Moved in

We are not sure exactly when it happened - we started staying the odd few nights, but going back to the old place to eat as we didn't have any kitchen appliances, but then we never went back. I suppose the key events were when the telephone & broadband were connected, when we had a functioning kitchen, and when Stuart finished.

It is still work in progress but it definitely feels like home.

November may be a gloomy month but it's looking better for us!

There is light at the end of the tunnel!

Keith came back and spent a few days helping us with the decorating

Meanwhile Stuart cracked on with the cladding. He has done a really good job! 

Upstairs is pretty much finished now - Sue has been re-oiling the oak floors - great to see an end to all that cardboard covering them. We have spent a couple of weekends sleeping the night at the house.

Just waiting for the slate worktops either side of the basin for our ensuite above. The stone masons promised them weeks ago!

Today was a momentous day! We carried in the concrete kitchen worktops

It's been a learning curve producing these worktops - I have spent days and days on them and realised that although they were not as shiny as I wanted them to be they were not going to get any better the more I worked on them. I think it must be something to do with the mix, and then what I should have done is put a product called a densifier on at an earlier stage. Never mind - they are looking good and a sealant/polish should bring out the colours. They were very very very heavy!

And to top it all...

I've been working on the concrete worktops. I have to use progressively finer grades of sanding disc. Then last week they were all covered with a slurry of runny cement, to fill in any holes and cracks, and then left to dry for a few days. So I made a start on Saturday, getting the slurry off. You grind them with a tool connected to a hose pipe, so consequently you get soaked. Hence having to dress up in my yellow waterproofs ( I don't think I have worn them since I sandblasted our house in Darlington 30 years ago!)

It is quite surprising the range of colours that the pebbles in the concrete turn out to be when they are ground down! The concrete looks great when it is wet - all shiny, but because I haven't reached the polishing stage they don't keep the shine when they dry

I'm feeling Clad allover

Well it's not quite yet but i couldn't resist misquoting The Dave Clark Five! We are using Western Red Cedar (bought from Latham's in Leicester) Pleased with the results so far. Takes Stuart a while to do the preparation as all the corners and edges have to be cut and shaped from pieces of 4" x 2" cedar. Hopefully, weather permitting Stuart will get much of the gable-end done next week. I've cleared out the garage so he can cut wood in there if it is raining.

A revealing week

Well it's been good to have Keith Duerden working at the house - he's been painting all the window reveals. Good to see some crisp lines. We also turned the garage into a temporary spray booth so Keith has also been spray-painting our plywood sliding wardrobe doors.

We also have had the zinc roofers back - we got them to roof the little log store I built. I also made a table using off-cuts from the oak sleepers as legs and they put a zinc top on it

Back to Monocouche

We have had some great weather lately and Stuart has been putting it to good use back outside using up the Monocouche render which was left over from when we had the house walls done. Stuart's got a new string to his bow (we didn't use the same renderers as before)

Unfortunately it looks like the weather's about to break so Stuart will have to dodge the rain this week to try and finish off. Don't think we will have enough bags to do the whole of the side passage but at least we will have enough to do the bits that show

A long story!

Well it has been a long story!

One I won't go into is that in the end Stuart finished off the tiling - well I say finished - there is still a bit of mastic to put on but too many other things became more important!

One of the important things we had to do was to choose a kitchen sink so Stuart could put it in place

After that we could finish making the frames for casting the concrete worktops (leaving a space where the sink & hob will fit)

Stuart welded steel reinforcement mesh in place and then we carried them out to the garage - I mixed the concrete and Stuart filled the mould (well until lunch time when I was reluctantly forced to go to the pub for a meal with friends after which Stuart did it all on his own!!!)

The importance of getting this job done is that it now takes about 30 days for the concrete to cure so that we can polish it.

Another thing I did over the weekend is construct plywood to both hide some ducting and to create a storage/cloak room space in the hall way. Eventually these will be hidden behind sliding doors.

Meanwhile Sue has been touching up paintwork, and now that the tiles are on the bathrooms it meant that Elliot could come back for his last day to put on the rest of the skirting boards.