Walking Tall

Beware the black hand gang

At the right level now

At long last we have a floor. The screeders were in on Wednesday, together with 6.5 cubic yards of screed, delivered as readymix, and they proceeded to barrow it in and level it off. We had to wait several days before we could walk on it, but by Saturday it seemed sufficiently hard, with no areas of sogginess. Whilst the bulk of the floor is fine, there are a number of problems in the finishing detail - behind radiator pipes (lumps of mortar, and holes), by door frames (holes where the plastic liner wasn't trimmed back), and most annoyingly, cementy hands had been placed all over our nice oak window sills. Due to the acidic nature of the mortar, the area had turned black where the hands came into contact with the wood. Having already spent a long time sanding down the sills, I wasn't greatly pleased to have to do it again today. I've sent pictures of the problems to the firm that did the job and wait their response.

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Yesterday we went off to Buckingham Nurseries and bought our 125 mixed native hedgerow bushes, together with protective spirals and supporting canes. These we've placed in a short trench at Brookvale until Adam can get over and plant them - scheduled now for April 2nd. It was quite funny - no sooner had we heeled in the bushes, than the Boys (the two cockerels) were straight in there, digging for all they were worth. After a couple of the bushes had been upended we decided that we would have to cover them in some way, otherwise they would never see spring (the bushes not the cockerels). Our bushes are now protected by some of that orange fencing builders love.

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We've spent today in the garden, trying to get the hedgerow into some form of order. Despite both of us being there for 6 hours, it looks little different to be honest. However, the skip is now full which shows we must have been doing something.

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During the week I met Pete and Lee our chippies, (we keep calling them Peters and Lee - not sure they would be much use fixing woodwork) who did such a good job on the roof. They had agreed to do the second fix - internal doors, skirting and architrave, and wanted to see what was involved. I heard from Pete on Friday and they will be able to do our work the first week in April. I just need to work out what we need in the way of doors and wood and get it ordered now.

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Roy's boys have finished the base for the porch step which is now to have the pamments laid on Tuesday next week. This is another movable feast as were now on the fourth promised start date. Let's hope it happens this time.

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Following a call from Andy the electrician, We've been musing over light fittings. Building regulations come into play here as we have to have at least 25% low energy light fittings. These must have a special connection that only allows low energy bulbs. Trouble is the lighting scene is a nightmare - Tungsten, Halogen, LED, blue light, orange light, low energy fluorescent bulbs that take 40 seconds to reach maximum light levels, other that take 5 minutes. Think we'll have oil lamps (bet there's a building regulation that says we can't!) Anyway, we think we've worked it out to have halogen lights where we need instant brightish light, and low energy fluorescent, where it is really background light only. This should satisfy the building inspector.

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So in summary, decisions are required on : Light fittings, tiles (still undecided), flooring, paint colours (walls), and probably a host of other things that as yet we are blissfully unaware of. We have got all the light switches and sockets though.

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Oh, and I can now get Pawel, our Polish stair maker, to come out and quote for the stairs now that we have a finished floor level.

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Jan & Rog