week 36: (29/11/2015) flooring, hot water second fix, stairs start, mvhr goes in...

The pressure is on. We are keen to move in by Christmas - which effectively means December 19th which give us about 3 weeks to get into the house so its a big week. Focus is on the flooring to allow the kitchen to be fitted as well as the second fix plumbing and remainder of the electrics. Oh and there are still no stairs!

Downstairs the flooring is fastened to the battens with hidden nails. Much quicker than gluing like we did upstairs and you get to use a huge rubber mallet!

Really pleased with how the finished boards are looking when they go down.

 The boards are notched into the bottom of the oak posts the joints are not visible but there is still room for some expansion. Whilst notionally we are leaving a small expansion space we expect the flooring to shrink somewhat and then to stay fairly consistent so we are working to that theory.

Em's parents have been great over the weekend helping out to keep the push going. Here cleaning up before the flooring gets laid to allow the hot water tank to be installed and the second fix plumbing.

 Em, looking very pregnant, and Thea surveying the downstairs flooring. The push really for Christmas is to have a couple of weeks to let the dust settle before the new arrival.

The hot water tank finally in place! 300ltr heated by three immersions and on timer switches to allow control and use of economy 7.

Chris from Smokeless Energy has been back and plumbed it in.

And JD wired it up and its ready to go!

Chris has also been doing second fix bathrooms so we have our first sanitary ware in place. We went for Duravit sanitary ware, Geberit and Hans Grohe taps, shower etc and Bette steel baths. All the bits look and feel really nice so we are very pleased with our choices and they look good against the limestone. All sourced from Devon Bathrooms on a supply only deal where they matched best internet prices and threw in free delivery.

JD has also been back fitting downstairs lights.

The kitchen also arrived this week. The delivery guys were amazingly careful and orchestrated. They came in an enormous lorry with a separate transit to ferry the stuff to the door.   

Then as if that was enough the stairs that we had heard about for so many months finally arrived, well partially. Mark seen below starting to fit a series of bits. Over the next few weeks they did rather come and go though appearing to get close to usable only to be dismantled the following day.

Ash has also been in action again. This time picking up the mess that was the terrace. Jonathan has decided to take the work on from Simon Tozer and take responsibility for finishing. The terrace has been the subject of considerable problems.

 Outside the canopy is complete and is looking really nice.