And now we've a kitchen sink too

Ray the kitchen fitter finished on Thursday (although a couple of items are wrong/missing). He's done an excellent job and we're really pleased with the standard of work and the appearance. It looks a tad dull at the moment but we're researching brightly coloured upstands and splashbacks (I thought these we're only found in men's toilets!) to add a bit of colour. And we've yet to decide on what colour to paint the walls - or what's left of them.

~

Darren our plumber paid another of his flying visits on Friday and has completed the plumbing in the utility room which means we can now get Anglian Water to give us full mains pressure rather than the pathetic dribble we're allowed at the moment. This momentous stage triggers two more things - firstly I can arrange for that dam portable toilet to be collected, and also get the sprinkler company in to do the final fix. They need full water pressure before they can test. Once that's done they provide a certificate that I have to send to the building inspector.
~

Andy the electrician put in another of his weekly Saturday visits and has worked through most of the list I compiled of "things for the sparks to finish". Importantly we now have permanent power to the garage and thus the rainwater harvesting system no longer requires the annoying connection of an extension lead from the house to activate the pump. Andy expects to finish next week. Mind you, I have heard that before and its not happened yet. I expect we'll see him on Saturday again.

~

I arranged for a site visit from our local woodburning stove emporium and Chris Smith duly appeared on Thursday. After a quick peek up the chimney he announced that it would be quite straightforward and immediately gave a quote for the supply and fit of a Danish stove. We'll be placing the order on Tuesday but it will take 6 weeks or so to be fitted. That should give me time to build the hearth and surround, particularly as I become a part-time worker as of 1st June -just two days a week. Roll on full retirement - I haven't time to go to work!

~

Our good friend Jon Ward has been on duty again today, and we now have most of the utility room fitted out. Jon's returning tomorrow and hopes to finish. Considering he's had to butcher (in the nicest possible way) several units to fit in the awkward space available, including cutting door down in size and fixing vinyl edging, its amazing that he's done so much in just three days.

~

Jan's been working in the garden - putting in various plants/shrubs from Clifton which have been "resettled" into the front garden at Brookvale. Inevitably, with all the rich soil we had delivered earlier in the year, dandelions, docks, bindweed, and other weeds have appeared as if by magic since the rain began a few days ago. Jan has managed to rid us of most of them but in so doing has found more debris, building rubble, and other detritus which is gradually filling our latest skip.

~

Before Jon arrived today I managed to apply another coat of emulsion to the bathroom wall (red to match the tiles and cupboards). Although I had to buy a 2.5 litre tin, when I thought much less would do, I find that even after four coats I will need to apply another two at least. Good job I have a larger tin then!

~

We had a further visit from JJ the tarmac man today as I had asked him for an official quotation for resurfacing the drive. Previously he had sent his price through Roy Bacon our erstwhile project manager. As I had been of the opinion that Roy had added a mark-up to JJ's price I decided to cut out Roy and go direct. I was rather surprised that his quote to me today was £2,500 higher than it was three months ago via Roy. Don't think JJ is going to get our business!

~

And so to the bureaucracy that has always been present in this build. I have mentioned that we wanted Velux roof windows in the attic room. When I applied last year permission was refused even though once the house is built I can automatically fit them under the revised (and relaxed) permitted development rules. But no, you have no planning permission for this we were told, so you must make a new application (£400). At the time I was told that the house had to be substantially complete before permitted development came into being. It was implied that this meant the house had to be signed off. However, I enquired of the planners at the beginning of the week to tell me exactly what they meant by "substantially complete". The response was that the house had to have its basic elements - walls, roof, windows. Now that was rather different to what had previously been implied so I replied saying that as we could move into the house in 2 weeks if we wanted to, it was obviously substantially complete and as such we must able to carrying out any works covered by the rules relating to permitted development - i.e. fitting our Velux windows. I advised what we wanted to do and asked that the planners confirmed that in their opinion our house was substantially complete, and that I would be covered by permitted development rules if we fitted Velux windows. The reply was typical :

"From the information you have provided you are unlikely to require planning permission for the insertion of roof lights. The link below details the limits and conditions for alterations to the roof"

There followed a link to the government planning portal and a summary of what can be done under permitted developments. So ask a specific question and you are referred to a vague summary but the planners will not give a definitive response. If you get it wrong you're in deep do dos. If the government seriously wants to save money I know where they can start!

~

I've already spoken to Pete Brooks our chippie, and will arrange for him to fit the Velux windows I bought cheaply on Ebay as soon as possible.

~

Jan & Rog (who feel like they are getting there at last)

An inspector calls.....

Our new house sign - 6 Brookvale

The kitchen taking shape

Having been looking forward to the kitchen being fitted we were somewhat disappointed to hear that the machine that drills holes in the widgets had gone haywire. This meant that the expected start on Monday (last) would not happen. Instead, the fitter - Ray - arrived on Wednesday, to be followed shortly by the cupboard carcases, and then the appliances. Ray is meticulous, a fact no doubt the result of 30 years fitting kitchens. By Friday we had most of the basic work done as can be seen from the photo above. Work should be completed by the end of next week at the latest. The standard of work is excellent, and Ray a pleasure to have working at the house.

You may recall that I was less than happy with the screeders. Well, after nearly 3 months, I received a bill, despite the fact that I've had no contact with the company since they inspected the work and acknowledged that remedial action was necessary. The promised resolution didn't arrive and in the end I made good myself. Imagine my disappointment to find an allowance of just a few pounds deducted from the bill for that remedial work. I sense a long drawn out dispute! Incidentally, I fixed our new post box up last weekend, and within 10 minutes the postie popped the unwanted screeding bill into it. Not the type of communication I wanted for our first letter.

We also got a letter from the post office to confirm our address as : 6 Brookvale, Upper Stondon, Henlow, Bedfordshire SG16 6LL. This prompted us to buy a suitably inscribed slate sign (via the Internet of course) as can be seen in the first photo above, and which I fitted on Friday evening.

Monday last week brought a letter from Central Bedfordshire Planning Department - Building Regulations Section - demanding "access to the development". The subsequent paragraph gave a dire warning of failure to allow this visit, the possibility of prosecution, etc., etc. Building Wee House has made me rather paranoid, so we reviewed all the options - the letter had arrived just a few days after the stairs had been fitted. Was it this? Had the Rat seen the stairs and called the Council. Had one of our neighbours got a beef? What had we done - would we be for the high jump? There was only one answer - call the Building Inspector, Keith Brown. This I did on Wednesday morning. A very jovial Keith Brown told me that their system had triggered an alert because they hadn't been to the site for 3 months and they didn't want us doing things that were wrong and thus costly to put right. Fine says I, when would you like to visit. That would be down to me to choose a day and then call him before 10.00 and he would call sometime that day. As one can't argue with this less than customer service orientated attitude, I opted for Friday, called the number with our details and then waited for the inspector to call. Keith, a bear of a man, wandered round the house saying all looked fine, checked the stairs and the mezzanine and declared them fine, gave me some tips on how to put the Velux windows in the roof, and then said "need to check the front door". Oh dear - a black mark here then. Despite the porch floor being just 2" below the doorstep, the threshold has to be level inside and out. This must be done Keith advised, and properly - no half baked temporary jobs. So we have to scratch our heads and come up with ramps inside and out to meet this rather pointless requirement. I say pointless because a good friend of ours Jon Ward (more of whom later) is a senior rehabilitation engineer specialising in wheelchairs. He believes that any wheelchair could get over our threshold as it is, with the exception of those made for very, very large people. But as these are 3 feet wide they wouldn't go through the door opening anyway. I seem to remember being here before........

In summary though, apart from the front door issue, Keith told me that he needed various certificates - electrical, sprinkler commissioning, energy performance (submitted with the original plans but has to be redone to reflect any changes - it seems we have improved on the original anyway), and an air pressure test. Now I could get very worked up about this, but suffice it to say that I have to employ a very expensive service to check the house for air leaks. This is done by building up the pressure in the house and seeing if the pressure drops quickly. If it does the source of the pressure loss has to be found and plugged. I'm told that a case of mastic is a very useful thing to have at the time. What I would like explained though is why this test is done. We've had to have trickle vents in all the windows and these do not form an air-tight seal; there is a rather large hole in the lounge called "a chimney" through which I can see the sky, and an air brick to the outside which is mandatory for a wood burning stove. Furthermore, increasing the pressure inside the house to see if air leaks is the opposite to the objective of the test which is to ensure that cold doesn't get in. Give me strength!

Jan has spent a considerable time in the garden at Brookvale, mainly to put up mesh to stop "the boys" from scratching at the bark that protects the hedge plants. Each day we would arrive at Wee House to find the bark scattered across the lawn. We would sweep it back and the following night it was on the lawn again. Its now two days since operation "stop the b*gg*ars scratching the bark or its chicken for Sunday lunch" was completed, and I can report complete success. Mind you , with the dry weather we've been having the plants will die soon anyway if it doesn't rain.

And so to today. Jon Ward had offered his help to assemble/modify our IKEA units for the utility room. Jon spent the day making cupboards fit round the less aesthetically pleasing bits of the room - boiler, pipework, electrical distribution box, etc., whilst Jan and I put together base units and wall cupboards, then took them apart and put them together correctly. Jon is coming back tomorrow to continue his excellent work, and hopes to finish this by the bank holiday weekend.

Talking of the utility room fitments, the units all came from IKEA, but because the IKEA worktops are made in Germany and one assumes shipped over via China (why else would it take 8 weeks to deliver), we opted for a worktop from Jewsons. Two days after it was ordered I was told it was in and would be delivered - see you Germans, good old fashioned BRITISH workmanship, and immediate service. Well, delivered it was, and damaged it was, so returned it was (Am I beginning to sound like Yoda?). You may remember that it was Jewsons who dumped a delivery in the middle of a flower bed. This time though they had loaded our worktop good side down in the back of a pick-up truck. As it was wrapped in the thinnest polythene I've ever seen, it was hardly surprising that it had scores on the surface.

Darren our plumber has been working well over the last two weeks. He's sorted out the problems we had with the rainwater harvesting system (pressure switch knackered for the technically-minded), and connected the supply to the sprinkler system. Andy the electrician has again proved to be a problem. After appearing briefly last Saturday and promising to return during the week, he put in another 2 hours today, once again promising to spend time towards the end of next week. I find it difficult to believe what he promises now.

Jan & Rog.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Staircase & bathroom special

Just installed today so a special post

We're delighted with the stairs - the combination of the white stringers and posts and oak handrails and treads work well with the existing oak and white of the ceiling.

And the bathroom was finished off on Monday, so a shot of a desperate Jan trying to work out how to use the loo!

Jan & Rog

A very quiet week

Nothing of interest to report really.

Andy our electrician has gone AWOL. I couldn't reach him by mobile so tried a text. In return I got an apology for his absence and a commitment to be on site this coming week. I do hope so - the electrics are close to completion and the delay is becoming frustrating.

As we were short of tiles for the bathroom, and the bank holiday rather interfered with delivery from the suppliers, I wasn't able to collect the additional tiles until Thursday. When I phoned Vic (our bathroom fitter) he said that he and Dave would return Monday 10th May to complete the job.

The other impending installation - the stairs - has now been delayed until Tuesday 11th May so I intend to take a day off work to be present.

One other bit of news is that our IKEA kitchen furniture for the utility room which was forecast for delivery in early June, is now being delivered next Thursday (13th May).

Jan and I have spent the weekend at Brookvale - painting on Saturday afternoon (both of us - utility room) and finishing the first coat of paint in the hall on Sunday (me) and gardening (all day Jan, and me in the afternoon). Once again the lawn needed cutting, and I've cleared lots of cow parsley from the hedgerow. Jan has been busy clearing the weeds from the bank created after the widening of the driveway entrance with a view to grass seeding the area soon.


Jan & Rog