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).