the first time so was letting the light flood in as well. Nice to see.
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Lots more pipework and first fix work has been underway at the same time. Insulation is being laid on the ground floor ready for metal trays to be laid on top carrying the underfloor heating pipes. Been told that’s happening next week. There’s also a lot of timber battening going around all the windows so they can finally be measured up ready to order. This is the thing that’s going to hold up moving in as they take a good 10-14 weeks to arrive. Must be patient.
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There’s been plenty more main roof work done with the new side drainage channels starting to be finished and membraned along with the hidden guttering that sits behind the parapets. The roofers are finishing this first before felting and battening the entire roof. The following week the PV panels will be fitted on top of the newly watertight roof. Finally the slate will be fitted once ready. In the garden we did our best to collect up as much rubble as possible and dispose of it under the exposed living room floor. More to go but we got a lot done so a good start. Still concerned about the sheer quantity of topsoild we’ll need to lug down. 12 bags was hard enough work and rough calculations mean we need something in the region of 400 :)
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Lots been going on over the last few weeks. The extension parapet walls have been built up to height. All the insulation added around the sides. There is a thick layer of insulation that will sit on the flat roof and be boarded over before finishing with a single ply membrane. The firrings have been fitted that will create the slope back towards the main house for the rainwater to run. This will then run along hidden guttering between extension and main house before exiting each side of the house and down. The extension rooflight reveal has been created and the triple glazed glass unit delivered ready to drop in. It’s a big boy 2m x 1m panel an will let light into what will be the darkest part of the house.
The enormous steels are mostly now in. One more piece is needed up top which was going in as these pics were taken. There will be one more horizontal piece fitted later at the level of the staircase landing, adding more strength to the large window opening. It’s the first time we saw the reveal open, without any plastic sheeting covering it, and the light really poured in. The new living room opening was also without plastic for the first time so was letting the light flood in as well. Nice to see.
Lots more pipework and first fix work has been underway at the same time. Insulation is being laid on the ground floor ready for metal trays to be laid on top carrying the underfloor heating pipes. Been told that’s happening next week. There’s also a lot of timber battening going around all the windows so they can finally be measured up ready to order. This is the thing that’s going to hold up moving in as they take a good 10-14 weeks to arrive. Must be patient.
There’s been plenty more main roof work done with the new side drainage channels starting to be finished and membraned along with the hidden guttering that sits behind the parapets. The roofers are finishing this first before felting and battening the entire roof. The following week the PV panels will be fitted on top of the newly watertight roof. Finally the slate will be fitted once ready. In the garden we did our best to collect up as much rubble as possible and dispose of it under the exposed living room floor. More to go but we got a lot done so a good start. Still concerned about the sheer quantity of topsoild we’ll need to lug down. 12 bags was hard enough work and rough calculations mean we need something in the region of 400 :)
25/05/21
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Last couple of weeks have mostly seen roofing work going on. The front and rear parapets are complete. These raise both the front and rear walls upwards, concealing the guttering that will then run downwards along the more hidden side of the house. The gable walls have been raised using timber battens. Once complete, the gable walls should run flush with the new slate roof tiles. On the front roof will be 8 horizontal inset flush PV panels making up a modest 3.5kw system - as large as the roof will allow. The roof pitch joists have been raised up a touch to create an air gap between the insulation and the new slate tiles. Between the joists we’ll have 75mm foil backed insulation boards and then another 75mm on the inside of the pitch. Not bothering with plaster board on the inside as the loft is just for storage and it’ll trim down the costs a touch. The existing slim loft floor joists (100mm) will have mineral fibre insulation put inbetween and then chipboarded. On the back of the house the new lintels and openings are complete for the kitchen and living room. The massive central opening looks to be pretty much done, albeit hiding behind plastic sheeting. Next up are some steels to be fitted around the opening to add strength. Once done, the windows can be measured up and ordered. Inside, a lot of the first fix plumbing is now complete. Insulated pipes running all over. Soil pipes from upstairs running externally down the side wall ready to be hidden within the insulation. Electric first fix to begin very shortly.
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Started to try and drill down into window colours given it’s just about time to order them. Current favourites are RAL 1035 Pearl Beige (an ever so slightly brassy brown colour) and RAL 7032 Pebble Grey - a very rough and probably inaccurate representation of it below. Render colour has been whittled down to a K-Rend Ash White in a 0.5mm finish on the top half of the house and a 3.0mm on the lower half and inset spandrels. Hopefully there will be enough of a visual difference betwen the two once complete.
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Last couple of weeks have mostly seen roofing work going on. The front and rear parapets are complete. These raise both the front and rear walls upwards, concealing the guttering that will then run downwards along the more hidden side of the house. The gable walls have been raised using timber battens. Once complete, the gable walls should run flush with the new slate roof tiles. On the front roof will be 8 horizontal inset flush PV panels making up a modest 3.5kw system - as large as the roof will allow. The roof pitch joists have been raised up a touch to create an air gap between the insulation and the new slate tiles. Between the joists we’ll have 75mm foil backed insulation boards and then another 75mm on the inside of the pitch. Not bothering with plaster board on the inside as the loft is just for storage and it’ll trim down the costs a touch. The existing slim loft floor joists (100mm) will have mineral fibre insulation put inbetween and then chipboarded. On the back of the house the new lintels and openings are complete for the kitchen and living room. The massive central opening looks to be pretty much done, albeit hiding behind plastic sheeting. Next up are some steels to be fitted around the opening to add strength. Once done, the windows can be measured up and ordered. Inside, a lot of the first fix plumbing is now complete. Insulated pipes running all over. Soil pipes from upstairs running externally down the side wall ready to be hidden within the insulation. Electric first fix to begin very shortly.
Started to try and drill down into window colours given it’s just about time to order them. Current favourites are RAL 1035 Pearl Beige (an ever so slightly brassy brown colour) and RAL 7032 Pebble Grey - a very rough and probably inaccurate representation of it below. Render colour has been whittled down to a K-Rend Ash White in a 0.5mm finish on the top half of the house and a 3.0mm on the lower half and inset spandrels. Hopefully there will be enough of a visual difference betwen the two once complete.
