At last - another blog!

 Yes! We know it's been a long time, but as you can see we've been rather busy.

The stairs are boxed in underneath and faced with oak and, at the moment, it is our family gallery.  The cupboards under the stairs are (more-or-less) finished, so there is more room for Su to put bits that might otherwise clutter up the kitchen or fill the kitchen cupboards.

 It is good to be able to go upstairs and have a secure handrail to hold on to; and to know that little ones are less likely to drop from the first floor to terra firma below.

The opening above the kitchen has a rustic, garden-style, fence at the moment, but when we can obtain the appropriate glass balustrade fittings it will be changed.

The company that fitted the kitchen and utility room for us came back and fitted the bedroom, so we now have some clothes storage and  over-bed lighting.

We have also fitted the en-suite and added some bits to the bathroom (in the picture) so when the family all came at Easter we had plenty of facilities.

Tomorrow we have our first open afternoon (for members of the Beacon Church) so we are hoping that it will be a great day.

Oops!

We have had some blustery winds over the past week or so, nothing spectacular, certainly not gale-force, but some damage has been done to our garage!

It appears that the flashing around the solar PV panels was not adequately fixed - it was attached with pop-rivets at one edge, so the wind got under the other edge and pulled it away. The rivets were very close to the edge, so they pulled out and two of the ridge panels flew off.  Fortunately they went over the back of the garage and not on to the cars or into the neighbours' garden.

On the gable ends they also flapped back, but fortunately didn't come off.  However, they were flapping above the Z3 and it couldn't be moved as the battery had gone flat whilst we were in Spain.  You should just be able to see the screws, where Dave nipped up the ladder and secured the edge to ensure they didn't end up through the soft-top and inside the car.

We have taken some pictures (and Sam made a video of the flapping while they were visiting) and e-mailed them to the panel company to see what they say.  We await their reply and hopefully they will come back, repair the damage and fix the flashings more securely.

We wait with bated breath!

update at last

A few photos of activity over past few months

garage before sorting

garage a bit better

 Photo showing inside of pantry cupboard and also sliding door into utility room

Dave putting in spindles

Family at Daniel's wedding in September

Peter, Pamela, Chloe, Matthew and Nan Jean

Gravel down side of house by air source heater

Start of verandah

Before gravel put down

after gravel put down

balcony put in

verandah more complete

blinds in front room window

Blind put in kitchen

Doors

 Tuesday 23rd June
Bathroom door fitted yesterday, still a few finishing jobs to the surrounds needed.

 Wardrobe doors on - well 2 of them fitted - one just resting on the wall.  Needs to have some of plaster removed before it will fit.

Upstairs toilet door fitted (this is the first of the pocket doors and will be a temporary one)  Quite easy to fit so we hope the more expensive ones for downstairs go as easily.










Kitchen mantel cut back yesterday - sawdust everywhere - took hours to clean up.  Looks much better now and you can put a saucepan on the worktop now - probably hard to see from photos. Kitchen music system installed.
Ellie came back today to top coat all cupboards.
We now need to put on pocket door and architrave around the frame and then that's it finished - well almost.

Cooker mantle

Various stages of garden room - window boards and skirting (as you can see wasted no time in putting out some ornaments)

Friday 19th June
Mantle arrives.  I think its a bit too deep and we lose a lot of work surface so am going to ask if they can chop it down a bit.  Hopefully Monday the glass splashback for the cooker will arrive along with cutlery trays and door architraves.  Note chopping board.  Got the people who did the work tops to cut us a board out of the bit that came from the cut out for the sink.  It's great.  Still trying to find a home for everything.  Think maybe its time to have a grand old sort out and get rid of some old stuff.





Longer view of kitchen

Back at last!

Yes! it's been a long time, but we have been rather occupied doing things other than writing the blog

 April
Mm where does this bit go?  Dianne trying to work out rails for the front balustrade

 May
Kitchen tiles started

 June 3rd
Kitchen cupboards go in (by Russell Alexander of Leominster)

 Mixing up tile adhesive

 Dave lays tiles for front step

 Skirting boards started

 Tiles done in the garden room

Window boards started

 Wednesday 17th June

Kitchen worktops arrive











Front room window ledge arrives and also ledges for bedrooms and bathrooms - what a difference it makes.  Means I can clutter them now with ornaments!

Utility room work tops arrive

 First footing on newly erected stairs - eureka!













Thank you Kevin and Ashley - its been a long wait but you came good where others let us down.
All we need now are the handrails put in and stairs will look even better - oh and also all the wood will have to be oiled.
Christine has made a start on on the spindles but will be hours and hours of endless fun.

Stairs

 Saturday 14th March
Dave made a start on the staircase with the help of Paul (from next door).  Unfortunately they had numerous problems - not least of all no picture to work from and very sketchy plans from the people who made it.  Also, the half-landing was not part of the kit, so had to be made from scratch. (It's been made and put in place, but we don't have a picture of it yet.)

 Stairs shown with newel posts.

Ah well, back to the ladder to get upstairs for another week or so until we can get help.  Largest problem now is the actual stair run is so heavy  it will need some muscles to lift and put in place.

Flooring is finished across most of hallway now.













Steve from Russell Alexander (the people who fitted our last kitchen in Leominster came with a range cooker and a slab of granite that they have loaned us so that we now cook - yeah!  Celebrated with roast chicken and even made a sponge on Sunday.  Its still rather makeshift but at least its an improvement.



Monday 16th March
Dentist in morning and then back to painting.  Started on the plant room - why, oh why, did we not paint it before cylinder and pipes were put in? So difficult trying to paint around pipes and cables.
Dave put in lots of power points (well he put the new sockets on) to replace the cheap white ones we had on a temporary basis and some extra ones where there were just back boxes before.