How Long will it take...?

So far we've been in the caravan since June 2014. We moved in the weekend of the Brill Camp 2014. It's now the 20th April 2015. We are almost there... but not quite.

Lots has been going on in the last month - the biggest change is the decoration. Alex has worked really well to get the paint on the walls - at this stage there is only one room that is still bare plaster - the store room.

Alex is very meticulous about his work - he paints, sands, fills, sands and paints again. As a result the walls and ceilings are looking good. The final colours in some of the rooms are yet to be done so a lot of the house is white.

the guest room upstairs has a touch of the final colour on the walls.

as do the secret cupboards...

As for the other rooms, we are still choosing colours...

While Alex was painting Richard the plasterer was back again to finish off the sitting room now that the fire place is (finally) finished.

 The end result looks pretty good!

So what's left to do?

We reckon we've got about another month to go. The stone floor tiles from Natural Stone tiles in Abingdon were delayed slightly, by about a week or two. the knock on from this is that the tilers have now moved on to another job so we have to wait for them. They might be here sometime in the first week of May... hopefully.

The floors being late has pushed the kitchen and the remainder of the plumbing back. The kitchen fitter, Danny, has been really good (haven't seen the final product yet though...) AS he couldn't finish the kitchen off yet he has moved on to the frames for the built in cupboards. Starting upstairs in each of the bedrooms.

We still need to discuss the playroom cupboards and design. That will be next weeks decision...

We went to look at carpets and flooring at the weekend - so much choice although i think we are getting close to the final one (s).

I think the next week will see the stone floor laid and then we can move on again.

The balcony

The balcony finally gets it's place

After a few months of planning we now have a balcony. We had originally planned a small Juliet balcony across the bedroom doors but when we stood on the scaffold back in September we realised there was more of a view than we had appreciated.

We went out to 3 companies to get quotes and finally choose Riteweld in Banbury based on the level of service they provided up front. The planning officer approved the design and construction within 6 weeks.

first the steel went through the walls

then the deck was fitted...

followed by the flooring - well most of it...

then the glass was lifted into place.

the final result looks beautiful. 

and at least we now know it can support the family...

The house gets rendered

The house gets rendered

After lots of time choosing and deciding on an exterior render colour the house is now ready.

Firstly they put a base coat of cement on the walls by hand...

claire had a comment from one friend to say 'the house looks good, I bet it will look lovely when it's painted.' Luckily, the grey colour is only the base.

We chose the render colour from a small colour chart...

They then masked all the windows, soffits and doors with polythene before they sprayed the render over the surface.

they then smoothed the rough render with a level

Justin had employed three excellent 'renderers'.  Originally from Romania, they worked extremely hard. The got the base coat on the house over Easter and finally finished at about 8:30 the following Tuesday.

It was a very messy job but the end result is exactly what we had been looking for. The colour is called 'chalk'.

With the balcony in place the house is now really starting to look exactly the way we had planned it 2 years ago.

The Lounge and Fireplace

The Lounge and Fireplace


So, we made the decision to demolish and rebuild the fireplace. These fireplaces and the stoves have been a long running saga... but now we are getting closer to completion!

We rebuilt the lounge fireplace to accommodate the new stove that is going in there. It's actually the same width as the old one but will have an oak beam in place as a mantel piece.

We choose the red brick to add a bit more character to the room which otherwise is just a square room. The outside of the fireplace and chimney will be plastered and painted.

Meanwhile, outside... the drains have been dug for the kitchen and utility room... and these connect in to the existing manhole. Jason had a few problems getting the pipes to have enough incline.

The other photos are of the boarded roof in the above the games room. We have had to 'hang' the joists from the apex of the roof. this will (hopefully) prevent the ceiling sagging and cracking in the games room below.

And finally... here's a picture of the kitchen floor... just because it's flat!

The Day of the Screeding...

March 13th 2015 - Screed and UFH all laid...

First the Floor insulation went down...

We couldn't get the full amount of insulation in the floor due to the height of the ceilings and the doors that have already been installed. If you remember, way back in 2014 we hadn't planned to take the floors up at all. The intention was to remove the floor tiles and then simply tile on what was already there. That's where we had the problems as the floor screed in most of the kitchen had disintegrated. So we decided to dig up the screed and take the existing under floor heating pipes out... yes, it was expensive but we had to do it. We also decided it will be better in the long run (we had to convince ourselves somehow!).

Once the insulation was down the new Under Floor Heating (UFH) pipes went in. - around 1000metres downstairs.

Most of it in the kitchen...

The pipes went all around the kitchen, including under the area where the island will go.

Although we didn't put it under the main kitchen units.

The same applied to the Utility room...

The hallway has a good thick floor insulation as the original concrete slab was lower than the kitchen floor.

Once the insulation and the pipes were down it was time for the screed to go in.

Justin ordered 15 tonnes of sand... 

and loads of cement (3 pallets)

The screeders started in the study.

running their screed pipe through the house from back to front...

They pumped piles of screed in to the rooms...

Then flatten it out and power compacted it to make it smooth.

The final result was a perfectly flat floor (we hope!)

So we have now transformed the kitchen from this ...

To this...

So now the floors are down... we now just have to wait for them to dry... and that means not walking on it for 3 days...