How filippin' posh are we?!

Oh, we are now sooo posh!  We have lights in all our rooms and working sockets too.  It felt so strange after the electrician had been on Monday to finally coil up all the extension leads and bulbs on the ends of cables.  We have never been here without trailing cables before.  The electrician actually seemed quite sad to be saying goodbye (after all these years!) and said we could do his barn up when he gets one (which is quite a compliment).  He seemed quite pleased when we said there was still the workshop to do and we were hoping he'd come back to do that.



This is one of the lounge lights.  They are made by an old company who used to make gas lights and have now moved on to electric versions modelled on their old styles.  Of course they will have glass bell-shaped shades and possibly different bulbs, but there's no point in getting too posh all at once - we do still have building work to do in there!  Just below this light (although it's not easy to see here) was where the wrens nested last year.  I did have thoughts of leaving the nest, which really was a work of art, and somehow covering it with glass or perspex, but realistically, it's probably not a brilliant idea as it would probably rot or something.  So last week we sadly pulled the nest out which was a shame.  I did manage to get a photo of the babies peeping out of the nest, so we are going to print that and hang it near where the nest was to remind us of our little visitors.  As you can imagine I had to nip in and take a pic really quickly before the babies ducked down out of sight, so it wasn't the best photo, but Ben kindly did a bit of work in photoshop or something to take away the glare form the stone and make everything a bit clearer so it should be fine.  Also in the above phot you can see we have put one small piece of plasterboard up on the lounge ceiling.  This is because a smoke detector has to be wired in that corner as there's a bedroom next to it so it was easier to put the plasterboard up before the electrician came.


And here's our chandalier in the end bedroom (ex-padded cell)!
This also has clear glass enclosed shades which are safely
packed away.  We're really quite pleased with how it looks
hanging from the new beam.  We bought this light fixture what
seems like years ago, so it is really exciting to finally see it
in place.  Makes my fingers itch to get decorating!



And here's the batloft and that wall I spent two days
pointing and smoothing off.  We quite fancy painting this
wall quite a dark colour and making this bit into a cosy squashy
den eventually.

So, with the electrician's visit out of the way, that's another deadline met and past.  Our next major deadline is Building Control sign-off which we have to have within three months.  Since moving here we have had self-build site insurance which covers equipment hire, contractors on site and quite a lot of public liability and is, therefore, quite expensive.  As of next week we have more traditional buildings insurance.  I assume that you usually have to have your Building Regulations sign off certificate for normal insurance, but this company will cover you so long as you get signed off within three months.  So, that's our next aim.  For that we need the electrician's certificate which he is now doing, that energy rating certificate I told you about which is in hand, a stench pipe which we've almost done (just need to get a couple of pieces of cast iron downpipe to finish that) and, of course, some stairs.  That will no doubt please a lot of people no end - it seems to be the thing that bugs the most people, except us!  Mum will definitely be excited when the stairs are in because she will be able to see our upstairs for the first time (dodgy knees don't lend themselves to climbing ladders really) and lots of other people seem really concerned that we don't have stairs.  As I said, it doesn't bother us really - we're quite used to our ladder.  Once they're done, the building inspector will have to come round and check all sorts of things - oohh it'll be like taking an exam!

Non-building things we've done include starting to thin out some trees across the path which make that corner quite dark and damp and spoil the view.  Bill and his new lady friend came round for dinner - she seemed very nice and we had a really good evening.  We were a bit concerned that Maggie may have popped round as we know she is really curious to find out what the new lady is like - now that could have got awkward,  but we got away with it!  We just got quizzed about her the next time we saw Maggie, but told her in no uncertain terms we weren't going to discuss it.  It's quite difficult trying to juggle staying friends with both of them!  We've also had the woodburner flue swept, and not before time apparently.  The other thing we need for Building Control is the commissioning certificate for the woodburner which the plumber was supposed to sort out but hadn't.  So the chap came today to do his smoke and draw test.  When he lit the bit of newspaper the smoke just billowed out, filled the room and set all the smoke detectors off!  That's not supposed to happen apparently.  So he checked the flue and pulled out loads of tarrey clinker and then swept out a tonne of soot!  Oops.  Apparently having the backboiler means the tar builds up more than normal (the water cools things and that's when tar forms) and so we should sweep the flue twice a year to include the middle of winter, but nobody told us that.  It is, apparently in the maintenance manual which comes with the woodburner . . . . we don't have one!  Once he'd swept the flue though it performed beautifully and the certificate will be in the post.  I was at work while this happened and when I got home I chucked a log on to up the temperaature to cook the potatoes in the oven and the temperature shot up past the top of the scale . . . so, it's made a difference.  Bill came round for a chat just as we were about to have tea, so by the time we ate the potatoes were very, very crispy - they actually didn't have much potato left in the middle!

Oh, I still have a job after next week . . . . until 28 April!  It's really quite unbelievable, but apparently they don't have next year's budget yet.  One of my temporary colleagues (there are three of us) resigned today which has them on their toes a bit! 

Isn't it nice now the evenings are lighter?  All the birds are in full voice and very busy doing what they do.  We were woken this morning by pigeons doing an awful lot of flappy stuff in the trees - guess there'll be baby pigeons around before too long!  We usually lie in bed in the morning listening to the greater spotted woodpeckers hammering away in a nearby tree and this morning a green woodpecker was cackling away close by.  Bob has heard the first chiff chaff of the season and the nuthatches have, once again, been showing interest in the old woodpecker hole in the dead beech tree.  Everyone's busy, busy, busy.

Tee hee - we've been playing house

Yep, we've been playing house for the last couple of days.  When we got up yesterday, it was absolutely tiddling down, chilly and dark so we thought it'd be a good day to give the Ironheart woodburner its second firing.  This time we loaded it up a bit more and got it burning really well . . . . . as we did, the sun came out!  So, we had the woodburner and the solar panels heating the water at the same time.  We did think the solar might not do much if the water in the tank was hotter, but it seems that they do.  The temperature reading on the roof got hotter than in the past, so it was still sending hot to the tank.  We can only assume that the heat doesn't get pulled into the tank as quickly which allows it to heat up more on the roof???  We also got the oven up to moderate.  There isn't a temperature guage as such, but a dial with Cool, Mod, Hot and Very Hot readings.  The first time we lit the woodburner we were Cool, yesterday we were Mod . . . . we're thinking of renaming the next setting Rocker!  So, there we were with a tank of nice hot water and it seemed a shame to waste it so we tried out the en-suite shower.  Oh, what bliss!  You can stretch your arms out, bend down to pick the soap up, even walk around a bit if you want to and the shower head delivers a good drenching - luvverly.  It did seem a bit odd padding down the drive with towel and shampoo under arm - just like being on a caravan holiday.  Let me tell you, this morning's shower in the caravan really was a disappointment after that.  By the way, I didn't take any photos of this milestone you'll be glad to know!

Today was another miserable day and, as we were going to be working in the kitchen, we lit the woodburner again this afternoon - you really shouldn't have to do this in July should you?  This time I put the washing to dry in front of it.  It all looked very homely and it got nice and cosy in there. 

The homely end of the room . . . . . .


 

. . . . and the building site end of the room!

Bob has been working on the fireplace at the other end of the room.  This won't be a working fireplace, but desparately needs tidying up.  We have re-pointed the top half of the bricks and they look quite nice, but the bottom half was covered in concrete (which is rock hard and almost impossible to get off) and looks a real mess.  There was one horrible brick among the nice ones which Bob managed to get out (hence the black hole in the picture) and replace with a similar brick to the rest.  So, we are going to plaster and paint the bottom half.  Bob has made an oak mantle-piece from offcuts from the doors.  We then need to find some nicer tiles for the sides and something to make-good the bottom half of the back, black the ironwork and , dah dah - it should look completely different.  It's not so obvious from this photo, but the chimney breast really leans over to the right and it completely throws your eye when you look at anything else next to it.  When we were putting the centre post in the kitchen we kept standing back to look at it and being convinced it wasn't upright, despite what the spirit level said.  Today, when Bob put the oak shelf in place it looked really wonky, but it wasn't.  I think we'll have to look out for a nice spirit level - you know, the old rosewood and brass type, just a little one - to put on the mantlepiece as an ornament so that when people say 'Surely that's not level!'  they can check for themselves!

While Bob was doing that, I did some more tiling - well, it's a while since I've done any you know!  So, I had to do some more carefully planned randomness with the colours.  Phil and Ann came round for a chat when I was in the middle of it and Ann pointed out a dark patch where there weren't any cream tiles darn it!  We all decided you wouldn't really notice later on.  When they'd gone though I thought, 'Yes, I will notice now' and so I did a bit of rearranging.  Good job the adhesive hadn't set, eh?

While we had the oven nice and hot, it seemed a waste not to use it and so we cooked our first ever meal on the woodburner.  Homemade chicken pie from the freezer, baby baked potatoes, carrots and brocolli.  I hadn't a clue how the oven settings relate to conventional settings - we had it just into Hot and I think it could have done with being a tad hotter, so that was probably Gas Mk 4 or 5.  As with the padding down the drive for a shower, it was a bit bizarre to trek back up to the caravan with a pan of veg, a tray of pie and potato and two warmed plates.  It was so nice and toasty in the house, it was a wrench to go back up to the caravan which hadn't even had the benefit of the oven being on to cook tea to warm it up.  Bob also had a shower in the house.  So, for free today we have dried the washing, been warm while we work, cooked tea and showered - not bad, eh?



First beer in the house by the fire - a taste of things to come!



It's what we've been waiting for . . . . .

. . . . so, how's this for running water?

What an exciting moment.  This is, as far as we can make out, the first time there has been running hot water in this house.  It was last lived in in 1977 and we could only find evidence of the one cold tap in the scullery.  The range we took out had a water compartment and you would have to scoop hot water out of it to use.  The loo was up at the top of the garden in a brick privvy - just a platform over a bucket.  The bucket was still in there and, yes, I have scrubbed it and kept it!  Not to use for its original purpose I hasten to add!  It is a little hard to believe - 1977 isn't that long ago (I was still at school so, obviously, it's not that long ago!).  I think us townies had a soft life - we were impressed when someone got a remote control for their telly at that time, not when they got an inside loo!

I know you can't see the steam rising, but Bob is actually
washing his hands with hot water here!  Amazing!!

The solar tubes look a little glaring here (sorry) they actually look quite dark.  It is strange, but when it was just the frame on the roof it looked like a bit of a monstrous carbuncle (to quote HRH Charlie), but now that the tubes are fitted it looks much better and even looks a little smaller.  I think it is because it now looks as though it has a purpose and an eco one at that.  So, all in all, we are quite happy with them.  Yesterday afternoon they managed to raise the temperature of the water in the heatstore by 10 degrees - that's 260 litres of water, so not bad.  There is a control unit in the lean-to (or plant room as the plumber calls it) and you can get it to display the temperature of the water at the bottom of the tank, top of the tank and on the roof.  It's a bit addictive (but I'm sure the novelty will wear off).  Good job it is too, because when I went in there this morning there was water all over the floor - turned out to be glycol actually from the pipe coming in from the solar panels where a joint is leaking.  Bob tried tightening it, but instead of a fast drip it turned into a spout and the pressure in the system (yep, we have a dial that tells us that too) dropped quite a bit.  What do you do?  What happens if all the glycol leaks out?  Will it all overheat/burn out?  WE DON'T KNOW!!!  HELP!!!!!!  And, the plumber's away until Wednesday!  Now, I don't like to disturb people during their time off, but we could make a very costly mistake here.  So, we switched the pump off and phoned the plumber, leaving a message explaining.  Luckily, he picked up the message and rang back, because switching off was the wrong thing to do - it could all overheat and do damage.  So, we switched it back on, managed to get the joint to just drip slowly and then wrapped plenty of PTFE tape around it to slow it down and it seems to be ticking along OK.  Then we discovered another small leak on one of the other pipes going into (or out of) the tank - also got that to a very slow drip.  Oh, and the stopcock joint under the utility sink has a bit of a drip too.  The plumber's coming back on Wednesday morning!

The other problem we had was with the immersion timer - no power going out of it to the immersion itself.  So, a phone call to the electrician to make sure we weren't missing anything stupid and he said he'd call round this afternoon.  Bless him - a Saturday afternoon too (I made some tiffin for him to apologise to his family for dragging him away).  Bob went and got another timer in case ours was faulty, and it was, so the new one was installed.  The electrician brought his wife with him for a look round and we had a nice leisurely cuppa sat on the beer bench in the sun with them before they went.

Now, I know for most of you a working washing machine is far from exciting, but this really is an historic moment for us and for this house.  Never before has a washing machine worked here.  There was a copper in the lean-to (plant room).  The copper tub had gone when we bought it, but the brickwork, fireplace and chimney were all there (once we'd cleared away the three feet of poronographic magazines and videos from the floor of the lean-to of course!).  For us this marks the end of two and a half years of launderetting - wooohooo!  So, we've done the initial wash where you're not supposed to put anything in so it can clean the muck out of the pipes - I did put the cloths and towels we use for cleaning up in the house in, well it'd be a waste to not put anything in.  Then we did a normal wash with clothes in.  All good so far.  Now I have put the towels in and set the delay timer so it should come on at 4am (Economy 7 electricity), so fingers crossed I've set that right.  Then we're all up-to-date with the washing.  Hee hee, this is a real novelty!

Oh, I forgot to take a photo of the woodburner plumbing last time, so here it is.  We haven't tried lighting this yet, so that's a test for another day.  Another oh, we did do another test today - simultaneous loo testing!  Bob downstairs and me upstairs - all went well you'll be pleased to know!

The baby wrens have arrived

Yes, we have babies!  We've seen the adults busy with worms and grubs in their beaks, so guessed that the eggs had hatched and when Bob looked this afternoon there were several bits of shell on the floor under the nest.  I tried to take a phot of the shells on my hand or next to my finger to give an idea of scale, but I'm not clever enough to hold eggs and hold the camera still the same time, so they were too blurry, anyway the eggs are smaller than my finger nail (you'd need a lot of them for an omelette!).  The chicks will be so tiny at the moment, it's hard to imagine.  We can't see them because the nest is quite deep with the entrance hole near the top.  If I remember rightly from last year, wren chicks are incredibly quiet, so I don't think we'll hear them for a while.  When they're a bit bigger they do cheap a bit when the parents come with food, but the rest of the time they are very good and sit quietly.  Not like woodpecker chicks who make a racket all day long which just gets a bit louder when the adults visit with food.  Talking of woodpeckers, both adult Greater Spotteds have been on the peanut feeders almost constantly for the last few days, so I think they have hungry mouths to feed.  They take the nuts to the telegraph pole across the lane and wedge them in a crack then peck at them to break them up before they take them to the babies.  I watched a blackbird collecting twigs for a nest this morning - as the twigs were very fine and he had a whole beakful, he looked as though he was wearing a big false moustache, quite funny.  I assume this will be a 2nd nest - it seems a bit late for the first brood.

We had a rootle through some of the stuff we have stored in one of the barns the other day.  We haven't looked at it all for two and a half years and we've forgotten what we've got which makes it all quite exciting.  Bob wanted to unwrap it all I think.  We didn't though.  We were looking for some cupboard doors to go on the cabinet under the basin in the en-suite as they did in the old house (we replaced them with birch ply doors before we moved!).  We found them and they are lovely - made from rippled sycamore with quite a bit of character in them.  When they are closed you can see a face which I used to call a devil's face, but looking at it now, it's quite cheery and smiling - must just be glad to be here I guess!

Bob has made the bit the basin will sit in so we can put the little square slate tiles on it and fix the sink in before the plumber comes to connect it all up.  The good thing about doing all this ourselves is that we can have the sink as high as we like (less bending to clean your teeth . . . . how old do we sound?!!).

You'll be pleased to hear, we don't need to plasterboard the whitewashed walls.  Colouring the whitewash wasn't as scary as we thought and we now have creamwashed walls - if anything they are a bit too pale!  Never satisfied, eh?  We also mixed some red ochre and yellow ochre to make a deeper colour for one wall in the en-suite.  It made a lovely rich terracota colour . . . . which has now dried to a pale apricot colour.  Well, that's OK - not what we intended, but fine.  You could get a bit addicted to this - it'd be quite interesting to see if you could get a darker colour.  I think you have to be careful as too much of the pigment can spoil the way the limewash dries and it'd just be flaky.

Bob has carried on with the kitchen floor - it's a bit back-breaking, so has to be done in shorter sessions.  It's coming on well though and the bit for the woodburner is done which is the most important part as we need to get that delivered so the plumber can connect the backboiler. 

We had a mega-shopping spree earlier in the week  . . . . . although we only came home with a tub of PVA glue!  We ordered the tiles for the bathrooms, the sink for the utility, all the sockets and switches, heat and smoke detectors, extractor fans, bathroom and hall lights, showers (electric for downstairs and mains for upstairs) and a water softener!  We should be able to collect some of it tomorrow and the rest next week  . . . . . and then pay for it all - gulp!  The floorboards haven't arrived yet.  It was pouring down on Saturday, so they didn't deliver which is fine as we don't want them spoiled by getting wet.  We'll have to arrange another time, but trying to find a dry time is proving a little difficult - we had a huge thunderstorm on Monday.

Tomorrow morning we have the electric company coming to change the meter to Economy 7 so we'll have to find some jobs to do that aren't reliant on electricity.  Perhaps I'll do some more painting - I'm trying to do all the bits that'll be awkward to do once the electrician has been and fitted lights and so on.

Fire! Fire!!

Yes, we've had a fire . . . luckily no major damage and no-one was hurt!  Actually, it was a well controlled fire in our new woodburner!   Now, how's that for excitement?  We just got fed up with it being cold - too cold for vrnish, silicone, mortar and too cold for fingers to work properly for fiddly oak joints, etc - so we (well me really) decided we should go and collect the small woodburner we bought in the Autumn and temporarily install it in the kitchen fireplace as we have already installed the flue in there (we did that about a hundred years ago when the builder re-built the chimney).  The other, bigger woodburner has a backboiler so needs plumbing in before you can use it and we'd have to lay the quarry tiles on the floor before it could go in.  This one was a quick job to do, just a connector piece (£75!!!!) and a bit of fire cement and we were ready to go.  I have to say it didn't light too easily, it was really windy which I don't think helped but we did get it going eventually.  Just makes you wonder when the last time smoke went up that chimney (I think your can just see smoke in the picture).  When I cleared the bread oven out a while ago, I found some old newspaper dated just before the 2nd world war - sad really, it was full of optimism about peaceful settlements, etc.  Also in there were some little logs - obviously there to dry out.  Well, they'd certainly done that, most of them crumbled to nothing when I moved them, but a few stayed together so I kept them to put on our first fire, and that's what we did . . . soppy really, but it is nice to have a connection to the house's past. 

We didn't get much done on Monday afternoon for looking at the fire and then Roy and Sophie popped in having seen smoke coming from the chimney on their walk.  No sooner had they gone than there was a knock at the door (!!!! still a novelty !!!) and it was the plumber calling on the off-chance that we'd be here.  While he was here Phil and Ann (neighbours who look after our chickens when we're away and fellow smallholder quiz team members) called in curious to see where the smoke was coming from.  By the time everyone had gone, it was past 5pm, so hardly worth starting anything!

Having said that, the plumber did some work - he sorted out the pipework for the outside tap and for the radiator upstairs.  We also discussed the Building Inspector's comments about the pipes on the cold side of the insulation.  He thought it was an overreaction and it had never been queried before and he was sure they would never freeze.  However, the seed of doubt had been sown and it is certainly easier to change now than later (and Bob would worry about it).  So we spent yesterday ripping out the lovely silver insulation upstairs followed by £200- £300 worth of plumbers work ready for him to reconnect it all following a different route next week.  It is fair to say that I was well and truly piddled off yesterday!  It took me ages to fit insulation around all these blessed pipes and now, because it's too expensive to just throw away and cut nice new square bits, I had to rip it out and then fit more insulation in the bits where the pipes had been!  Anyway, I've cooled off now and Bob has cut bits out of the studwork to make an easy route for the pipes between the plasterboard and the insulation, so I guess it's a good job done.

Today we hung the kitchen door, it hasn't got the lock or knobs yet, but we can close it to keep the heat in from the fire!  One of the reasons it hasn't got knobs, etc yet is that we did a couple of really silly things when we were doing the other one.  They have a threaded bar that goes through the door and the knobs screw onto and then little grub screws you tighten so the knob doesn't come off when you pull.  We put the bar in place though the lock and screwed the knobs on each side to see how long it needed to be, unscrewed them and cut the bar to length.  Didn't realise that the grub screws were done up and had stopped the bar going all the way in - derrr!  So that bar was no good now!  I then unscrewed one of the grub screws . . . . all the way dropping it in a pile of rubble and dust - gone forever.  Oh, it wasn't a good day.  We tried all over to get replacements with no luck and so eventually I had to confess to the company we'd bought them from and they were brilliant and put replacements in the post which arrived this afternoon.  'From The Anvil' is the company (where we've got all the window and door furniture) and they are brilliant - highly recommended!

I need to tell you about the way we spent Sunday sometime - neighbourhood disputes, caravans and narrow lanes and the police.  No time now as tea is ready, but I will do soon.