The kitchen area

Its a long way up

Last week was very quiet with no trades working. Darren, our Will O' the Wisp plumber has returned from his holiday, but has obviously more important/more lucrative things to do as he has lived up to his pseudonym (the virtual plumber), and remained absent. Absent too were Roy's Boys who were unable to finish off our jobs due to the bad weather. Roy 'phoned on Friday to advise that Darren wanted a site meeting on Tuesday next to "agree things", whilst Roy promised his boys would be on site this coming week to lay the remaining kerb stones and pamments in the porch. Yet to be confirmed, and it may turn out to be a rumour, is the news that Darren will start fitting radiators on Wednesday. Hmm..., I wonder what odds for that happening?

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Jan and I have continued painting as can be seen from the photos above. I've bought a ladder that bends into almost any shape you want and that has enabled me to paint much of the lounge ceiling. However, there is still an area, which whilst tantalisingly close, remains just out of reach. I've had to order a scaffold tower from Jewson to enable me to get to that last bit. This arrives tomorrow which will herald the start of a week's leave for me, who, armed with a variety of paint brushes, paint pads, and tissues (I get a runny nose in the cold house) will accelerate the wear in various joints in hands, arms and back as I paint the rest of the walls and ceilings. I reckon that by Friday I will be screaming to go back to work for a rest. We've done quite well so far having applied one coat of white emulsion to the utility room, hall, kitchen, and about 2/3 of the lounge. The shower room ceiling has one coat, as too has the en-suite bathroom.

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We had a call from David Kirkpatrick of Lo-Line interiors on Friday to say that the kitchen design and quotation was ready for us to review, so on Saturday we went off to Biggleswade to see what he had come up with. As we had largely dictated what we wanted there weren't any great surprises, apart from the price. But as the last kitchen we bought was £4,500 (1990) then I guess we shouldn't have been surprised that prices had gone up just a little bit since then. It was good to see a couple of "artists impressions" as well as the plan of the layout as it helps to get a better feel of what's being proposed. With a couple of amendments to the layout, and the substitution of a slightly less sophisticated cooker (we didn't see the need to be able to input a chicken's life history to make sure it cooked properly), we think we will have a workable design. Because of the work load that Lo-Line have already, it can't be installed until May at the earliest, but we've been advised that they wouldn't install until the house had the heating on for a while otherwise nasty things might happen to the kitchen cabinets. Sounds like a job for Darren the plumber...........

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After leaving David Kirkpatrick we went off to the tile emporium (where we found tiles we liked last weekend) as we still needed a tile of a suitable size to contrast with the basic tiles we found last week. What we found though was that the tile manufacturers make tiles of odd sizes to ensure that you can only use the combinations they make and not mix and match with other tiles. It gets very frustrating when you see exactly the colour/style of tile you want, only to find it is incompatible in length, width, or thickness, to other tiles you have chosen. We've now opted for a different tile for the en-suite which can be complemented with a burgundy coloured tile that matches the unit that houses the basin. The other problem we have is finding suitably small tiles for the wet room as the larger ones do not lend themselves to be laid on the slopes that fall to the drain. I'm sure we'll get there.

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And finally, I've found a company who can manufacture an oak staircase at a very modest price - Polish Staircases Limited. A very polite email from Pawel, explains that they will come to site to measure up, send detailed plans to Poland, make the stairs using all the latest computer controlled machinery, then ship the finished product to us and fit it - all for about 1/3 of the price of a UK made staircase. For once I'm all in favour of the EU.

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Must go and wash my hair now - its covered in emulsion!

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Two white haired old gits from Clifton - sorry, one white haired old git (me), and a suave, debonair artist (Jan)

Anyone for tennis?

Our nice new lawn

Its been a quiet week for building as we wait for Darren to return from holiday and fit radiators and pipework before the floor can be laid. However, Gary and his chums made short work of laying our lovely new lawn, although it was a bit touch and go with the weather closing in. But a long day on Monday saw most of the lawn laid, and the job was completed on Tuesday morning. True to form, and as predicted by the weather forecasters (I guess they have to get it right sometimes), the rain started Tuesday lunchtime and turned to snow by the evening. Had it rained earlier, all Gary's hard work would have been wasted as he needed to lay the turf on dry sub soil (a sandy loam which he brought with him as our clay was a soggy mess). Its surprising how small the garden appears in the photo, but how large it seems in reality. Given that the border you can see to the right of the photo is 104 foot long, and the distance from the house to the right hand boundary is 35 feet, then it isn't really small, it just looks as though it is.

Now that the plaster has well and truly dried out Roy suggested that a coat of emulsion could be applied to seal the walls. I started this today (hall) and will continue tomorrow with the lounge ceiling, which represents something of a challenge as the highest point is nearly 16 feet above the floor. Still, armed with a roller on a pole I should be able to reach most of it. Or perhaps I could get a trampoline?

Jan and I have had some success with tiles having just returned from our local tile supplier who had a completely different range of tiles to anything we've seen elsewhere. We're close to agreement on wall tiles for the shower room and en-suite, but have stumbled a bit on floor tiles for the wet room (shower room). The ones we like only come in ginormous size, whereas the slope to the drain in the wet room demands smaller tiles to make it easier to lay. We're hoping that the very friendly assistant at the tile suppliers can find something similar that comes in both large and small sizes.

Hopefully Roy and his boys will get busy with the remaining jobs this coming week although it looks like more snow is forecast. Assuming that the forecasters have got it wrong again, we should have the pamments laid to form the porch floor, the kerb edging done (to the line of the pegs in the photo), and all the bricks, fencing, and general builders detritus collected by Roy.

I've been checking out modular stair kits in the odd spare moment and found a local supplier tucked away behind Tesco in Baldock. Having arranged to meet the proprietor yesterday afternoon, I was surprised when he wasn't there. However, an exceedingly helpful guy stopped milling a lump of wood and took me to the sawdust covered "showroom" which consisted of a couple of steps from three different manufacturers ranges. None were secure so trying to walk up them was impossible. When I asked if they had an example of a specific model - the Ehleva Vector 83, he showed me another model from another manufacturer, and then tried to tell me it was the one I had asked to see. By now, somewhat unconvinced by this guy's knowledge, I asked if he had any literature on the Ehleva Vector 83. He confirmed he had, disappeared and came back with an Arke brochure, who whilst an Italian manufacturer, is an entirely different company. After a rather futile little interlude of "that's not what I asked for" and "yes its what you want", I left.

Just off now to try drawing up designs for a contrasting tile pattern for the shower room and en-suite. Mind you, we might just Google images of "bathrooms" and pinch someone else's ideas!

Jan & Rog

Totally plastered and now we're on the tiles!

Gone is the clay - replaced by lovely black mulch.

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The garden cleared for turfing

As its two weeks since my last epistle, a fair amount has happened. Tony Holland has done an excellent job on the plastering which is not only finished but nicely dried out too. Mind you, it ought to be as we've had a 3 KW ceramic fire in the house for the last 10 days. I didn't really want to take it back because the house was so warm, but the hire charges are not exactly cheap and 3 KW for 24 hours consumes a lot of joules. I guess one day soon an electricity supply company is going to realise that we've had a supply for over 4 months and send us a bill, but no sign of a it yet.......

Roy's boys have virtually finished all their jobs - the garden has been levelled off, the drive entrance is now widened, the telephone cable laid, and the roadway strengthened where the sewer runs under it. Talking of the 'phone, I telephoned BT to let them know that the cable was in place and that they could connect up. "Great" said the "new services" man and he said he would get the cable connected to the pole straightaway. Now call me old fashioned, but I don't call June straightaway, but that's the date the connections people have told him. How come they can dig a hole, erect a telegraph pole, connect it to another 50 yards away, all in the space of 10 days, but cannot connect two cables together in less than 4 months? No, I don't know either.

With all the clay soil now removed from the garden we've hired Bolton Turf to make the land that surrounds the house into a garden again. Gary and his man arrived on Friday, removed several tree roots, levelled off various "lumpy" bits and spread 16 cubic metres of the blackest fibrous soil you ever saw on the land at the back of the house. They've also marked off the area where we'll have turf and will prepare that early next week, assuming the weather behaves a little better. (Snow this morning, and sleet this afternoon)

Knowing that Bolton Turf were starting on Friday, I was rather concerned that the builders toilet (you will recall my previous description of this offensive blue edifice) would be marooned at the back of the house and that the less than careful driver that came to collect it would drive across our nice new lawn leaving two furrows. So, it had to be moved on Thursday otherwise, it would be marooned. Being alone this represented something of a challenge. However, in best Ramses II style, I used a track consisting of a pair of timber planks, side by side, and walked the toilet some 35 yards to its new location. Needless to say, I taped down the lid before I started and managed to complete the project in about 30 minutes with no spillages.

During the week we received the quotation back from Vic the bathroom fitter, and have accepted his very reasonable price to install all the fittings in the en-suite and shower room. Now we need the floor laid, but that can't go down until the plumber has laid the pipework and he's on holiday next week (when the radiators arrive). Hopefully Darren the plumber will complete his work the week after next and we can get Clive and his screeding team started on the floor.

Jan and I have been looking at tiles this weekend and have not been overly impressed with what we've seen so far. Think we need to spend some more time on the jolly old world wide interweb thingy to get some inspiration.

Yesterday and today we've been mainly clearing up after the builders - again. Whilst Tony was very careful with his plastering, it was inevitable that he would get the odd dollop of plaster here and there. All the electrical sockets have been cleaned out as well as the light switch boxes. The garage has had an early spring clean today too, and as Roy is collecting all his "stuff" next week, and taking many of the bricks we don't need, plus some of the security fencing, we'll be quite tidy by next weekend. Its the cleanest wee house has been for many months. Wonder if it will stay that way?

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So, as far as the coming week is concerned, we hope to have the lawn laid, the remaining edging to the drive completed at the end of our garden, and the pamments laid to form the porch floor.

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By the way, I received a communication from a widow today - Valentines day. I think that you may be a reader of this blog. If so, then may I say that I am touched by your sentiments and that your "secret" is safe with me.

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Jan & Rog