Date Set For Moving In

We are moving in 18th Dec - everything will finished by then - we are looking forward to Christmas in our lovely new house!

Carpets Fitted

Carpets fitted last week - ready to hang the doors this week, hopefully we will also get most of the bathrooms fitted. The staircase has also had a coat of oil and this has really made a lot of difference to the way it looks.


heres some pics..

GENVEX MVHR Installed and Working!

It's been a successful weekend - we have managed to get the MVHR system in and working. We now have Hot & Cold Water Feeds to kitchen/bathroom/utility - just need them connecting to bathroom furniture etc... we now have Under floor heating working and hot water - WOW!


This is the MVHR unit - it also provides hot water - and we have the capability to install solar panels to it - all the pipework required has been installed ready for this. Hopefully in the near future installing solar panels for free hot water is going to be relatively simple.

The MVHR unit is a bit complicated - the user manual is about 20 A4 pages long - it is a very clever piece of kit - but boy it is going to be interesting getting it set-up correctly. Also made in Denmark (GENVEX) it's manual is not written in the best English.

We have a number of rooms now ready for carpeting - upstairs is just about done, all emulsion and glossing has been completed, and downstairs is about 80% done.

We should be moving in soon and christams is now looming... will we make it?

Builders In At Work !

Theres no escaping  the builders - even when you go to work they turn up!


Installing a Wide Bore Magnet at Salford Royal Hospital - Lots of fun.... lots of time, and could do without it at the moment...


First pic shows the magnet itself - 2nd pic is some of the electronics cabinets.

Georgia Loses 2 Teeth in a Week!

Georgia has lost a couple of her teeth this week - shes got a real good smile at the moment! LOL!!

Electrics 2nd Fix Completed

All electrics completed this week so we have lights/sockets/cooker/hob etc all working. The house has been given an 'Electrical Installation Certificate' - which is 4 pages long!
More painting has been done, and we have dates for carpets/blinds.

EUFH

Matt sparked up the EUFH (Electric Underfloor Heating) today, and what do u think happened?


Please Vote on the poll opposite :-))))

Lights & Sockets

Matt from Excel Electrical was on-site today - we have made a start on the lights/sockets/switches. Not very exciting pics but here goes. We are hoping to spark up the underfloor heating tomorrow - so if you hear that 8 fire engines are attending a house fire in Mold then you know it all went wrong!!:-)))

2nd Fix Electrics Starts Thursday

Lights and Sockets will be installed tomorrow. Will be able to turn on the lights and work into the night then....

We're Back!

I know - it's been a while. Sooo much has happened since last post. Apart from what's happened at the house, I've got a new job at work and had to go USA for a training course, work now demanding more of my time... if ever there was a time to get promoted this was not it!!
Looking back at the blog, We are trying to remember whats gone on -  we have had to put in new drainage - this has been a problem since we moved into the old Delfryn - badly installed by the council and shared with the neighbour. We now have a properly installed drain of our own, but not before breaking the water pipe in the road and cutting the whole street off!!!
The garden has been re-landscaped and all new retaining walls in the front and back garden. We have had a Slab put in for a nice size garage next year in the back garden.
All the plastering has been finished - if ever a trade has given us problems it has been the plastering - badly let down by the first couple then we managed to get a good one who finished the job off for us.
Staircase has been put in and looks great, also most of the second fix joinery has been done, bits to finish off but not much.
LOTS and LOTS of painting and floor tiling - the floor tiling has nearly put me in hospital but i pleased to say that 95% of that is done - we have a bit to do in the bathrooms when the boxing in is done - but apart from that we are tiled and grouted - thank god for that!
The elecricty cable to the post was done as part of the re-landscaping, we now have a electricity feed and everything! First Fix Lekky is done and second fix is underway tuesday. We have 48 downlights to put in and a lot of sockets etc. We are have got economy 7 meter installed as part of the underfloor heating thing.
I also installed a CAT6 high speed computer network and a lot of cabling for an Alarm system.
The Lindab guttering was completed - again another job that seemed to drag on a little....


anyway heres the pics taken today....


relandscaped garden and retaining walls - anyone who has been the house before will know our garden used to slope down from the field behind - you can see from this pic that we have taken a lot of stuff off the top to give ourselves a flat piece of lawn...

The kitchen is finished but we need the electrics finishing off as part of 2nd fix this week... you can see some of the floor tiles here ... about 25 Sq M in Kitchen..

View from Alexs bedroom downstairs into the lounge- here you can see the staircase and more floor tiles..

View into the downstairs hall from the lounge. Room at the end is the Study/Computer room

.View from master bedroom - well is was a nice day today..

Hall upstairs and a 'Sun Tunnel' in the ceiling giving light - nice oak banister / railings ( still need sanding and oiling )..

View from upstairs bathroom where the sink will be - looking forward to cleaning my teeth looking out this window!

Retaining walls at the front and some stoning done on the front drive etc..

Lindab Guttering finished.. Hooray!

Get Ready For Update

Hi Blog fans. we will be updating the blog this weekend sometime..... get ready for lots of pics and maybe some video....

Georgia the Digger Driver

The digger drivers seem to get younger and younger!!

Anyone fancy helping us out with the garden?

Plasterboards and Electricity Connection

Plaster-boarding is underway - Nearly all of downstairs has been boarded up this week so far and we have upstairs to do over the weekend. The first picture shows the first board of around 150 to be put up, second picture shows the same area with boarding finished . 

We have today also started to dig the trench for the electricity cable. Pantymwyn is very rocky ground so this is fun, but we still hope to have the electricity sorted by early next week.

Scaffolding Down At Last!!

Today it feels like we have turned the corner - The scaffolding was taken down! We are very pleased with how the house looks, all the hard work cleaning the bricks from the old house, and the attention to detail we have put in, now seem worth it. Almost all External work on the house has been completed (downpipes for guttering need installing) and we are concentrating fully on the internals. The kitchen people and the staircase are ready - so board up and plaster, and we are looking OK.

Dormer and Door Casings

The Dormer Upvc was put on this weekend - at last! Above pictures are before and after the work. That means the scaffolding can come down this week. All the external painting of fascias/soffits/barge boards has been done. All render has had at least 3 coats of weathershield and all the brickwork has had a waterseal put on it. Will be glad to get the scaffold down.

Door casings and Window Cills have also been fitted this week - and the plasterboard is being put on week commencing 21st june - have had to put it back a little. The plumbing first fix is not finished yet, and i have got to run a bit of cable first as well.

Wires, Pipes and Other Stuff

I can't believe it is 4 weeks since last posting! Time has flown by. We have been working hard  to get things moving, working before and after going to work some days - as well as weekends of course - it has been a hard slog, so no time to update the blog.

Inside has seen the electric first fix complete except some wiring for the burglar alarm which we are fitting ourselves. We have a lot of recessed lighting and a high speed Cat 6 computer network running to all rooms in the house - wires everywhere!

About 50% of the plumbing first fix is done as well - hopefully this will be finished this week. so by next weekend we are hoping to have the electrics, plumbing and we also have a joiner coming to do the window cills and door casings this week. If all goes to plan we are hoping to be ready to plasterbord the place by the weekend, phew!!

Outside the scaffolding is all but ready to come down. We were badly let down by a Upvc guy, we have decided to do the dormer fascias, soffits and guttering in plastic as it is going to be difficult to get to, to paint. he said he would do it - then some time later changed his mind. This has been the biggest problem during the whole build - people letting us down. Building your own home is a bit of a rollercoaster ride, some days it all goes to plan, other days problems and disappointments.

We are making slow but sure progress , we are not going to break any speed records, but we are getting things done how we want and trying to do as much as possible ourselves (within reason) to keep costs down. We can now see a small speck of light at the end of the tunnel...!!

Guttering - Lindab

A busy weekend, saw all the guttering installed (downpipes will be put up after the scaffolding is down). We went for Lindab Galvanised Steel in the end, and very pleased with it - it looks  nice against the white fascia boards - and it is very good quality stuff. We would say it is about 33% more expensive than the plastic stuff, but should last considerably longer and do a much better job. It is obviously more difficult to install - you have to cut it with hacksaw/tin snips, and to be honest it can be a struggle - but it is most definately worth it.

Builders Toilet

It is truly horrendous - the builders toilet. What lurks in there is scary and not for the faint hearted. Watch the Video - If You DARE!!!

Floor Screed + 24 Hours

Just 24 hours later and you can walk on the floor - it will take a little longer to properly cure (1mm per day), so to be safe we will leave it 2 months before firing up the UFH.

Floor Screed

 

Floor screeding done today - this is how it worked out. The concrete pump and Wagon turned up!

The hose from the pump was connected up and fed into the house.

'Sam' the pump driver puts a mesh put over the entry to the pump to stop big bits getting into pump - we want nice smooth screed!

'Jen' the concrete lorry driver pours the screed into the pump.

Mick and terry in action and you can see in the video that this screed is very liquid when poured. This means that there should be no air bubbles in the screed making the EUFH system that much more efficient.

After the pour this is how it looks after it is poured in...

This is the job completed - in all from start to finish took about 45mins! top job.

Thanks to eurostar i made it home sunday - video below is one of the finest sights i have seen for a long time, the eurostar train coming into station to take me home..

Volcanic Ash

Not a lot happened the last 2 weeks - I have been working in Rotterdam, installing MRI scanner into a mobile trailer unit. They are built in Oud-Beijerland, Netherlands in the SMIT factory, which of course means that I am now stuck - thanks to volcanic ash.

I was supposed to be flying home Friday night but I am still in Europe (it is now Sat Night). I am hoping that i may be able to get home tomorrow - thanks to Eurostar.

This is where i've been the last 2 weeks - Hotel Golden Tulip - Rotterdam.

And this is where i am at the moment, Lille - hoping to get on the Eurostar tomorrow to London.

On the road to England

Kingspan and EUFH Installed in Floor

All the floors downstairs have had 80mm Kingspan installed and the joints taped up. Then, as you can see in the pictures, there has been Visqueen put over the top - this is the stuff they use for DPM - it is there because the flow screed that we are using reacts with the Foil backed foam insulation (Kingspan) - so to stop it you use this plastic membrane. Then the Electric Underfloor Heating cables have been put in (red in pics) where required, with floor sensors.

This has taken a bit longer than we thought - we were hoping to have poured the screed by now. Laying the cables right has been the problem, they are of fixed length and cannot be shortened. So if you consider that the cable for the heating in the lounge is about 150 metres long, you need to cover the floor with evenly spaced loops over 20 sq m, it is a bit of a bugger to get this spot on. The fixing strip for the cables has loops to clip the cables to - these have been securly taped to the membrane.

So why use electric UFH when the most popular by far is the hot water pipes UFH you ask. This is the idea - where we live the electric suppliers Scottish Power have an economy tariff (option 14) which gives 14 hours off peak electricity each day. This gives you electricity at about 1/3 of the normal price between 9pm and 8am then again from 1pm and 4pm in the afternoon. So you put a nice 60mm flow screed (much denser then normal screed) on top of the EUFH - and basically 'charge-up' the floor using the off-peak electricity. It then switches off before you go on-peak and the floors act as a 'thermal mass' holding the heat nicely. The MVHR system also helps - it recycles the heat around the house. So we should have a nice warm house for cheap! well thats the theory, we'll tell you if it works when we move in!