The Wee house

6 months on........

2011-04-30T15:13:00.000-07:00

The new deck

Our newly surfaced driveway

The garden takes shape

Its now some 6 months since we moved in to Wee House and we both love living here. The house layout works well and most things seem to be living up to expectations. We did have a couple of niggles - the cistern in the shower room had an annoying habit of continual flushing. Having had the original plumber come back to check it out and advise that "all would be well as I've taken it apart and cleaned it" only to find that the problem continued. After several months I asked another plumber to look at it and he advised that it was due to a build up of limescale on the seal. I cleaned the seal as suggested but nothing changed - it still refused to work properly. In a fit of pique one day I took the cistern all apart and found that the plunger button on the top of the cistern was on a ratchet and that by adjusting this I could stop the problem all together. Plumbers - who needs 'em!

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We've also become a little irritated with the water sprinkler system which acts as an unintended reservoir for the cisterns and outside tap. Every time the recycled water is used the sprinkler system goes into a symphony of gurgling and glugging noises as it disgorges water to the requesting device, only to be followed by the rainwater pump surging into life to restore the 105 lbs per square foot pressure that the system demands. Think we might look at a redesign of that. Of course the other problem with the rainwater harvesting system is that it hasn't rained for months so we're using chargeable mains water. Being green isn't necessarily cost effective.
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With the bad weather over winter little was done to the house/garden until March, which happened to coincide with my retirement. Since then we've designed and laid out paths to the rear of the house, laid a base for and erected a shed behind the garage, and planted various plants, shrubs and other stuff (I'm not the green fingered type).
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One of the biggest projects has been the building of the deck which was completed the week following the Easter break. This has made a tremendous difference to the garden and will allow us to plan a little more of the area to the side of the house. Mind you, the birds seem to like the deck a lot and the trouble with that is - bird poo - lots of it on the deck and railings. Still as an idle retired person, what else have I to do but clean bird poo off the deck.
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Another side effect of the dry weather has been the dust thrown up by traffic passing the house. Our windows and door at the front of the house have been covered by dust for several months but it had always been our intention to have the 100 yard driveway resurfaced. With no apparent likelihood of more heavy traffic to any of the houses at Brookvale, we arranged for a company to fill the holes and resurface the drive. Much to our surprise, all the neighbours agreed to have their respective bits done too, so during May, the complete drive from the public road to the far end of Brookvale was transformed over a two day period. It looked marvellous and transformed the whole appearance of Brookvale. Would you believe that on the afternoon that the drive had been finished, the owners of number 1 Brookvale (absent landlords) had arranged for a tracked digger to carry out some work on their back garden. So with fresh tar still setting this idiot tracked the digger down the drive, chewing up the surface where he turned on the corners. It took me an hour to restore the drive to something like it short-lived former glory. We were assured that when the work was finished the digger would be tracked back up the lawn. Guess what? It went back up the drive. More work to cover up the track marks. Bless 'em!
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For the future, it will be the garden that receives most of our effort as we generally move clockwise round the house, taking our time so make sure we (Jan) get the planting as right as we can, given sun, shade, wind, and other factors to consider.
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Jan and Rog (enjoying Brookvale)

Nearly there now

2010-10-10T09:55:00.000-07:00

With contracts exchanged on Friday for our house in Clifton, we are set to move into Brookvale this coming week. We've spent the last few days gradually moving "stuff" to Brookvale - filling up cupboards, hanging pictures, and generally getting Wee House sorted out. With just the bed, mattress, chest of drawers and washing machine to go to Brookvale, we have hired a local man with a van who rejoices under the trading name of Steptoe and Son (probably better than one called Trotter's International Trading Company). Whilst there are still some things we need - coffee table, side tables, toiler roll holders, coat hooks, etc, the basic needs are all well catered for. I expect we'll have another shopping trip at the end of the week.
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At long last our rainwater harvesting man has given a date to swap the pump for an uprated version - Thursday 14th, so I'll then be able to get onto our sprinkler company to finish the installation and commission the system.
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We are still waiting for Andy our electrician to come and resolve a couple of problems we have with the electrics at Brookvale. We've also discovered that the boiler seems to have a mind of its own and refuses to be controlled by the timer, so Andy will need to check that out too. Regardless of this erratic boiler behaviour, the house does heat up very quickly and retain the heat so the high levels of insulation seem to be doing their job.
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I guess the blog will have soon run its course both as an a means of informing everyone of progress but also as an outlet for my frustrations. However, there is one final chapter to come and that involves our sprinkler company so look out for the posting in a few weeks time.
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I'm sure we'll be seeing all of you at Brookvale over the coming weeks once we've settled in.
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Relieved of Brookvale

I finally explode......

2010-09-30T01:52:00.000-07:00

Somewhere to sit now

Scatter cushions and red doors

It had to be Anglian Water that would finally cause me to get more than a tad angry. I had received a call from a rather curt sounding young lady from the aforesaid monopoly to arrange an appointment to fit the meter. Wednesday was the date offered, between 12.00 and 17.00. "No they couldn't make it a specific time" she said. I explained that the house was unoccupied and that I would need to be telephoned 10 minutes before their man arrived. This was duly noted. I made sure I was at Brookvale at 12.00 on Wednesday anyway and worked my way through a few of the remaining jobs. At 15.30 the an Anglian Water van pulled up outside - just as well I was there as I hadn't received the promised phone call. My heart sank - it was the same over-officious fellow that took such delight in refusing to connect us the last time. Still, no matter, I've got the installation approved so no worries surely? WRONG! He insisted that I had not passed the inspection because the water regulation team manager was not able to do this. He said that all the water regulation team could do was to pass the rainwater harvesting aspects. He then asked how we had solved the shower hose problem so I took him to the bathroom and showed him the pathetic little hose lying by the taps. "That's no good" he said. "you haven't got a clip to stop you leaving the shower hose in the bath. You need a double check valve in the tap otherwise you could get bathwater being sucked back into the supply." Now my father had a favourite saying that he "got fighting mad" and I do know what he meant. Well, I laid into this fellow and covered a lot of ground before he suddenly backed down and agreed that his comment about the bathwater back flow was only for our benefit as it couldn't get into the mains supply (as I had pointed out, most politely you understand, that we had a double check valve on the main supply into the house). Of he toddled up the drive in the pouring rain (there is some justice at times) and fitted the meter. On his return he smugly told me that he thought someone had tampered with the trickle valve that had stopped us getting full mains pressure, declaring that this was a serious matter and that Anglian Water had considered prosecution in the past when this had happened. I asked to see the offending valve and he showed me a slightly rough edge in the plastic. It could so easily have been poor manufacture. I pointed out that there was little point me getting a slightly faster trickle (which is all we had received) instead of a feeble trickle and that if anyone was going to tamper with it they would make sure they got a decent flow of water surely. He didn't really answer this but proceeded to regale me with tales of how he had refused to sign off various developments including one where I got chapter and verse about the tampering with valves, broken water mains, and even access issues - how unprofessional.
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Our sofas arrived from John Lewis on Tuesday and after a little jiggling have been positioned where we think they will stay (subject to management correction of course). The living room still looks a little bare but with the curtains due to be fitted on Thursday 7th October, it should look much better.
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We had filled all the bookcases as we transferred books from Clifton so decided that we needed some more shelving. This called for another trip to IKEA where we duly went on Wednesday. Neither Jan nor I fancied the meatballs so opted for chicken (Jan) and fish (Rog). The fact that Jan ended up with fish too is one of life's little mysteries but sadly we were both disappointed as eating the filling imprisoned by the breadcrumbs was more akin to eating a cushion than fish! Anyway, another two shelving units, various containers and a display cabinet were soon on their way to the car park on a trolley with a mind of its own. We just hoped the 2 metre long cabinet pack would fit in the car, but with a bit of seat movement and Jan relegated to the back seat, it all fitted in. And no, Jan didn't tell me how to drive from her back seat.
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Two of the items we bought from IKEA are red (very red) doors that fit into the shelving units to turn them into little cupboards. We had decided, perhaps rashly, that we should paint the door to the cupboard at the end of the mezzanine in a similar bright red. Because the wood used for the door is not as smooth as it might be we opted for a satin finish as this would be less likely to show blemishes than full gloss. Trouble is, red is not generally available in satin so we've struggled to come up with any paint. My last hope is that our local builders merchants will be able to produce something on their colour mixing machine, although the look of bewilderment on the face of the hooded young person (who it seems is still training to be a human being as well as a sales assistant) did not inspire me that they could deliver. Hopefully Clever Trevor will be back next week - he's the man who lists Methuselah as a friend on Facebook and knows everything about everything.
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Talking of red, we've ordered a red glass splashback for the wall behind the hob in the kitchen with a view to using the same coloured glass as upstands around the rest of the worktop area. We're just waiting to make sure the splashback looks OK before we order the upstands.
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With insurance in mind I was conscious that we didn't have lockable stays on the top hinging windows so checked what was available with the suppliers of the casement stays. Although very expensive, I had no choice but to buy them and they arrived at work. On opening the pack I found that there were no keys with them. Now I would have thought if you're spending £140 + on seven locks that a key or two would be something you would expect. At the very least you would think that you would be told you would need the keys as they were not part of the lock itself. I'm now waiting to find out how much the postage is going to cost for two £2 keys.
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Our alarms man was persuaded to come on Sunday and after a long day has finished the installation so we feel much more comfortable about leaving more and more of our possessions at Brookvale. Just got to learn how the dam thing works now.
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Following a visit from the couple that are buying our house in Clifton and their requirement to move on the 14th October , we have decided to move on Tuesday 12th October as it gives us a bit more time to move and clean up Manor Close. We'll be taking "stuff" to Brookvale over the course of the next 8 days so all we really need to move on "the day" will be a few items of bedroom furniture that we're keeping.
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The couple who can't believe that after all this time they're actually going to move in!

Ding bloody dong!

2010-09-26T01:30:00.000-07:00

Ready for lunch

Ready for guests!

At long last, after our third inspection, Anglian Water have finally approved our plumbing and promised to give us mains pressure - they can't say when, but at least we know everything is now as they want it. The inspector said to me that the new sign by the outside tap was so much better (dark gungy green and not very clear with its black type). He did not share my view that the previous sign was far easier to read and gave a much clearer warning with its red type on a white background. He also said that what we did after he left was up to us (in reference to the shower hose). I was well ahead of him on that one!

All we need now is the sprinkler system to be commissioned and we're done with the formalities. Unfortunately our rainwater harvesting man has let us down rather badly as he said he hadn't given us any priority in responding on the pump replacement. He's not kidding - its nearly four weeks ago since I spoke to him about it. Its now five days after my latest call and he's still not provided the promised quote. However, I have to admit that its not a priority for me at the moment as we need to get the rest of the house ready for us to move in since our buyers are now gently pushing for a moving date from Clifton.

We've spent most of the week getting the large store cupboard (at the end of the mezzanine) ready so that we can start to fill it with toot - sorry - useful stuff that we don't use very often (at all?). With a covering of our favourite material - Glasstex - two coats of white emulsion, an offcut of carpet from our local store, and some simple skirting, its all ready except for the door. This is being painted in the garage and should be ready for fitting by the middle of next week.

I called out reluctant electrician - Andy - during the week to ask him to resolve the non-working outside lights, and the movement sensitive porch lights which seem to have a mind of their own as they come on during the day (sometimes), and not always at night. As ever he promised to come at the weekend. As ever, he didn't show! Similarly, I called Michael. our alarms man, during the week and he promised to come at the weekend and finish the installation. He didn't show either. What is it with these guys?

With a delivery of the studio bed, dining table, and chairs from John Lewis on Friday, Wee House is looking more like a home now. The study/guest room is now complete with bookshelves, books, studio couch, desk and chair, whilst the living room has the table and chairs roughly in the right place but subject to change by management (Jan's still deciding on the exact position).

Generally speaking we're at the end of the jobs inside the house now - mainly those little things left to do that didn't seem important when there were more significant things, but now need finishing before we move more furniture in. There are several bits of "touching up" of paintwork, for example, and we're still deciding on the colour of the splashback and upstands for the kitchen. I favour a clarety sort of colour - not too different from the red in the bathroom.

John Lewis will be delivering the two sofas on Tuesday which completes the major furniture purchases. We'll have to call the curtain suppliers to see when these will be ready as this will make such a difference when they are in place.

Jan is busy sorting out Manor Close - looks like the charity shops will benefit, including it would seem, possibly receiving most of our furniture. I called our local auction house during the week and was told that yew reproduction furniture, of which we have a lot, is the most difficult to sell. In their judgement we'd be lucky to get £50 for the lot. As "the lot" includes an extending table with four chairs, corner display cabinet with glazed upper door, another corner cupboard, large coffee table, two side tables with drawers, two 2 seater sofas (M&S Charlotte in green), two display cabinets (dark oak finish from Locke's of London), and two pine wardrobes, then that strikes me as quite a lot for £50! So, if anyone reading this wants some furniture for a small donation to a favourite charity, then let us know. Only thing is, it needs to go quickly.

Jan & Rog

Getting there

2010-09-18T09:19:00.000-07:00

New garage door, new car, new fence, new gravel

Darrell our affable garage door man called to say that the door had been delivered and he wanted to fit it on Wednesday. This makes the garage almost finished now - just a final coat of paint on the door posts. Fortunately, Darrell took the old, very heavy doors away with him so we didn't have to get another skip just yet. The new "up and over" door is much easier to use and looks the part with its pseudo oak finish. One good thing - it is a plastic coating so doesn't require painting.

I'm struck by the fact that we have what could be a beach and a boat is poking its nose out from behind the garage!

I called Darren, our plumber, on Thursday as it suddenly occurred to me that he had keys for the old garage doors which were no longer attached to the garage. "Ah" he said, " we were talking about you yesterday - saying that we ought to do the work on the rainwater harvesting system". He duly promised to come on Friday to fit the stop cock and drain plug that Anglian Water required. This he did and also lagged the pipe as demanded by AW. We're now ready for another inspection. I wonder what daft rules they will have dreamt up since last I saw them?

I'm a little puzzled not to have heard from Roger McEvoy, our usually reliable rainwater harvesting specialist. Our last communication was over three weeks ago when he suggested that he could fit the new pump (required by the sprinkler company) in three weeks time. I emailed him on Wednesday evening and have not received a reply. It does seem that we are doomed with this darned sprinkler system. Better call him on Monday and find out what's happening.

We heard from John Lewis that our sofas will be delivered next week, and that coincides with the delivery of a sofa bed that we ordered from John Lewis this week, together with a dining table and six chairs. So we'll soon be able to relax in comfort, eat in a civilised manner (well, as near as we can), and offer our guests a bed to sleep in.

I've been working on the cupboard at the end of the guest room - filling up the gaps between the plaster board, and sealing the plasterboard surface so that I can apply the Glasstex wall covering. I've also started making the rather odd shaped door for the cupboard. Hopefully both tasks will be finished next week.

The postman delivered a letter from Anglian Water today - fume, rage, rant, etc! This was from the billing department who seemed to be under the impression that we were using water that we weren't paying for. The letter was addressed to the occupier. Can you believe it? After all the grief they've given us, the cheeky so and sos are now suggesting that firstly they don't know who we are, and secondly that we are taking free water - I wish! I've drafted several replies in my mind, none of which is overly polite. Perhaps I will be more tolerant by Monday when I do write the letter.

With the two surveys on Manor Close apparently OK we now await news from our buyers with a moving date. We are aiming for an early to mid October completion which should tie in nicely with our schedule. Its really the curtains and blinds that we need news of - promised in six weeks or less three weeks ago. As long as there's no delay on these we should be OK.

Jan & Rog

A step nearer

2010-09-09T08:55:00.001-07:00

The air pressure test was carried out today and I had no idea at all whether we would pass. For some reason the building surveyor had set a target of 7 when the normal pass is 10 (I don't know what these numbers mean). Mark, the tester, was a very jovial fellow and he set up his equipment - big screen in the utility room door with a fan in the middle, and various gadgets attached to the screen including small bore plastic piping that he ran into the house and also outside (to gauge the internal pressure created against the outside pressure). The fan was sucking air out of the house (the opposite of what I expected) which meant that you could feel the draughts created. The biggest culprits were an area behind our en suite bathroom - presumably coming up from the void under the floor, two spotlights in the ceiling, and the general area of the fireplace where air was coming in thick and fast from the chimney. After about 15 minutes the figures produced were input to the inevitable lap top, and voila - 6.04 was the result - a pass by a good margin. Mark issued the certificate and I breathed a sigh of relief.
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Just Anglian Water to sort out now. On that subject, I had a further phone call from Anglian Water who now insist on another visit to check the remaining issues. I've solved the shower problem by buying a 1 metre shower hose which just about allows the shower head to be attached to the rail, but however hard I try I cannot make it reach the toilet bowl. With the new correctly coloured sign for the outside tap now provided, it only remains for Darren, our plumber, to fit the stopcock and drain plug in the garage. That is unless Anglian Water come up with some more ridiculous ideas. By the way, thank you to Steven who came up with the idea of forged (Photoshop produced) photos, but as Anglian Water now insist on a visit rather than me sending photos, I'm afraid its a non-starter.
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Other than spreading 3 tons of gravel over the parking area, we have nothing else to report, except that our trellis arrived today so I've put that up. (Photos next week)
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We're off to Devon for a long weekend and a rest. The smell of bacon and eggs for breakfast beckons and I reckon we can both afford to tuck in as we've lost so much weight.
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Jan & Rog

Anglian Water Update - polite words fail me

2010-09-07T01:41:00.000-07:00

I know how Munch felt now!

Well, he came, he failed us, and he left! Apparently, the clip on the shower hose is not sufficient as we can undo the shower head, pull the hose through the clip and then put the hose down the toilet. Furthermore, the sign on the outside tap (declaring it to be unfit for drinking) is the wrong colour! Give me strength.

What really irritates is that none of these requirements seem to be known outside the monopolistic walls of Anglian Water. Our plumber knows nothing about the rules, nor does the bathroom fitter, or indeed the supplier of all the bathroom stuff. Indeed, many manufacturers are making items that apparently do not comply with the British Standard that covers this area.

Anglian Water have said they will supply me with a suitable green and black label (ours is red and black) but the suggestion about turning the bath round so the taps are at the other end produced my most withering of looks. Other options we could consider are of course moving the toilet or fitting a shower screen between the bath and the toilet bowl. Alternatively, we could drill into the new tiles and fit some awful clip to hold the hose away from the offending toilet. Do they really think that we want to rip out the bathroom and have it refitted, or damage the tiles?

At least we have the concession that another visit is not necessary as long as we send photos of the changes we've made showing we now comply.

Having thought about a purpose-made clip for the shower hose, or removing the shower altogether (but would they accept this?), plan B is to check the hose length of the existing hose and go for a shorter one. I'm tempted to make one that's six inches long and looks plain stupid just to make the point.

Latest update - another call from Anglian Water who now say that we need another stopcock and drain plug on the top-up mains feed to the rainwater tank. Will it ever end? Still, its not their money they are talking about - its ours!

Thoroughly hacked off of Clifton

The man from the Council says "YES"

2010-09-03T10:48:00.000-07:00

The living room with carpet

The study/guest room with carpet

The bedroom with carpet

Garage entrance - now finished (without carpet)

We had the final inspection on Friday and our friendly building control inspector has passed our "disabled" access - a rather fetching ramp made of oak and screwed to the front door frame and porch floor. So that's it now in terms of inspectorial visits, we've just got to provide him with the certificates for the electrical installation, energy assessment, air pressure test and sprinkler system.

And would you believe we've persuaded the rather reluctant manager of the Water Regulations Team at Anglian Water to come and inspect our plumbing on Monday afternoon. Fingers crossed on that one - I've tried to get the shower head down the toilet but failed miserably so we should be OK!

Friday saw me at Brookvale at 07.55 to await the arrival of Messrs John Lewis's carpet fitters who had advised that they would be with us between 08.00 and 10.30. A phone call at 10.10 from the fitters was not encouraging - stuck in traffic on the north circular - 40 miles away. Quite why we were told by the Milton Keynes branch (23 miles away) that we were out of area and had to contact Welwyn Garden City (22 miles away), to then find the fitters had to come from London (50 miles away) is beyond me, but I'm sure there is some logic in there somewhere. Anyway, they eventually arrived at 11.00 and worked continuously until 15.15 (apart from 3 cups of tea) and then announced they had a job in St Albans. Goodness knows what time they would get that finished. Anyway, we now have floor coverings through Wee House. Its nice to lose the echo that a house without soft furnishings always has, and I hasten to add, we're very pleased with the result as its made the rooms look bigger and brighter.

Jan and I have spent several days at Brookvale, Jan in cleaning and gardening, whilst I have mowed the lawn (revitalised after the rain of last week) and finished the area in front of the garage (another ton of sand and a ton of gravel despatched). Jan parked her car on it and much to my surprise (and relief), it didn't collapse! I've been wielding the pickaxe latterly, to lower the level of the hardcore adjacent to the drive. Hardcore had been laid by Roy's Boys to provide a reasonable slope from the edging of the driveway. I thought it would not take long but there was much more to remove than I had estimated (told you last week I was rubbish at estimating). Many wheelbarrows later and the remaining parking area was levelled off and only awaited the job I was really not looking forward to - digging the hole for the second soakaway. I needed to psyche myself up to start, but once I got going it was just a question of having a ready supply of oxygen! When that's done I can order the gravel (bet I under-estimate) and the powered roller. Better be careful with the roller methinks.

Sunday saw Messrs Puffin & Pantin digging out the aforesaid hole for the second soakaway. Considering that it was large enough to bury a small corpse I was surprised (and delighted) to finish by lunchtime. Had Jan not gamely lent a hand moving the spoil I'm sure I would have given up well before the job was done. You can just see the outline of the hole in the photo of the garage entrance. We're now all ready for the larger 20mm gravel which I'll order on Monday. My calculation is six tons, but my gut tells me we'll want at least eight. I wonder which will be right - gut or science?

Being totally knackered by Sunday lunchtime we decided to go to a local garden centre in the afternoon to hopefully select and buy some trellis panels to screen the garden between the garage and the house. Much to our surprise the panels we liked best were reduced to half price because they were an obsolete style, so we promptly order these together with posts and those metpost thingies that you whack into the ground. Another job for Jack O'Alltrades.

Jan & Rog

I should have known better

2010-08-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

New kitchen floor

Parking area (pay and display!)

On telephoning Anglian Water on Monday to arrange for an inspection, there was much sucking of teeth and general negativeness. "You've got rainwater harvesting haven't you" said the lady that answered the telephone, much in the manner she might adopt if talking to someone with an unpleasant disease, which if she weren't very careful, she might catch. "Well, we've had all sorts of problems with rainwater harvesting lately so you've got to speak to the Water Regulations Team. I'll send you their details by email". That was it. Gone was the promise of a maximum five day wait for an inspection (on their web site), and now we were referred to a new group. I waited for the email, which eventually arrived four hours later. All it said was that I should contact the Water Regulations Team - no point of contact and no telephone number. How very helpful. I called Anglian Water's headquarters and spoke to a very pleasant lady who had worked there for years. "Never heard of them dear. I've got no-one of that name on my directory. I'll try a number for you." The result was a voice mail system. I tried again and was put through to a person, not an overly helpful person, but in the end they suggested a name and put the phone down. I tried again and at last got a helpful person (which was lucky as there appear to be only two such people in the entire Anglian Water organisation). He tried this number and that and finally found someone he thought was in the Water Regulations Team. Great, but according to his voice mail he was on holiday! I tried again a little later and it appears he had forgotten to change the voice mail message as he had returned from leave that day. More sucking of teeth and demands for detailed drawings of the fittings we "intended" to use. When I explained that the property was built and all the fittings in place, he said that I still had to send in a drawing so they could see what was in the house. "Why don't you just come and inspect it" I said. "Can't do that - the rules say I have to have drawings." When I enquired how long this process would take, he said he couldn't tell me. "Well is it days, weeks, or months" I enquired. "Well, it won't be days" he said. "But I've got a house ready to move into, and your web site promises that an inspection will be carried out in five days" I pleaded. "Ah but that isn't for a house with rainwater harvesting (you can almost hear the bell and the words 'unclean, unclean'). Send in the drawings and we'll take it from there. It's easy - get your plumber to do it." he said, but didn't seem to understand that this would cost MONEY, and that I wasn't prepared to spend anything on an irritating and unnecessary bureaucratic excuse to avoid them actually doing something positive.

I spent over 2 hours producing drawings of the plumbing and emailed them to the address given - a catch-all address which didn't encourage me to believe that it would be acted on with any degree of urgency. I telephoned the man from the Water Regulations team the next day. Despite a 15 minute call the previous day, he had no recollection of our discussion, nor could he remember seeing the email. I restated the situation, probably with just a tinge of irritation in my voice. He adopted a more conciliatory line and we had an interchange of information about the Anglian Water requirements from rainwater harvesting, wherein it appeared that we have done everything we should. "Great" I said. "When can you come and inspect?" "We'll need to check the drawings out and then we'll write to you" he replied. "Will that be in the next couple of days" I enquired. "Oh no, can't say when" was the unwanted response.

So there we have it. We are customers of a monopoly organisation that doesn't give a hoot for its customers, because the customer has nowhere else to go. I intend to telephone on Tuesday and demand some action. Incidentally, I tried calling OFWAT but they don't take complaints from the general public (nasty little people don't you know) which leads me to wonder what the hell what they are there for!

And so to the positives. Clophill Flooring have done an excellent job fitting Karndean tiles to the floors in the kitchen, utility room and bathroom, as well as sisal carpet in the hall. Unfortunately, due to my mistake, we need them to come back to tile a small area in front of the cut down cupboards that cover the boiler and electricity distribution box. These had been removed to allow our plumber to change the rainwater harvesting pipe and were waiting to be refitted. I had told the flooring guy that we didn't need flooring right to the wall in that area but completely forgot that they are about half the standard cupboard depth. Oops!

I spent most of Friday at Brookvale. A delivery of the materials for the area in front of the garage had been arranged and once that was safely unloaded I went to the local manufacturer of the plastic reinforcement system (ACO Groundguard) I am using to collect a couple of items that our builders merchant didn't have in stock. (Makes a change to have a supplier so close to home). After a quick lunch it was back to Brookvale and then onto the slog of laying the sand and laying the Groundguard. It appears that in the couple of hours that I was away from Brookvale, Darren our plumber, had called in and fitted the radiator in the study (he had a spare key). Talk about Will O the Wisp - he does seem to be able to appear, do jobs and then disappear, with very little trace! It was quite funny really as the reason we knew he'd been was some cardboard packaging he'd left in the utility room. Both Jan and I looked at it and wondered where it had come from - "Darren" we both said simultaneously and rushed up stairs to look at the dinky little radiator he'd fitted. Not quite sure why he had to draw so many pencil lines on the newly decorated wall in order to line up the radiator fixing points, but hey, why should I mind doing a little bit more painting!

And so - back to the external groundworks. My biggest problem is I'm rubbish at estimating materials so the 1 ton bag of sand and 1 ton bag of gravel I ordered has all gone and I am only about 2/3 of the way through the area in front of the garage. I have laid most of the path from the house to the garage though. I'll order some more materials on Tuesday so can't do any more for the time being. This is probably not a bad thing as it will give my aching joints a chance to recover a little!

I did varnish and fit the disabled access ramp to the front door on Friday so I now need to call the building inspector back to check that's OK. Fingers crossed on that one!

John Lewis are due to fit the carpets on Friday and then I can get the air pressure testing company in to see how we fare for leaks. I'm a bit worried about this as its a big unknown. Our erstwhile building surveyor had set a very high standard for reasons best known to himself. This has been recorded by the building inspector and we have to achieve or better it.

Jan & Rog

Up yer pipe Anglian Water

2010-08-21T09:36:00.000-07:00

Thank you IKEA - £3900 saved on our new wardrobes

Darren, our plumber, called me on Monday to say he would like to make the changes demanded by Anglian Water and the infamous sprinkler company. We agreed, so on Tuesday I watched anxiously as Darren (in the garage) attached the bigger diameter black pipe to the smaller blue one installed, and together with his trusty apprentice, they pushed (Darren) and pulled (apprentice in the house). After a couple of hiccups with the pipe snagging it seemed to be going well, although we couldn't understand why, when the house is only 6 metres from the garage, virtually all of the 25 metre reel of pipe was rapidly disappearing, but it wasn't re-appearing in the house. Eventually though, it did, to a great sigh of relief from us all. Darren set about routing the pipe up through the ceiling of the utility room and into the roof void as the sprinkler company had demanded. Because their requirement was so vague from our "friends" at Domestic Sprinklers, Darren left about 6 metres of pipe in the roof void - possibly a slightly "sarcastic" length, but better safe than sorry. All that remains for Darren now is to fit the last radiator in the mezzanine - on order but hitting "works holiday mate" syndrome.
~
I can now call Anglian Water to recheck the installation as the shower in the bathroom has the requisite clip to stop us putting the shower head down the toilet, all the rainwater harvesting pipes are now marked "Reclaimed Water", and the outside tap bears the legend "Not drinking water". I've also lagged the pipes in the airing cupboard so the only reason we should now fail the inspection is through petty bureaucracy.
~
Having discovered that Domestic Sprinklers required me to supply and fit the pump I contacted our rainwater harvesting company to see if they would do it. Whilst they said they could it turned out that the required pump was not available in the UK and would have to be imported from Italy so it'll take about 3 weeks. Will I be glad when this saga is over!
~
I carried on with my trusty pickaxe on Tuesday and Wednesday, clearing more of the compacted hardcore in front of the garage in preparation for the gravel covering. Thursday saw me at Bedford Hospital having a minor operation to remove a ganglion from the middle finger of my left hand - possibly made worse by manual work (which I am NOT used to). This has rather curtailed much more work being done as I have a rather ridiculous "dolly" covering the wound and strict instructions to keep my arm in a sling (some hope of that).
~
Friday saw the preparation for the flooring in the bathroom, kitchen and utility room being done by John from a local flooring company. This consisted of sealing the floors in each area and then laying latex (which self-levels to give the required flat surface). John will be back on Monday to lay the Karndean flooring in these areas, as well the sisal carpet in the hall.
~
I did collect the oak ramp for the disabled level access on Monday that our local cabinet maker had knocked up. A couple of coats of Sadolin and it matched the front door and frame. Just got to fix it permanently (wink wink) until it has been inspected and then I can throw it away!
~
After a couple of visits to Finesse - our friendly soft furnishing emporium - we've decided on all the curtains, blinds, curtain track and poles. What made me think that we had made all the expensive purchase already? When Jan showed me the quote I think I said "how much", but its possible that there was another word in between! Anyway, not wanting to spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar we've gone for it. Finesse offered to do pinch pleats for the price of pencil pleats which is apparently a good deal. (Blank look on the faces of all men reading this - knowing nods from all the ladies). Only trouble is that delivery could well be six weeks - just have to become exhibitionists if they don't arrive before we move I guess.
~
John Lewis is now fitting the carpets in the living room, bedroom and guest room on September 3rd, and we have also ordered two sofas from them - delivery should be within 4 weeks we hope.
~
DHL delivered our IKEA wardrobes on Thursday and it was rather frustrating seeing the packs on the floor and having trouble doing anything with them due to my "dolly". However, I've had no problems with the finger so far so Jan and I had a go at building them up today (Sunday). As you can see for the picture, we have virtually finished them now - just a couple of shelves and two drawers to finish off. Oh, and it might be easier to open the doors if I put some handles on them! Just think, we were quoted £4,400 by a local cabinet maker for bespoke wardrobes made from painted MDF (sawdust glued together basically). Our IKEA wardrobes cost just £498!
~
Jan & Rog

Obnoxious, arrogant, and verbally abusive - yup that's me!

2010-08-15T01:02:00.000-07:00

Training for a job with Anglian Water - our new drainage system

The heading is apparently how I've been described by the sprinkler companies I've been dealing with because I had the temerity to complain about poor service. It seems that this is the response to my calls trying to get some action. According to one supplier I verbally abused their engineer - the very amiable man who visited on two occasions and who I helped on his last visit. It is also alleged that I called the MD "all the names under the sun". This is rather surprising as I've only ever managed to speak to him once on the telephone and the only "abusive" element of my call was asking him why he hadn't returned a call that I made to him three days earlier. His customer friendly response was "I've got lots of messages here"- the clear implication being that mine was not of great importance to him. The reason that I've found this out is because the man I contacted at the second sprinkler company to try and get some action, is the chairman of the association which governs their business sector. He emailed my existing supplier (who happens to be his buddy on the committee) and got an email back with this very unflattering description of me. The chairman event went on to imply that he would have me blacklisted with all his members. What a very professional bunch they are.
~
Having spoken to Darren, our plumber about the changes to the rainwater harvesting/sprinkler system, he's made a note and ordered the bits needed. He hopes to complete the work this coming week. However, I thought, (based on the email from the MD) that the sprinkler company were supplying and fitting the uprated pump. My email response to check that he had the pump produced the reply that this was up to me to arrange - to buy and fit. Another ten days lost.
~
Once the system is commissioned I think I may well become obnoxious and verbally abusive. Or perhaps place number one on the Great Wall of China could become available.
~
This week I have been back to basics with a pick axe, shovel, and fork, digging out the ground in front of the garage for the drain and soakaway as rainwater runs down the drive and ends up on our parking area. Unused as I am to hard work, this was quite tiring, but (complete with corset from my osteopath) I managed to finished the first one by Friday evening. Unfortunately I had underestimated the sand needed to pad the soakaway box out and ran out before I could back fill. Of course, it absolutely bucketed down on Saturday morning and filled the drain and soakaway. When I arrived at Brookvale on Saturday half of the Brookvale residents were gazing into the soakaway, which was nearly full of water. The consensus was that the water wouldn't drain away as there was a heavy clay sub soil that would trap the water. Happy that the water was no longer on the surface, we returned on Sunday to find the soakaway almost dry. So, one up for the drainage team. Another day's grunting and heaving saw the back fill complete and the remaining spoil in the skip. Now I have to get the sand and stones to finish it off.
~
We missed out on the meatballs in favour of Spicy Caribbean chicken at IKEA on Monday night when we went to check out the wardrobes we had decided on. An apparently helpful assistant went through what we needed and warned us that we would have to buy the handles in the store because they weren't available on-line. We trotted home and input into the on-line shop all the codes he had given us, only to find that one small item - a coat rail extension - was not available on-line. How annoying is that? After a couple of non-obnoxious emails I got IKEA to agree to post the coat rail to us.
~
Mick from Finesse came round on Friday to measure up for curtains and blinds. What a jolly chap he was - whistling and joking as he went. Perhaps we could send him to the sprinkler company for a while? Jan and I will be off to Baldock on Monday to see if we can agree on designs, style and colours at the Finesse emporium.
~
This weekend we've been busy doing a lot of little jobs and cleaning up in preparation for the floor and carpet laying which starts at the end of the coming week. Although we rattled off a number of jobs from the "to do" list, we seem to find or remember others so the list never gets smaller. It must reduce eventually, mustn't it? Just for good measure the local council have decided to shut the entire road past Brookvale for the whole week while they resurface. I hope they allow local traffic to pass as the wardrobes are being delivered on Thursday.
~
Navvy in chief and Mrs Mop

Are we making progress?

2010-08-06T10:42:00.000-07:00

A coat of paint for the garage

I've spent much of the week giving the garage a makeover. Damage to the rendering has been carried out (caused by careless builders); gutters have been removed (both leaking); fascia boards cleaned and painted, and the gutter replaced correctly; the window and side door painted; the walls treated to 2 coats of Weathershield sandstone. I've also arranged for the fitting of a new up and over door from Darrell our local garage door man. The chosen door simulates vertical tongued and grooved boarding but is actually a plastic coated metal, with a finish called "weathered oak". (No maintenance!)

Wednesday at 11.00 was the critical time when the engineer was due from the Sprinkler company. He arrived as 14.15 claiming the traffic was bad on the M25 - nothing new there then. Needless to say, the instruction for him to telephone me 15 minutes before arrival had not been relayed to him. Had he been on time, I would not have been there to greet him. Anyway, although he was the same engineer that last visited, he had forgotten that he hadn't been able to adjust the height of some of the sprinkler heads, (or had enough of the finishing plates that cover the water heads) because he didn't have the right tool with him. Guess what - he still didn't have the tool or the finishing plates. However, he did have a shiny new pump - would this be his salvation? His instructions were simple - change the pump in the rainwater tank and check the flow and pressure. Sounds simple doesn't it? Well, it wasn't !

~
Having taken the lid off the rainwater tank and peered in, we could see a cord which we guessed was attached to the pump (about 12 feet below us). Grab this and pull seemed the answer. Wrong - the pump wouldn't move because of the 1" plastic pipe that was connected to it and which fed the system via the garage control units. There was only one answer - drain the tank (3500 litres is a lot of water), find a long ladder, climb down into the tank and disconnect the pump from the pipework. It took about 45 minutes to drain the tank even though we resorted to putting the new pump in the tank to assist the existing one. Mr Hyde's field got very wet. As I found the ladder, Paul the engineer volunteered to climb into the tank - a very tight fit, even for someone as slim as him. Working in very cramped conditions he managed to undo the pipework and we lifted out the old pump and were then able to compare the two pumps - old and new. Our existing pump had an enclosed inlet at the base which was connected to a hose and a large blue float to ensure that the cleaner water at the top of the tank was delivered to the house rather than the gunge at the bottom of the tank. Our new pump did not have this. Instead it had a gauze filter as its base so would pick up all the gunge at the bottom of the tank.

However, as the idea was to trial the pump, it was fitted and tested. Sure enough it delivered the required flow and pressure when tested at the control panel point in the garage, but a much lower flow rate and pressure was delivered at the house. The inevitable conclusion was that the bore of the pipe from the garage to the house was too small and would have to be increased to 32mm from 25. Not only that but the 3/4" fittings used would need to be replaced with 1", the stopcock changed for a different type with better flow characteristics, the pressure reducing valve moved to a different point in the pipework, and the feed to to the sprinkler circuit from the kitchen changed from 1/2" to 32mm. But hey, what does it matter, its not their money - we've got to foot the bill for all this, including the new pump at £560!

So, its now my job to a), find Darren the plumber (last heard of in Spain) and get him to make these changes, and b). dig a 6 metre trench 18" deep from the rainwater tank to the garage to run the power supply for the new pump (the existing conduit to the garage is too small to allow even a relatively thin power cable to pass through). As an aside we noticed that whoever installed the existing pump had applied silicon sealer around the hole where the power cable goes into the pump. Our guess is that one of the morons that was involved in installing the rainwater tank heaved the pump out by its flex rather than the cord, and in so doing ruined the seal. Had we not had to replace the pump we probably would not have discovered this problem until the pump refused to work one day.

I managed to get the less than approachable MD of the Sprinkler company to agree with my schedule of work required and he has stated that if we do carry out the work and the pump is replaced, then the system can be commissioned - hoo-bloody-ray! He did say that he was very upset with Dab, the pump manufacturer, as they had said they didn't have a suitable pump, and apparently they do, with all the floating filter thingies that we need. It comes to something when a manufacturer doesn't know his own product line.

Finding the bigger bore pipe for the run from the garage to the house was not easy, but I eventually found a coil in Peterborough so collected that on Thursday afternoon. I've now got to apply the tape with the legend "Reclaimed Water" every 6 inches along its length otherwise the Anglian Water Inspector will wet himself again!

Had a call from John Lewis on Wednesday to say that our carpet had arrived and could they fit it next week. As we were originally told that it would be 4 weeks before fitting, we wanted the vinyl floor laid first so have put John Lewis on hold until the end on August (our local supplier is laying the vinyl floors and sisal during the last week on August).

Had a shock when the quote for the fitted wardrobe arrived - over £4K. Now this may be par for the course but its still a lot of money and IKEA can do the same thing for about 25% so I guess we'll be going for more meat balls soon.

Stop press - looks like we've sold our house in Clifton to a really nice couple called Jonathan and Helen who currently live in rented accommodation on Baldock. They have a rental contract until mid October which gives us plenty of time to get Brookvale ready to occupy (and pass all the building control tests)

As a footnote, both Jan and I are losing weight. Jan has lost a stone, and I've lost 1/2 stone. Can't think why this should be.............

~
Vanishing Jan & slimmer Rog

All we need now are some logs

2010-07-30T12:23:00.000-07:00

The new wood burner

Brookvale Harbour?
~

I waited a few days for the sprinkler company to advise when they might try the uprated pump, but in the end I had to 'phone (no real surprise there then). After much background muttering I was advised "Wednesday 4th August". So that's D Day then - not sure what we'll do if it doesn't work (don't really want to think about that!)

Our vinyl flooring and sisal carpet man arrived on cue on Tuesday, and following an emailed quotation that arrived on Wednesday, we've agreed to Karndean flooring in the kitchen, bathroom and utility room, and a rather fetching sisal carpet for the hall. Whilst I knew that the vinyl floor would be glued down, I hadn't expected that the same would apply to the sisal carpet. Apparently the underlay is glued to the screed and then the sisal carpet glued to the underlay. Fitting is due 20th to 24th August.

~
Wednesday was stove day and I made certain I was at Brookvale well before the stated 08.30 arrival time. By 09.30, and no sign of the fitter, I was getting bored, but I knew the stove shop didn't open until 10.00 so couldn't call them. At 09.45 the fitter arrived, unaware that he was due at 08.30. By 11.45 he had finished and was gone. Only then did I realise that the stove fitted was not the one we ordered! We had ordered one with side glass panels, but as the stove fits nicely within the fire opening, the glass panels would have been rather lost so for once it looks like we have accidentally got a better option as we both prefer the model fitted. It does look good in the opening and its oval shape fits well with the shape of the fire opening and hearth.
~
Andy the electrician eventually arrived last weekend and has completed all but one job - connecting the telephone point. It appears that he laid all the telephone cables in from ground floor to the mezzanine when the house was just a shell. However, the cable that arrives at the mezzanine does not appear to be connected to the cable downstairs. Andy is very puzzled and I can shed no light on the problem so it looks like Andy will have to crawl into the roof opening and try to find out what's gone wrong. Quite funny really as he sub-contracted much of the completion work to another sparks, partly because he didn't want to crawl into the roof space...
~
I've spent the early part of the week making good gaps and cracks - applying sealer to the gaps under the skirting boards, and cutting and fitting quadrant shaped moulding around windows and doors. The only problem with the sealer is that it makes the house stink. Hopefully it will wear off.
~
Rather bored with the aforementioned jobs, or possibly high on the fumes of the sealer, I decided that I would sort out the garage as it had become the repository of things useful, things not immediately useful but possibly of some value, and downright rubbish. After a couple of hours the skip was becoming full and the floor of the garage was nearly clear. I had fitted plywood onto the roof timbers to create a second floor and then was able to store away those "valuable things that we'll never use".
~
Friday saw me laying a brick edge for a pathway that will run from the house to the garage. As the area had been covered in a hardcore called MOT and compacted with a roller, it wasn't easy digging out a small trench for the brick edging. In the end I found a small bricklayer's trowel to be the ideal implement to clear away the hardcore but couldn't help feeling like Phil from the Time Team as I did so. (apart from the fact that my hair isn't as long as his, my waist line is definitely smaller, and I don't have a west country accent).
~
John Lewis telephoned me on Thursday as they had received our acceptance of their carpet quotation. I was surprised and somewhat irritated when asked how I would pay the advance payment, when they said that cheques were not acceptable, despite the fact that this payment has to be received by John Lewis 7 days before fitting (plenty of time to clear a cheque). What happened to the John Lewis service we hear so much about? Only debit and credit cards are acceptable it appears. I've a good mind to go to their Welwyn Garden City branch with a bucket of £1 coins. I wonder if they would refuse to accept it?
~
Got a bill for £220 from Central Beds Council today for the building control inspector's visit to check the Velux window installation. Given that he was there for about 10 minutes it looks like the inspector's earning potential is over £1300 an hour. Not bad eh?
~
Roast chicken looms nearer as "the boys" (our neighbours two cockerels) are becoming a real pest. They seem to have taken a liking to the flower bed in front of the house and spend part of each day scratching away at the soil or pecking the plants. Even when I chase them away they return as soon as my back's turned. Cheeky monkeys!
~
I went to a local joiner today and chatted through our rough design for the fitted wardrobe. He's going to email us a price early next week. Trouble (for us) is he's quoting 13 weeks delivery. Lucky man obviously has loads of work. We've asked a couple of other people to respond on fitted wardrobes but they're too busy - where's this recession then?
~
Jan & Rog

Dab doesn't deliver

2010-07-22T00:02:00.000-07:00

After Derek Dixey's visit last week I've been chasing his technical man at Dab and finally spoke to him on Tuesday. Bad news - they don't have a suitable pump so its back to the drawing board with our sprinkler supplier and the usual 3 day wait for responses to emails/telephone calls. Our other potential supplier has simply vanished - no word from them at all. Obviously business is so good they don't need any more.
~
Stove man (well actually, stove woman) called on Monday to say that they couldn't make this Wednesday to fit the woodburner, so its now Wednesday next week. Its not a particular problem but is does seem that few tradespeople can give a date and stick to it. Talking of which, Andy, our electrician, failed once again to turn up last week to finish off the few remaining jobs and has now promised to complete the work on Saturday. I've got the weekend off as I'm going to a big classic car event at Silverstone in "The Gnat" as my three wheeler has been dubbed by our neighbour, so Jan will be keeping an eye on Andy.
~
Jan and I have continued to make good progress and I'm delighted to say that we have finished the decorating, and started to clean up. Next job - mastic all those nasty little gaps (and big gaps thanks to the screeders) to make sure that we pass the air pressure test.
~
On Monday we witnessed something you don't see every day - a 26 foot sailing boat being lifted over our house by a mobile crane. Clive, who lives at number 4 Brookvale, decided to have his boat trailered to his garden so he could renovate it. Despite much planning, measurement and deliberation, the articulated lorry couldn't even negotiate the drive entrance, let alone get as close to Clive's garden as needed. After 20 minutes of huffing and puffing it was obvious the lorry couldn't get into the drive unaided so the crane had to be deployed to lift the trailer. This was much to the relief of a number of cars, lorries and the bi-weekly bus that had waited patiently as the lorry jiggled this way and that, blocking the road as it did so.
~
In the end, with the lorry and boat as near as it could get, the crane parked on our parking area and lifted the boat over the house and garage. Not too sure what Clive thinks will happen when he's finished refurbishing the boat but I'm not going to be too keen on a ruddy great crane parked on our newly surfaced hard standing.
~
John Lewis did turn up on Wednesday as promised and duly measured up for carpets. We've now got 4 or so weeks to wait before these will be laid. Next visit - vinyl flooring and sisal man - Tuesday next week. We must now get down to the serious business of sorting out fitted wardrobes as this will doubtless take a few weeks.
~
Stop press - the sprinkler company have found what they believe is a suitable pump and will order one and fit it. If it doesn't do the job they won't charge us. Service at last!

~
Jan & Rog

Dab's Derek Dixey drives down from Dereham

2010-07-15T12:27:00.000-07:00

The infamous bathroom wall

Dab is the manufacturer of the pump that lives in our rainwater harvesting tank - the pump that isn't up to the task of delivery the flow and pressure that the sprinkler system needs. Derek Dixey is Dab's area rep who came to see me on Tuesday to check what was what, and see if a more powerful pump would solve the problem. From his very comprehensive catalogue it seems that there are a number of more powerful pumps that have the right characteristics. However, one of Dab's technicians needs to check that the flow and pressure can be achieved with the pipework we have in place. So I wait...... as I've waited to hear from the alternative sprinkler company who sounded so good last week, but who now seem to have given up as I've heard no more from them. Likewise my existing supplier who hasn't stirred this week. Ho hum, lots of rude words.
~
Having been told by my sprinkler company that we had to have the smoke detectors connected to the sprinkler system I decided to check if this was the case. Step forward the National Association of Fire Suppression Systems, and their affable expert - who promptly advised that there is no requirement to connect the smoke detectors to the sprinkler system. So that's £150 saved then. Don't you just love suppliers you can depend on?
~
Moving on - the week has seen Jan and me painting and varnishing furiously - well, enthusiastically perhaps. The bedroom is now painted, as is the lounge, and the first coat of varnish applied to the woodwork in the study, lounge, bedroom and kitchen. The hall is complete - one room done at last!
~
I had painted one wall in our bathroom in a deep red vinyl silk paint that matched the tiles and cupboard front. Because of the pigment being so strong I had masked off the woodwork. Due to the poor coverage I had to apply about five coats of paint, but when I removed the masking tape it lifted the paint - all five coats - in one piece from a large part of the wall. For some reason it had failed to adhere to the plaster and in no time at all, the wall was entirely devoid of paint as I easily pulled it all off. The only answer was to apply a sealing coat of Unibond and try again. This I did this week and we how have a much better finish which doesn't look like peeling off. Five coats of matt paint later and all seems OK this time.
~
Stove man is coming on Wednesday next week to fit the wood burner, and Mr John Lewis is also due to measure up for carpets. The following week our local floor covering specialists are due to measure up for the floor tiles and sisal carpet in the hall.
~
We've hummed and harred about fitted wardrobes and looked endlessly at web sites to see if we can find something that we like, and that fits in with the fabric of the bedroom. Not much joy so far so may have to try a bespoke wardrobe firm.
~
Sunday afternoon update - lounge and kitchen now finished (decorating), and most of the bathroom and shower room done

Jan & Rog

Is the Great Wall of China long enough...

2010-07-08T01:19:00.000-07:00

The newly laid hearth

The room in the roof now finished

What a frustrating week.

Angela from the sprinkler company did not have the opportunity to find out if I was a crabby old git because she didn't turn up on Monday. Despite being told that she would be on site at 10.30, there was no sign of her by 11.45 so I telephoned her office where they displayed a remarkable lack of knowledge of Angela's actual, or even intended, movements. They promised to phone back and let me know what was what. By 14.30 I hadn't heard so called again. This time it was a different person, but the same lack of knowledge. I waited on hold for ages to be eventually told that Angela had experienced a family emergency and that was why she hadn't appeared, but no-one at the sprinkler company had been informed of this. No apology and no suggestion about rescheduling a visit. You won't be surprised to hear that I then engaged "extreme crabby old git" guise. Eventually, when I had run out of things to moan about I was told that the MD would phone me back. This doubtless would be on the same basis that I had been told he would "phone me back" at least 12 times in the last 4 weeks only to receive an email, usually three days later. Sure enough, no call but a rather more prompt email. My response to his email elicited another email from him with the line "don't take your frustrations out on me". Unbelievable!

~
In the ensuing email exchange some other facts emerged - two of which relate to our erstwhile building surveyor's lack of attention to detail. Firstly, the flow and pressure requirements of the sprinkler system were clearly identified to him but he chose to only regard the pressure as being important. Secondly, he ignored the fact that Fire and Rescue now insist that smoke alarms are linked to the sprinkler system so that they sound the alarm when the sprinkler system activates. You'll forgive me for being a little cynical here, but I think we'd know that the sprinkler system was activated without the need for an audible alarm because we'd be bloody soaked! Anyway, its a mandatory requirement that should have been factored into the design and wasn't. It will now cost us more money to replace the existing alarms with wireless ones as that's now the only way of linking to the sprinkler system. To add insult to injury, the MD of the sprinkler company told me that a site visit wasn't now necessary anyway because it would only confirm what he'd already told me - that the best solution was an upgraded pump. He now realised that a booster pump wouldn't work - something both I and my plumber had said as soon as it was suggested. There was still the question of the pipe diameter that fed the sprinkler system which the engineer had said was too small. The MD said that it wasn't ideal but would probably be OK. Now that really inspired me with confidence. His final shot was that I should contact the pump supplier who would send out a man to site. The telephone number he gave me was a fax, and when I did find the right number and contacted them they knew nothing about it and referred me to their area rep. Guess what - he's on holiday until the end of July according to his voice mail.

Apart from the foregoing, two other issues convinced me that I should look elsewhere for a company to provide the commissioning of the sprinkler system - the appalling lack of communication internally within the existing supplier's organisation, and their reluctance to respond to telephone messages which usually results in a three day turnaround to questions. Time to look elsewhere I thought. A quick Google and I found a national company that seemed very keen to help and promised an engineer at site the following day to check it all out. The engineer would call me on my mobile one hour before arriving at site. That sounds a bit more like it. But by 16.00 on the allotted day - no engineer. I phoned the head office to be eventually told that the engineer had over-run on a previous job and wouldn't get to me. It would be rescheduled. Brilliant - lots of gloss and no action. The trouble with this situation is that I cannot get the air pressure test done until the sprinkler system is commissioned as the main control elements are in the roof space which can only be accessed through the cupboard and then a rather difficult crawl in the limited gap left as the roof meets the walls. This opening needs to be sealed if the air pressure test is to get anywhere near the target.

Tile cutting man did his usual as well - got confused over instructions and didn't telephone me when he had cut the tiles for the hearth. I called on Monday afternoon to enquire about progress, to be informed that they were finished on Saturday and were waiting for me. Whatever happened to customer service?

We now have at least three more candidates for the Great Wall of China shooting gallery!

Talking of people to shoot, I spent an hour applying silicone sealer to the gaps beneath the skirting in the living room and have used up three tubes so far, but not finished. This is due to the uneven surface that our useless screeders have left us with. It seems that wherever there is a radiator, the screeders couldn't be bothered to level the screed off and it dips noticeably. In one place there is a gap of 15mm - not evident after the screed was finished, but highlighted by the straight edge of the underside of the skirting.

Despite the foregoing saga of sprinkler systems, I have managed to get the hearth tiles laid and grouted so that the stove can be installed. The main problem we're now running into is the holiday season as not only is Pump man away, but so too is Stove man (until next week). I guess we'll experience more holiday delays over the next two months.

I spent Friday cutting and fixing the architrave and skirting in the attic room (now to be called the study we've decided), and followed this with two coats of varnish so this room is finished apart from a couple of electrical fittings that Andy has to install.

Jan and I spent the weekend painting the bedroom - the ceiling is now finished at long last, and most of the walls have two coats of "Whisper of Dramatic". Where do these paint manufacturers get these pretentious names from? Its actually a rather pleasant and subtle pale grey, but I reckon the marketing person responsible for that name had been at the wacky baccy the day they came up with it.

We've finally managed to find time to think about flooring and after only a couple of days have surprised ourselves with decisions on the flooring for the all the rooms. The kitchen, bathroom and utility room will have Karndean tiles, sisal for the hall - all from a local supplier in Shefford. We've chosen John Lewis loop pile wool carpets for the living room, study and bedroom.

Ever the optimist I'm hoping that we will hear from one of the sprinkler people this week and get things moving. We should also hear when the stove is to be fitted too. Time for a beer I think....

Jan & Rog

We may be making some headway...

2010-07-03T15:41:00.000-07:00

The newly painted attic room

By Friday this week I was ready to hang "Sprinkler man" from his own pipework. Despite numerous telephone calls and emails from me, and promises of responses by various of his employees, "the man" remained obstinately silent. So, Friday was my D Day. I telephoned asking for the man. I received the now familiar response of "I'll see if he is available" (which translated means I know he doesn't want to speak to you, but I have to check for today's excuse). After some considerable time on hold I was asked if I was telephoning to arrange a planner to visit site. My response that it was the latest in a long line of requests was lost on the receptionist, or ignored, and I was told that a planner could come next week. "Monday it is then" I said, and this was agreed. So, in theory, Angela is due with me at Brookvale at 10.30 on Monday to survey what we have and then propose the complete solution. Why such a simple response couldn't have been put in place three weeks ago is a mystery. Presumably Angela will be expecting to meet some crabby old git called Roger. Probably not far wrong there as my patience with this outfit is exhausted!
~
Yet more rubbish service from the water cutting specialist. Having promised me that the tiles would be cut and ready last Monday, I was told when I telephoned that they hadn't been done but would be ready on Wednesday. So, on phoning on Thursday morning and told by the second in command that they hadn't even been started and wouldn't be until Friday, had me twitching. Having insisted that they be started immediately, and been promised that they would be, I received a call from the main man. "We're very busy; machine loaded for another job; can't take it off; been working for 48 hours without sleep; have a current wife, two ex-wives, and eighteen children, to feed". (actually, the last one's fiction, but you get the point). Translated, this equates to "I'm rubbish at estimating; I take no notice of what people say when asking for completion dates; I would prefer to be doing anything else but talking to you at the moment".
~
As I hadn't heard from the stove company that our wood burner had arrived from Denmark I agreed to a slip of the delivery date for the tiles to Monday next. Hardly had I put the phone down to the tile cutter when the stove company phoned to say that the wood burner was now in stock and ready to be fitted. I sincerely hope that the tile cutter meets his latest deadline otherwise he'll join the sprinkler man on the pipework. Jan has a different approach to me - she would line up along the Great wall of China the various people who have given us grief. There they would be unceremoniously shot. Not overly subtle, but I can see her point!
~
With the cancellation of our trip to France we have managed to complete a number of jobs "on the list". The attic room is now all but finished as Jan and I gave it a couple of coats of white emulsion, and so too is the bedroom ceiling - a daunting task for one, but we worked side by side and managed to cover the whole ceiling in two hours this afternoon. Jan then busied herself cleaning up whilst I filled in a number of holes where the plaster had popped, and touched up the paint here and there. We've noticed something rather odd about white emulsion paint - the standard white Dulux paint we used in the attic room is actually far whiter than Homebase's Brilliant white. The difference between the living room ceiling and the attic room is quite pronounced. Am I going to do anything about it? - NO!
~
Andy the electrician appeared on Saturday and has nearly finished the attic room, but we appear to have over ordered some items and not ordered enough of others, so we are short a telephone master socket and a 2 gang electrical socket which I need to order from Screwfix tomorrow. Once I receive these items Andy has promised to come back and finish off, as well as providing the all-important certificate for the building inspector.
~
And so tomorrow should see our sprinkler lady appear - a situation I'll believe when I see it. I should also hear from Tile man too - I wonder if I will?

Jan & Rog

Room at the top

2010-06-25T12:19:00.000-07:00

Glasstex fibreglass wall covering - far less messy than plaster!

With my new-found free time I've made good progress on the "guest room" this week. The woven fibreglass "Glasstex" arrived on Tuesday and I set about hanging it immediately. It takes a little bit of getting used to but is very good if you slop loads of "super high performance" wall paper adhesive on the wall/ceiling rather than onto the fabric itself. By Friday I had managed to cover the ceiling/wall that houses our new Velux windows and four fifths of the opposing side, but ran out of Glasstex at that point so will have to wait until another roll can be dispatched next Monday. I am very impressed though as it does just as the supplier said - covers all the bumps and lumps and appears not to show them. A couple of coats of emulsion should finish the job off well.
~
As we only had a small flat ceiling in the guest room, I have fitted tongued and grooved boarding which I will paint white. I'm hoping to get this room finished by the end of next week.
~
I made up a template for the hearth tiles on Monday and took it, plus the tiles, to the water cutting specialist in St Albans. He has promised to cut the tiles by Saturday so I can collect them on Monday next. I also had a go at cutting the tiles that have no rounded edges with my newly purchased "cutting disc for stone" for my angle grinder. The first tile was OK but by the second there seemed to be little progress being made. Hardly surprising really because the cutting disc had diminished to about half its original diameter. I managed to complete the "cut" with a Birmingham screwdriver.... As Jan said "Should have given all the tiles to that nice man in St Albans". Why is it that women are so clever?
~
And so so the sprinkler/rainwater harvesting saga which appears to have reached a rather more satisfactory status as of Friday this week. The problem I have been having is the difficulty of talking to anyone at the Sprinkler company who actually understands the technicalities of the system. Try as I could, I just was unable to get the main man to call me back - too busy it appears. In desperation I emailed but even then it took 2 to 3 days to get a response. In the end, after a bit if ranting, I have been promised a site visit to review the whole system. The even better news is that the sprinkler company have now come up with a new high performance pump that could replace our existing rainwater pump and provide the desired flow and pressure. Our friendly, and ever available rainwater harvesting man, (another Roger so what do you expect!) has agreed that the warranties will stay in force even with this change. Just got to tie the sprinkler man down to a date to visit now......
~
Stop Press - the rainwater harvesting system is having a quiet and continual pee now. It seems that the solenoid that opens a valve should the water in the tank fall below a certain level, is permanently on. This process allows mains water to fill the tank sufficiently for it to continue functioning when there is inadequate rainwater. However, the tank is not empty and even when the power is turned off, the dribble continues. It looks as though the solenoid is faulty or has a bit of dirt jamming the valve open. Oi vey - will this never work correctly!
~
Jan & Rog

There's good news and bad news

2010-06-19T15:05:00.000-07:00

Our new Velux windows

The view from one of the Velux windows

A bit of Anglian Water stupidity - how we have to label our garden tap

The good news first - we now have two Velux roof windows as can be seen from the photo above. Whilst we were in Devon, Pete & Lee Brooks fitted them and received the building inspector's approval before refitting the plasterboard. What a difference this makes - the once gloomy roof space is now light and airy and we can see out over the hedgerow to the south west towards Tyne Hill Farm and the Sharpenhoe Clappers (the end of the Pegsdon Hills which form the very tail of the Chilterns). I spent most of Thursday afternoon making good and filling cracks/gaps in the plasterboard and on Friday morning ordered a 60 metre roll of Glasstex which is a woven glass fibre material with a random texture not unlike the sort of finish given by hessian. The major benefit of using this is that we don't have to plaster the room as the Glasstex covers up imperfections and can be painted. Not only that but it has much better fire protection qualities than almost any other wall covering. With the Glasstex ordered I set about cutting and fitting some oak strips to delineate between the existing plaster and the uncovered plasterboard in the guest room. This will provide a useful point from which to start hanging the wall covering.
~

Still in the attic room I spent some time filling up gaps in the floor so that the we stand a reasonable chance of passing the air pressure test. I've found that using expanding foam (although something akin to a Quatermass experiment) is excellent although I've yet to judge just how much to apply as it expands, and expands, and expands...... Other areas, for example where the floor to wall gaps were not to wide, have now been silicon sealed.

~
And so to the less good news. Having ordered a roll of 25mm black water pipe to replace the blue that was deemed in breach of the rules by Anglian Water, I cut and stuck adhesive tape bearing the legend "RECLAIMED WATER" every 6 inches down 12 metres of the pipe. I also had to chisel out the screed which I had previously laid where the water pipes appear in the utility floor so that our plumber could fit the nicely labelled black pipe. I also made a backing panel for the label for the outside tap which Anglian Water told me had to state "NOT DRINKING WATER". Pleased with completing these tasks, although rather irritated that the screed had to be removed again, I contacted the sprinkler company to check on the progress of the promised quote to supply a suitable booster pump that would give the required pressure and flow. "It will be sent out tonight" said the helpful young lady. Sure enough an email arrived and I scanned the options listed for the preferred one with the booster pump that would be sited in the utility room and seemed the simplest (if not the cheapest). However, it now appeared that this option was not as simple as had been suggested as it now stated that 32mm pipe was required from the rainwater harvesting tank, not the 25mm that was in place now (and was also the diameter of the new black pipe I had ordered and labelled). The problem we now have is that my plumber (the elusive Darren) is not sure if we can fit a 32mm pipe into the conduit from the garage to the house. This saga just goes on and on and is not made any easier by the fact that the sprinkler company take three days to respond to questions and seem unable to supply all the facts when they do respond. Looks like another 'phone call on Monday to try and resolve this one.

I've decided that there's a great opportunity in producing "NOT..." signs, since almost everything in life should not be used for something or other. How about a "NOT FOOD" sign? The opportunities for this are endless. Signs could be posted on so many things - the front gate, the lawn, ones partner. Or even a "NOT A SEAT" sign to be placed on flowers, barbed wire, the barbecue, and so on. Hmmm - have to think about this a bit more.

~
Having decided on a wood burning stove (Danish - what else?) we had to make a decision about the hearth on which it would stand. Due to the shape of the fireplace with its rounded corners, we knew that standard options would not fit. Our choice seemed to be glass, a stone slab of some sort, or tiles. In the end we opted for a dark riven tile, so I bought enough to cover the required area. Due to the rounded fireplace corners and the fact that I wanted a semi-circular front to the hearth we have to get the tiles cut accordingly. This will be done by a firm that uses very high pressure water jets to cut the tiles. I had an aluminium dashboard cut for my manic three wheeler by this guy and the results are quite amazing - really clean cuts to any shape you like. Despite being told how it works I still don't understand how water can cut as it does.

More progress on the attic room today (Sunday) with all the plasterboard joints caulked and the first length of tongued and grooved board cut for the narrow apex of the ceiling.

Jan & Rog

On holiday until June 21st

2010-06-09T15:02:00.000-07:00

Not a good week

2010-06-02T10:20:00.000-07:00

The newly fitted out utility room

Don't you just love the officious nature of some people? As we had completed all the plumbing we asked Anglian Water to come along and connect a meter so we could have full mains pressure. Having telephoned on Tuesday I was told an inspector would call on Wednesday between 12.00 and 17.00. At 12.20 the man duly arrived - so far so good. By 12.30 we had failed the inspection because we were able to put the bathroom shower hose in the toilet. Perhaps I'm unusual but I've never wanted to put the shower down the toilet. In fact I so haven't wanted to do it that the thought of so doing had never crossed my mind. We were found equally guilty of being able to put the shower hose in the bath - heavens - its curtains for us! Muttering darkly about the problems of contaminated water being sucked back into the mains, our inspector said we would have to fix the shower hose by means of a permanent clip, ideally screwed to the wall. Tempted as I was to tell him what to do with his clip I asked why this sort of requirement was not better publicised. "You and your plumber should know" I was told. Quite how we would ever know when even knowing of the problem didn't help to find guidance of any sort on Anglian water's web site. Eventually I found an obscure document on the Water Regulations Advisory Scheme web site with rather poor photos and crude diagrams of showers in toilets, coupled with the dire consequences of breaching this little-known regulations.

~
Not content with failing us for our mains supply, he turned his attention to the rainwater harvesting and why the pipes carrying the rainwater weren't a different colour to the main water supply pipe. I acted dumb. "Did we know about this rainwater harvesting of yours" he demanded. "Pretty certain it was an answer to a question on one of the many forms I filled out for Anglian Water" says I. "Well its not in my notes" said the inspector. "If it had been, one of our specialists would have been here instead of me. Hmmmmmmm" You could see him relishing all the potential problems this might throw up. With a scan of his laptop and some furious typing he was gone.
~
On returning home I found a suitable clip that would retain the shower hose and ordered it immediately. Subsequent research has suggested that the pipes carrying harvested rainwater should be black with green stripes and carry the words "Reclaimed water" at frequent intervals down the pipe. This gives us a problem as the pipe carrying the harvested water from the garage to the house is blue - the same as the mains supply. Oh dear, I can foresee the need for more digging and screed removal/relaying. In addition we have to apply adhesive labels to every pipe in the house carrying reclaimed water. This means that we have to undo some of the bathroom fitting-out to get to them. Once again I searched the Anglian Water web site for guidance on rainwater harvesting systems and could find none. A Google search eventually produced an Anglian Water newsletter to Anglian approved plumbers (only 2 in the whole of Bedfordshire) that spelt out the requirements for fitting rainwater harvesting. Quite why the application form for water supply to a new build does not firstly, have a question asking if you have or intend to have rainwater harvesting, and secondly giving all the requirements if you do, is a mystery. Possibly the water companies don't want to lose income if people move to reclaimed water.
~
Still rather bemused by the Anglian Water scenario we had a visit on Friday from the sprinkler people - to commission the sprinkler system. More bad news - the connection from the harvested water supply is inadequate as the pipe used is 12mm not the 32 mm they required. Worse still was the fact that despite the sprinkler system supposedly being designed and commissioned to work with the rainwater harvesting system, there was totally inadequate pressure and flow directly from the water tank. A call to the supplier of the rainwater harvesting system produced more bad news. Neither the pump in the rainwater tank, nor the pressure switch that activates the water supply could deliver the flow rate required. Furthermore, a quick calculation suggested that the bore of the pipe from the tank would simply be incapable of delivering the required flow rate. Talk of twin pumps and dual pressure switches made me even more depressed. The supplier of the rainwater harvesting system has gone away to do some more accurate calculations, but is not optimistic that anything can be done with the set up we have. Sounds like more money on what has rapidly become the biggest white elephant in the build. The trouble is that without the sprinkler system we can't get the house signed off by building control so we're somewhere between a rock and a hard place on this one. What really irritates is that our building surveyor was supposed to have obtained approval from both the rainwater harvesting supplier and the sprinkler people that the systems could inter-operate and would meet the needs of the Building Inspector. I recall conversations regarding the rainwater system pump capacity and it appears that the unit we have has a capability of only 60% of that which I was told we would have. As we no longer use the building surveyor (are you surprised?) then its back to the drawing board.
~
On a slightly more positive note. we do have the utility room fully kitted out with cupboards and worktops thanks to Jon's efforts over last weekend. Unfortunately I've had to take two of the cupboards out again in order to survey the area where the mains and harvested water arrive in the floor.
~
Andy the electrician hadn't materialised by Thursday (as expected), but on Friday when I arrived at Wee House, I found a Steve on site busy tugging at lighting cable in the porch. He had been sub-contracted by Andy to finish off the work and spent all day doing to jobs Andy hadn't got round to - mainly the most awkward. Anyway, by 16.00 on Friday all the electrics appeared to be complete. I had to modify that slightly as at 16.30 I noticed that he had missed one non-working light in the shower room. Andy will have to attend to that.
~
Jan and I spent Friday at Brookvale, Jan in the garden (more wheelbarrows full of bricks and clay) and me in the house, initially painting the walls in the utility room, then attending to the various trades that arrived (electrician, sprinkler man, plumber). By the end of a depressing day I hadn't painted all that I had planned, although the utility room walls are now finished, but had managed to acquire several rather large problems already described.
~
On arriving home from Brookvale we found a mountain of post, including a letter from Central Beds Building Control accepting out building notice for the Velux windows. That was timely as Pete Brooks our excellent chippy had arranged to visit Friday evening to check out the work required to fit the windows. My concerns that he might not be able to start for a while were immediately quashed when he said he expected to do the work week commencing 10th June. As we're on holiday in Devon that week (Hi Jenny & David - really looking forward to seeing you) we should come back to a nearly finished job. The reason it will be "nearly finished" is because I have to arrange for Building Control to inspect the window and its frame before the making good can be done.
~
We put our house on the market on Friday and have had one viewing already (negative -our house is too dark apparently), and we have three more viewings on Sunday. That should help fill up all the spare time we have at the moment and keep Jan on her toes keeping me from making the house a mess before viewings.
~
Rather depressed of Clifton

And now we've a kitchen sink too

2010-05-30T13:37:00.001-07:00

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.....

2010-05-22T15:00:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-11T12:16:00.001-07:00

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

2010-05-09T10:48:00.000-07:00

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

If only we had a water supply....

2010-04-29T02:33:00.001-07:00

The (wet) shower room

The bathroom (nearly finished)

The other half of the bathroom

Our "disabled" ramp and pea grit area

... we could get rid of that damn portable toilet! But Anglian Water are not shifting - they refuse to provide any significant water pressure - just the 1/2 litre an hour that trickles through. This means that our bathroom fitters can't test their pipework and so we end up with all the pipes boxed in and tiled, hoping there are no leaks. Monopolies - I hate them.

Anyway, that apart, Vic and Dave our two bathroom fitters have transformed the bathroom and shower room as you can see from the pictures above. Dave (tiling) set about tiling those walls that Vic (plumber) needed to fit things to, so they swapped rooms so each could carry out their own bits of the work. Tuesday brought some bad news though - we had been sent the wrong toilet for the shower room. Instead of the "3/4 back" one ordered we had been sent a "back-to-the-wall" jobby. I raced back to the supplier in Bedford on Tuesday with the wrong toilet/cistern, hoping they would have the correct one in stock. But no, they didn't. Blast! Worse still, the correct one might not arrive until next week, well after Vic and Dave had expected to finish. Fortunately, as it turned out, one was found (somewhere) and duly delivered for Vic to fit on Saturday. We're really pleased with the appearance of both rooms, and with the benefit of white tiles on the walls, both look light and bright. Unfortunately, we were some tiles short for the bathroom, and due to the bank holiday, will have to wait until Wednesday next week for the delivery.

We had confirmation on Wednesday that our stairs are en route from Poland and will be fitted on the bank holiday Monday. The meant that I had to varnish the woodwork in the lounge before the stairs were installed as I would have difficulty reaching some of the skirting with the stairs in situ. That was my Saturday mapped out then!

Also this weekend (Sunday now), Tony, our plasterer, is going to render the fireplace. Jan thinks I've gone a bit over the top on this as I wanted the corners to be round and not square (I was only thinking of the ease of cleaning - really). This meant I had to make up formers to create the "roundness" and Tony will be building up layers of "stuff" over my formers. That has reminds me that I need to buy some more pamments as we intend to use the ones left over from the porch, but will need four more.

Wednesday produced another upset - the kitchen supplier told us that they could not longer get the material for the doors we had chosen. This meant that the quadrant shape cupboards at the "breakfast bar" end of the kitchen would have to become square. That's a real shame, but Jan felt the substitute she had chosen was the best compromise. I guess it will give us slightly more cupboard space though. On the subject of kitchens, Nigel the kitchen planner visited on Tuesday to double check the measurements and make sure that his boss's figures were correct. Production of the kitchen and worktop starts next week with fitting still scheduled for week commencing 17th May.

With the absence of rain we had become a little concerned about our hedgerow plants. Some seemed to be doing OK in their plastic spirals, but about 30% seemed less than happy with no sign of growth at all. We cut down the spirals of those that looked healthy to give them room to expand, and removed the spirals from those that looked dead. However, when Jan pruned back some of the "dead" ones, the wood was green, so perhaps there is life there and we're being impatient. The rain this weekend should help.

One little tale that restores ones faith in the stupidity of some areas of the building trade - I ordered four bags of walling and bonding material for Tony on Monday, with instructions that the bags should be put in the garage where I had cleared a space. Where did the driver leave them? Why, in the middle of the flower bed that Jan and I had spent some time digging, fertilising and raking at the weekend. Beggars belief, doesn't it? Even ignoring the instruction to leave the material in the garage, he had the choice of a paved area, a gravelled area, the lawn, and an obviously recently-dug flower bed. All were equally easy to unload on, but he chose the flower bed - DOH!

As we are cannibalising the units we plan to put in the utility room (to make them fit where our architect mucked up the room size) we opted for a range of units from IKEA. Having visited their Milton Keynes store last week to check out the different styles, we went back on Thursday evening for our second helping of meatballs (did you know that globally, IKEA sell 43 million Swedish meat balls a year? No? Well you can impress your friends with that gem!) and we ordered the units, worktop, and sink. Jon our very capable amateur kitchen fitting friend, will then set about modifying them for us.

Jan & Rog

Another quiet week - so its "Door time"

2010-04-22T06:07:00.000-07:00

The kitchen area (with new door)

The hall (with doors to utility and shower rooms)

The door to the en-suite bathroom

Our new back door (shame about the meter cupboard)

Very little movement on the house this week, although Andy the electrician did put in another half day on Tuesday and we now have lights as well as power to the sockets. The boiler continues to keep the chill off and we seem to have dried everything out pretty well now.
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We heard from our Polish stairmaker - the stairs are made; they're just waiting on the glass which is due with them next Monday (26th) so it is planned to fit the stairs sometime around the bank holiday weekend (30th April to 3rd May).

I've been varnishing the new back door and sanding down the new internal wood prior to sealing as well as removing the framework around the opening to the mezzanine in preparation for the stairs to be fitted.

I've also built the disabled access ramp (compulsory requirement now) at the front using riven flagstones - picture next week as we've now finished the area to the left of this where we plan to put lots of pot plants. We've cleared the ground, spread the remains of the ballast, covered it with weed inhibiting membrane and put pea grit on top. Trouble is without mains water, its a bit of a risk putting plants at Wee House as watering is a bit difficult.

The other news is that we are now officially 6 Brookvale, Upper Stondon, Henlow, Bedfordshire, SG16 6LL - I had the letter confirming this from Central Bedfordshire Council on Friday. They have promised to inform Royal mail so I suppose in due course we will receive lots of important stuff - unsolicited mailers, bills (in particular, council tax), and so on. Better get a letter box in the not too far distant future I suppose. This has got to be the worst value for money in the build - £120 to confirm what Land Registry decided 12 months ago!

With our bathroom fitters starting tomorrow we're hoping to report the completion of both bathroom and shower room next week, together with the stairs install. Watch this space!

Jan & Rog

All coming together now

2010-04-14T08:30:00.000-07:00

Two of the new doors in our hallway

Having had the four days after Easter as annual leave I managed to get a fair bit of painting done. I even encouraged Darren the plumber to come along and fit the boiler so that we could properly heat the house. But as ever the usual "who did that then" problem arose when Darren asked what had happened to the boiler flue that he had left hanging before the plasterboard for the ceiling had been fitted. The answer was that the people who fitted the ceiling couldn't be bothered to cut round the flue so it had been removed and dumped in the roof void. Then another screeding howler - they had completely covered up one of the waste outlets in the bathroom. Don't you just love this type of irresponsible work ethic? No - me neither. Anyway, after two attempts Darren managed to get a hole for the boiler flue where he needed it (which leaves me with a spare hole to fill in the ceiling), and a bit of chiselling of the screed uncovered the missing waste. Within days Darren was back - fitting the hot water cylinder, so that all remains for him to do is the connection of the rain water harvesting system to the loos, washing machine and sprinkler system.
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And then to the problem of filling the heating system with water - virtually no pressure from the mains so a call to Anglian Water elicited the fact that they refuse to connect a meter and full supply until every bit of the new house's plumbing is finished. They say its so that they can check the quality of the work, but I suspect its more to do with the fact that they charge a whopping £650 for a temporary supply and that's what they want you to take. Given this very unhelpful attitude, and the fact that we needed the house heated before much else could be done we filled the system up from 5 Brookvale's outside tap (with permission of course). The house has now been heated for two weeks and feels very cosy indeed, even with the radiators on their lowest setting.
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Over last weekend, Jan and I took the day off on Saturday, but spent a full day on Sunday - Jan tending the garden, whilst I sanded all the oak timber for the doorframes, architrave and skirting ready for Pete and Lee Brooks to start fitting out this week. I also started building the base for the "level" disabled access that we have to have, and for which we have purchased some paving slabs that will create a gentle slope from the driveway in front of the house up to the porch step.

We were given a Honda motor mower by Tony Holland at a very timely moment as the new lawn had reached the time for its first cut. After 25 minutes it was looking much better.
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On Monday last our chippies duly arrived and started work. Wow - what a transformation with all the internal doors fitted it really does look like a house now. Architrave and skirting is in place too,as well as the new back door. Unfortunately, Pete Brooks spent a few days in Barcelona in the middle of the week and was due to return on Friday. He's still in Barcelona now (Sunday) - in a rubbish hotel because of the Icelandic ash. He will not be a happy bunny. Due to this unfortunate eruption, we'll have to wait for Pete and Lee to return in a week or two to rehang the french doors, as all of them leave a little to be desired.
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Andy the electrician arrived on Tuesday and did another 1/2 day's work before disappearing again. He's trying to keep 4 or 5 jobs going and flits from one to another as people shout. Not sure I could work like that. Anyway, back he came on Saturday and we now have power to all the sockets in the house. He's promised to come back next Tuesday and complete the lighting circuit. That'll be good - I'll be able to decorate in the evenings now .........!
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The other good news is that Tony our plasterer has finished the screeding of the shower room floor and our tiles have been delivered so Vic and Dave - bathroom fitter and tiler - have scheduled the fitting out of the bathroom and shower room for week commencing 26th April. Hurrah - that means that damned portable toilet can go.
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This weekend we've been back - Jan in the garden again, although she did complete the first proper clean of the house with a vacuum cleaner. I've been concreting the ramp for the "level access" and applying varnish to the new back door. Much of this afternoon has been spent in discussing the arrangement of cupboards and work surfaces in the utility room with a friend - Jon Ward - who is dab hand at this sort of thing. He's very kindly offered to help design and fit it out for us. So - this coming week Jan and I will do something we've never done in this country before - visit IKEA! I've been to one in Malaga, but never in the UK. I'm told it will be an experience. (I hope a better one than the "experience" of my only visit to MacDonalds)

With the internal woodwork done and the electrics and basic plumbing nearly complete we seem to be making good progress. We're both feeling that Brookvale is really our home now as it all comes together.

Jan & Rog

Oh for a bit of co-ordination

2010-04-01T08:25:00.000-07:00

The CAD drawing of our stairs

This has proved to be an interesting week, not least because unknown to us our Polish stairmaker has already started production of the stairs. Delivery in 2 to 3 weeks Chris (unpronounceable surname) advised. Wow - how good is that? We're really looking forward to the installation - it'll make such a difference to the living room. We've opted for the side stringers to be painted white, but with oak treads and handrails. There will be a glass infill between the handrails and the stringer, matched by an oak handrail and glass along the upper floor edge.

With a gentle prod or two, Andy the electrician had sub-contracted the fitting of the downlighters to Dave Bacon - brother of Roy, our project manager. Dave is a sprightly 70 year old who scampers up and down ladders like a thirty year old. By Tuesday night, nearly all the downlighters were in place. Fortunately, the wall lights arrived this week too, and Andy returned yesterday to fit more sockets plus the wall lights (both internal and external). An unexpected arrival was Mick the alarm man who finished off the wiring and fitted movement sensors in the house and garage. He's just waiting for the power to be switched on before he can fit the control panel and test out the system.

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Our bathroom fitter and tiler visited Wednesday night to see how things were but advised that the house was still too damp to be able to consider tiling yet. They want to see some heating on for a couple of weeks before that start. As we'd had the same message from the kitchen fitter, it seemed like Darren the plumber would need to get his skates on.

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So, on Thursday morning I called Darren. "Can't do it for 3 weeks" said Darren. "*$^*&^%£" said I! Darren agreed to see if he could "fit it in". Knowing that this "fitting in" would be unlikely (based on past experience) I decided to buy two convector heaters and use them instead. That would also need Andy the electrician to make sure we had power to the ring main. However, on my return after buying the two heaters, Darren phoned back to say that he had changed his schedule and that he would fit the boiler on Wednesday next week. Brilliant - anyone want two convector heaters? BUT, Darren went on to ask if we had the gas meter installed as this could take 6 weeks. Well, I didn't know as I had only just discovered that the key to the gas meter cupboard had been left locked in the gas meter cupboard. A lunchtime trip confirmed my fears - no meter. Pooh, pooh and Barney McGrew - the gas had been installed for over 4 months. My project manager should have been more on the ball about this. I'll check out the British Gas web site - that'll tell me what to do. The usual freephone and a couple of menu options later and Clive was asking me for my MPRN (?) number or he couldn't help. Apparently, Murphy, who installed the gas service to the house should have provided this unique reference number. A quick trip home to check the documents, but nothing like an MPRN number could be found. Phoning Murphys produced the number and I called British Gas back. After a 5 minute question and answer session Gladys Pugh told me that the meter would be installed next Friday. Great - I shall be at Wee House next week as I'm on leave, and Darren's rescheduling will not be wasted.

At 07.40 on Friday morning my mobile 'phone leapt into life - it was Adam - 20 minutes early - already at Brookvale and raring to go on the hedge planting. We rushed off to the house and set Adam off - only 150 items to plant. By 10.30, two cups of tea made, and an awful lot of chatter, we had all the shrubs planted and Jan could have written Adam's biography based on a rather one-sided conversation with him. Nevertheless, the shrubs look great with their canes and spirals. We just need some bark to cover up the border and keep the weeds down. We've bought a small supply from Homebase but Adam reckons we'll want 5 tons - sounds a lot but if we have to cover the border 3 inches deep with the stuff, we'll want an awful lot of 60 litre bags like the four we've bought.

Jan got a bit carried away digging the area where we think we might plant vegetables. More rubble, weeds, and bramble roots have been unearthed and "skipped". Not content with the digging, Jan went on to finish the first coat of paint on the bedroom ceiling - bless her.

I've been faffing about rather - taking down the temporary plywood covering on the mezzanine so that the Polish lads have an easier job fitting the stairs. However, I spent much of the day replacing rusted screws in the window fittings. Not quite sure how supposedly stainless screws rust, but I purchased some more from Ebay and went round checking the windows. I've also had to adjust many of the window stays and handles as some were ill-fitting. Does anyone do a good job?

Tomorrow will see us put in a full day at Wee House - painting, gardening, filing holes in the screed (GRRRR) and so on. But with a week's leave I should be able to make some significant inroads into the painting, plus sanding and staining much of the skirting and architrave that Pete and Lee will use the following week.

Jan & Rog

This week's star prize goes to the Screeders!

2010-03-28T12:05:00.000-07:00

Another relatively quiet week with just the shower waste fitted by Darren the plumber which enabled me to lay out and fix the floor grid. The waste sits in a plastic matrix which has the fall

pre-set so once the outer part is set level, and the same height as the adjacent floor, there is a drop of a few millimetres to the waste. The screed is then poured over the grid, using the grid as a guide for the level, and tiles laid over the screed - simples!

Because we didn't have the shower waste when the screeders were on site I had to shutter off the floor area under the shower until it could be done. So now we can get this screeded along with the "making good" of the areas the screeders couldn't be bothered to finish off properly. Talking of screeders, they really do take the biscuit for sheer bloody-mindedness. When I arrived at Wee House this morning, Andy the electrician was there. Due to his workload it was the only time he could find to get some of our work done. Quite casually Andy asked if I knew what had happened to the heavy duty cable that, 3 weeks ago, arrived from the garage through the utility room floor and the end of which was attached the the consumer unit. "No idea" says I. "In that case" said Andy "it must be under the floor and has been covered over with the screed." There was nothing for it but to get the cold chisel and lump hammer and knock seven bells out of our nice utility room floor. The resulting hole is the star of our picture above. Eventually I had created a 12 inch by 4inch hole right through the screed, insulation, and polythene liner. Nestling nicely in the screed was not only our heavy duty power black cable, but also one of the pipes that supplies water from our harvesting tank. Our "couldn't give a dam" screeders had just dumped mortar on both cable and pipe and completely covered them. It must be wonderful to be so conscientious! One thing is for sure - they will not be coming back to do the remedial work - I'll either do it myself or get someone else and then deduct a suitable sum from the as yet unpresented screeder's bill. So - I award the GOLDEN RASPBERRY to our screeders.

We had all the oak timber - skirting and architrave and internal doors delivered on Friday, but only after the usual delivery farce. I had given clear instructions to the timber company - call me 30 minutes before the delivery is to be made and I'll jump in the car and unlock the garage. Just for good measure I called early Friday morning to check that all was in hand. "He left 30 minutes ago" I was told. "But I said to call me......" then thought there was little point - it was only raising MY blood pressure. Having politely said that I would be at site after a 30 minute session with my local osteopath at 09.40, I found 3 missed calls on my mobile 'phone at 09.35. By now I had reached Wee House so called the number shown - it was the timber company driver. "I'm outside your house now mate" he said. "Really" says I, looking outside and only seeing our neighbour's two cockerels. Wondering whether I should ask him whether he is the black cockerel or the golden one, I instead enquired "Which house are you outside?". "6 Hillside Road mate" he said. Explanations about having the wrong address and the need for him to turn round were met with puzzlement because he had "SatNav" and that "tells me I'm in the right place!" Eventually I convinced him that both I and the correct delivery address were 400 yards from his present position so he reluctantly turned his truck round and made his way the Wee House. It turned out that he was looking for a house named Brookdale that was supposedly at the further end of Hillside Road. He even had the correct post code for that address and not ours. Amazing when you consider that we must have had about 20 deliveries of timber from the same company over the last year.

I ordered and collected the downlighters for the majority of the rooms on Thursday. We've opted for low energy compact fluorescent (CFL) as they give a good general warm light and meet the requirements of Part L of the building regulations which states that at least 25% on the lights in a new build must be low energy. I've also ordered walls lights and the outside lights so electrically, we're about there now.

We've reached a decision on tiles too and just need our tiler to confirm the amount we need so we can order them and tick another item on the (long) list. We've also bought all the paint we need at a very reasonable price as Homebase had a "two for the price of less then two or something", but also offered a 15% discount this weekend.

Jan spent today digging up household rubbish from the garden - it looks like the area we designated for vegetables was the dumping ground for the last 100 years. Another wheelbarrow of bricks, bones, and general detritus has seen its way into the skip.

I've got a crick in my neck after painting 2/3 of the bedroom ceiling, but I also managed to create the formers for the corners of the fireplace so that Tony, our plasterer can make the corners rounded and not square. On the subject of fireplaces, we've decided to use the remaining pamments to form the hearth. Just need to check the ever-present regulations to see how big the hearth needs to be.

Jan & Rog

The boys come calling

2010-03-20T17:11:00.000-07:00

The "boys" inspect our new porch floor

Jan hard at work

Not a great degree of activity this week, but we now have a floor for the porch. As you can see, Gill's "boys" have inspected it and seem to like it as I found them sunbathing in the porch earlier in the week. These cockerels really are entertaining. They have been tracking us today as we dug the borders in preparation for the hedgerow plants. As we dug so they pecked away. Not sure what they were looking for, let alone finding, but juicy worms were instantly devoured by the darker of the two, but were regarded with some suspicion by the golden one who, whilst apparently fascinated, did not want to go so far as eating one. As for the porch, everyone seems to like it, including Keith the builder working on number 3 Brookvale, who thinks it looks very Mediterranean.

As we've been digging over the borders today we've found all manner of rubbish - from mattress springs to unidentifiable bits of cast iron, masses of pieces of old clay sewer pipes and more weed roots than we had imagined. After filling the wheelbarrow four times we're ready for Adam to come along and plant the hedgerow.

I've now ordered all the wood for the internal fitting out - that should be with us in the middle of next week, along with the internal doors. I've also now got all the electrical sockets and light switches and will be ordering the downlights on Monday as Andy, our electrician, has promised to start fitting these next week. We're getting closer to deciding on wall lights too - amazing.

After some fun and games with the bathroom and shower room fittings, we finally took delivery at lunchtime today. (driver had wrong delivery address - tried to call me at work - despite having given my mobile number - so couldn't contact me. I called them as it was getting late and just managed to turn the driver round as he headed back to Bedford.)

Chris from The Polish Stair company visited on Thursday, took measurements, and emailed me a very acceptable quote, and CAD drawings of their proposals, by Friday afternoon. Very efficient. Just before Chris arrived, Clive from the screeders came to see why I wasn't too happy with the finish of the floor. He agreed that the guy hadn't trowelled into the corners as he should and promised to get someone along in the next few days to sort it out.

I've got a meeting with Roy and Darren the plumber on Monday to agree final details and get the remaining plumbing (boiler, tank, etc.) underway.

We're still undecided about tiles but have to make a decision very soon now that we have the bathroom stuff. Jan's drawn up one of her infamous lists with everything we need to decide in the next few weeks. Think I'd better have a week off work........

Jan & Rog

Walking Tall

2010-03-14T13:16:00.001-07:00

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jan & Rog

Will O the Wisp appears!

2010-03-06T04:15:00.000-08:00

Radiators installed

The lounge - now whiter than white!

Had I bet on Darren appearing on Wednesday as promised, I would have lost my bet. He appeared instead one day early, on Tuesday at 08.00, complete with father Don, and apprentice Dave. We'll call them the 3Ds from now on. In a very short time the 3Ds had fitted the radiators and towel rails, connected them up to copper pipe, and lagged the piping. By 14.00 they'd gone although they had to return to run the hot and cold pipes and waste pipe for the shower. Promising to return on Friday Darren disappeared again. True to his word, on Friday he returned to carry out the remaining work. Unfortunately, the radiator for the shower room had originally been the wrong size and the replacement not yet delivered, so the pipework for it has been laid in anyway. Hopefully, the radiator and the pipework will line up....... Just as a precaution, I've covered the rads with their packaging as men with wheelbarrows, shovels, et al who will be laying the screed floor, may not be the most careful.
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Roy's boys - Matt and Ian - were back at site on Thursday and Friday - this time to lay the kerb edging by our garden and the lay the foundations for the porch floor. By Friday night the kerb was complete, and quite a large area of the drive adjacent to the new kerb had been concreted to fill in the holes in the widened part of the drive. Matt also laid the plastic sheeting that forms the membrane over the block floor, onto which the insulation and screed is laid. Clive from AFT Flooring has confirmed that his team will be on site on Tuesday next week to carry out this work. So, by the end of the week we will be walking on the new floor.
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Andy the electrician turned up on Friday to answer a few questions, and he is to provide a schedule of fittings required (for me to order) so that we can get the electrics installed. He's also borrowed an LED light fitting for us to try out as the method of calibrating lights with low energy, halogen or LED bulbs, bears no relationship to the rating of incandescent bulbs so its difficult to judge just how much light will be given by each. Switching the LED fitting on in the dark should show us what to expect. Whilst LED bulbs are much more expensive (£25 each I'm told) they last for 20,000 hours.
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I had booked a week's leave to get on with decorating and arranged for Jewsons to deliver a scaffold tower to enable me to reach the lounge ceiling. This was waiting for me on Monday morning as I arrived at 08.15 and following my Ramses II toilet walking project, I proceeded to to do an Isambard Kingdom England on the scaffold tower. Despite being made of aluminium, some bits were rather heavy. Still, by various means I managed to erect this edifice complete with stabilisers, and by Wednesday had finished the ceiling in brilliant white. Dismantling the tower was almost as difficult as erecting it, but eventually I was able to call Jewsons to collect it. I'm not sure when we'll be decorating the lounge ceiling again, but I can guarantee that it won't be me that does it!
~
Roy had arranged to remove (buy!) most of the "stuff" that Jan and I had placed near the garage - 450 engineering bricks, 4 panels of Hares safety fence plus various boards. That made way for yet another skip which we asked to be placed in front of the utility room. Some of you may remember the TV program "The Rise and Fall of Reggie Perrin". Reggie Perrin would tell his boss, CJ, that he was available for a meeting on a specific morning or afternoon. CJ would always respond with a date/time that was not one of those offered. I suspect that the skip driver is a latter day CJ as the skip was left by the garage and right in the way of normal parking or access to the back door of the house. With help from Matt and Ian we managed to push it nearer the garage, as getting to the location we originally wanted was impossible. The arrival of the skip meant a tour of the garage, house and garden to collect various odds and ends. By the end of the day the skip was half full again.
~
At the end of the week I had managed to finish the ceilings in the lounge, kitchen, and hall, as well as the remaining walls in the lounge, but as suspected, I required a session with the osteopath to try to unknot various muscles that had objected to intense activity after years of nothing more than keyboard exercises. (I've got very strong fingers though).

During the week we heard from David Kirkpatrick at Loline Interiors. He had managed to reduce the kitchen quote to below the budget we set so we went back to him today to confirm the details and placed the order. Just got to decide on the worktop material/colour now. The start date for fitting the kitchen is now 4th May.
~
With the general progress that has been made we needed to start making plans for the internal doors, skirting, and architrave to be fitted. I telephoned Pete Brooks (who had done such an excellent job on the roof timbers) to ask if he would like to quote. I was surprised to hear that he had taken a full time job as a foreman on a site in Watford and so wasn't available for the work. Pete said he would let us know of another chippy who he would recommend. Both Jan and I were very disappointed at this news, but could quite understand the shrinking of the building trade and the effect it must have had on many tradesmen. So Pete taking a permanent job was his only option when work dried up. However, the next day, Pete 'phoned back to say that he and his son Lee had so much enjoyed working on Wee House that he felt the pair of them could help during some time off that they would have in April. That will suit us ideally as it will give time to order the oak skirting and architrave, as well as the Pisces and Virgo internal doors.
~
With the end of the hedge planting season approaching (end of March) we decided that it was time we sorted out the hedging; the planners having been quite strict in terms of their requirements. So off we went to Buckingham Nurseries today (the best in the area for hedges) to see what they offered. Within 30 minutes, we had agreed to buy 125 mixed native hedges (Quickthorn, Alder Buckthorn, Blackthorn, Field Maple and Spindle, Dog Rose, Dogwood, Guelder Rose, Hazel, and Sweet Briar Rose). This is to be planted along the boundary with our neighbour's contentious cart track, and to the front of the property up to the porch. We also asked if Buckingham Nurseries could plant the hedges too, but it seemed that they couldn't do so as we were a little far away. However, a sudden change of heart and two options appeared. An older member of staff did planting in his spare time but couldn't do anything for over 6 weeks - leaving it well outside the planting time. Enter stage right - Adam. Adam works for a landscaping company as his day job and for Buckingham Nurseries at the weekend. He also does private work too. Suffice it to say that Adam is built for manual work insofar that his neck is twice the diameter of his head, and his shoulders are sufficiently broad to carry at least one telegraph pole on his own! He has promised that he will plant our hedge - all 125 plants - in 3 hours. This I have got to see, but watching him at work today, I have little doubt that he will do it.
~
Jan and I will be at Wee House tomorrow, this time to do gardening as the drier weather has started some shrinkage of the turfs, so our local nursery - Savins - should come to the rescue for some suitable infill material as they're only a couple of doors down the road from Wee House. I'll be doing some sample digging to see what the ground is like where Adam is to perform. Can't have him breaking into a sweat, can we?
~
Jan & Rog

2010-02-28T12:07:00.000-08:00

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?

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.

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...........

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.

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.

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

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

Anyone for tennis?

2010-02-20T08:36:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-02-13T10:35:00.000-08:00

Gone is the clay - replaced by lovely black mulch.

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?

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.

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.

Jan & Rog

Cracking on

2010-01-31T00:58:00.000-08:00

More garden space now!

A wider drive

Despite the colder weather at the end of the week, we've seen really good progress at Brookvale.
~

All the internal woodwork and plasterboarding was finished off by Thursday to allow Tony Holland our plasterer to start on Thursday evening - and very cold it was too. Even though we had a small fan heater running, it failed to take the chill out of the air as Jan and I put plastic sheet over the windows (to protect them from the plaster), whilst Tony taped over the joints between sheets of plasterboard. We managed to do the big bay in the bedroom, together with the smaller window and french doors, plus the window in the en-suite. This gave Tony enough to start the serious plastering on Friday. As he lives next door but one to us in Clifton, we heard him leave at 06.45! By late afternoon he had virtually finished the bedroom. What a difference! Even though the plaster is darker and therefore making the room seem darker than before, the room now looks like, well, a room! And the finish, as we knew it would be, is first class. Tony is now going to work through the weekend, and next week until completion as his normal source of work seems to have dried up at the moment. So, by next weekend, we should be totally plastered - that calls for a celebration.

~
Roy's boys have been back in force this week, tackling the drive widening. This has involved major excavation of soil, and then filling first with rubble, and then aggregate. Kerb stones have been laid too, and the final topping of a dry concrete type mix as the base for the tarmac at a later stage (when all the big lorries have gone).
~
The other job completed was the digging of the service trench for BT, laying the conduit and cable, and then filling in. We just need BT to come along and connect to our nice new telegraph pole, and provide the terminating point in the house.
~
One major step forward has been the removal of most of the clay spoil that was piled up in the garden. A grab lorry carted that away on Friday, followed closely by the overloaded skip. Its surprising how big the garden now seems now that the area has been cleaned up.
~
Jan and I spent Saturday in that most enjoyable of tasks - moving bricks. Having previously moved them from A to B, and then back to A, as different needs dictated, we decided that we should put them out of the way completely. So, now they are tucked away behind the garage - an area that looks a bit like a builders yard with different bricks, roof tiles, and paving slabs. Still, at least we won't have to move them again.
~
Today we had Vic our potential bathroom fitter coming along to take a look at what's involved in the shower room and en-suite bathroom, as well as Andy, the electrician, who needs to add a couple more connections for the heated floor in the shower room, and a power supply to the overhead lighting for the en-suite basin unit.
~
We had intended putting up more polythene today to protect the rest of the windows and doors from the plaster. However, the dampness of the wet plaster, combined with the cold weather had made most of the windows run with water. Despite Jan's best efforts at mopping up, the damp surface refused to accept the masking tape. Tony has therefore promised to be "extra careful". To try and help dry out the house a little we purchased a small greenhouse paraffin heater, which managed to take the chill out of the house, and in fact we saw that some of the plaster in the bedroom had already dried.
~
With the screeding quote accepted we now need Darren the plumber to lay all his pipes before the insulation and screed is started. I'm looking forward to getting the floor up to the right height as we both feel a little like Ronnie Corbett when we look out of the windows.
~
Our biggest problem at the moment is our inability to find kitchen cupboards that we like. So, this weeks challenge is to surf the Internet to see what we can find.

Jan & Rog

Preparing for the next schedule of work

2010-01-24T09:12:00.000-08:00

The master bedroom

The kitchen

Sunset at Brookvale - Sunday 23rd January 2010

There have been no trades at Brookvale this week - Roy's men were due to continue from the middle of the week, but that turned into Monday the 25th, and rapidly became Wednesday 27th! They still have to widen the drive near the road, dig the service trench for BT's telephone cable, lay the porch pamments, and reinforce the road where the sewer pipe crosses.

The photos show the excellent work that Steve Baldock did on the dot and dab, and just for Julie (my niece) - a sunset!

Jan and I have ordered our bathroom and shower room fixtures and fittings from a supplier in Bedford. We've opted for a Burgundy coloured cabinet to house the (en-suite) moulded basin, and hidden cistern, with large mirror and overhead lighting. The shower room will be a wet room, which makes life a lot easier. We've been given the names of two fitters used regularly by the supplier and are waiting for them to make contact. Delivery on the fittings is in the region of 4 weeks, so we should have plenty of time to arrange everything that needs to be in place before then.

As Tony, our plasterer (and very good friend) is starting next Friday, Jan and I have been doing our usual Mr & Mrs Mop routine and clearing up so that Tony doesn't have to spend all his time moving "stuff". Tony appeared today too, and put up the reinforcing angle beads that protect the outside corners of the walls. As ever, our time at Brookvale rather extended as we tried to make the whole site look a tad tidier. By the time we left tonight the rubbish on the skip was 1/2 as high again as the skip, all the rubble had been moved into a single pile, and the place looked generally better for it. Needless to say, Jan and I are knackered!

With Tony starting on Friday, Jan and I will need to spend a couple of evenings protecting the wooden windows from the inevitable splashes of plaster. This involves the use of masking tape and polythene sheet - a combination known to reduce many a do-it-yourselfer to a sobbing wreck as the two materials should work together, but frequently don't. This is particularly so when the polythene sheeting we purchased from the local builders merchant on Saturday, is covered in wood dust. Wood dust and adhesive tape do not go well together.

One other little problem to wrestle with is the issue of "level access for wheelchairs" which all new builds are obliged to provide now. In essence we must provide an easy means for someone in a wheelchair to gain access to the house and use a toilet. We've had to fit a wider front door than normal to achieve the minimum width laid down, as well as a wide shower room door, but the actual meaning of "level access" is not clear at all. That'll be a call for Central Beds building control tomorrow.

The other job Roy's men will be doing is levelling the site and clearing the spoil. Once this is done we intend to find a firm to improve the subsoil, bring in topsoil, and turf most of the back garden prior to decisions on beds, ponds, bird feeding areas, et al.

Two old gits from Clifton feeling their age!

The last of the snow?

2010-01-17T08:58:00.000-08:00

No picture this week as the only room that has changed significantly is the lounge / diner, but as that is full of scaffold towers, ladders, and trestles it doesn't make a very good photo.

Anyway, during the week Bob the chippy has made dummy door shuts so that the plasterer has an edge to work to, boxed in the soil pipe in the en-suite bathroom, and built the airing cupboard. Latterly, he has been finishing off the bay by covering the steel supports with specially cut oak. Bob has also put panelling across the mezzanine and a small door so that we can't be accused of making a room there - its a loft m'lud! Once the planners have signed of the house we'll rip this panelling and studwork off and convert it into our guest room/ study. Stupid, isn't it, but that's the world of planners - we have to observe the letter of the planning permission, but once the house is signed off we can build extensions, add loft rooms, et al.

Steve, our Dot and Dabber, finished off the plasterboard today and what a difference that has made to the lounge / diner and kitchen - so much lighter now. Its surprising how the grey block work walls really absorbed the light. The great thing about Steve is that he is TIDY! No mess when he's gone - rooms have been swept and he puts all his rubbish in the skip. I wonder if I can get him to speak to Bob the chippy - his idea of tidy is to spread all his chippings, sawdust, and offcuts, evenly round all the rooms. Never mind - I cleared up Bob's mess today so Wee House is tidy for the moment.

Next week will see the end of Bob's work, and preparation for Tony Holland (us proper nouns have to stick together) our plasterer. Tony is a near neighbour and good friend and we know he will do an excellent job for us. He starts at the end of the week after next and will be doing two long weekend stints - Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday for two successive weekends, so by mid February we should be well and truly plastered!

The coming week will also see a visit from Clive to discuss and quote for the floor screeding which will follow some of the plumbing work - getting the water and waste pipes in place before being covered by the screed. I've also got a meeting with Roy, our project manager come builder, to review the remaining groundwork jobs - widening the driveway entrance, digging the BT trench, and levelling the garden off prior to getting lorry loads of new topsoil.

One little irritating moment during the week was a meeting with Andy the electrician. When I said that we wanted flat plate light switches and sockets, he said that we couldn't because the wall boxes he had fitted were not deep enough. He gave me a trade catalogue and virtually every style of fittings required deeper wall boxes than had been fitted. Now why don't these tradespeople give you the choice before they start, rather than telling you how limited your selection is after the event? Anyway, after a surfing session with good old Google, I managed to find a range of good quality fittings that can use the shallower wall boxes fitted - so much for experts!

Jan & Rog

Snow progress

2010-01-10T03:11:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the awful pun - but we're no further forward as its been too cold for Dot and Dab man, and apart from a few odd jobs from Bob the chippy, nothing has been done.

When Jan and I went to Brookvale yesterday, two of the three roads to the cottage were closed. We assume because of the icy condition of the road surface. Can't understand all the fuss personally (says he with four wheel drive!)

We went to our local bathroom supplier yesterday and had a very useful discussion. We now favour the shower room being a wet room with a heated floor so need to make suitable arrangements with the plumber (drainage levels) and electrician (new power source needed) before the floor screeding is done as the pipes and cables run in the screed.

Other than a quick tidy up today, that's it. Hopefully the weather will break during the week and we will make better progress.

The Clifton penguins

Happy New Year from Brookvale

2010-01-02T07:54:00.001-08:00

Most of the contractors were away for Christmas apart from Steve Baldock our "dot and dab" man who spent 2 days this week fixing plasterboard to the walls (even he doesn't know which is "dot" and which is "dab"!). He's made short work of the bedroom, en suite bathroom, shower room, utility room, and hall, but ran out of materials so needs another day to finish off next week. With all the merchants away for the Christmas/New Year break we can't order more plasterboard until Monday.

As nothing outside has changed much, apart from the coming and going of frost and snow, our pictures this week are of the interior (bedroom bay and front door from the hall), as well as the front door from the porch.

With just a few more days required to finish off the woodwork and rectify a couple of bits of plasterboard that Roy's guys got a little wrong in the ceiling, the next step is plastering. We just hope we get some slightly warmer weather otherwise it won't dry out before spring!

Jan & Rog

>>>>>Happy Christmas from Brookvale<<<<<

2009-12-19T06:02:00.001-08:00

The view from Brookvale to the south west

And then it snowed...

2009-12-19T05:25:00.001-08:00

The week started slowly as the groundworkers removed the root of the pine tree that Jan and I had chopped down last Sunday, and then dug a trench for the kerb edging round the left hand side of the bend (just visible behind the plastic fence). This has given us about 3 feet more width on the bend and will make life a lot easier for everyone as two cars will be now able to pass at this point.

As the rain of the earlier part of the week turned to snow on Thursday, so all the groundwork stopped. By Friday, we had about 6 inches of snow and quite a bit of drifting, as can be seen from the picture above. I doubt that any more work will be done on the driveway until the New Year.

Inside the house was a different story though as Matt and Bob made short work of fixing the remaining plasterboard in the bedroom. We now need just a few more pieces of oak capping to finish off the bay window. Once again though we're being held up by A J Joinery whose full order book is an obvious joy to them but a bit of a pain for us!

A J Joinery were due to deliver the front door frame and utility door frame on Monday, then Tuesday, then Wednesday, and lastly Thursday. In the end Roy collected them on Friday! Bob had hoped to fit these and their respective doors during the week, but that will have to be left until next week now. Talking of doors, our oak front door arrived with the timber merchant on Wednesday and they phoned me up to let me know. When I asked if they could deliver, they agreed for the next day. I gave the full address and clear instructions so that the driver could find Brookvale without trouble. Next thing I hear is that Roy has been told they haven't got transport and that he would need to collect the door. "C'est la vie" I thought, "as long as the door gets there". Three hours later and the timber merchant's driver was on the 'phone telling me that he didn't want to leave the door at an unattended site. Wondering firstly how they magically found a lorry, and secondly why there was nobody at Brookvale, I asked what address he was at - "6 Hillside Road" he said! No wonder - he was 1/4 mile away. So much for detailed delivery instructions.

As the roads in Bedfordshire were littered with dead cars and lorries on Friday, no work was done as none of the trades could get there, but the plasterboard and adhesive has arrived for "dot and dab man". I can still find no-one who can tell me what "dot" and "dab" refers to though. Steve Baldock, our dot and dab man arrives Monday to fix the plasterboard to the walls. Everyone tells us that this will make the biggest difference, particularly to the levels of light in the rooms. Can't wait.

Oh, nearly forgot. Our missing alarm man Michael materialised on Thursday and has fitted his cabling so that we have movement sensors in each room with an external door, and a sensor on the front door. We've decided that we'll also alarm the garage so the control unit can be tucked away in the garage, and the siren mounted on the garage gable end. Hopefully this will deter our nocturnal visitors.

Apart from a little clearing up there wasn't much to do today, but I will spend some time tomorrow staining the door frames and front door. Hope its warmer than the minus 7 of today. I did go to the timber merchants this morning as the door manufacturer had delivered an example of an internal door that we liked. How's this for coincidence - the door designs we liked, one with glass panels and one without are called Virgo and Pisces, the respective birth signs for Jan and me. (not that I believe in astrology)

The Clifton snowpeople

A bit of whimsy....

2009-12-18T11:25:00.000-08:00

Now we're somewhat experienced in the art of building a house, a few pieces of advice to any budding self builder :

However big your wallet, you’ll need a bigger one
Planning officers are rigid about rules, but each planner interprets them differently
“Planning officer” and “logic” cannot be used in the same sentence
"Planning officer" and "common sense" cannot be used in the same sentence
The most secure site will be broken into and stuff stolen
Your insurance company will find a way to avoid paying out against any claim
If you’ve got the best top soil in the area, your builder will still, magically, find a way to make it vanish under sub soil and rubble
A builder can turn a dry, arid, wasteland of a garden into a quagmire within days
Don’t expect service from the people that provide the main services
Your architect will find a way to justify giving you a bill you weren’t expecting
There are special “trade” prices for self builders – they’re called retail plus
New builds are zero rated for VAT. You can claim VAT back after the house is finished when you really needed the money to help finish the house
A tidy roofer is one who throws broken tiles in your garden rather than your neighbour’s garden
A tidy builder is one who clears up when he can’t get into the room he wants to work in
A clean builder is one who has only 2 kilos of mud on each of his boots
All building material will be stored in the most vulnerable place and be damaged before use
Everything will be over-ordered but your builder will kindly offer to take the surplus “off your hands” at 20% of the buy price
You will be expected to make instant decisions on very important matters
By attempting to be “Green” and help save the planet, you will be a pauper for the rest of your life
All electricians must have one leg shorter that the other as they cannot fit a truly level socket or light switch
All plumbers are virtual – they don’t really exist at all (we've never seen ours but pipes appear as if by magic)
Painters can work through high wind and torrential rain, as well as in very dusty conditions, and still get a better finish than you
Most suppliers will treat a self-builder as a moron, at least I assume that’s why they grunt at you
Plant hire companies are more despised than estate agents and bankers
Promises of deliveries on specific dates should be treated with more scepticism than Tony Blair's assertion that Saddam Hussain had weapons of mass destruction
You are deemed too stupid to understand a detailed bill
A builder's toilet is more deadly than anthrax!

Jan & Rog

Now its a turf war!

2009-12-13T08:03:00.000-08:00

It was quiet amusing to see the games being played at Brookvale between two building firms. Roy our project manager has his own building company PJR Bacon, and its his chippy and groundworkers that we have been using for the last 6 weeks or so. However, Sue at number 3 Brookvale is having some pretty extensive work done on her house - loft conversion and ground floor extension. Sue's work is being done by Keith Donovan Builders and his sign was displayed on Hillside Road for all to see. Now, because the work Keith's doing cannot be seen from the road, its a fair guess that people will think he's building our house as wee house can be seen from the road! I assume that's why Roy turned up with his own sign last week and put it up in front of our house. Meanwhile, Keith's sign has disappeared from Hillside Road, and I noticed yesterday that Roy has produced another sign. Far be it for me to suggest that Roy has anything to do with Keith's missing sign, but I bet Roy's second sign will be put up on Hillside Road very shortly!

Its been a busy week at Brookvale. As I had annual leave to use up I took last week off and did a few jobs around the (new) house - staining wood for the ceiling of the porch and bay window, as well as being a gopher for hinges, locks and handles. The ironmongery is necessary because we'll have our front door next week and then the building will be made secure. I'm still a bit concerned about nocturnal visits so perhaps becoming a little paranoid about security now. With this in mind I arranged to meet at site on Friday our electrician's mate Michael who installs alarm systems. Sadly he didn't show, and I've had no word from him. With planning of the plumbing now reaching the point where a boiler and copper tubing are to be installed within a few weeks I don't want to risk either being ripped out one dark night so I'll have to find someone else.

Bob the chippy has nearly completed the bay window with just some finishing strips of oak to cover up the steels supports to be put in place. He's also fitted some of the oak windows "boards" which you and I would call sills. During the coming week Bob and Matt should finish off the insulation of the bay window roof and then put in the plasterboard for the ceiling. Talking of plasterboard, Roy met Steve Baldock the "dot and dab" man today to discuss the fitting of the plasterboard to the walls. Apparently the term dot and dab comes from the method of fixing the plasterboard which revolves round the use of dollops of strong adhesive applied to the block work, followed by sticking the plasterboard to it. Not sure which is "dot" and which is "dab" though.

Gary, Matt, and Ian have finished laying the bricks that form the path round the house so are now free to carry on with the kerb edges to the driveway, and the widening of the entrance to Brookvale which the planners have insisted we increase from about 2.5 metres to 4.2 metres so that two cars can pass. This will involve the use of another mini digger which I have insisted Roy hires and cross charges me. Taking of diggers, our claim is now with the loss adjusters - lots of paper, little action!

I met British Telecom's new house build man at site on Friday to discuss the provision of a telephone line to wee house. As I had been told that they would just run a cable in the ground I was a little surprised to be told that they wanted a 2 inch conduit to be laid 600mm down in the ground, into which the cable would run. As we had dug the service trench and then covered it up again, this was not what I wanted to hear. And then it seemed to get worse as it was explained that the telegraph pole part way down the drive could only be used if we could obtain permission from the owner of the drive to run the cable under the driveway. Now call me a sceptic, but I don't really think that I would get that permission from the man who has been so obstructive from day one. Option two then was to take a telephone line from a pole to the south in Hillside Road and run the line under the verge to the top of the drive, where we would connect up to it. However, it was option three that out BT man seemed to like best and that involved installing a new slave telegraph pole on the verge at the top of the drive, and then running an overhead cable from the nearest main pole to this new one. From there it would be run into the ground at the base of the pole to connect to our line running in the service trench. Being concerned that there was a rather high cost associated with all this civil engineering, and also being conscious of the silly prices that EDF and British Gas had charged, I asked about the cost. It appears that BT are obliged to provide service to new buildings and that they allocate £3400 per house towards the cost. My BT man thought that we would be well within that cost so is getting his pole (as in telegraph) man to check the proposed siting tomorrow. Now why can't EDF and British gas do that?

Did the usual clearing up yesterday, including retrieving the used tea bags from the wall cavity in the utility room door opening. We do wonder what they have against the black bin bag we've left just two feet away from where they throw these things. I'm now worried I'm getting a bit anal about this. If I'm not careful I'll be arranging all the cutlery in line in the drawer soon!

And so to today - Jan and I went of to a reclamation yard near Cambridge and bought some floor tiles (apparently correctly called pamments) for the porch floor. They are a sort of salmon / beige colour and look to tone in well with the red and cream bricks used for the house. We managed to get them in the boot of Jan's car and left them in the garage at Brookvale. Might even have a go at laying them myself.......

Jan & Rog

The path to nowhere, a complete bay, and a bill for £15,000

2009-12-05T08:21:00.000-08:00

At long last the remaining window for the bay arrived on Monday, so following a couple of coats of stain, the installation was started on Wednesday by Bob the chippy. As you can see, by the end of the week he had all the windows and the bay doors fitted, together with the window cill which Bob had cut and shaped to fit the angles of the bay. We've still got a gap above the windows which will be filled with tongued and grooved boarding which I will be staining on Monday as I have a week's leave (end of year rush to use all all remaining leave). The second photograph shows the view from inside the house and if you look through the window where the sun is glinting you'll see the gap in the hedgerow where the thieves who stole the excavator pushed down a tree to make off across the field.

Which leads us nicely on to the saga of the stolen digger. An invoice arrived on Monday from the hire firm. In between items for charges for the chemical loo, scaffold tower and so on, was an invoice for nearly £15,000 for the digger and associated shovel. I've not yet had confirmation that a valid hire contract is in place, but I do now know that the digger in question was not new but a 2006 model. The fact that I'm expected to replace a secondhand digger with a new one seems a tad cheeky, to say the least, but it appears that this may be a starting point for negotiation. I've now placed the whole matter in the hands of my insurance company who advise that a loss adjuster will probably want to visit site to see what happened. We discovered too that on the same night the digger was stolen, there was a break-in at a farm nearby and rolls of copper wire were stolen from a factory storage unit. Busy boys that night weren't they?

And so to progress elsewhere. Gary and Matt have been busy laying the bricks for the path round the house, the edging for which you can see in the photo of the bay window. I would expect them to finish the path in the week ahead, depending on the amount of rain we have! Matt has also built the little pier around the porch support post which can be seen in the second photo above.

Murphys were back on Thursday to connect the gas in the road at the top of the drive. We've also gained a not exactly pretty brown box on the front wall of the house which will contain the gas meter. This unpleasant little receptacle has a hinged lid which is opened by a special triangle section key. Where do you suppose the key was left? Why, in the box which can only be accessed with a triangle shaped key of course!

Lee the painter has been busy applying a final coat of Sadolin to the windows and doors, and despite a less than dry week has got on well. We're really pleased with the look and colour of the windows, especially the bay, as they are exactly as we imagined they would be.

Jan and I have been deliberating over doors all week. The external doors have to meet building regulations Part L compliance in respect of heat loss, and one door to the property has to meet part M compliance for (wheelchair) access - a clear opening of at least 750 mm. Now that's all well and good if you're fitting UPVC as there are endless options, but when it comes to oak doors, the choice is very limited. The door must have a "U" value of 2 or less, which is much more easily achieved with double or triple glazed doors than one made predominantly of wood. The other problem is that the oak door manufacturers advise that their doors do not like full sunlight and rain, so should ideally be protected by a porch. That's fine for the front door which is well sheltered, but what about the utility room which faces south east? We may have to buy a door made of a more durable hard wood - meranti - in a style that matches the front door. The only trouble is that meranti is rather pink. Not sure how much the light oak stain we're using will tone it down.

Our plasterer, neighbour, and good friend Tony Holland (league of nations round here you know) met Roy at site on Monday to discuss when he could start plastering as nearly all of the plaster boarding for the upper floor has been finished. Tony hopes to start in a week or two, possibly working evenings and weekends. After that its second fix woodwork - skirting and internal doors.

This morning I met Roy and his tarmac man - JJ at Brookvale to discuss the re-surfacing of the driveway. Coincidentally I had seen JJs men finishing a drive in Shefford on Friday, and did wonder if it would be the same firm. Small world isn't it? Anyway, inevitably JJ and Roy had known each other since there were dinosaurs on the planet and they joked and ribbed each other

as JJ wandered around in carpet slippers with his little measuring wheel (JJ suffers from gout it appears - hence the slippers). I should get JJ to talk to the council planners as he said that the driveway would support the heaviest of vehicles without any upgrading. JJ said that it needed a depth of 25 mm of tarmac to create an excellent finish so has gone off to calculate the cost. I have no real idea of the likely cost to resurface over 100 metres of drive. Doubtless I will find out quite soon.

Jan & Rog

What some people get up to on a windy night....

2009-11-26T11:06:00.001-08:00

And there it was - gone!

As we had a 5 hour power cut at work on Monday, I decided that now we had power at Brookvale I could collect the generator I had bought and use it as an emergency supply for work. On arriving at Brookvale early Tuesday morning there were lots of people on telephones and a general lack of action. Gary, one of the groundworkers, explained that some "bast***s" had nicked the digger during the night. It appears that "they" managed to start the digger without keys, drove it round to the back of the house, demolished a tree to create a gap in the hedgerow, and then at the less than rapid pace of 1 mph (the digger's top speed), set off on a 3/4 mile trip across fields (the tracks clearly visible) until they reached a driveway, where, presumably, they put it on a low loader and roared off into the night. No-one at Brookvale heard a thing!

"Still" said Gary "they won't get far. Its got a Tracker fitted". After my return to work I conjured up the image of the police chasing the digger at 1 mph; the Tracker beeping away furiously and the villains being arrested. My thoughts then turned to insurance. Who was responsible? Would it be us? At £5000 for an 8 year old digger, it would be a lot of money. Suppose the insurance company wouldn't pay out? The 'phone rang - it was Roy, the project manager. He had spoken to the police and they just weren't interested. Worse still, when the Tracker was switched on - zilch, zero, nothing at all. Either it was faulty of it had been found and smashed. Goodbye mini digger.

The annoying thing was that we had almost finished with the digger - just one more day's work!

Jan & Rog

Leaps and bounds

2009-11-20T09:38:00.000-08:00

Well, the week seems to have flown past but we seem to be moving at a great pace now.

As I looked at the weather forecast for the week last Sunday night, it seemed that we had a "window" of 3 days fair weather to put the windows in. I eagerly made my way to site on Monday to find no windows installed, and no Bob the chippy. Once I located Roy he told me that Bob had a bad back and that he would be back on Tuesday. Now I'm not a doctor, but it seemed to me that Bob would be most unlikely to be back on Tuesday with a magically healed back. Keen not to miss the drier weather, I asked Roy if he knew anyone else that could fit the windows. If Bob wasn't back on Tuesday, Roy said he had two other carpenters to call on. Needless to say, Bob was not back on Tuesday, and the two other guys did not appear. Fortunately, Bob returned on Wednesday and made rapid progress as can be seen from today's photos. All the windows (except the bay) have been installed, as have the french doors in the lounge (first picture). Due to what the trade call an order fulfillment issue (cock up), one of the bay windows had not been made. We've got to wait until Tuesday next week before A J Joinery will be able to get that to us.

And so to the saga of Gary Gutter. Gary was due to fit the guttering on Wednesday 4th November, but failed to appear. He then promised to be on site on Wednesday 11th November, but again failed to appear. However, he promised that he would definitely fit the guttering on Wednesday this week. (Does he only work one day each week?) And so we wondered if he would appear this week as the absence of guttering was having a rather damping effect on the walls. Well true to form, Gary didn't arrive on Wednesday, but turned up unannounced on Tuesday when the site was not really ready for him. Bless the building trade - if just one of them actually turned up on the day they promised.... Well regardless of Gary's diary misalignments, the guttering looks really great. Its very odd to see a single 7 metre length of straight guttering appear from the back of a Transit van that's only 3 metres long! But of course the aluminium is on a roll and is formed in a machine in the van.

The other major progress this week has been the groundwork. Gary and Ian (still talking as there has been no conflicting football match to come between them) have now levelled the ground between the house and garage, laid and rolled type 1 aggregate, and laid edging stone to the drive. We've also discovered that we own 1 metre more land than we thought as the excavations have shown the boundary between us and number 4 Brookvale is not in a line along the far wall of the garage, but another metre beyond that. This came to light as the gravel was removed in front of the garage and the edging uncovered. Once this was found, it was relatively easy to trace a line back to the cottages and see that in fact the boundary was further south than our drawings showed. With aggregate now in place all around most of the house, and the edging stones heading towards the "Fools gateway" to delineate the driveway from our garden, the whole house is assuming a much more orderly look.

At last too, we now have ELECTRICITY! EDF connected the supply up on Wednesday, and the meter was fitted Friday. The builders will now be able to make tea using the mains rather than the generator - not the best use of petrol.

Despite threatening to connect our water supply on Friday, Anglian Water once again failed to appear. Still, with a supply of electricity we can start the rainwater harvesting pump and use some of the 3500 litres in the tank. Quite what has happened with the gas connection we're not entirely sure. It appears that they had to wait a period of time before they could dig up the road, (something to do with Council rules - which probably doesn't surprise you) but as we're not desperate for the gas connection, it isn't a problem at the moment.

Two more jobs in hand for me are to organise the making and supply of the front door and utility door and frames, as well as the internal door frames. I'm also waiting to hear from the locksmiths about some suitable door furniture - must chase them as they've gone rather quiet on me.

We've been touring the bathroom stores this afternoon and now have a good idea of what we want, even down to specific models from specific suppliers

We've have one other little problem too - Clive from 4 Brookvale is having his 26 foot yacht brought on a low loader so that he can refit it over the next two years. Unfortunately, the Fools Gateway, and various trees and shrubs are in the way so it looks like some drastic pruning of Gillian Walton's garden (5 Brookvale) is going to be necessary, and probably allowing the yacht-carrying vehicle to drive on our garden. That's fine now, but what will happen in two years time when we have a hedge alongside the driveway is another problem.

Jan & Rog

The fools gateway

2009-11-15T07:01:00.000-08:00

Consider if you will our self-righteous parish councillor Stewart Rat(aj) and his fellow councillors complaining that our proposed house would despoil the countryside and then take a look at the gates that he has hung on the posts fitted last week. It must have taken a long time, and a lot of digging, to find such a knackered pair of rusty old eyesores as those. But of course, it has been done deliberately, out of spite, because he has effectively lost his futile battle to stop us building. This was all he had left and there's little we can do as neither the gates nor the fence are subject to any form of planning regulations (I've checked). Pathetic.

And so to progress on Wee House.

Following Roy's surprise at the need to have the water pipe chlorinated, he checked and found that this hasn't been the case for some years on a pipe as small a diameter as ours. When he queried this with Anglian Water they responded with the fact that he was the third person to 'phone that week with the same query all caused by the same inspector. One hopes said inspector has now had a "pipe appreciation lesson" and understands that there are different requirements for different diameter pipes.

Lee the painter turned up on Monday and, together with his anonymous mate, set about staining the window and door frames. By Tuesday lunchtime he had finished the required two coats and will return when the windows and doors are fitted to give a final exterior coat.

In the meantime, Bob the chippy, had been getting greyer and greyer (dust from cutting the board) as he fitted first the remaining insulation, and then the plasterboard to the ceiling in what I shall from now on call the guest room, rather than the mezzanine. Due to the fiddly nature of this Bob didn't get a chance to start installing the windows but will start that job on Monday 16th.

Darren the plumber was called to site on Wednesday to connect the rainwater harvesting system control system and mains water feed which runs from the house to the garage (where the control unit is sited) and then to the rainwater tank. A quick test using the generator showed the pump was working so Darren's work is done for the moment.

Andrew the electrician was also on site on Wednesday to connect the tails of the mains electricity feed to the consumer unit. At one point it appeared as though there might be a duel (wrenchs at dawn?) as Darren and Andrew argued about the positioning of their respective equipment : boiler - Darren; consumer unit - Andrew. Both apparently wanted exactly the same bit of the utility room wall! Andrew won because he got in first and installed the consumer unit. Darren will find somewhere else for the boiler!

Meanwhile Gary and Ian were beavering away on the drains, albeit in silence on Monday, because Ian's soccer team Arsenal, had beaten Gary's team Man U at the weekend. The emotions generated by football are somewhat of a mystery to me. By Thursday the drains were complete and the building inspector was summoned to carry out our "dry inspection". This entails checking the fall is satisfactory, which apparently it was, so passed. There's also a "wet inspection". Quite what that entails I shudder to think but will ensure that I am NOT on site on the day he calls for this dubious-sounding process.

For reasons that are not entirely clear Gary Gutter did not arrive again this week, but is now scheduled to appear next week. I'm getting a bit fed up with him. If he doesn't show this week I'll look elsewhere as the walls are getting soaked because the roof presently drains directly onto them. Worse still, the water is splashing into the clay at the base of the walls and a milky spray is in turn being splashed onto the lower red bricks. Looks like a pressure washer is needed.

And finally, to Friday when Gary and Ian, now bosom buddies again (because there's no league football this weekend to fall out over) have been concreting the drains, fitting inspection points and backfilling. This means that the rainwater harvesting tank has now almost disappeared with just its neck showing, and the ground beside the house is reasonably level - bloody boggy, but reasonably level!

Jan and I had our usual weekend clean up on today (Sunday) but really only had a bit of sweeping to do. Hopefully, the windows will be in by next weekend and so stop the debris getting into the house. Mind you, it won't stop the builders being their usual messy selves!

Jan & Rog

You couldn't invent this!

2009-11-05T13:40:00.001-08:00

On Wednesday I received an unexpected call from Roy Bacon, the project manager. Although what he was saying was largely unintelligible due to a poor signal on his mobile, I knew he was trying to tell me something was wrong. Call it a premonition, but I had a feeling that our old "friend" the Rat was going to re-appear. We had received an official letter from Central Beds Council on Monday this week telling us that their Ethics and Standards Tribunal had made a judgement in relation to the complaints that we and Gillian Walton (number 5 Brookvale) had made about Stuart Rat(aj). In his guise as a parish councillor (co-opted of course - no-one would vote him in!) he did not declare his personal interest in our plot of land (due to his connection with Mr Hyde and the fact that he tried to buy the plot several years ago) when the parish council debated our revised plans last year and voted strongly against them. Although the clerk to the parish council had not recorded any declared interest from the Rat, nor his abstention from voting, the tribunal decided that the Rat was completely innocent of any wrong doing. The clerk was praised by the tribunal for his accuracy in recording the minutes of the meeting, but several of the other councillors now disputed the clerk's recorded version saying that they distinctly remembered the Rat declaring an interest at the Parish Council meeting that debated our planning application, and also that he abstained from voting. Although the minutes did not support this, and local government being what it is, they all stuck together and the Rat was let off the hook. I said to Jan that I thought he would emerge once more now that he was cleared. Sure enough, when Roy called back he explained that there was a small gang of men putting in posts between our land and the cartway. I rushed off down to Brookvale to see one post already installed and another hole being drilled. The "posts" were a telegraph pole that had been cut into three - very ugly things they are too, with very thick multi-strand wire pinned to each. For some reason, the hedgerow to the right has been massacred and the base dug out so that it looks like a cart track now.

To cut a long story short, after some discussion it appeared that there was documentary evidence to support the existence of a 14 foot track based on copies of plans attached to old deeds from 1953 that were shown to me. However, it wasn't all bad news as it appears following legal advice this week that case law, determined in 2006, means that we have an absolute right to access the plot and that we can upgrade the driveway in any way we like to ensure that it complies with District Council standards, and the needs of modern society. So the fact that it is described as a cart track is academic and we can use it for motor vehicles - contrary to the solicitor's letter from Mr Hyde earlier in the year.

This spiteful response was made within 24 hours of the Rat's "acquittal" and appears to be a final gesture as everything else has failed. The position of the first post now makes it difficult for larger vehicles to turn at the bend in the drive. Its very possible that a lorry may accidentally knock it over one day. How unfortunate that would be. All very pathetic really - pure spite - but once we grow our hawthorn hedge, this will be covered up.

And so to the events of the rest of the week. Amazingly, we have now had the water, gas and electricity pipes all laid in the service trench and approved by their respective suppliers. Good job too as the digger cost more to hire in 2 weeks than a BMW costs for a month on contract hire! But of course, there had to be a hitch. And on Thursday the hitch appeared in the form of the Anglian Water inspector. "Yup, the position of the water pipe in the trench is fine as it meets our standard. All I now need is the chlorination certificate and I can connect you" he said. Roy, who has been a builder for nearly 50 years, had never heard of a chlorination certificate so asked where he could get one. "From the people that you arranged the water supply with" said the inspector. "What, you mean Anglian Water, the company you work for" said Roy. "Yes that's right" he said. "Well why can't this be organised between you" enquired Roy. "Different department mate!" was the response. In the immortal words of Richard Wilson "I don't believe it!" Having suggested to Roy that this was another money making wheeze I wasn't surprised to hear that the cost of obtaining this certificate is £260 plus VAT. Quite why flushing the pipe with clean water is insufficient, goodness only knows. Notwithstanding this, with luck we should have the water, gas and electricity fully connected by the end of the month.

By the end of the week, the service trench had been backfilled, just leaving the turf to be re-laid. Only the foul waste to sort out now and connect the house to the main sewer - another digging job across the road.

Thursday saw the oak windows and doors arrive and very nice they look too. I took a day's leave on Friday and applied stain to the tops and sides to help the painter, Lee Hayes, who is arriving on Monday to do the rest of the staining prior to fitting (due to start Wednesday). Trouble is I keep forgetting that I am an old man and struggled to lift the frames. Help was readily provided by Roy's men working on site, but it doesn't do much for the ego when a frame you've struggled to lift with someone else's help is picked up under one arm and moved with apparent ease! I went back Saturday morning to remove the handles and other furniture from the frames to make it easier for the painters, but found I couldn't get to them. To avoid them being spirited away by, well, you know who does these things, all the frames had been tucked up in the en-suite bathroom by Roy's men and a large piece of plywood screwed to the door frame. I decided to sweep the floor instead!

Wednesday also sees Gary Gutter back to fit the guttering and downpipes, so by the end of the week after next we should have a secure house with rainwater being collected in our harvesting tank. I must admit I shall be very pleased to reach that point as the mess created by all the groundworks, and the water running off the roof, has now reached the point where it is impossible to go anywhere near the site without getting very messy indeed.

As a footnote to the issue with the new fence posts, I had a visit from Clive (4 Brookvale) when I was tidying up at Brookvale this morning. He is having the area between our garage and his neighbours garage cleared and a hardcore/gravel surface put down so he can put his boat there(26 foot sailing variety) for refurbishment. Clive wanted to make sure we both agreed the delineation of the boundary between us (pleasant change, eh?) but was also concerned that the first of Mr Hyde's new fence posts would make it very difficult, if not impossible for the lorry delivering the hardcore to get to the area in question. I wouldn't be at all surprised if said post suffers an accident soon - it does seem to have stirred up people! Of course it would seem like poetic justice if we could get the District Council to insist on its removal because a fire engine couldn't get round the driveway! Hmmm, might do some stirring next week.

Jan & Rog

'Twas on a Tuesday evening when the gas man came to call.....

2009-10-29T07:16:00.000-07:00

Our own little bit of trench warfare

After an entirely fruitless business trip to Reading on Tuesday I received a call when I was about ½ mile from Brookvale. “You’d better get to site quick then” said Roy the project manager after I explained how close I was. As I rounded the corner to the drive I could see two men and an idle digger peering at a bright yellow pipe with an 18 inch piece missing. The smell of gas was inescapable. Yes – we had found an unknown gas supply that did not appear on any plans held by the gas infrastructure companies. Gary the digger driver taped up the live end of the broken pipe and waited for the emergency gas man to do his stuff. No more digging that day! Just for good measure, one of the neighbours suggested that there were more service pipes further down the drive and directly in our proposed line. Two more days of digging for about 90 metres have failed to find these fortunately, and the trench has now arrived near the house. Its amazing how this has happened when the depth that the gas pipe should be laid is proscribed, and the material in which it must be laid. The pipe that was broken was no more than 8-9 inches in the ground when it should have been 24". The fact that its presence was unknown was even more surprising. Still, its all in a report that Roy was obliged to fill out although I suspect that absolutely nothing will happen as a result.

To our surprise, Murphy & Sons, the company who will connect the gas service, appeared on Thursday and are happy to put the gas pipe in the trench temporarily. However, we have to put the water pipe in first and cover it, but then we can then simply relay the gas pipe at the required depth once the water pipe has been approved by Anglia Water. The live gas feed will be connected at a later stage. Then all we need is EDF, or as my colleague calls them, Extremely Dear Fuel. EDF inevitably have procedures - each with their own timescales. The words “quick” and “soon” do not appear in their vocabulary, whilst terms like 30, 60 and 90 days seem to appear for the most trivial of activities! I suppose we could always build a water-powered generator once we get water to site. Would that be a “green” initiative? Probably not. At least we have the petrol generator.

All the pipes that will take water from the roof to the rainwater harvesting system have now been finished and Gary McGutter is due any day now with his natty one-piece guttering system. Progress has been made inside too with Adrian (sparks) finishing off all the first fix. Bob the chippy has built the framework for the stud partitions for the shower room/utility room and en-suite bathroom. Bob has also been busy putting in the insulation in between the roof timbers. Roy reckons that we won’t need heating, and possibly even no clothes with all the insulation being fitted. I think it unlikely that any form of naturism will be the norm if it does get too hot in the England household – not sure the world is ready for that.

I am looking forward to the windows arriving – apparently due early next week. That will make a difference.

We've got two days off this weekend as we’re off to visit someone else’s building work – Jan’s cousin Carol and husband Paul in Kent who have recently finished an extension. We can swap experiences perhaps?

The Clifton gassers

It ain't cheap being green!

2009-10-24T08:29:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the pit. All we want now is Quatermass!

It is proving to be rather expensive, this "green" initiative. The cost of the tank to house the collected rainwater wasn't too bad as it came complete with a very powerful pump, and an electronic control system to monitor the tank's water level and the usage of water. In dry spells, the system will refill the tank to its minimum level from the mains when there's insufficient rainwater from the roof. All clever stuff. Trouble is, nobody tells you that to excavate the hole for the tank and all the drainage channels for each of five guttering downpipes around the house, and the deep soakway, is going to require a very expensive digger, and an army of hangers-on to lay pipes, and argue about whether the correct angle has been achieved for the pipes to ensure reasonable flow to the tank. This all adds up to molto dinaro. I reckon the payback will be many, many years, and long after I join the tank in the hole, which, incidentally, is 4.5 metres deep and 3.5 metres square. One side effect of this dam "hole" is that the majority of the spoil is a very light grey clay, all crumbly when its dry but it turns into a sticky paste as soon as it rains. We have this stuff liberally scattered around the garden now.

We've canned the idea of solar panels now too, as after research it appears that the likely payback is at least 50 years. I sort of figured that by the time I'm 115 I wouldn't really care about the price of electricity anyway.

Last weekend we entertained my family - Jenny & Stewart, Julie & Mark, Gabrielle & Crystal, Denize & Tim - and had a little topping out ceremony. Gill and Peter from 5 Brookvale joined us too, and brought the yew branch (essential in Bedfordshire folklore and which has to be fixed to the highest point of the house) together with a large plate of hot sausage rolls, and most importantly, a bottle of champagne. That made three bottles as we had already been given two bottles by Jenny! A tour of the house and site was followed by a glass or two of bubbly, and then off to the pub for Sunday lunch - very convivial it was too.

And so to the saga of our "hole". Firstly it was dug too deep, but by the time this was realised, the tank had been dropped in and about 1000 litres of water added. The solution was of course simple - call the supplier and order an extension for the neck of the tank as this would bring it to the right height. Extension piece duly arrives and was fitted - eh voila - it was now too tall! No problem, we'll just cut it in half to make it the right length. So lets analysis this brilliant solution :

take too much out of the hole and charge me for the labour to do so.

order an extra piece that wasn't really needed and present me with the bill.

cut the newly ordered bit (that I am expected to pay for) in half and throw half away.

drive the digger into one section of the (hired by me) Hares fence and leave it as a useless mangled bit of metal.

drive the digger into the portable toilet causing a 4" split in the side, scratches across the door, all resulting in the door now failing to close.

don't tell me about these things that I will potentially be charged for - let me find out when I visit at the weekend.

Its not been a good week for matters relating to water and waste as it has now been discovered that the estimated depth of the soil pipe laid to the site by the previous owner is not as deep as specified. This means that we cannot run the soil pipe from the house to the mains as things are because the fall is too slight. Yes, you guessed, the solution is to make us spend more by cutting out two more (higher) courses of brickwork where the soil pipe enters the house so that the correct fall can be created. The only other alternative was to jack up the whole house by 6 inches, which after careful consideration, was relegated to plan B.

On the positive side, we now have lots of insulation between the roof timbers, and the first stud partition has been built at the end of the mezzanine floor. This will give as a very useful storage space for all those things that are used once every 20 years, but which are so valuable they cannot be thrown away.

Due to the magnitude of the task of digging the "hole", Roy didn't get round to digging the service trench, but this will be started next Monday once the man from EDF has been to check out the route that the electricity supply will take. Apparently, the single trench will have the water pipe in the bottom, be covered with gravel, and then the electricity cable goes next -covered by gravel, and lastly, the gas. Given the cost of the supply of the gas and electricity we fully expect a solid gold cable/pipe, wrapped in a platinum casing, suitably engraved with the signature of Monsieur Hulot, or whoever is the CEO of EDF these days.

Monday should see Tony McGutter arrive with his aluminum sheet, magic gutter producing machine, and the installation of the rather necessary link in the water recycling chain.

Jan and I have spent this morning filling up another skip with rubbish, almost to the point where there's no more to find. I was rather amused when I was asked by one of the builders if he could bring some cardboard packaging to Brookvale to put in the skip - no problem says I, and so it duly arrived. By this morning, the aforesaid (Hoover) box was the sole occupant of the skip, whilst almost every other bit of the site, and the house, had various bits of detritus that should have been put in the skip, but there seems to be a mindset that says "drop it on the floor and leave it there". Builders - don't you just love 'em?

We're hopeful that A J Joinery will be delivering and fitting the windows soon as this will make the house secure, and watertight. We've opted to have makeshift front and utility room doors for the time being as the constant flow of tradesmen, in and out,

The Clifton achers

Wee house emerges.....

2009-10-17T05:26:00.000-07:00

...from the scaffolding. At last, we can see what our house looks like. Mind you, it still seems a bit "soulless" without its windows, gutters and downpipes, but it won't be long now before they are fitted.

The first picture was taken from the top of the hill and shows how well the house blends into the landscape. (If you didn't know, clicking on the picture enlarges it, and reverts to normal size by clicking the back arrow).

Little has been done during the last week, but we did "entertain" our dear friends Jenny (number one fan of the blog) & David last weekend. Still some way to go before their room is ready to be occupied though! Patience please Jenny.

I almost forgot - the sprinkler lads were back on Monday - scrambling hither and thither, and we now have all their plumbing done for the whole house. All it needs to finish it off is connection to the water supply and the neat little heads that can be fitted once the plasterboard is installed.

We've run into another slight problem, this time with the staircase to the mezzanine floor. It seems that once again we have some discrepancies between the drawing and the actual dimensions of the finished walls. I'm sure its nothing too serious, we'll just have to modify our ideas a little. What we want is a steel backbone to form the basis of the staircase, and then wooden treads fitted onto the steel. The balustrades will be acrylic rather than wood. This should give more of a feeling a spaciousness. I now need to get the stress engineer to do the calculations and then get Malcom and Graham from the steel fabricator's to make the structure.

Its surprising what you have to do now to conform to building regulations. The entrance to the house has to be level to allow for wheelchair access, and the entrance door opening has to provide 775 mm clear opening. This means that the choice of doors is quite restricted because few companies make a 36" wide door in oak. We've found a door we like, but can't find a matching sidelight so we'll probably have to have one made specially - ah well, its only money!

I did meet Tony the "Guttering Man" on Tuesday. Tony's company supplies and fits aluminium guttering. We agreed where all the downpipes will go and he should start on Monday 27th after Roy has installed all the drainage to take the roof rainwater to the harvesting tank. Roy starts the excavations next Monday - digging the service trench, and the rather large hole for the harvesting tank so lots of activity with diggers and dumper trucks. He's also got to find the end of the soil pipe that has already been laid to the site. No-one seems to know exactly where it is!

There was little to do this weekend apart from a bit of clearing up as we're having a "topping out" ceremony on Sunday with my family coming to join in. Pity the windows aren't in yet as the winds blowing through the house. Still, it should keep the bubbly chilled.

Jan & Rog

The messy tilers have finished

2009-10-10T09:13:00.000-07:00

As delighted as we are with the finished roof, it seems tilers have the deserved reputation of being messy beggars! From tile dust all over the roof, to cement slurry carelessly thrown on the ground, and more bits of broken tiles in a 30 foot radius than I would have thought possible, they take the biscuit. Still, we were very fortunate with the weather, which with the exception of a shower on Friday, has been very kind to us, or perhaps I should say, to the tilers.

Never mind, the roof looks great and now that the rather vivid blue of the felt has been covered up, the house seems to have mellowed into the background and fits ideally into the surroundings. I can see now why the planners didn't want a house that was any higher - it would have spoilt the view. (That's the only concession to planners I'll ever give).

Another milestone next Tuesday - the (miserable) scaffolders come to take down the scaffolding - be glad to see the back of them and their poles and planks. I've managed to hit my head five times on the protruding scaffold poles - the reason being they are too long for where they are fitted because the scaffolders couldn't be bothered to use shorter ones. (We'll ignore the fact that I wasn't looking where I was going). With the scaffold down, we'll be able to see the house much better, so quite a day to look forward to.

Apart from the roof, more progress has been made inside the house. Bob (one of Roy's men) has been sealing the cavities where the windows and doors will be fitted, and Ian (another of Roy's men who has 72 Chelsea shirts and wears them in turn each day) has been putting fibreglass into the nooks and crannies prior to the fitting of the pukka insulation - Celotex -next week. This arrives as sheets of polystyrene-like material that is cut to fit between the roof timbers. We also had Lee from AJ Joinery come back to double check the window and door sizes. Hopefully, the oak windows will be ready within a couple of weeks - then we can make the house secure.

In order that insulation could start next week we put pressure on the sprinkler systems guys to fit their pipework in the upper part of the house on Friday. After ringing me to say they couldn't find Brookvale, this gaggle of lads scrambled all over the place like a rash, fitted their bright orange pipes, and were gone in no time.

During the week we've also paid very large sums of money for the electricity and gas to be supplied to site (gulp!) and Roy now has the bit between his teeth to start digging the service trench. While we've got the digger on site we'll also dig the very large hole for the rainwater harvesting tank (nearly 8 foot deep) and the trenches needed to run the rainwater from the 5 roof downpipes to the tank. Talking of downpipes, we've decided to fit aluminium guttering and downpipes. This is apparently made on site - a large drum of flat aluminium sheet feeds into a machine with the tool that makes the profile you want - simples! You can even have it in different colours, but ours will be black (Henry Ford would have approved).

Spent a very tiring day today clearing out the garage, demolishing the shed (well, it actually fell apart on its own really), and getting rid of about 50% of the accumulated rubbish that had amassed behind the toilet.

By four this afternoon we had one large builders skip, full to overflowing. Amazingly too, we had the obligatory mattress. Its amazing, your never seem to see a skip without a mattress, do you?

We seem to be going full pelt at the moment - wouldn't mind slowing down a bit, its all rather tiring!

Jan & Rog

We're on the tiles!

2009-10-03T03:45:00.000-07:00

The roofers have made steady progress this week, with the front and one side of the roof now tiled. Our hand-made British clay tiles (manufactured in Turkey apparently) are very uneven and give the desired effect of an old roof. The different colours of tile also give a nice mottled effect too. I'm glad that we asked for the bonnet tiles that form the edge of the hips as these look really good. Once the roofers finish this coming week, the scaffolding will be removed to give us a much better view of the house.

Andrew, the electrician, has been adding lots more wiring, and asking very sensible questions about things we haven't thought about, so a number of amendments have been made to lighting, points, etc.

As we are using rainwater harvesting for the washing machine supply, and the toilet cisterns, we've managed to tie this in with the fire sprinkler system. This will mean that the large reservoir tank (captures rainwater from the roof) that needs to be submerged in the garden will have a larger capacity pump that will operate the sprinkler system too. The other option was to have two pumps - one for the rainwater harvesting and the other for the sprinkler. However, if the sprinkler system pump isn't used for years (and hopefully, it will never be used!) then when we came to need it, the pump may not be working. By combining the two we'll be using the common pump all the time so will know its OK.

We've a meeting arranged with the window man Jesse (I don't know how to pronounce his name correctly - should it be Jess with a silent "e", or Jessy as in a big Jessy?). We need to re-measure the windows now that all the openings are finished so that the correct sizes are made. We have to ensure that the glass is Pilkington "K" glass apparently - with 16mm gap between pains and with argon in the gap - to meet building regulations. This glass lets heat in from the outside, but stops the internal heat escaping - clever eh?

The other development is the news that both the gas and electricity infrastructure suppliers have now decided that we can't have our connection at the top of the drive as previously agreed; both have to be run right down to the house. Now despite the fact that we have to dig the trench for the supply pipe/cable to fit in, its going to cost an additional £1000 for each service (mutters rude words to self). However, Gillian (who sold us the plot), has agreed that we can run the service trench by a more direct route across her garden which will make it easier (avoids lots of shrubs and their root systems), so Roy will be getting on with that in a few days - man and mini digger to the fore. At the same time he will dig the hole for the rainwater harvesting reservoir tank - 8 feet deep. As Jan said, deep enough to bury two people (not surprisingly we were easily able to nominate two candidates!)

I've been down and had a clear up today - removing all the broken tiles a tile pieces from the scaffold - just to make life a little safer for the roofers.

One final little snippet - I noticed today that a cast iron bracket, that had been attached to the garage wall by the front doors, was now lying on the ground. I must assume that our nocturnal visitors last weekend are responsible. It therefore seems likely that in the dark, one of the potential thieves walked into this bracket (it was fixed at about the right height). I wonder if its done some facial damage - I do hope so!

Jan & Rog

We've got a blue roof!

2009-09-27T08:36:00.000-07:00

It was quite a surprise to see the very blue roof as we rounded the corner by Stondon Church. The colour is due to the plastic (?) insulating film that covers the roof before the tiles are fixed. With the battens almost complete I would expect the tiler to start laying tiles on Tuesday. (The tiles can be seen in foreground - wrapped up in plastic)

Pete and Lee (the chippies) have now finished the bay after Malcolm and Graham made and delivered the metal supports for the roof in the bay. The strengthening bars have also been fitted in the lounge roof - a vertical rod drops from the ridge and is connected to a horizontal bar that is attached to the roof timbers just above the walls at either side on the room. Jan has decided that she doesn't like this (I have some sympathy with this view too) so we'll be looking to clad it in wood and make a feature of it.

In addition to the progress on the roof, the electrician - Andrew - has made good progress too. We now have cables here, there, and everywhere. The other development during the week is the fixing of the flooring in the roof space. Now that the floor is down, the size of this room can be more accurately seen - it measures 21 foot by 12 foot at its widest, reduced to some degree by the sloping roof timbers. Nevertheless, it will make an excellent study/guest bedroom when the roof windows are fitted.

When we arrived at site yesterday afternoon we found the hasp and lock on the garage door had been butchered. I assumed that it was one of the new builders to the site but a call from Roy advised that the electrician had turned up at site on Saturday morning to find the garage doors wide open. Obviously there had been a break-in during Friday night/Saturday morning, but nothing appears to be missing from the garage. Fortunately there wasn't much of value there anyway - a petrol strimmer, Black & Decker workmate, a pair of aluminum step ladders, and a lot of old toot. Nevertheless its an annoyance and will require some thought as to how the garage can be made secure. This type of break-in is quite common in the area - several of our neighbours have suffered garage break-ins. However, it appears that the sought after items are power tools - and we had none in the garage. I would quite like to have seen the look on their faces when they finally got into the garage to find nothing there. Mind you, I'd also like to stick them head first down the portable toilet! I guess it wouldn't be "politically correct" to suggest who is most likely to be responsible for these garage crimes. Incidentally, did I mention that I'm opposed to more travellers sites.

I've spent today clearing up again - builders are messy buggers - even when it makes life more difficult to do their job, they still don't seem to want to clear up. The scaffold was littered with bricks - whole and half, assorted bits of timber, nails, et al - quite an obstacle course to get round. No wonder there are so many building site accidents. Still, its all tidy for now - until work gets under way tomorrow of course.

Jan & Rog

Somewhere for the jackdaws? No chance!

2009-09-19T06:51:00.000-07:00

Not a particularly productive week - some steps forward and a few back unfortunately. Due to the sensible decision to use steel supports in the bay, we had a delay because Malcolm and Graham (steel fabricators) were very busy and couldn't fit our work in. This resulted in Pete and Lee (the chippies) running out of work by Tuesday night once the fascia boards had been fitted, and then going off site with the bay roof unfinished. Nevertheless, Dean the brickie and his team descended on the site on Wednesday and finished off nearly everything, including our chimney - and grand it looks too complete with red ornamental bricks at the top. We added a jackdaw cowl (not in the picture above) because the other cottages at Brookvale seem to have been a particular attraction to these chattering birds who do seem to enjoy perching on the chimney pot and pooping down the flue!

On a more positive note, the building inspector has been along and passed the roof timbers so next week will see the roofer arrive and start tiling. The steels for the bay will be with us on Tuesday and then Pete and Lee will return to finish off the bay roof timbers. Jan and I have spent a couple of days staining the fascia boards in Light Oak Sadolin - ready for the guttering.

We're now looking to start getting the services laid on so its back to the frustrations of dealing with EDF and British Gas - costly and slow seems to be a fair summary. We did have a slight scare when Roy (project manager) investigated the foul waste connection and was a little concerned that there would not be enough "fall" in the pipe from our house to the connection with the existing sewer by number 5 Brookvale. However, we discovered that the foul waste is about 1.5 metres below ground level at that point so no problem for us to get the correct fall (1 in 40) from about 20 metres away. However, we have to dig to find the end of the connection that has already been laid to our site for two reasons - firstly because no-one knows exactly where it is, and secondly because it was not installed correctly and has to be re-done with additional strengthening where if passes under the driveway (it needs a little concrete hat for that bit!).

The electrician (Andrew) has been instructed on first fix and will start his work on Monday 28th September - basically laying in trunking, etc.

So with the weather still apparently holding we should have a roof by the end of September.

Jan & Rog

So, its open eaves then

2009-09-11T10:19:00.000-07:00

Another week of good weather and excellent progress.

Pete Brooks (chippy) went of to Majorca last Sunday but his son, Lee spent the first part of the week finishing off the remaining roof timbers. Roy told me that Dean the brickie would return on Wednesday but when I popped to site in the early evening I was rather disappointed to see the external walls hadn't grown at all so I assumed Dean had been unable to make it. However, as I drove past the opening where the front door will be I noticed new blockwork - sure enough Dean had nearly finished the internal walls in just one day! By Thursday night the internal walls were finished, and the window sills had been laid.

On Thursday evening Roy had arranged for Ian of Manor Roofing to meet us to discuss the roofing. "Hello Dean" says Ian - it seems they all know each other and work well together. Ian told us that he would start the tiling next Wednesday (16th) and this meant that we needed the roof structure and details to be finished, so Pete and Lee will be back Monday to do this. However, first of all Dean needed to infill between the roof timbers so on Friday he set about this. Needless to say by 4 p.m. he had finished - and lovely it looks too (second picture). Dean has also built up another 8 courses of the chimney, but needs the roofer to detail around the chimney before he can complete this.

Jan and I have spent the day staining the fascia boards and tails of the roof timbers in light oak stain, and we'll be back tomorrow to apply a second coat so that everything is ready for the chippy on Monday.

Next on Roy's list is getting the main services to site, and playing the games that companies such as EDF seem unable to avoid. Having told us that we could have a meter at the top of the drive (to save a considerable sum of money) they are now saying that the meter and the consumer unit have to be within 6 feet of each other. This means that the meter will have to be at the house so Roy has a cunning plan......

The other slight delay at the moment is with the steels that are needed for strengthening the roof. Our structural engineer has said that we need a rod that joins the main roof truss at ceiling height, and another that drops down from the ridge timber to join the lateral steel. These are being made by Malcolm and Graham at Chapel Farm about 1 mile from Brookvale but due to pressure of work they are a tad delayed. We hope to get these steels and the ones required for the bay on Monday. Needless to say, everyone knows Malcolm and Graham!

Next on the list are the windows and doors, and for this we're using another local firm A J Joinery who will make oak frames with double glazed units. Another minefield here - current insulation standards demand that the windows and doors meet a U value of less than 2. Quite how we will know this on our bespoke build, no-one seems to know. However, another cunning plan has been devised to meet the building regs.

Jan & Rog

All trussed up - It looks almost like a house at last!

2009-09-03T12:18:00.000-07:00

As you can see, our chippy - Pete Brooks - and his son Lee have made really good progress on the roof trusses. The crane duly arrived on Tuesday but at one stage we thought the wind would be too strong. Current health and safety rules have to be enforced by the crane driver and if he thinks it would be dangerous to lift the trusses because of the strength of the wind, then they don't get lifted. Fortunately the wind stayed at a level just below that "dangerous" point but the odd gust caused the trusses to swing about rather more than desirable. All the pre-made trusses were fitted by Wednesday, and then the remaining timbers were hand cut to fit. We do seem to have one problem by the rear bay in that the wooden pillar supports are not sufficient to carry the weight of the bay roof. So its back to the drawing board and the need (probably) for some steel inserts from the bay wall to the roof.

Now that the roof timbers are in place we can see the effect that the full height ceiling in the lounge will create - it really does give a very airy feel to the whole room. (Well it would, wouldn't it, with no roof on!!) We're pleased too just how big the area in the roof now appears, for even though the walls are sloping, there's plenty of space for our study come guest room.

It seems we have another little bit of confusion regarding finishing off the eaves. We had wanted as much roof overhang as we could get and after hearing that it was fiddly to have open eaves, decided that we would have a soffit board. However, the wall height and the pre-cut roof timbers are not compatible for fitting a soffit board and having a decent roof overhang. We have therefore opted to have open eaves that will allow us the degree of roof overhang we want. The down side is that we will have to get Dean and his bricklaying team to build up the walls in between the roof timbers - a bit of a time-consuming job. Once again we have issues with the drawings not matching our requirements and I've also discovered that we will need some more soft red bricks too. It seems such a waste as we've all sorts of other bricks coming out of our ears - engineering reds, cream facing bricks, plus left-overs from the garage build (before we bought the land). However. Roy our project manager is absolutely right - anything other than the soft reds wouldn't look right.

Pete Brooks is away on holiday next week but his son Lee will continue on Monday / Tuesday to complete all he can. Seems like we'll need a tiler quite soon now.

I've got a site meeting on Monday with Steve building surveyor and Roy. Hopefully we can sort out the remaining little niggles and keep the momentum of the build going.

-----------

Well, that's another month gone - I know because another invoice for the chemical toilet has just arrived!

Jan & Rog

External walls finished, but we smell a Rat....

2009-08-30T08:38:00.001-07:00

Its been a busy week. Dean and his team have now finished the external brickwork, nicely finished off with the alternating red half bricks in a sort of inverted castellated design. Roy had his chippy come down to site on Friday when he fitted the wall plates - basically, planks of wood that are clamped to the top of the inner block wall and to which the roof trusses are fixed. As you can see to the right, the roof trusses arrived (on Thursday) and they are due to be fitted by crane on Tuesday by Pete Brooks and his team.

So we steam on, but there have been a couple of developments that were unwanted. Firstly, when I went to site on Thursday, two of the temporary pegs, sited to delineate the boundary of our land, had been knocked over. As they were the ones nearest to the driveway I didn't bother with them. However, it appears that someone working on our build committed a heinous crime - they parked on Mr Hyde's grass! Worse, they were seen. I therefore had a visit from Mr Hyde's representative, Peter Philips, who had put two more posts in the ground to replace those that had been removed. According to Peter, Mr Hyde was a very unhappy man due to the trespass on his land and had supposedly said "Not showing me much goodwill, is he" (referring to me of course). Although I thought it pathetic in the extreme I imagined it was the rant of a rather sad old man and agreed to make sure that no-one dared to park there again. So today I have put that bright red plastic fencing right the way along the boundary and put a couple of long bits of wood across the end of Mr Hyde's access track to stop our guys parking there. (There is a danger of course that I will be accused of trespass in so doing!).

Anyway, the second development is that the same Peter Philips now appears to be working for Aidan who lived at No 1 Brookvale. He still owns the house but lets his workers use it rather than pay hotel charges. Peter is trying to get planning permission to build two houses in Aidan's garden. One of these is only viable if access can be achieved along the existing driveway and this would require each of the owners of the cottages at Brookvale, including us, to agree to the owner of this house using those parts of the driveway that we each own. Given the opposition to our build this ain't gonna happen! The same Peter Philips has also written to the owners of 2 - 4 Brookvale and suggested that they, and Gillian Walton at number 5, together with ourselves should each pay Mr Hyde £2000 to purchase the drive from him. Whilst the letters have been received by numbers 2, 3, and 4, Gillian Walton and we have yet to hear from him. As you might imagine, no-one can really understand the logic of paying £12,000 in total to acquire joint ownership of a liability, (the drive) which all of us have a right to use anyway. It does seem odd that these two things are being handled by the same person at the same time. So, given that Peter Philips used to be in business with our old friend, we all smell a rather large Rat(aj). Could it be that Mr Hyde is still the innocent in all this and that the two old business partners are trying to work a flanker?

As yet there is still no sign of the title deeds that show that Mr Hyde owns the drive, despite my solicitor being on the trail with Land Registry. The plot thickens.....

Jan & Rog

Inching forward

2009-08-22T07:11:00.000-07:00

With Dean on holiday there's not been much progress this week, except for the scaffolding which was erected on Monday. I popped along at lunchtime on Monday to see how things were going and was greeted by two very grumpy scaffolders - a very common trait so I'm told - a moaning scaffolder is a happy scaffolder apparently. Anyway, I asked them if then needed anything and they said "no", so I left them to it. Later in the day I checked if all was done and was told by our neighbours-to-be that the two scaffolders had been moaning about not knowing what was wanted. Apparently their boss, who had been fully briefed, had gone on holiday and not given them the full details. Anyway, all the scaffolding is up now although I suspect that a little bit of obtuseness has crept in because the single ladder up the scaffolding has been set up at the furthest possible point from the cement mixer meaning that each load of mortar will have to be taken round 3 sides of the house to get to the ladder. Scaffolders revenge perhaps?

Other than that, I've been tidying up again today - strimming the weeds which have grown rapidly in the recent warm, wet weather, and moving the Hares fencing which one of the delivery drivers has managed to drive into and comprehensively wreck. I've just positioned it a little further into the site to give more room for the delivery of the roof trusses next week.

During next week Dean expects to finish all the brick and blockwork. Indeed, he has to as the chippy arrives on September 1st to erect the roof trusses.

One little negative - we seem to have a wrongly positioned door from the utility room into the garden. Its too near the front wall and doesn't leave enough room for a standard worksurface (600mm) let alone a washing machine. Need to talk to Roy about that on Monday.

There has been a development on the access road and Mr Hyde during the week too. I took a call from Peter Philips who is acting from Mr Hyde and it appears that there is an impasse - we really don't want the land and driveway if we can't use the land as an extension to our garden, and Mr Hyde wishes to retain his right of access to the field and is not interested in selling the driveway for the modest sum we feel its worth. Peter Philips told me that he had explained that we had marked out his 14 foot wide access road and then pegged and roped it to show its boundary with our land. Mr Hyde asked what we would do when the permanent fence was put up, to which I responded that it would follow exactly the same line as the temporary markers. He asked that Peter Philips supervise the positioning of the permanent fence and now seems to be happy to leave it there. So, we hope that's the end of that little saga.

Jan & Rog

We have walls!

2009-08-16T09:42:00.000-07:00

Dean and his team have been laying the facing bricks this week and have matched the height of the internal block wall leaving only 3 feet or so to go. I was surprised to see him there today (Sunday) but apparently he wanted to finish the bay to bottom of window height before the scaffolders arrive tomorrow. Unfortunately Dean's team are all on annual holiday this coming week which will mean that he will have one week to finish the brickwork before the carpenter arrives to fix the roof trusses. Its cutting it a bit fine - we'll have to pray for good weather week commencing 24th August!

No other news at the moment - all's quiet on the access drive front.

Jan & Rog

You never know what's around the corner!

2009-08-06T08:53:00.000-07:00

Following the delays due to poor weather last week, Dean and his team have made really good progress this week. Not only have the inner block work walls been built up to a height of about 5 feet, but the outer brick walls were started on Friday and we can begin to visualise the effect of the cream bricks.

Roy, our project manager, has been as organised as ever and has now placed orders for the special roof trusses which are scheduled for positioning in the first week of September. Roy has also arranged for the a company to visit to quote for the scaffolding for the upper courses of bricks, and for the roof. Quotes are back too for the windows and doors - all oak - as we wanted something that would look the part and be long lasting. However, we now understand that only companies that belong to FENSA (Fenestration Association) can supply windows as they can certify that the windows meet current building regulations standards. I've emailed FENSA and asked them to let me know of a window manufacturer near us that has the approporiate accreditation.

As ever our planning team at Central Beds has been on the ball (you don't believe that, do you?) and at long last given approval for the foul waste. This was a condition of planning approval being granted, which, due to a bit of a mix up between planners and building regs people (never I hear you say!) was initially refused because the building regs lot said they didn't know how it was being handled so the planners refused to accept it. Mouth - open - question - answer - simples! Not really difficult is it. Anyway, our building surveyors submitted detailed plans in early May this year, chased the planners in June and again in July, after which I chased too. Guess what, the approval was posted on the Central Beds web site last week, but of course letting us know is not a priority. Still, its only taken 3 months to look at a simple plan and say "accepted".

I've been on a weeks leave this week so have busied myself being Mrs Mop and clearing up the site (builders being less than tidy people). I've cleared Mr Hyde's access drive to the field beyond our plot too - doubt that I will get a thank you for that though, but there was a reason. And so to the intrigue................

I received a telephone call last week - from a chap called Peter Phillips who used to be in partnership with our old "friend" Stuart Rataj (pronounced Ratay) apparently - that's with a silent "ay" on the end. He said he was acting for Mr Hyde, the owner of the driveway to Brookvale and that he wanted to meet up to see if we could reach a compromise over access.

We duly met on Monday and I was asked if I wanted to purchase the driveway and the land at the end of our plot that provides access to the field. "Yes" I said. However, there was a snag. Mr Hyde wanted to retain the right of access to the field and wanted a minimum of 6 metres width so he could get a combine harvester down the drive. This was an odd request as he's not used the drive for farm vehicles for at least 17 years, so why now. Peter Phillips didn't know. When pushed on what value Mr Hyde put on this, Peter Phillips said £20,000. As my valuation of this land, without giving Mr Hyde access, was in low single figures, we had an impasse, but Peter said he would go to see Mr Hyde and explain my position.

As you might imagine Jan was less than enthusiastic about losing some of our land (as was I). It was also rather ironic that this was the man who had signed letters to the then Mid Beds District Council insisting our planning applications should go to committee so that the parish council could vent their spleen about the "inappropriate" design of our house, and this was the reason we reverted to the existing planning permission. Had we continued with our application we would have moved the house nearer to the garage and had more garden. If that had happened we would have perhaps been more amenable to a compromise with Mr Hyde about the width of access he wanted.

Peter Phillips then suggested that we should measure out the plot and agree where the boundaries were. As I had no problem with that (in fact if Mr Hyde had been a little more positive much earlier in proceedings, we could have done this some time ago. On meeting Peter at Brookvale he told me he had been to Land Registry at Stevenage to check all the deeds and titles which showed the various measurements. I knew that we should have 36 metres along the hedgerow between us and My Hyde's field, and that in theory Mr Hyde had a 14 foot access track beyond that. Trouble was, when we measured out 36 metres, Mr Hyde didn't have 14 feet left between our boundary and the hedge which delineated the next boundary.

Knowing that Mr Hyde's deed for the "cart track", dating back to the 1870s was the primary document I suggested that we should then give Mr Hyde his 14 feet access width - I didn't want to end up with a costly boundary dispute, and if making this gesture to Mr Hyde was likely to help reach a compromise, then it seemed sensible. Subsequent research has shown that a combine harvester requires 4.2 metres of road and as 14 feet is 4.3 metres, perhaps we have a solution... lets wait and see.

Given that Mr Hyde wishes to have access across to the land behind our plot I've said I'm not interested in buying it as it cannot be included as part of our garden if the occasional farm vehicle has to drive across it. I have said I will buy the driveway from him though - for a nominal sum. This would remove his current responsibility to repair the road and recover costs from the owners of 1 to 6 Brookvale. As I pointed out - its nothing but a liability. (Mind you , if I own it there can be no dispute over whether or not we can use it!)

Do we actually believe what we're being told - well, not really. We suspect that there's more too it than we've been told. We'll have to wait and see!

More news next week.

Jan & Rog

Good progress.....

2009-07-25T08:28:00.001-07:00

We now have a complete beam and block floor and the trenches around the lower courses of bricks have been back filled, even though the weather contrived (again) to delay things. The local council building inspector called to site on Thursday and passed the work done so far. (Hooray!)

The site looks more like a builders merchants at the moment with three different types of bricks, and the blocks for the inner walls, rather cluttering up the place. Still, Dean the brickie and his team should arrive on Tuesday and then we should see some real evidence of a building.

Its always a surprise to me how careless people can be when there's no-one around to complain. The blocks were delivered by one of these lorries with a crane on the back and the driver hoisted the packs of blocks over the Hares fence and onto the site. Fine, except that he placed one pack on a lump of concrete so the pack was tilting to one side. That was bad enough but he then lowered another pack on top of that to create a very dangerous situation. Concerned that someone would get hurt (and being the holder of the insurance policy for the site) I decided to do something about it so I went to site this morning to move the blocks in question. As soon as I cut the straps around the pack the blocks on the top row (well over 6 feet above ground level) fell to the ground. I've now moved the blocks into the centre of the site where they are out of the way, unlike most of the other packs which have been placed very annoyingly right where the brickie will be laying bricks/blocks. I can well understand how accidents happen on building sites - they're a minefield.

Off to Brookvale tomorrow to fill some of the holes in the drive - all the lorries have rather accelerated the wear and what were small holes have grown somewhat.

Jan & Rog

More progress despite the torrential rain

2009-07-18T08:41:00.000-07:00

Our usual shot from the drive plus another from the side to show progress over the last two days. The block and beam floor is almost complete now, but yesterday's very heavy rain delayed things a bit, and washed out some of the mortar from the bricks that had been laid. This doesn't matter too much as the courses in question will be below ground level so a quick bit of pointing before the backfill, and no-one will know.

With the backfill around the lower walls scheduled for next week, and the bricks being delivered too we hope to be building walls soon.

Had a site meeting with Roy the project manager today and found that he has been supplied with outdated plans, rather than the latest versions. Fortunately this doesn't matter too much as the differences are a couple of internal walls that can be easily changed. However, it does show how easy it is to end up getting something different to what you expected.

After the weeks of dry weather it is rather galling to have such heavy rain now. Hopefully the drier weather will return.

Jan & Rog

This week's progress

2009-07-12T11:58:00.001-07:00

Well, not quite to the stage we expected but most of the lower courses of brickwork have been completed. Unfortunately we were short of one lintel so the area that forms the porch has yet to be done.

Jan and I spent yesterday and today clearing the hedgerow of dead wood and pruning back the trees/shrubs. We have added nearly 10 foot more garden with the clearance as the hedgerow has encroached more and more on the garden in recent years.

Gill and Pete from number 5 had trimmed their hedgerow last weekend so we had a grand bonfire today. The heat was so intense from the leylandii that even the green cuttings disappeared in minutes.

Next Tuesday sees the arrival of the concrete beams that form the base for the ground floor. I'm quite intrigued to see how they all fit together, and how they fit the water and waste pipes when the beams are in place.

Jan & Rog

The build has really started

2009-07-09T11:54:00.000-07:00

Day one of the build today and a double skin of brickwork has been completed along the back and both sides of the house. Fine weather is predicted tomorrow so we imagine that the remaining walls will be finished up to damp proof course level by the weekend.

Jan & Rog

We have a building site Houston

2009-07-03T12:03:00.000-07:00

Yes, the toilet has arrived so we must have a proper building site now, surely?

Lots of activity today - sand, cement, the aforementioned toilet, wall ties, engineering bricks, and a bright yellow cement mixer - a big one - proper job!

In order to get things moving, and as our brickie Dean isn't available for a couple of weeks yet, our project manager Roy has organised the groundwork company (Weller Constructions) to lay the lower courses of bricks up to damp proof course level, and then lay the concrete beams that form the basis of the ground floor. Once that's complete and passed by the building inspector, Dean the brickie will get to work on the facing bricks.

With the delivery of "stuff" imminent I had to get the site insured. As a condition of the insurance, any plant has to be locked away so the garage has been cleared and the cement together with the mixer are securely stored within. The cement mixer is wonderful - resplendent in a new coat of shiny coat of bright yellow paint. Its just a shame that they didn't remove all the old cement before they painted it.

Roy has also obtained quotes for the roof trusses and managed to beat my price for the facing bricks by nearly £500 and so paying for himself already. He's really very good at keeping me informed about progress as I get regular telephone calls from him. We seem to have a really excellent team of people now.

I noticed that in addition to the deliveries there's some work been done to mark out the corners of the walls. A thin layer of mortar has been laid at the corners and then lines scribed in the mortar to form right angles for each corner. This should mean that come Monday some bricks will finally be laid.

We've also put in place one other task - the trimming of unwanted and dangerous branches from the hedgerow which will be attacked by Marc Dellar and his new chainsaw on Monday. Due to the size of some of these we've asked that he leaves the bigger bits for us to use on the wood burning stove.

As a footnote, its now just over 12 months since we first agreed to buy the land. In many ways we don't seem to have made much progress in that time, but conversely, a lot seems to have happened!

Jan & Rog

Cooking on gas!

2009-06-23T14:17:00.000-07:00

At long last everything seems to be coming together as we now have an excellent team to start the build -

Building Surveyor - Steve
Project Manager - Roy
Bricklayer - Dean
Groundworker - Andy
Carpenter - Pete
Plasterer - Tony

I had a meeting with Roy, our project manager, and Steve, our building surveyor, on site this morning. We agreed a plan to start the build within the next week or so. Materials are being ordered, sub contractors being hired, and the all important portable toilet being arranged!

As with any build, and despite its distance from the public highway, we have to erect 6 foot high Harris fencing around the whole build area and place warning notices for all to see. I expect we'll have to buy hard hats too. Regrettably though we have to evict an unwanted tenant as over the weekend a rabbit has burrowed into the bank created by our footings. Its quite surprising (although not remarkable) just how much earth the rabbit has excavated in that short time.

As we had made a number of changes to the original plans submitted to the building regulations people, our building surveyor, Steve, recommended that we retained the block and beam floor rather than going for a suspended timber floor (which he felt might have offered better insulation). But as the changes to the roof and other areas had been rejected as too significant for minor amendments, but agreed as alterations, it was felt that any more changes might have been refused as a radical change to the plans that could have resulted in a new planning application and all that entailed - NO THANKS! You can see the bureaucracy rearing its head again here, can't you? Roy has therefore sent our plans to the concrete beam manufacturers and we await their quotation.

We also had various discussions today about making the brickwork a little more interesting and think we will now choose to have a contrasting colour band around the base of the house instead of the idea of a plinth. Current thinking is that we will use a blue brick for this which should work well with the cream that will form the bulk of the walls.

I had a further meeting with Roy this afternoon where we agreed the mechanics of ordering materials - Roy has been able to set up accounts in my name that use his trade discounts (which he will pass on to me). Deliveries to site will be supervised by Roy and his men will be used to offload when necessary. All in all an excellent arrangement.

I expect our next bulletin to show "our" brickwork in place as we work our way to the damp proof course.

"Grinning" of Clifton

Brickies - where are you?.

2009-06-12T11:29:00.000-07:00

Well, we seem to be making good progress now. (The photo isn't of our foundations - just a library shot!) Our foundations have more than a little water in them following the heavy rain of the last few days. The other problem caused by the rain is that its made the grass grow at a rapid rate so I'll have to get the strimmer fired up and attack it again during the next few days.

The house plans have all been passed by building regulations and we have now employed a project manager - Roy Bacon - to oversee the build. Roy "retired" two years ago, but is still running his company on a part time basis. His 50 odd years in the building trade, (during which time he's built everything from extensions to houses and even factories) will be immensely valuable to us as he can vet quotes, find tradesmen, and co-ordinate the build - something I lack the skill and time to do. He'll probably put in 1 to 2 hours each day, making sure everything is going to plan. What is quite "remarkable" (Jenny and David please note), is the fact that Roy refurbished the 5 existing cottages at Brookvale in 1991 when they were to be put up for sale by the farmer. So he knows the site and where the services run. He almost sounds too good to be true!

We've now received quotes for the brick and block work, (which Roy tells me are very fair), and that he knows Dean Brazier, the brickie we were recommended, and says he's a good choice.

We've a meeting arranged at Templars (our building surveyors) next Wednesday at which Roy, Steve Rogers (Templars) and I, will establish responsibilities and get down to the serious work of building. Its hoped that the brickwork up to damproof course level will be done by early July, and then we can crack on.

Its funny how nothing seems to happen for ages and then everything happens at once. In today's post I received our trade card that enables me to buy materials at trade prices from a number of leading suppliers - Jewson, Wolseley (known best for their Build and Plumb Centres), and many others.

Also received today, was our formal quotation from EDF for the supply of electricity which followed a site visit with Zoe from EDF on Tuesday last. Just to recap, you may recall that we had been quoted £22,000 by Fulcrum to supply gas to site, and £10,000 by EDF for electricity. By the time that the water and sewerage were added the total forecast cost for the provision of services had topped £35,000. This we felt was ridiculous so we looked elsewhere for gas (now reduced to £3,500) and asked EDF to be more realistic. It turns out that the £10,000 EDF initially quoted was just a guess as they knew we were on the edge of the village, and imagined that the supply would have to be fed from a rather more distant point than it actually is. Unfortunately, the electrical supply has to be taken from a point about 70 feet from the driveway. Nevertheless, the revised quote of £4000 from EDF is a hell of a lot better. Overall then, we should have all main services installed for £10,000, which was the figure I had in mind at the outset.

I've found the last couple of months very frustrating, but I feel that we are starting to get things moving at last. (Not that I haven't been a little preoccupied with the sale of Exxcom, which eventually completed at the end of May!)

Happy bunnies of Clifton

Bricks 'n Tiles

2009-06-05T08:02:00.000-07:00

As part of the planning process, the bricks and tiles intended to be used have to be approved by the district council. We had opted for Ibstock's Ivanhoe cream bricks and Ashbury Restoration roof tiles. We will be using what's known as Flemish bond which has one brick laid in the normal way, then a half brick laid end ways as it creates a more pleasing effect.

As usual a trawl of the Internet seemed the best way of finding local suppliers. I very quickly found a company called Fendfine just a few miles away who could supply the bricks and tiles we need at very keen prices. An added benefit was the fact that they could deliver pallets using a four wheel drive fork lift that could unload from the articulated delivery lorry parked in the road, rather than try and manoeuvre the lorry down the narrow drive. It would also keep Mr Rataj quiet as well as even he couldn't call a fork lift "heavy plant"!

More progress today in the form of full building regulations approval for our first submission, although we do have to obtain approval for changes for the vaulted roof we want. That's all in hand through the ever efficient Templars Building Surveyors.

I've also made contact with a recently retired local builder, again courtesy of Templars, who I hope will act as our project manager. I have a meeting set up with him on Monday next.

Tonight our brickie is visiting to check out the plans and provide a quote, so everything seems to be starting to get under way now.

Bob the trainee builder of Clifton