Best wishes for Xmas 2021 & all of 2022

Christmas lights - in the garden and on the tree. 

Keep well and have a jolly time over Christmas; fingers crossed for a fabulous year ahead.

Season's Greetings!

Gardening - a little bit more

The Rockery: we've added some more rocks and placed a few plants in pots to (hopefully) see us over the winter and we might order some sand and more stones to cover the foreground. 

Elsewhere, we have planted some decorative grasses between the house and the workshop, to divide the garden. 

You can see that the soil is not great (we've ordered a soil testing kit - bit late, I know). The steps to the workshop are a temporary measure but just look at the piles of stones raked away from the planted area! 

Between the grasses, we've planted some primroses and a mixed bulb selection for next spring. 

We have also placed some solar-powered lights which look pretty on these dark nights. 

So that's the gardening done for now until the next sunny day over 10° celcius. 

Back to concentrating on interior décor in the run-up to Christmas! 

Featured... Features!

Latest... Our glass doors installation has been featured in SunSeeker Doors' company news https://www.sunseekerdoors.co.uk/news/case-study-new-build/ 

Our garden activities are nearing the end for this year as it's now Autumn and not much fun being out there in the cold and rain. On the subject of rain, we've noticed that a couple of areas of patio have dips and some of our steps from patio to studio are not level - the rain forms puddles instead of running off - so this will be another job next spring - somewhat disppointing.

Lots of hoeing and raking has taken place (so many stones!), we've attempted to set up a rockery and some plants have been donated by family and friends. 

Preparing soil:

Rockery project:

Our intention is to put plants towards the middle and back of the area and leave the front as stones and sand, as a kind of patio extension.

Admittedly it just looks like a pile of discarded concrete at the moment!

More hoeing and raking! More photos of plant gifts:

There may be fewer (if any) posts from now to spring so we'll sign off by wishing you all best for the winter! 

Grey Log Cabin Studio

Apologies for the late, rushed post! We've finished the preservative coats and the studio has had it's first colour coat. The blinds are installed and the electricians should be here next month. 

We've had a lot of rainly days this summer and haven't spent as much time on the garden as we would have liked. We've been attempting to do our own 'landscaping' and tree/shrub management, as the professionals all seem to be booked up. So many large stones! Ah, well, keeps us fit... :) 

Garden Studio

We ordered a garden studio / summer house (call it what you will) a few weeks ago and it has now been been deliered and erected. It was from Skinners - they have a local site at a garden centre not far from us and they will accommodate some customisation. For example, we wanted a side window added - no probem! The windows are double-glazed, tilt-and turn, which we like. 

A series of photographs, below, shows the build process: 

We chose a sturdy option with 44mm interlocking panels for the out-building. It requires two-to-four coats of preservative (we've applied one so far) then we can paint it. We've chosen slate grey to blend in with the house and patio colours - it will be a few weeks before we can show you the results. 

At the moment, there is no electicity connected but we have contacted the electrician who worked on the house. Lights and sockets are needed and we're considering what form of heating is best for the winter. Following the recent heat-wave, we are also wondering about air-conditioning, if we can install a cost-effective unit. 

Well, that's it for now - hopefully more progress to report next month. Wishing you a lovely summer! 

Gates and Lights

 

Aluminium Gates in Anthracite Grey.

Welcome to our home! We finally moved in this month. Still bits to do but it's habitable and very pleasant, especially with Summer just around the corner. Here is a selection of external photographs.

SunSeeker UltraSlim doors in anthracite grey

The image above is of the lounge before we cluttered it with our furniture! You can see the log burner reflected in the door glass and the panel blinds we bought on-line, taking a chance on the colour (neutral), and the grey oak laminate flooring. 

We've taken some night time shots, too, showing the external lights through the gates and on the front of the house.

More still to come, including:

• Internal photographs;
• New out-building (scheduled for July);
• Garden project, ongoing... 

Thanks for taking an interest.

Update: driveway paved, removal company booked

 

Our lovely light grey paviors are now in place on our driveway hardstanding and the gates have been delivered to be installed next week. Our recycling and rubbish bins have been supplied by the local council and broadband is in.

Packing has begun (about 50 boxes so far) and the removal company has been booked for next month. 

It seems like this is happening, at last!

So Close to Moving In!

Just a couple of jobs to finish and our new house will, at last, become our home. 

There were some snagging issues that are being undertaken this week and we have also sorted out the broadband service to the house. The council have delivered our bins, too. 

The driveway hardstanding is ready but the entrance where it meets the road has to be finished once the gate posts are in place - these have been on order with a scheduled delivery date of mid-May (i.e. any time now). 

We have no storage but a wooden shed-studio is due for delivery and erection in July (we're not waiting for that before we move, though). 

The biggest drawback is finding a removal company at a reasonable price who are able to fit us in at the end of this month. We need strong, fit professionals to carry our furniture down the 50 stairs from our flat (no lift) otherwise we might have attempted to hire a van and do the move ourselves. We couldn't book a removal service in advance because the goal-posts were moved on a weekly basis.

Photographs of inside our house (now that the cleaners have been)... 

Now that the house is completed, we'll concentrate on lanscaping - let's hope for a good summer!

Build completed, Driveway almost completed.

We've lost another month and made more compromises but we are so close! Here is an update since the previous post: 

• Outside access to accommodate disabled visitors; Nearly...
• 'Walk-through' and deep clean; Walk-through done, Deep-clean a week away.
• Address registration with Royal Mail and BT. Done! 

There are now steps from the patio to the base for a wooden out-building:  studio/office/gym/storage/whatever. 

We said goodby to the skip this week ('though I'm sure we'll need another one) and we'll be saying goodbye to the outside loo, too! You can see that the drive has been prepared, ready for the paviors to be completed in the next few days.

Inside the house, all the window blinds are in place.

All we have to do now is to find a removal company with a spare day in the near future - then pack! We hope it's a good long summer so that we can work on the garden (lawn, vegetable patch, flowers, etc.). 

Fingers crossed that the next post will be a happy one! 

Another Month has Dragged on...

We are almost a month further on, time-wise, but not much further than we were in our previous post:

The only things to be finished before we are able to move in are: 

• Outside access to accommodate disabled visitors;
• Installation of log burner;
• 'Walk-through' and deep clean;
• Sign-off by the Local Authority;
• Address registration with Royal Mail and BT.

We have our fingers crossed for the end of next month. 

We're not sure why progress has been minimal but here is an update to the above:

• Outside access to accommodate disabled visitors - the guys doing the driveway are also going to put in some gate-posts and they decided that the posts need to be done before the rest of the drive can be laid. To get the sizes exact, they want to wait until the gates are delivered - the gates are on order but are not scheduled for delivery for another few weeks yet. However, they've made a great job of the round-the-house paving - see photo;

• Installation of log burner - YAY! Done - see photo;
  
  
• 'Walk-through' and deep clean - obviously the last thing is to clean and this is best left (apparently) until the drive is paviors rather than mud;
  
  
• Sign-off by the Local Authority - YAY! Building Regs are signed off, subject to a couple of provisos;
  
  
• Address registration with Royal Mail and BT - in hand.

So we're still saying that we have our fingers crossed for the end of next month. (Do I sound just a bit fed up?) 

Anyway, the latest photographs are below.

More soon...

Our New Build House Project is almost complete!

The only things to be finished before we are able to move in are: 

• Outside access to accommodate disabled visitors;
• Installation of log burner;
• 'Walk-through' and deep clean;
• Sign-off by the Local Authority;
• Address registration with Royal Mail and BT.

We have our fingers crossed for the end of next month. At this stage, before furniture goes in, we intend to walk round with a smart phone and video the result of all the work to date. There will still be odds and ends still to do but these are non-essential and we don't want to wait forever so they can be mini-projects once we are living there. 

Other than that, the hold-ups are just long lead-times for the out-buildings we are ordering (e.g. the carport and a shed) plus the gates. These vary between 8 weeks and 14 weeks. 

Meanwhile, around the portaloo, we have pallets of paving ready to go down next week.

Plumbing completed: Kitchen, Utility Rooms & Bathrooms

An essential step forward! When we move into our home, we'll be able to use the bath, showers, w.c. and Quooker! Another significant moment was walking into a warm house when we visited it last weekend. The house is beginning to take shape and almost feels like a home. 

We have the upstairs window blinds ready to go up as soon as the decorating is finished (it's starting next week) and the downstairs blinds should be delivered within the next two weeks.

The sliding doors to hide the utilities are now installed and we are looking to purchase fittings for the built-in wardrobes in the bedrooms. Also, we are now able to put in our order for the tambour doors for the kitchen.

We are currently trying to arrange installation of the log burner, which we purchased such a long time ago. Unfortunately, there is an issue with the granite hearth where one side is 1cm higher than the other side, then it needs some finishing-off between the hearth and the floor. This will either be granite strips, floor wood cuts or a smooth coating of filler, painted black, under the black granite hearth.

Here are some photographs from our recent visit, starting with the sliding wall to hide the utilities:

The glass is in the stairs now: 

Two showers:

Note that the skirting boards have been added now. More images to follow in future posts, in a few weeks. Hopefully, the hard landscaping will be starting soon, as the materials are all stacked in the garden. It is essential to have the disabled access in place (a requirement by the local planning authority) before the house can be signed off - and the driveway must be porous. Signing-off is necessary as soon as possible so that we can have an official address because the post office and telecoms services won't act until it's done. However, our house is now visible using Google maps!

Thanks for reading. Please feel free to leave your relevant comments.