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...

Current Building Project Update (pre-lockdown2)

The new stairs are in! It's so much easier than using a wobbly old ladder. 

Prior to the stairs being installed, the plumbers managed (I don't know how) to take the slipper bath to the first floor - it took them the best part of two hours! They've positioned the bath and basin taps and their next job will be to fit the Quooker and Belfast sink in the kitchen plus the tap and sink in the utility, as these have all been delivered.

Slipper Bath - Image from Supplier's Website

Showers

We are still unable to install the showers, for two reasons. We have the shower units but they can't go on the wall until the shower wall panels have been delivered. One shower tray has been on order for weeks and we have had the date moved back two or three times - they are now saying December. We can't trust this company not to delay it further so we are cancelling the order and choosing a new shower which we hope to have sometime next week.

The other shower tray has been on site for weeks. Unfortunately, when the plumbers began to install this one, the drain in the shower tray made it unuseable, as it was sited on two load-bearing joists. We have ordered a replacement tray but, unfortunately, the supplier does not arrange collections. Trying to send this back is proving costly as it is over 50% of the refundable amount so... would anyone like to buy a shower tray?

Kitchen worktop

We decided to use a local company that we have used before. Cawdor Stone in Knebworth is a family business, situated next to Lessiters (chocolatiers). Making a choice that complemented the white hob and mid-grey units was difficult but Graeme at Cawdor was very helpful (as well as knowledgeable), letting us take a few samples away to try out. It's only a few minutes from their showroom to the site so swapping samples was relatively painless. Their prices were reasonable too. We have booked a date for the templating and installation will be a week later.

Round-up of other items - our tasks

• We are meeting with the 'sparks' this week to finalise the lights and light-switches, a pop-up socket in the island plus any other visible electrical bits and bobs.
  
  
• There are no bathroom units, even though we have the basin and taps. We need to measure up tomorrow before the next lockdown so that we can get them on order. We'll probably use Howdens again.

• The built-in wardrobe frame is in place but we need to buy some doors - one of which has to be cut on a slant because of the sloping ceiling - we're seeking advice from the 'chippies'.

• We need to buy sliding doors to hide the works in the utility room - boiler, water softener, water tank, etc. We started with Magnet trade but have found similar doors for half that price elsewhere - we are currently looking further into this prior to ordering.
  
  
• The company who will be installing the log burner has already installed the granite hearth but we want the edges rounded, which we hope they can do without too much difficulty.
  
  
• We've started to look at aggregates/slabs/whatever for the driveway and patio. These must be porous in accordance with building regs/planning permission and must also enable people with mobility issues to easily access the house from a car (e.g. high piles of loose gravel is not suitable for wheelchair users).

In hand: Flooring is scheduled for the week commencing 17th November. The worktop is to be installed the following week. The internal doors - about 15 of them - will be hung after the flooring is completed.

Still to be addressed: As listed above plus chasing up other orders as supplies are getting tighter plus the company who were supposed to connect the gas didn't turn up, so we're trying to resolve this as urgently as possible.

 

There are probably quite a few more things that will come up on a daily basis. 

Next instalment scheduled for the end of the month!