Progress

Wow! That is what I call progress.

 In less than one day, Mick has built this beautiful piece of furniture from my drawings below.

Cupboards galore!

It's the final push, we are at the last hurdle now to finish this refurbishment before Christmas (ahm). We can dream.

We have two carpenters working flat out building cupboards for the library and cupboards for the master bedroom. They both come highly recommended one by a friend and the other by the builder who thinks his man is the god of all carpenters! Let's see - it's an exciting challenge and one I am going to relish deciding. I hope it's going to be a tough one.

Mick working on the library cupboard and bookshelf.

 Nick is working on the bedroom cupboard - where is he? Oh yes, parking ticket it's 10.30.

Underfloor Insulation

We have applied insulation to the ceiling of our restricted height cellar by using flexible multi layer thermo-reflective insulation sheets with a very low U value of 0.19 W/m2 K. Cutting the sheet into strips and stapling these between the joists with a strong staple gun means no loss of headroom in the cellar and hopefully less heat escaping from the ground floor rooms above. We'll have to wait to see how effective it is when winter really bites!

Ensuite Bathroom

The ensuite bathroom is now almost finished and looks good.  Continuing my theme of needing access, especially where water is concerned, Tim has created an ingenious solution for the recessed flush reservoir in this room.  I was worried that this would be inaccessible once tiled over and that we would be stuck in the event of a flush problem.  However, here two tiles are held to the wall, in line with the other tiles, by four magnets and can be easily removed if there is a problem, as demonstrated (right).
Great solution!

Leaks and Access to Leaking Things

Bit of a nightmare to see water appearing through the kitchen ceiling this morning, which we quickly traced to the bathroom and apparently the relatively newly fitted loo, possibly damaged by rubble & grit, though more investigation is required.  With that loo semi boxed in, the source of this leak is already quite difficult to access but here I am trying!  Looks like a murder scene?  It might be when the builder gets round here!  Note to self and all renovators: Remember to make things as accessible as possible!

Danger Money?

Tim earns his danger money and leads from the front as he tries to work out why the gutter leaks.  Rather him than me!  He concludes that whoever put the gutter in thought water was designed to run uphill ... oh dear.  Sisyphus strikes again!