Day 239 – Painting!

At last the painting has started!

I went to the house today to chat with Florence about the stairs and to my surprise the first coat of paint had already been applied to all the rooms upstairs. This is one of the benefits of spray painting, it’s so fast. It also leaves and nice even finish. The painter sanded all the walls first to ensure the finish was nice and smooth. It looked like a winter wonderland!

Most of it was already dry! The whole job will most likely be done by the end of the week.

I also had to call David, our heating installer, to figure out how to turn down the heating. The last two mornings the house was 27 and 25 degree’s and the builders are finding it way too hot. It’s been on a floor drying programme since it was turned on about two weeks ago, but now that the floor is dry we just don’t need it on 24/7. Hopefully now the temperature will settle to about 18 or 19 degrees. I’m told once the thermostats go in, the heat pump will pretty much regulate the temperature on its own, but we’re going to have to learn how to use the system. If its not set correctly, it will eat electricity, and that defeats the purpose of geothermal.

Here are a few pictures of the painting so far!

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Day 142 – 147 Photo update!

Finally, I got my camera back and can now update you on our progress so far. We are in the process now of doing the plaster boarding upstairs and plastering downstairs. It is slow going because upstairs there are so many angles that cutting all the plasterboard to the correct size and shape is quite a challenge.

Downstairs the plastering is taking time because the plasterers are trying to finish another outdoor job at another site and so only visit our site when its raining. So that is also taking some time!

Rob and I are wracking our brains trying to figure out what type of flooring to put down, its such a big part of the house but we only have a small budget for it! Suggestions are welcome! It would be our hope to put down bamboo.. its as hard as rock and has a lovely warm feeling to it! We’ll have to wait and see!

So here are some photos!!

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Quick Update – November

Hi Folks,

Just a quick update! I don’t have my camera at the moment as its been whisked off to Israel for a while, so no new photos. However LOTS is happening on site at the moment. The pictures will have to come later.

So after all the insulation was put in, the builders put the first layer of plaster on the house. That you will have seen in the last post. Now the whole house has had its final coat of plaster, which has the final colour included, so the outside of the house is almost in its completed state. It’s lovely!!! The final few slates will be finished tomorrow!

Inside, a vapour barrier has been installed on the external walls, and over that the plaster board. As of this afternoon, almost all of downstairs had been plaster boarded. And it is a huge change. No longer can we see from one side of the house to the other. For some reason, now that the plaster board is in, the windows really stand out. The house is starting to look like a real house now, and we get a much better feel for the spaces within and how we’ll mould ourselves into them. It’s very exciting!

It’s also been sunny on site the last few days which has been a lovely change from the dark, damp days we had been having.

The plumbing is almost done, and next week the plastering will start inside… then I think its the underfloor heating..

We are nearing the end now, hard to believe in such a short space of time!  🙂

 

Day 114 – 118

It feels like its been a slow few weeks! The weather has been miserable and so the outside of the house hasn’t been completed. We’ve been waiting for the first coat of plaster to dry so the final, pre-coloured plaster can be applied. I hope the ‘hot pink’ colour we’ve chosen for the house will look good.

Meanwhile inside the house the ceilings were insulated with sound insulation and plaster board was applied. It looks great and gives the place a new, brighter and bigger feel. Over the next few days the walls will be covered in plaster board and for the first time we’ll have proper rooms. No more looking from one end of the house to the other!!

It would be lovely to have a few nice sunny days though.

We have finally had to start drawing down on the mortgage which will increase the pressure to get the house completed. It seems like the end is just around the corner, yet at the same time, it feels like its very far away!

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