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| Front of house |
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| Back garden looking towards road |
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| Looking towards house |
We need to give the turf plenty of water in the next couple of weeks to get it established so heres hoping for a wet end of September and October.
Friday, 21 September 2012
Turf laid
A quick update to show the garden with the turf now laid - what a difference!. The pictures were taken by our landscaping contractor and I'll get more over the weekend
Monday, 17 September 2012
Ready to plaster board
Since I am running low on remaining vacation days for the year and the fact that the landscaping work was due to commence, Heidi had a 5 day trip to the house a couple weekends ago. This was the first time she had seen the house in person since all our work back in April - a lot has changed since then!
I sent Heidi off with a work list to be completed to get some of the rooms finalized for plaster boarding. this she managed to acheive with Evelyn helping her for 3 days as well. It was a mixed scope of work with everything from installing wall insulation to putting in short electrical cable spurs for UFH manifolds. Thanks to modern communications we were able to discuss requirements while looking at the same thing (me a pictue on the phone and Heidi the real deal)
More than 1/3 of the house can now be plaster boarded including the full height hall which I know the joiners will have fun with ;) The remaining rooms are those that have piping running across then or down walls and are still waiting for the plumber i.e. me, to get these finished. I am back again this weekend and will be focussed on the plumbing.
The other big thing going on was the start of the landscaping work in the garden. The ground had been cleared of weeds and roughly graded by digger the week before - this included spreading the heap of top soil at the bottom of the garden out as well - but the final preparation for laying the turf started when Heidi was on site since she is the artistic director. In addition to getting ready for the turf the mulch around the edges of the garden was also installed. Even without turf all this work make the garden look so much better already. Everything has turned out much more level than we expected which has been an unexpected bonus.
The turf goes down this week so I will see it at the weekend - fingers crossed for some wet weather in the next few weeks to help the turf along.
I sent Heidi off with a work list to be completed to get some of the rooms finalized for plaster boarding. this she managed to acheive with Evelyn helping her for 3 days as well. It was a mixed scope of work with everything from installing wall insulation to putting in short electrical cable spurs for UFH manifolds. Thanks to modern communications we were able to discuss requirements while looking at the same thing (me a pictue on the phone and Heidi the real deal)
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| Wall insulation typical detail |
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| Heidi hard at work |
The other big thing going on was the start of the landscaping work in the garden. The ground had been cleared of weeds and roughly graded by digger the week before - this included spreading the heap of top soil at the bottom of the garden out as well - but the final preparation for laying the turf started when Heidi was on site since she is the artistic director. In addition to getting ready for the turf the mulch around the edges of the garden was also installed. Even without turf all this work make the garden look so much better already. Everything has turned out much more level than we expected which has been an unexpected bonus.
The turf goes down this week so I will see it at the weekend - fingers crossed for some wet weather in the next few weeks to help the turf along.
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| Area out the back of the garage |
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| Main lawn area with mulch borders around edge |
Currently I am working on a plan to get the GSHP & UFH up and running before we do the main second fix for the house so that we can get the screed dried out a bit more.
We are currently starting to buy sockets and switches for second fix and are looking at internal doors. Must mean the end is getting nearer :)
Wednesday, 5 September 2012
Almost ready for plaster boarding to begin
A bit of a delayed update here from a couple of weeks ago.
I had another weekend back at the house working away on getting more first fix work done on various system. Unfortunately the plumbing wasn't one of them, I only managed to discover more problems with the routing of the pipes. Good progress was made on all other systems though with the last of the central vacuum sockets being installed, CAT 5E cables run for all UFH thermostats and MVHR ducts run up into the attic in Ewan's bedroom and secured. All this means that various section of the house are now almost ready for plaster board to be hung. There are some small things that are still outstanding but Heidi is heading over for 5 days on Saturday to finish these items off.
Getting at least some plaster board up will feel like a psychological milestone. With all other systems almost done for first fix I can now focus on the plumbing when I next get over at the end of the month again. We are over in October as a family and we will have a big push then to get all outstanding work done for first fix.
The other reason for Heidi going over this week is that we have the turf in the garden being laid. Clearing of the weeds and spreading the remaining top soil has started this week. Planting beds will also be formed and mulched at the same time. It will be good to have the garden looking good to match the house exterior.
I had another weekend back at the house working away on getting more first fix work done on various system. Unfortunately the plumbing wasn't one of them, I only managed to discover more problems with the routing of the pipes. Good progress was made on all other systems though with the last of the central vacuum sockets being installed, CAT 5E cables run for all UFH thermostats and MVHR ducts run up into the attic in Ewan's bedroom and secured. All this means that various section of the house are now almost ready for plaster board to be hung. There are some small things that are still outstanding but Heidi is heading over for 5 days on Saturday to finish these items off.
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| Cramped conditions installing CV piping |
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| Soil pipe and CV pipe installed |
Getting at least some plaster board up will feel like a psychological milestone. With all other systems almost done for first fix I can now focus on the plumbing when I next get over at the end of the month again. We are over in October as a family and we will have a big push then to get all outstanding work done for first fix.
The other reason for Heidi going over this week is that we have the turf in the garden being laid. Clearing of the weeds and spreading the remaining top soil has started this week. Planting beds will also be formed and mulched at the same time. It will be good to have the garden looking good to match the house exterior.
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