Week 23 - Heating - 3rd Jan

Starting the new year at 100mph, Steve the tiller is here on bank holiday Monday so that the store room can be tilled ready for the heating on Tuesday. It takes a couple of hours to measure everything out and I'm shifting the tiles again, this time into thicknesses so Steve can get the floor as even as possible... good for working of the Christmas excesses mind.

To get the best result you need to start in the middle of the Kitchen and work out so Steve has layed out the tiles and is working his way into the store room, he came recommended from the Norwich Tile Centre and I can see why he does all their displays. The amount of thought and care he is putting into getting the floor just right is great, although this means questions every few minutes.

The plasters are also back and are hoping to be finished in the next week or two which will be great, as it's taken much longer than we (or they) anticipated. I'm glad we fixed the price or I'd be having kittens by now!

After starting quickly we have slowed.....I thought I'd just check the heating guys had everything they needed and they don't....Nu-heat have failed to deliver the ground source heat pump and are saying it will be next week before they can get it here (Apparently the snow is to blame!!!).


After a few rather sharp phone calls they have found one that was to be for another customer who does not need it quite yet and we are set for Thursday so only two days lost.

At least that has given Steve time to get the floor further on.

We also have the electrician and the plumber back this week, so it's lucky we've built a big house as it's like Piccadilly circus.

The heat pump has arrived on Thursday as and boy is it large, especially the water cylinder. We know it should all fit in the store room but It's going to be fun getting it all in.

Week 22 - Skimming - 27th Dec

With Christmas over too quickly it's back to the plastering and the guys are back in Tus - Fri to try and get done. The store room has dried over Christmas and we are in painting it whilst the Kitchen is being skimmed.

We have got a Dulux paint pod which means you do not have to keep getting up and down to put more paint on the rollers and it uses less paint and as we have a rather large surface area to get through this seemed like a good investment, also Focus have put the paint on sale and instead of £25 a pot they are £10 each...Happy days!!

Buy the end of the week the skimming is done and we are trying to dry it all out with the space heater, whilst painting once dry.

To seal the plaster we are using PVA mixed with water (1 PVA to 5 water) which goes on to the walls and once dried it looks like you have not done anything but should then only require 2 coats of paint.

We've put in some hours this week and are looking forward to letting our hair down on new years eve at a party down the road (as long as we can both keep our eyes open).

So we are all ready for the heating next week and also we have managed to get a tiller to start work on the bank holiday before the heating arrives to get the floor down in the store room so the equipment can be located in there.

Week 21 - More Internals - 20th Dec

The drylining will be finished this week and a start can be made on the plastering, the Kitchen, sun room and store room need to be finished this so we can paint before the heating system comes on the 4th Jan.

When the kitchen comes in the 2nd week of Jan there cannot be too much moisture in the air else it will be absorbed into the units and warp them so we are getting the back half of the house plastered first so we can minimise this risk. Also the store room must be finished so the heating system can be installed.

We have hired an LPG space heater to help dry out the plaster and are leaving electric heaters on over night to stop the water in the plaster freezing. This would be very bad as the plaster cracks and you have to rip off the plaster and plaster board and start again.....No Thanks.
The space heater pumps out so much heat, within 5 mins the place is like a sauna, and I recon you could cook breakfast nicely on the top of it, maybe we don't need the kitchen??

Paul the electrician has made the power sockets in the sun room live which is great as there are so many extension leads running off extension leads they keep cutting out.

We also have water into the house now and with the really cold weather this week we have been lucky it has not frozen.

Week 20 - Internals - 13th Dec

A bit warmer at the start of this week so we've managed to get the screed down in the porch which is good as the forecast is for it to get colder again. The dryliners are also back this week which is good news as they are now quite behind schedule and with the kitchen due the 2nd week of Jan we need them to speed on.

The floor tiles have arrived and there are three crates in front of the house that need unloading into the house. Looks like my workout for the week is scheduled!!! They will look fantastic when laid I think as they have stunning colours in them and quite a few have fossils in. We've found a tiller through a local tile center, he does all of their displays so should make a good job of ours. They are quite large tiles 60cm x 60cm and we have 60 square meters of them!
The scheduling is quite tight now as we want to move in (finished or not) at the end of Jan.

The heating is coming 1st Week of Jan along with the tiller and the Kitchen follows the following week. So we have to be plastered and painted in these areas by then.

The carpenters are also in this week so we have door linings all on and external doors with locks, which we have boarded up to keep the weather out as they are not glazed yet.

Week 19 - 6th Dec - Glass

With the glass going in this week we can start to keep out the cold a little, and hopefully our floor will dry out in time for tilling in the new year. We have a friend who is a director at Evander Glazing and Locks who has done us a great deal on the glass and the guys that are fitting it are excellent and are working through the cold snap all credit to them.

The carpenter has fitted the external doors so we can also get Evander to measure up for the door glass that we need.

Interestingly (or not maybe) the external doors require 14mm glazing units rather than the standard 24mm ones. As these are less thermally efficient the rest of the house has been compensated by Potton to still achieve the required U values.

The dryliners have surcome to the flu this week and so have our bricklayers, who we had booked in this week as the temperatures are due to rise towards the end of the week which had given us a 'window' to get the external brickwork done but best laid plans.......

With luck they will be back next week and we can get moving on the internals again and also screed the porch if the temperatures hold up.

Week 18 - 29th Nov - Drainage

This week the drainage is being put in. Not the sexy bit of the build and not a nice job in the snow but the Trell boys are getting stuck into it, all credit to them.

As we are in the middle of the country side we have a septic tank, which was used for the old property that we demolished. We commissioned a local firm of experts to do the drainage design and also provide an expert opinion that the septic tank was large enough for the new house and still in good working order as building control seemed to be saying we needed to replace it for a new dwelling (Not something we wanted or needed to do). So Trell are joining the foul drainage into the existing septic tank and also routing the storm water round to a 15m squared soak away filled with Aquasole units.
The 2nd fix carpentry items have also arrived this week from Potton so have have stairs, door linings, skirting and doors....well they are all pilled up in various rooms of the house. As there is no heating we have made sure that they are off the ground and well supported on bearers to stop the wood absorbing too much moisture and warping. The doors we have varnished as best we can in the sub zero temperatures!

The day after the delivery and we now have stairs assembled and a front door on.
We made the mistake of using 15mm plasterboard on the internal walls instead of 12.5mm so the door linings that Potton sent are not big enough, opps. Luckily there were some shortages so Potton agreed to re-deliver but with slightly larger ones.

Week 17 - 22nd Nov - Screed

8:30am on Monday and a cement mixer load of screed is delivered to the material store that is our front garden. It's then barrowed into the house and laid level. Another load on Tuesday morning and hey presto we have a floor...well almost, the levels were not quite consistent through the house so they used a bot more than anticipated so the porch is still to be finished off with a manual mix of sharp sand and cement, which I've arranged to be delivered on Thursday.

Trell, the ground workers, are also back on site this week and next to dig in the drainage, electrics and water. The soakway design uses Aquasole units (expensive milk crates!) over a 15m squared area to cope with the large roof area (you are not allowed to use rubble any more).

Just as we are speeding along along comes the snow so no screed in the porch this week and the bricklayers will not be back as mortar will not set when it is too cold. Inside is still pushing on and the dryliners have almost finished upstairs and we have taken out the crash desk where the stairs are going to go so they can dry line the walls in this area.

Our 2nd fix joinery is booked in for next week so more material to find a home for!! but we have space inside now the floor is down.

The carpenters have been in this week and cut in the extra window we decided to have in the play room and it now makes this room really light so I think is was the right decision to get this done sooner rather than later.

Been a busy week this week on Friday we have vans backed up way down the drive with Trell on site, the heating company were back to get the pipes for the ground source heat pump into the house and also Evander, the glazers, in to template up the four glass triangles in the front window.

Lets hope the cold snap does not delay things too much but at least the kids are enjoying the snow and we have enough trades people on site for a good snowball fight!!!