Flora in the bath

Over the Christmas period we've been working hard trying to keep things simple .... what does that actually mean?  

It's our belief that the next 5 months or so are going to full of making a considerable amount of choices, help!  So if we can try and take things a little more slowly in other areas of our lives (wishful thinking) and concentrate on the house surely this has got to be a the way forward? Going to Scotland for New Year was very very tempting.

It's really hard to find time especially in the term time, where both Flora and I can go investigating some materials or products without two small children in tow.  We managed to get out thanks to Flora's Mum a few days ago to look at stone flooring and bathrooms.  The flooring in particular is really important not only because it's so expensive but it's also amazingly obvious and we're unlikely to replace it in a hurry.  Being a male I'm not as patient as Flora so I helped her in a limited way to work through the choices (helped by free coffee - thank you Mandarin Stone).  Thankfully she is just better at this sort of thing than I ever will be, it made me feel like we were choosing our wedding list again where it highlighted my short attention span (but she still married me)!

Flora taking bathing extremely seriously in the showroom!

The floor I think we've decided on!

I did learn a thing or two about the about the process of laying stone flooring (and probably other types).  It's quite a considerable amount sealing the screed (3 layers) then adhesive to stick the special matting down then more adhesive on top of that to stick the stone tiles to the matting.  After this procedure it's a simple grout finished off with 3 more layers of another type of sealant.  I now understand why the QS factored doubling the overall expensive from the actual purchase price.

Just before Christmas I think the best phrase to use is that we had a Grand Designs moment.  

The QS told us that the wood store has cost a considerable amount more than we anticipated.  What he didn't say was why!  Yes we've made a few changes as the original roof had agricultural corrugated roofing material which was very practical and cheap but it looked like an eye sore in comparison to the rest of the house.  So we decided to use the same reclaimed Welsh slates as the rest of the house, this in turn meant the roof pitch had to change, then in turn part of the roof was changed to a flat roof.  This gives a perfect explanation of taking what seems to be a simple idea and making it considerably more expensive.  Had I known or been told then we've would have never gone down this route.  Now we're going into damaged limitation mode.  The QS is going to send the breakdown of the increase and we'll be able to see what, if anything we can actually do about it.  Lesson learnt - change is ok but getting a proper price (even if you've got lots of other things whirling around in your head just before Christmas) is essential!  Double whammy that we also found out the ground works actually cost £15k more than the original increase... for a moment I could even hear Kevin McCloud's narration in the background asking the viewers "Have Matt and Flora just been a little too grand?" before cutting to a commercial break.

Polly in the red coat on the digger (no keys attached).  The oak cladding is looking lovely (right hand window is the study / man cave).

Oak cladding before Christmas

Well thank God we never dreamt we would 'be in for Christmas'!  Building a house has many areas that it's possible to become very stressed by so cutting out one factor of never really having a completion date makes it easier to manage.  That isn't to say we don't want to move in or even worse we're really looking forward to be paying both the mortgage and the rent for Pottery Cottage.  But no matter how good the builders are,  brilliant the architect or amazing the technology there are always going to be delays in the work schedule.

We've hopefully sheltered ourselves from the worst that can happen i.e. running out of money 1/2 way through the project due to massive underestimating of the enormity of the project by us or someone else!

It is interesting to scan through the photos we've taken in the sure mind that I've got a photo for example of the wood shed and strangely there is but it's weeks old (cleared area) and the wood shed is actually up with a roof.  The point I'm making is that it's easy not to take photos at every stage even though I walk up to The Ropewalk at least four times a week.

This week we're mostly thinking about:-

1)  Meeting up with Andrew from 3f2 Carpentry tomorrow morning.  Andrew is taking on the management of the project from 1st January.  We will be sad to see GW Builders team leave as they've made a brilliant job of building the outer shell of Ropewalk House.  I think that they are all proud of their work which they should be as it's absolutely brilliant.  Anyway back to our meeting we've got to write out a list of things to research and make a decision on during the next two weeks.  Additionally we're be asking Andrew to tell us when we need to make a decision for the next remaining many internal aspects.

2)  Solar Sam plumbing will start at the beginning of the January.  Sam has kept me posted on the developments of who he's sent the drawings to and anything other important decision we need to make including that 4 solar thermal panels would best in order to give us a whooping 9 months effective usage from the panels.

3)  I need to chase the Green Building Store (or Andrew) as I haven't heard from them at all considering the Mechanical Heat Recovery Unit.  Simply put it means that the house has been designed to have ducting into each room taking the dirty or warm wet area which will then be cleared and re-distributed into other rooms of the house.

4)  Nigel Davis (Quantity Surveyor) met Garry today so I need to know when he's likely to tell me we're on track with the finances or we need to be making some cut backs.

17th December - solar panels on, battening for oak cladding in front of the TLX Gold insulation

Garry and Dave nailing in the first oak cladding to the north wall

Dave with oak cladding behind - due to the tannin in the oak we're going to leave the plastic skirt uncut hanging over the stone walling in order to protect it for a year.

Tom McCurrac (middle) showing me the height of the possible hipped porch to the back door.  Once again Harry the architect was absolutely right that it should be like this.

Water tight, plumbing and more insulation!

The cold and clear weather I think has made everyone a little happier.  Once again a cold spell (it was -7oC last night in Bruton) focuses me on insulation.  This year I can actually see it in place rather than just thinking how lovely it would be to have a warm house that didn't take a huge amount of fossil fuels to heat (and money).  The insulation is pretty substantial TLX gold, 130 mm celotex and then on the inside TLX silver - it probably doesn't probably mean a huge amount when I say the U value will be around 0.012?  

Ok I think I've come to the decision that we're going to try without connecting gas boiler to the system and I also don't think we're really be needing heating up stairs.  All the bedrooms open out to the landing where the lovely warm air from downstairs will rise.  If that's not sufficient then a small electric oil fired radiator might be a cost effective solution rather than installing radiators in every room.

The TLX gold covers both the roof and 1st floor ready for the oak cladding

So the focus what can be done before and after Christmas.  We learnt that the windows from Rawlinson were delayed until the week of the 7th January.  I don't think this has messed things up apart from Dave and Garry having to find a solution to fitting the oak weather boarding before the windows are fitted.  We just praying that the colour for the outside of the frames are as good as we thought or true to what we have in our heads.

Polly looking a bit nervous on the scaffolding with Flora, Isla, Garry and Dave

The other pressing issue has been trying to get a plumber to work with Solar Sam he's been finding it hard as most of them are booked out after Christmas.  There may be a few possible ones in or around Bruton which would be great if we can get something decided that was within our budget.

Solar Sam unveiling the new Navitron panels that will provide a decent amount of our hot water for 9 months per year.

The oak weather boarding waiting to be nailed on to the outside of the 1st floor.  They're turn a silvery grey after a few years.

We're meeting Andrew next week to discuss and agree an order of priorities list. We've devoted from after Christmas to starting work on 7th to investigating flooring, white goods and many more things.  The house at last feels like it's getting to be real house especially now the rain can't drip in apart from the large open windows.  The plan is to get the plumbing and electrics 1st fix straight after the New Year.