Our new garden

Thank you Nanna Rose and Chiefy-pops for coming down last weekend and helping us dig over, prepare and plant our garden. We have been putting this off since the end of last year. Apart from having to water it ever night, it has been great using the garden everyday.

Here are just a few photos of Tom enjoying the garden last night.

Tom's new playroom

In true toddler style, more space was needed.  So, "we" built Tom a new playroom.  With some small help from the builders.  Tom wanted to show willing and got involved and used his extensive experience as forman.  He was always safe wearing his hard hard and kept his tools in good order.

Once the room was ready, he allowed his Mum in to see how he had set up his train set.

Some perspective on the situation.

The new windowsill needed some accessories and with his new skills of interior design he decided to add multicoloured plastic objects.

His next building project is a patio and decking.  Then Tom the builder will become Tom the BBQ chef.

Snowed-in in London

We woke up this morning to the heaviest snow in 18 years ! Here are just a couple of photos from my phone at 7 am this morning.

This is the view from my front door.

This is the view down my road.

I just took this picture at 8.15 am . This is the view from the back of the lounge. I think the building work will stop today and that conservatory will have to wait !

Our new garden

We have finally got round to sorting out our garden so Baby Tom will have somewhere to run around next summer. Here it in 3 stages:

1) When we first moved in
2) As a big brown mess
3) How the new turf is looking after a good few days of sunshine, showers and sprinkler sessions!

Our House is finally finished

I am pleased to say, that our house is finally finished.

At the weekend we had the parquet floor finished and the fireplace finished. This means that every room is now finished, just in time for BabyLand to turn up. Only 8 days to go til the due date!!!!

Bathroom is still being built !

We are now 6 days into the 10? day project.

• To date they have stripped all the wall, bonded and skimmed them.
• Done the electrics
• Installed a new floorr
• Installed the bath with taps and plumbing
• Built the stud wall and put the shower in place
• Installed the heated towel rail
• Installed the sink and taps

To do.

• Finish the shower
• Install the shower screen
• Tile part of the room
• Fit the lighting and fixtures.

Hopefully finished by this Friday?

Chances??

the final room has been started !!!

The final room in our house to be renovated has started. Monday the 23rd the guys pulled out the horrible gold previous suite! And here are the pictures at the beginning of day two! Lovely, isn't it. The builder asked if it was a DIY job!

More house photos

We are nearly finished. Here are a few more photos.




The bay window blinds have been ordered and are being installed on the 15th of June.

The bathroom suite turns up with week. On the same day as our new furniture.

Then only to fit the bathroom, carpet on the stairs and bedroom and the hearth.

Then nothing to do for years to come !

House Stuff - the Parquet Floor restoration

Despite the other bits and pieces still not 100% we moved on to getting the parquet floor done.

We forgot to get a presnap on the camera phone but here are some. If anyone has been to the house they may remember the dirty looking wood floor that we all thought may come back to life - well it did. Underneath all of the dirt was a red pine floor.

We had two guys come and do the work (can give you their names if you need help), they did it on Saturday and Sunday and between there racked up over 42 hours of hand sanding!

What do you think?

At this stage, they had sanded the whole floor and were applying the 1st coat.

This is it while drying

Claire was applying the final touches



This post wasnt about the kitchen, but here is a view from.
Which is nearly finished aswell.

The kitchen. And not too much junk in the garden!

I think Claire is relived!

The to-do list is getting shorter.

1. Finish the kitchen
2. Hearth and fireplace
3. A little piece of parquet to be dug out and replaced
4. The Bathroom - rebuild and fit
   
5. The stairs, hall and bedroom carpets
6. The Garden.

Any volunteers??

House - will phase 2b and 3 be finished before the bank holiday?

It is now the end of the 8th week of a 4 week project.

What are the odds of our guy finishing, clearing up and giving us the weekend in our own house as promised?

More house pictures

There is some progress. If you look back down the page at the post which shows the kitchen just after being plastered. The kitchen is nearly ready now.

It has all been plastered, new room, new lighting and now a NEW gas pipe !! After they installed the kitchen they found that there was a gas leek and had to take out the kitchen and lay a whole pipe through the trench they carved out of the floor!. So at least we now have a safe new gas connection.

This put the completion date back a few days ! But here are the photos todate.

View from the back door

The cooker

View from the internal door towards the garden.

Nearly there.

More house pictures

Here is the next edition. When they took down our old kitchen celing. they found a new mock tudor underneath !


The kitchen has been rebuilt. And as you can see under careful inspection is all new and flat.


We are living in a building site. Here is the future home of the hi-fi !

The old 'home made' brick fire place has been dug out and a new one created. Here is the half way point.


And here is it once it had the finishing plaster. It looks great now it is painted. More photos to come.

This is Claire happy to be leaving. We moved out for a couple of weeks.

More house pictures

I have a couple more pictures from last night.

This is the kitchen ceiling. They took down a dodgy pasterboard ceiling and found another. A mock Tudor delight! But this is also not level and needs to be adjusted with a large hammer!



Here are two photos to show the kitchen that we are having to use. I am so looking forward to having our house back. Living in one room upstairs is getting a bit like torture. Plus last night we had NO heating or hot water. It was so cold !

The renovations continue

Here are some more pictures of the renovation project.

This one is the removal of the 'shrine'. We were very happy to get home last night and see this out. It is a whole. It is scary to see the back of the original flume!.

The good news is that you can see the first coat on our new flat ceiling.

Looking the other way in the lounge we are looking at the lovely brick fire place. As of yesterday they had removed the lintel and made a mess !


More pictures to come.......

Phase 2b of the home renovation project

Here are just two photos I quickly took with my mobile this morning.


This is the back of our lounge. You can see the

• Grey on the walls - the bonding to fill the wholes made by the sparky.
• The reddish roof - this is the drying finishing plaster - its all flat now.
  

This is the small bedroom upstairs. The walls are stripped back, there is a new ceiling.


At the present time we are having the wood and radiators stripped back and the house is in a right mess. So we are expecting 2 to 3 more weeks before this is all done.

Then.

The whole kitchen.
All floors.
The bathroom.

Then we can enjoy our home !

what you find in your garden when you buy a new house!

After culling the garden in our new home. We found that we were left a pet !

So, if you go to the bottom of the garden you will see our new addition to the family.

Any suggestions for a name?

House stuff part 2 - electrics

The saga continues. This is so far a smooth purchase and yet it has taken ages.

We received our home buyer survery back and it had some worrying things. In short we commissioned a NICIC electical engineer to do a complete electrical survey. This was a wise thing to do. There doesnt seem to be any earthing of any kind and the outside lighting share a ring main with the cooker with a cable that would melt before the fuse would blow ! So, we would need to get this done as soon as possible.

The survey was used to negoitate a revised price. As the work has been made a condition of our mortgage. So, if you need a survey check out the official UK organisation for Sparkys !

Plus an official survey can be used as a price reducer !

NICEIC - official site >>

why is buying a new house so slow

The process of buying a house - well according to me !

• You get your house valued
• You start internet searches
• You refine your search as you cant afford the areas you want
• You contact estate agents and hand your intimate details over and over again to arrange viewings
• You make many trips and then eventually the agents start to show you houses that match your brief. (Why do they always show you properties just a bit more expensive than you can afford ! )
• You compromise on your ideals ! Garden, Space, Street, Facilities to meet your budget.
• You start using words like 'its got potential!'
• You do your sums, and work out if you can actually afford it!
• Get a mortagage extension, or a new mortgage - this is worth a rant on its own at some point.
• PUT an offer in - MILESTONE
• You wait nervously to see if it is accepted

At this stage your wallet is preparing to start hemeraging cash !

• You contact the estate agent who valued your property at the highest price
• You put your own house on the market and WAIT !
• At this stage you instruct a solicitor
• You move forward with the mortgage
• You spend time on the phone with your solictor and keep writing cheques
• You get your home buyers survey back and it reads like a horror film
• While someone is doing this to you !
• You plan all the new things to buy and line up about 6 years worth of future work
• You tell all your friends that you are going to be moving while it is still no guaranteed

This is as far as I have got as of today.

I am expecting

• To go through many iterations of paperwork with the solictor, laughing at funny covenaces from 1936 about common ground for the Duke of somewhere can graze their sheep.
• To have a target date set
• To exchange contracts
• To complete
• To move in
• To start to furnish the house

Its now 3-5 months later on. You have just moved in and then the conversation starts about where to move to next !

In summary
So, you are paying a lot of money. Stamp duty - how ridiculous is that?! Yet you cant get yourself too involved in the house otherwise rational thought goes out of the window. You have many people working for you - but you cant tell them to hurry up. Your financial and spirtual well being is in the hands of completely strangers in a call centre. Why do we do it??