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!

Day 102 - Small Bits

Today Richard and James were here clearing up some of the minor snags and bits missed so far. The list is still quite impressive.

1. The Juliet balcony has been fitted.
2. Missing window board fitted in the study
3. Upstairs french windows sealed on the outside
4. Missing guttering fitted to porch
5. Broken guttering fitting replaced
6. Hole drilled for utility extractor fan ready for Nigel
7. Cleared out all their tools in the lounge
8. Screeding some parts of the kitchen to get a better level on the floor
9. Screw in faceplates that were left off while plastering

This weekend will be one of painting and tidying up, the boiler is in the garage and I have ordered the oil tank for arrival this week. Phil says he still has a good few days work to get the boiler rigged up and I will have to transfer all the oil to the new tank when its in position. Richard is off all next week as he wants to get on with his house as a moving date is imminent and he is at the plastering stage.

Day 101 - New Steps

Today Richard replaced the steps from the kitchen into the new lounge, the previous ones were a little on the steep side as they were designed based on stairs. The new ones I requested have a deeper tread and adding a second step has made it less steep. In short a much improved solution. The same has been done to the utility steps.

Generally today has been a 'bits 'n' bobs' day other than the steps with little annoying things being completed. Tomorrow Richard wants to clear up some of the other little problems on what he calls his snaglist.

Day 100 - Downstairs Doors and Lights

Day 100 and it looks like we are on the finishing straight, how long that straight may be is a different question but it certainly looks like a week or two and the guys will be done.

Richard and James got the final downstairs doors on today including all the handles.

Nigel put the smoke alarms in and wired them to the mains on both the landing and the downstairs hallway. We now have heating controls for the boiler system and the boiler itself has arrived and is currently awaiting fitting in the garage. The fan and light unit has been put up in the master bedroom although the fan isnt working at present.

Finally Nigel put up the 4 outside lights around the house so he is all but complete except for minor pieces and the boiler wiring.

Phil has managed to get the the third bedroom to the radiator to give it a second feed after we emptied it the night before. He has also changed the waste on the sink in the bathroom which in the words of my father-in-law developed 'a weep'.

Nigel has also wired up the dishwasher and the waste has been done by Phil so the kitchen is looking pretty good despite not having a floor.

We still have the galleried landing to complete on the list of 'Big things to do' and of course the boiler needs fitting but the end is nigh and everyone has done a good job moving forward today.

Day 99 - Rads

Phil came today to fit the remaining radiators and towel rail, the cloakroom has its new rail which means it is now complete except for a final lick of paint on the pipework.

A new radiator has been put in the study replacing the old one with the under-window style, finally a radiator has been put in the hallway as with the extended length of the room having knocked through the porch the nearest radiator is now in the kitchen.

Paul came and filled the old waste from the toilet and the hole that had been made for the bath waste in the previous bathroom, I have been left a note to bond the floor in the kitchen ready for Richard and Ashley to put a final self levelling compound on top prior to your truly tiling the floor.

Day 98 - Utility Room

We had Richard, James and Phil here today fitting the rest of the kitchen and getting the plumbing in as well.

The Belfast sink in the kitchen was fitted with Richard routing the required holes and grooves as well as on the underside to prevent leaking into the cupboards below. The utility cupboards and sink were also fitted including the waste. The kitchen is fully operational now except for the electrics for the dishwasher and the lighting that came with the units.

James spent most of the day talking about surfboards having become a proud owner of a new board!

Whilst the builders were off-site (we were on holiday and wanted some peace!) we have managed to draft in Luce's folks for some painting, the hallway had had a coat of white emulsion ready for some flavour of off-white Luce will choose. The ceiling in the hall is done thanks to Dave and the master bedroom just needs a second coat and some edging doing to finish it as well.

I have tiled the majority of the bathroom so hopefully Phil can plumb in the shower and put on the shower door. The house is starting to feel more like a home. Back to work next week so things will no doubt slow down again but its looking good.

Day 97 - Cloakroom

Today Richard had his mad sidekick back, James. He was very quiet in the morning and as we were on holiday too the noise soon built and James was back to his old self.

I laid tiles and grouted the downstairs cloakroom ready for Phil to refit the toilet and painted the final five downstairs doors ready for fitting. Richard and James continued on the kitchen fitting the trim to the tops and bottoms of the units. We are still without some units and the Belfast sink which are all due on Thursday of this week. Here is how it looks...

With most of the units fitted I cleared the front building yard with James and managed to pack everything into the skip ready for removal, thats the last one so everything had to go, this required some manual assistance....

In the afternoon Phil turned up to fit the toilet back in after tiling. We finally have an action shot of Phil Marsden doing his thing.

In all the day was very productive, the cloakroom is ready for painting although Phil still has a towel rail to fit. The kitchen is all but done except for our missing units. We have told Richard he is free to go and do something at his place until Friday as we need some R&R and to enjoy a bit of our holiday. Friday we should have the final kitchen pieces and be able to get the kitchen finally fitted....then its more tiling!

Day 96 - Kitchen Fitting...again

Without James here to do the running about Richard had to do three trips round Peterborough and Stamford to pick up bits and pieces for the kitchen that were missing or required or needed swapping out. By the time he got back from these trips there was little he could really get done other than some more extras to the kitchen.

Day 95 - More Kitchen

Richard, Phil and Nigel got here early today with Richard without his sidekick James but he did manage to get stuck in. In fact, Rich was still here at 7pm this evening trying to get as much of the kitchen done as possible on Lucie's request.

To be fair he must be over halway, all the the base units are fitted (except a replacement we are due), the worktops in the main kitchen area are on and fitted (and even oiled!) and we have fronts on most of the cupboards.

Tomorrow he is going to get to Magnet to pick up the missed pieces and various odds and ends we have changed as we have gone on. Right now its looking pretty good though...

Once we have the finishing touches on and a few more panels it will be a nice homely kitchen.

Nigel has put in the isolator switches so we dont have to have the fans for the bathrooms going every time we turn on the light switch. We also have working lights now in the new lounge and a switch downstairs to operate the landing lights which was a pain to have to run up and down to turn on/off.

Phil has carried on with the secondary feed to the radiators, the dining room is complete now as well the upstairs second bedroom.

With one day left this week before we have a weeks holiday we are hoping the kitchen will be all but complete tomorrow (If Magnet have a Belfast sink in stock) and maybe the electrics will be complete....we have a control unit left to fit (undecided at present how the TV points will be wired).

Day 94 - Pipework & Lights

The kitchen worktops arrived today, we have also found out the soft close fittings are not as standard on the kitchen so we are replacing a unit that didn't have soft close drawers. The fittings for the doors we are sourcing ourselves as the cost from Magnet is something in the region of £5.35 a pair, eBay doing them for £1.20 each.

Richard started cutting down the deep wall units for the second 'L' shape in the kitchen so we can keep the main space and still make use of the wall space. Its starting to feel more like a kitchen now.

Phil has started doing the additional work we asked of him, turning all the existing radiators into a two-feed system so that the radiators in the house heat together rather than one after the other. So far he has done all the pipework for the front lounge, study and hallway. The final pipework has also been completed in the cloakroom which we hope to get the tiling on the floor for this weekend.

Nigel has done every faceplate now and every light. We have extractor fans in the upstairs bathrooms all working as well. The spots are in the lounge and kitchen although the lounge is not yet operational. We are just missing our boiler now and we would be pretty much in a fully functional state.

Day 93 - Kitchen FItting

The kitchen has arrived from Magnet, not first thing in the morning as requested but early afternoon. The units are all assembled so the hallway currently looks like this....

As does the garage and much of the new lounge. We do have the base units in so we get a rough idea of how it will look.

Phil has fitted the downstairs sink and put the pipework in behind the base units for the sink. Nigel has got more faceplates on, we also have two spotlights in the dining area in the kitchen and some fused units upstairs for the towel rails in the bathrooms. We also have extractors fitted in both bathrooms.

The kitchen worktops didnt arrive today as expected but I had a nice call from a lady at Kitchen Surplus who said that the problem was with the couriers and they would have them with me in the morning. Richard left me his usual 'Wot no worktops?' message on a piece of card on the cooker, a true man of the 80's era.

Day 92 - Coving Complete

Ashley was here first this morning and the task was coving, personall I thought this was going to take him at least a couple of days but its complete.

In every room...

Apart from the study we are all done with plastering and coving, this room will have to be revisited in the future.

Nigel has managed to complete more of the electricity points, ethernet ports, TV points and a shaver point. The way he is moving I should think another day and all the faceplates will be on.

We have a mysterious water patch on the landing we are unsure of. Richard took the floorboards up last week as we thought it was a leak from a pipe having added the unvented system. There are no pipes under that area though which led us to point at our cats, a couple of sniffs of the floor later and they were free from guilt as well. It keeps coming back though so if anyone has an idea then post a comment as we are at a loss.

We have had a delivery of our cooker hood ordered from AKD Appliances on eBay. We were expecting wooden kitchen worktops today but its a no show......maybe tomorrow when we are also expecting the remaining downstairs doors and our Magnet kitchen.