Kitchen

Iain and I have been putting up plasterboard in the kitchen and having done most of it Iain decided it was time to move the cooker in.

This is where it is going. The board behind is not plasterboard but superlux which is fireproof. Iain needed it in position so he could work out the plumbing before we put the plasterboard on the wall which is left in the picture.

This is the extremely heavy Esse cooker.

This is after the kitchen arrived. The cooker is in place but with it's box back over it. If we took delivery of the kitchen we would save 5% but of course now it is very much in the way, but as you can see the kitchen is plasterboarded.
So is the Utility room.

The above pic is the utility room.

So now we need a 'taper' but as usual having phoned 4 different ones, 2 didn't turn up and 2 didn't return my calls. Will try again after our week away training.
The living room is next then Iain can go back to plumbing and if we get someone to tape the plasterboard I can start priming and painting.

Some pics

This is the study at the back of the house

This is the bathroom.

This is the heat store that is extremely heavy.

The first sheet of plasterboard in the kitchen.

Friends week with us

David & Jill came up to Sunny Scotland for a week and to help with the build. They arrived Saturday 24th March and started work on Sunday. The jobs to be done before putting up plasterboard was to put dwangs in place for the electrical back boxes.

The first dwang David put in, Iain used the nail gun to fix it into position BUT he shot David with the nail in the knee.
Luckily David was far enough away, it only glanced off and didn't leave a mark. So Iain was sort of forgiven.
After all the dwangs were put in and we had tidied up we could start plasterboarding, but not quite.
Dwangs then had to be put between the joists to fasten the plasterboard to.

Now plasterboard could go up.

We did finish the room and managed to move the extremely heavy heat store in from the drive too.
So more pictures to follow.

February

The bathrooms have arrived! Iain has been busy finishing off the insulation in the roof and sorting the plumbing so he can order the rest of the plumbing stuff we need.
We have an electrician who has been to look round and is hopeful that he'll have the wires in so that we can put plasterboard on at the end of March. Our friends Dave & Jill are coming for a week again at the end of March ;-)
The nights are getting lighter so hopefully things will progress more quickly now.
The cooker will be getting ordered this week now the chimney specs are all sorted, Chris the builder will be coming sometime to remove a section of the timber frame and fill it in with blockwork so we can put the cooker flush with the units instead of it sticking out by 2 or more inches (50mm or more for the ones that understand mm).
The woodburning stove is all sourced but as the flue can't go at the angle required to get out the dummy chimney and needs to go straight out of the roof, we need revised planning permission so the architect has submitted a drawing to the planners. The stove is on hold until we receive that.
Things are starting to move but it's still very slowly.

photos of inside

Kitchen

Some of the plumbing.

 Upstairs Bedroom

 Bedroom above the kitchen

Loft with ventilation ducting.

January

Progress is being made but slowly as it all seems to be one step forward and two back at the moment. Iain has got the first part of the plumbing done but needs to know what bathroom we are getting to continue with that, he is at the moment doing the neverending job of insulation in the roof.
We have decided to see if an electrician is expensive compared to the cost of Iain doing the work and having to bring a family member up from Scarborough to certify it. Getting an electrician is not easy though, if they are good at what they do they are very very busy!
We went to Inverness and went bathroom shopping which proved to be more expensive than either of us thought. So after that shock had worn off I spent a couple of days sourcing it all online and have just about found everything at half the price so when Iain has checked over the list to make sure what I've found will fit/work and everything is on the list then we can get it ordered.
Iain has been talking to a company about the chimney spec for the Esse cooker, so that can be ordered soon and we need to talk to the company who priced the kitchen we would like to see if the price can be discounted any further.
It is all coming together slowly, lots of decisions to be made that aren't quick decisions and as we are having a weeks holiday in Spain with our friends at their house we don't want deliveries until we come back.
Although the ordering can certainly be done as soon as possible especially the cooker which has a six to eight week lead time.

Winter has arrived!

progress

Progress is being made but not real visible progress. The small pieces of wood called dwangs that go between the joists are now fitted, the insulation is inside the walls and the stairwell has been cut out. So lots of work and now it's ready for the plumbing and wiring to start. Although the insulation needs to be put into the roof first fix is more important at the moment. The builders have been back to finish the blockwork round the front windows. So outside is finished for the moment and work continues inside.

Front Window

We've been away for nearly 3 weeks in the last month, we went to a conference and from there went across to Scarborough for Dad's 80th birthday party :-)

This photo is from 5th October.
Iain has been working really hard finishing the roof, it doesn't look any different apart from the slate on the sides of the Dormer windows but he's done all the lead flashing.

This photo is before they put the window in.

Our plasterboard was delivered and left in our neighbours barn so we moved that up to the house before the weekend and on Monday this week Iain and Paul put the front window and door in.

Chris the builder will be coming to finish off the blockwork round the window and that's the outside finished for the winter and we will be getting started on the plumbing and wiring soon.

Underfloor heating

The roof isn't completely finished but enough that Iain can leave it and start on the underfloor heating.
All the tools had to be put upstairs, which doesn't have a floor yet but enough boards to make it a useful storage area. Then the floors swept so Iain could start laying the insulation.

The joints were taped up, then a plastic cover put on before Iain started with the strips that gripped the pipes.

Then the pipes could be laid and stapled.

When all the pipes were laid and connected Iain filled the system with water and pressure tested it.

After all this was done it was time for the nice people at Screedflo to come and fill the rooms with self leveling liquid screed.

When the roof is completely finished and the floors are fully dry it will be time to start on the inside, plumbing, wiring, bathrooms, stairs, kitchen!

More slates

Iain is making good progress putting the slates up. The back is nearly finished and so is the porch, and the front is well under way.

slates

When the slates arrived we were busy with the soakaway so slight delay in getting started then the digger conked out again so while the battery charged Iain started marking out for the slates.
Iain put a half slate on first then a full slate over the top for the first row and to help me put them on he made a jig but holding the jig, the slate and the nail wasn't really too good for me.

The jig has a lip at the bottom to line up on that slate and you place the next slate at the top!

As you can see I'm not good with a hammer.
Anyway at this point, I'd only put 8 slates on I decided they weren't straight.

Iain checked the row I'd done and agreed not straight, so we took off the 8 slates and put them back on, then took them off again. After some measuring and checking it was decided none of it was right and we took them all off.
Then using a chalk line Iain set off putting the first double row back on but it still wasn't right. The place Iain was measuring from was the fascia but it's not straight!
So we then measured from the ridge line down and found we were 10 mil adrift because of the fascia, off came the slates and now we are sure it's straight.

Iain is doing the slating now we've moved to the boards on the roof, not so sure I'm as good at balancing.

Slates

So the slates for the roof have finally arrived today.  Major buying decison - Welsh, Spanish, Brazilian, Chinese, or Canadian. We have eventually decided on Spanish but ours are called Caledonian Heavies as they are 2-3mm thicker than normal slates, the extra weight helping in our exposed location.
So 5000 slates, 10,000 nails - someone is going to busy next week!

septic tank

When Iain wasn't running round trying to keep the builders happy he has been concreting the septic tank in with a little help from me.

blockwork finished

It was amazing how fast 2 professional builders can work what would have taken us weeks has been done in less than 3 weeks.

The slates for the roof have been ordered and we are fitting those ourselves so might take a while.

blockwork

We finally decided that we needed help on the blockwork. We want the outside to be finished before winter and Iain with the little help I can give him just physically can't do it all so we went looking for a builder.
We asked a couple of neighbours for recommendations and got 1 name from them both with a back up if he was too busy. We had already rung one builder who was going to call in sometime, we rang the 2 we got from neighbours, Chris turned up when he said he would (big plus) and got a quote to us within a week. 6 weeks later we are still waiting for either of the other 2 builders to turn up just to look at the job and give us a quote.
Chris started on Monday, Iain is running round trying to keep one step in front of them. David did a lot yesterday as we were in Aberdeen at our niece's graduation. Today I've been mixing concrete and tonight I'm going to help move blocks again.
The progress made is quite amazing to us as none professionals :-)

This is Chris' helper and this was Monday.

And this is today!!

septic tank

Still not deep enough yet but nearly there now.

Drains & bedrock

Iain has been digging the trench for the drains and the large hole for the septic tank. Things were going quite well until he hit bedrock, so a trip to Inverness to hire a jack hammer. He broke through it but then hit another seam further down and the digger broke (seems to be when it is needed it gives up). All is okay for now the trench and soakaway are dug, the large hole is getting there although bedrock has been reached in there too.

2nd stage reached

That's second stage reached, wind and watertight. No front window/door though as we need to get things in and out so that will be a while.

update

The house doesn't look much different since the last photo although a lot of work has been going on.
All the veluxes are in, the membrane is on and now the soffits and fascias are going up. The front is done and the back is nearly there, the dormers have to be completed too.
Once that is done we leave the house to dry out while we wait for the next inspection as 'wind and watertight' for the second stage of the mortgage.
We have a lot of planning to do for the next stages and we will need to get quotes for the electrical work and the blockwork. We also need to order the slate for the roof. The plan being that the blockwork and slates get done while the weather is reasonable.
Inbetween all this Iain has a job to do and is away for 4 days again at the beginning of May and we have a wedding to attend.

Foundations and soffits

After the membrane was put on the back of the roof Iain had to go away to a couple of meetings and while he was away he left me with the task of painting the soffits & fascias. We decided on a colour with preservation primer to be put on first. I put 2 coats of primer on the soffits (with a 3 hour gap between coats), then the next day went to sand them down but they were still wet (supposed to dry in 16 to 24 hours)
Anyway they were still wet when Iain got home, we think the temperature was too cold (below 10 C).

We had 2 friends coming to visit for a week (staying in the village) and they said they would help, so it was decided that the most difficult task we had for just 2 of us was the concrete foundation.
Concrete cannot be poured if the temperature/weather is under 4C, we made the decision with this in mind to go ahead and put the kit up with just hardcore foundations and we would do the concrete when the weather improved.
When Dave & Jill arrived we said we would like to do the concreting if that was okay and they agreed (none of us knew what we were letting ourselves in for).
Sunday was spent clearing the house out, all the soffits (now dry), fascias, tools, various planks of wood was all put upstairs.
Monday we started with the utility room, which gave us an idea of the scale of the job (not really, but we were kinda hopeful).
Tuesday we started the kitchen/dining room and realised how long it was going to take (already guessed at 10 hours) Iain went and borrowed the neighbours cement mixer, so we now had 2 cement mixers, it took 88 loads of concrete to do the room and we started at about 11am, took a break waiting for the rest of the cement to arrive and finished at 7pm.
Wednesday we had a day off and went into Inverness for lunch, shopping and tea.
Thursday we did the study and bathroom (all one room at the moment) which took 84 loads and not as long timewise. Then Iain, Dave and Jill prepared the living room for the ready mix which was coming on Friday morning, while I cooked tea. Each room had to have sand laid, wacked, damp proof membrane then rebar.
Friday the ready mix arrived and as it couldn't be put directly in the room from the concrete wagon, Iain had to transport it load by load in the digger bucket while the 3 of us tried to spread it across the room. 3.7 cube of concrete in 55 minutes!!!

Amazingly Dave and Jill are still our friends and our house now has concrete foundations :-)