Day 109 - Boiler Working

Finally some more success on the heating front. As promised the engineer arrived with the required part and with a little bit of work and Nigel putting in a isolation switch in for the boiler (apparently a requirement) we now have a working boiler. A couple of airlocks removed means everything is working at last.

Everything is now done apart from the snags, we have a friend who is in the trade coming round tomorrow night who said he would give us a hand......and have a beer with me of course :)

Day 108 - Boiler

Phil was here and I was off decorating with two brave volunteers, my folks! We are decorating the stairs and landing so its a three day job and Phil is here to complete the final plumbing work now that I have decanted the oil barrels from the patio into our new oil tank.

Problem 1 - Two leaks in the internal pipework, the first a minor dripping in the study that needed a little solder on the join, the second a poor seal on a radiator valve.

Problem 2 - Open valve on the second bedroom radiator has meant we have water coming through the kitchen ceiling through a light fitting, thankfully its sealed for fireproofing so its still OK.

Problem 3 - Duff boiler, well this one was the show-stopper. The boiler is broken, Phil says its the second one out of two to have this problem but the engineer came over and says he will have the required part for tomorrow morning.

Not a good day, still no heating although the landing is looking good with its first coat on all the walls and ceiling.

Day 107 - Coving Complete

Now that Roger and Phil have done the final internal plumbing the boxing for the pipework has been fixed on the wall by Richard and the coving completed in the utility room. Wood trim has been completed around the stairs and filler applied to various around the house. All but done now.

Richard is off now to finish work on his house, Paul has to lay us a new drive and Phil has to install our new oil tank to hook it up to the boiler.

We have now been left with the task of creating a snag list of things that aren't quite right or incomplete. We now await out bill and final pieces before we write up our closing summation.

Day 106 - Finishing Touches

Richard and James came round today to continue the finishing touches to the woodwork. They have got the handles on the landing cupboards and got the doors running correctly on their tracks to give us some useful storage on the landing.

The skirting has been tacked on the wall temporarily in the new lounge to make the place feel finished even though they will have to return to lay the wood flooring.

The cupboard doors in the kitchen have been tweaked to make them all open and close properly without rubbing against each other.

Not much left, a little coving and the odd strip of wood round the stairs/doorway and we are all done.

Day 105 - Electrics Complete

Nigel finished wiring up the under cupboard lights in the kitchen as well as the extractor fan in the utility room.

Paul arrived early and cleared the back patio and front of any spare bricks and tiles that I no longer need. The RSJ has gone as well as the plastic guttering that was left over. The place is looking decidedly better. He has also said he will order me some more pea gravel to replace the drive covering that ended up in the footings.

Roger was here again working on the boiler, it looks as though it is all piped in now and the minor change required to reroute the study radiator has also been done. We are STILL awaiting the oil tank.

Day 104 - Boiler

The boiler is in, Richard, Roger and Phil were here today and it looks as though Nigel was here too.

Nigel has put some small lights in the kitchen for the under counter areas and the glass display cabinet, these were part of the original Magnet order and were delivered but I dont think they were keen to tear into the wall again, a little whining at Richard to get them back in as requested seems to have done the job though.

Roger and Phil have finished the plumbing run over the landing and its now been rebaorded with new chipboard. The boiler is also on the wall with a collection of pipes running literally everywhere!

Its a big brute and looks man enough to heat the place, though with Luce spinning the dial to 'lava' temperature at any given chance we will see how it lasts. The oil tank should be with us this week so fingers crossed we may get done this week.

Day 103 - Gallery Landing

A surprise came in the package of Richard this afternoon, we didn't expect to see him but from what I can gather I think he wants to get this job done as its run and run. Some of it our doing and some of it his admittedly. He was here trying to get as much of the landing railing done as possible, although there was not enough spindles to complete the job.

Phil was here with Roger Sherwin to get some of the plumbing done, Phil said last week he still has over a weeks work here to finish the job, Roger is here to try to fill the gap as Phil is running about between jobs at the moment.

The plumbers have started ripping up the landing floorboards again and running the pipework from the garage where the boiler is to the new water tank. So far the run is in but the floorboards look a little worse for wear!