Stairs complete

Well we are back from another intensive week of work at the house again and things are definitely starting to come together now.

The two most obvious changes to what I had seen 3 weeks previously was the installation of the stair being complete. The glass balustrade was installed and the LED lights in the underside of the tread bull noses were working. The overall effect with the low iron content glass balustarde has definitely been to maintain the openness of the hall area.

Balcony & stair from Ewan's bedroom

Stair from balcony

View from hall to Fraser's bedroom

Stair from dining room

Balcony from Fraser's bedroom

The oak flooring was down in most the areas on the first floor and Heidi got busy hard wax oiling these floors to start with along with the stair. Although it is a clear finish the wax oil does give a darker finish to the wood but it all looks very good still. The downstairs rooms were finished while we were there so these got their two coats of wax oil as well.

Lounge

Master bedroom

Recreation room

Fraser's bedroom

Ewan's bedroom

Dining room - freshly oiled!

Heidi was also busy with the painting working away on the hall, recreation room and guest ensuite. She was assisted here by Evelyn when the children were delivered back up the road after a few days at nana and grandad's.

With internet now operational at the house the iPads were out in force keeping the boys entertained when they were on site

Entertainment central

While Heidi was busy with various brushes and rollers I was back on plumbing duty working away on the bathrooms grovelling under bath frames and chasing leaking towel rails around the house. The end result of this is that the master ensuite bath is now installed as is the family bathroom shower ensclosure (complete with large glass spalsh back panels) and the powder room is hooked up and functional. One problem we did have was with the deck mounted bath taps in the family bathroom that had a leaking diverter valve. this meant that the bath couldn't be installed and a lesson was learnt. You get what you pay for - these had been a cheaper tap set and you could tell the quality wasn't as good as the Vado set we had for the master ensuite but had cost twice as much. A new tap set from a more reputatble brand has now been sourced.

Powder room

Family bathroom toilet

Family bathroom shower

Guest en-suite

Plumbing works also included running water pipes out to the garage for the sink out there and the outside taps. This water is coming from the rain water harvesting system so that also meant commissioning that system. All this was sucessful and all toilets now have water to the cisterns.

After getting as far as possible with the plumbing attention turned to the garage wiring, insulation and getting a couple of sheets of plaster board up for the data company to get the last sockets up and speakers in. With help from dad I got the wiring pulled - our electricans are happy for us to do that as they will check things during second fix. Insulation works were progresed with the ground floor being finished and gable ends upstairs being filled in. Still some work to go here before its ready to board but getting close.

When some better weather appeared at the end of the week I took the oppertunity with mum and dad being around to get the foundations and corner posts for the log store set. Its much easier doing this type of work with two sets of hands to hold things vertical and square. While I had the cement and sand out I also set the slabs for the gas cyclinders to sit on.

Back of garage with start of log store hiding by the trees

Looking back on things it was a very varied week of work and a number of items were ticked off the to do list. You would think the house would be starting to empty of materials now but we still seem to be getting as much coming in. We are looking forward to the day very soom when we can remove all the protective covers from the floors, bathrooms and kitchen and really see everything in its full glory.

This week sees the start of the door framing and hanging work and it's going to be very exciting to see things at the weekend as I tie another work weekend in with a business trip to Aberdeen. All things going to plan this will be one of the last two such trips. The train is fast approaching sown the tunnels and its probably just as well as it get harder all the time to keep the motivation and energy levels going as we progress to completion. The journey hasn't been excessivesly long but its been tough managing it from afar and also doing so much of the work myself but I am looking forward to planning something other than the next work weekend!

The boys "fishing"!

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The football pitch!

Bathroom second fix under way

Lots to report this post (well lots of pictures anyway) after a week of hard work. Having left the family in South Carolina with Heidi's parents I (Tor) had a full week with my dad working on bathrooms and finishing off the kitchen. With 5 bathrooms to do (including the powder room) there was a lot to get through especially the rooms with baths and showers. Good progress was made however although not one room is finished yet due to various small issues or needing additional parts to hook everything up. This is of course somewhat disappointing as it just adds to the feeling that everything is half done but there is lots to be happy with and all the rooms are looking great.

Master en-suite toilet and shower

Family vanity and towel rail

Powder room (artificial light)

 

Shower room towel rail

Shower room shower screen

Master en-suite vanity

Guest en-suite shower & basin

On Friday we had the wooden table and glass splash backs installed in the kitchen and after 5 days in the bathrooms I took a break on day 6 and finished the plumbing in the kitchen. This room is now complete :) and looks great. The ruby red splash backs really add an extra dimension to the room and the wooden "egg" table doesn't take up as much room as I had though it would. There is still plenty of room and a good flow around that end of the island.

Kitchen "egg" table

Kitchen from dining room

On day 7 - no I didn't create the earth! - there was more work in the bathrooms and a distraction of installing the solar tube in the powder room. This works very well indeed giving a good amount of light in this room without any windows.

Powder room under natural light

How the light gets there

We will be back as a family in only a couple weeks time again for another big push to get things finished off and move that bit closer to completion.

This week the joiners are back in laying the oak flooring so the house will look a lot different when we are back

Granite Counters Installed

Just back from a busy 4 days onsite. Over the weekend Tor & Bill worked away on the rain water harvesting (RWH) system, MVHR system and UFH system on Saturday & Sunday.

This included wiring up the submersible pump in the RWH tank that will supply water to the toilets and the pump controller along with a bit of dangling upside down in the top of the tank as well to hook up the pump.

RWH pump controller

 On the MVHR system the remote control panel was wired in, the final valves installed, connections made to the unit and insulation installed on the exhaust and intake ducts.

For the UFH system two of the control centres were wired up and actuators installed on all four manifolds.

Utility room UFH controller

 On Monday the MVHR system was commissioned with the flow rates to the various rooms being set and correct function of the booster switches and remote panel confirmed. While this was on going I worked on some of the plumbing in the master en-suite. The other big thing on Monday was the delivery of the oak flooring for the house. We rented in a forklift to offload the pallets from the lorry but it all had to be carried inside by hand. This took me all afternoon to do -  well it was 690 boards ( or 4.5 MT/ 10,000 lbs) after all!. Before leaving that day I also leveled various floor areas in preparation for laying the floor. Phew, no wonder I was knackered that night!

Tuesday was only a bit quieter, but no much. early in the morning the granite counter tops arrived as did the electricians. After getting the sparkies started I helped move the large island granite top into place and checked on the installation in general. The granite tops look as good as we expected and the whole colour scheme work well.

Granite counter top being installed

Installed counters on bow fronted units

Whole kitchen

Kitchen sink

Island with drop down area

After the counter tops were in I spent a couple of hours sorting out the fittings for the electricians and then got back to the master en-suite plumbing again. Still a bit more of this to do but I think I have broken the back of it now

Tiling is complete

Well almost!. There are some small bits and pieces that still need finished off (feels like everything is that way at the moment) but all floors and walls that needed tiled are no completed and grouted.

Master en-suite shower

Bath frame in master en-suite

Master en-suite shower tray

Hall

Stairs and hall

Shower room shower tray

Shower room shower

Guest en-suite floor and shower

Utility room

Heidi is just back from a full on weekend of painting and directing of operations. The lounge, dining room, and utility room are now painted which means the ground floor is about 70% painted now.

Lounge alcoves

Lounge looking to dining room

Dining room looking to kitchen

Tor is back on site this coming weekend for a extended weekend trip and as usual has a full work schedule for the weekend. Monday 3rd June will be a busy day with the electricians starting second fix, the MVHR system being commissioned, oak flooring being delivered ( +/- 520 boards to move into the house by hand!) and hopefully our granite work tops for the kitchen are delivered and installed. Now that the tiling is completed we can start second fix on the plumbing as well - maybe this trip if things go well.

Kitchen units installed

A successful weekend a couple of weeks ago getting the kitchen units installed.

Island units

Cabinets to left of where range will be positioned

....and to right

We also had a look at the rain water harvesting pump and control system which was good as some additional cable was needed to get everything back into the house. Sod's law being what it is we were just a couple of meters short.

The tilers have also been busy the last couple of weeks and most of the tiling is now complete and the stairs is progressing again with the balcony trim and newel posts now being installed. Heidi is back this weekend painting and having the templating done for the granite counter top and glass splash backs completed.

We have also been busy working out what we want for doors, skirting, architrave and door handles so the final bits and pieces are now decided. Just a case of getting things delivered and installed now -  end of August completion is still looking like a very realistic date.

Will add more pictures when Heidi gets back on Tuesday

Driveway finished

A quick up date with some pictures of the finished driveway which looks good but will require some changes to be made to the tarmac area as the contractor didn't follow the drawings!

We weren't expecting the tarmac to look like that!

Granite setts with the fan pattern

Another view of the setts and fan pattern

Back over in two days time with the familiy to take delivery of the kitchen units and see the driveway in person.

Stair is installed

Just back just back from another weekend of working on the house following only a couple of weeks behind Heidi who also had a solo trip back.

Things have really been moving on in the last month since we were back as a family at Easter. For Heidi's trip saw her getting on with some more painting getting the kitchen completed and finishing off the master bedroom. Distracting her from her work we had the fire place being installed, tilers in putting in the first floor tiles in the study, the joiner working on loft hatches and access ladder installation, and the data engineer was back starting to fit up outlets and cutting holes for speakers in the ceiling. Outside we had the landscapers finalising the pavers and the driveway installers getting started. No surprise Heidi didn't get quite as much painting done as she had hoped!

Driveway taking shape

Bathroom tiles going down

 The week after Heidi was there dad was up on site for us as the stairway people finally got to site. The stair installation went pretty smoothly with no major problems and the main flight is no in place. They are back again this week to start installing newel posts and hand rail.

Oak stair flight in

The same week the GSHP service engineer also finally made it out to us and found the problem with the unit. Turned out to be a loose connection within the unit that was causing all the problems.

Hot on the heels of the stairs going in Tor was back fitting shower trays and doing other bits and pieces to get the other rooms ready to tile. On site were also Bill & Evelyn - Bill wiring up UFH thermostats, central vacuum sockets and MVHR booster switches and Evelyn painting in bathrooms. Thanks mum & dad for all your help. A successful weekends work all round and things are starting to look like to are heading towards completion now.

This week the data engineer is back fitting speaker, CCTV cameras, PIRs for the security system and terminating CAT6 HD cables. The tilers are also back working in the kitchen in preparation for the kitchen units being delivered on 10th May. Outside the drive way works are completing....busy times!

We are back in week as a family to take delivery of the kitchen units and to get them installed, plus more painting. The list of things to do is getting shorter......very slowly.

Plan is still to be finished by the end of August so we are in the last few months of frantic activity, then we can worry about other things!