Oh my goodness!

It won’t be long now! Our houses are having the heating put in now. It is so exciting.

We had a little look around the site Saturday afternoon. The insulation on the floor is down in both houses. Sabrina and Keirans also has the pipe work down, on the floor, for the heating systems.

We had to be ultra careful not to squash the pipe work while walking around. The floor should be screeded soon to cover the pipe work. We are so looking forward to a nice toasty house and will not miss our radiators at all. We will be able to place the furniture anywhere.

 What do most people use their radiators for anyway? Apart from heating the house they become a dumping ground for all people’s pants and socks. There is nothing worse than popping into a friend’s house for a cup of tea and watching them frantically take their string underwear off the radiator, while the kettle boils.


The coving is almost finished and an undercoat of paint is on most walls. Just kitchens and bathrooms to fit and we can move in.

 Nicola has packed her first box of Stargate DVD’s in the hope that she doesn’t have to watch that rubbish for at least 1 month or more. It will also be the last box we unpack!


Next thing on the packing list Stephens Spock ears. (He doesn’t really have any of those but it is a standing joke that he is sci-fi obsessed)

Plastered!

When things inside the house start to happen everything moves forward at an alarming rates.



Bedroom




I now have a few more pictures of upstairs as we have staircases so Nicola can get up there and take photos. Normally she would be crying at the top of a ladder and watching the other people around her roll around laughing at her pathetic behaviour.








The houses are really coming on with plastering on the walls and even details like switches and coving.

Things are so close now it seems like only a little while ago this place was a massive overgrown garden full of brambles and rubble.

Shopping is all Okely Dokey!

It is half term hooray for all the teachers! Today the ladies hit the town shopping however not the bags and shoes type of shopping.

As things have been progressing quite rapidly the windows are in and the plastering has begun. The plastering at Sabrina and Keirans is almost finished. The next big job is the under floor heating system.


So it was time to start thinking about fixtures and fittings. Have you ever looked around your home and really wondered who choose all the things in your house? Somebody did, maybe it was you, maybe a previous owner, maybe the building firm. Somebody chose the type of skirting boards you have, the doors, the door handles, the kitchen style, the kitchen door knobs. How many different types of tile do you have in your home? Think about the tiles on the kitchen walls, kitchen floor, bathroom walls, bathroom floor, think about your en-suite and your down stairs toilet.

We now have so many decisions to make and such a short space of time to think about it all. We have already chosen the Burford Cream kitchens from Howdens, which it itself comes in contemporary and traditional another choice we had to make. So we needed to choose tiles for the kitchen to match.

We have been too many tile shops today to choose from thousands of tiles for the kitchens and bathrooms. We really liked the selection and assistance we got in County Tile Warehouse Andover. They also stock some really pretty and sparkly tiles. This is where Nicola got some of her tiles for her last bathroom project. We have been to lots of other shops today including independent shops, Wickes and Homebase.

It was a real giggle especially the little time we spend in one shop where the guy showed us about 20 shades of beige tiles and after us saying no to each sample he showed us he replied with ‘Okely dokely.’ We expressed our interest in white tiles and were amazed to find out from ‘Ned Flanders’ that there are 150 different shades of white tiles. At 4.30 pm after a long day looking I’m not sure if we were laughing or crying at Ned, the poor man. I suppose all I can say is that he knew a lot about tiles, for example a 3° difference in temperature in firing can result in a totally different shade of white tile. I think we are a lot clearer now on what we require.

Our last shop was Wickes we were in need of rest and recuperation so Nicola had a shower while Sabrina used the facilities!

 



Update

So things are coming along nicely.



Sabrina and Kierans house is beginning to be plastered and Nicola and Stephens is slightly behind that as the electrics 1st fix went into Sabrina and Kierans house first.

Our windows and back doors have arrived and should be fitted soon. The sash UPVC windows are gorgeous; we all love a good period feature in a house. Although having UPVC windows might not be considered a feature to some people, I can assure you that our house will be toasty and warm; while the rest of the street with the wooden original Edwardian and Victorian windows will be shelling out a fortune in heating.

We have the shopping bug and have been buying new furniture and things for the house. Sabrina wants a new toaster and kettle but I think she should wait till she gets married then she will have at least 10 of each.


Everybody seems very interested in the build Nicola and Stephen dropped into to the bank to sort out the mortgage on our current house and mentioned that we were moving to a new property. The lady behind the counter knew all about our build as she walks past it every day on the way to work. So she is desperate to be nosy and asked if she could pop in for a cup of tea, to which we responded 'Yeah of course just bring a cake when we move in.'

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Reduce, Reuse, Recyle

We can now walk round our houses as stud walls are in and the property is currently being wired up with all the wonderful new gadgets. The amount of cabling is truly astonishing! Being modern and up to date house there will be lots and lots of sockets to plug things in. It seems strange all the electronics we need for modern day life; TV, internet and millions of gadgets to keep us going. I mean who can live without their mobile and the internet?

We have tried really hard to keep the houses up there with the eco credentials; we all need to our bit to save the planet. We aim to reduce our carbon footprints and more importantly bills by the amount of insulation in the houses. The under floor heating is super efficient to so we can still remain toasty warm.
 

 
 
 
 When building and moving home we always generate a lot of waste. I am not looking forward to clearing out the loft in my current house goodness know what is up there! Luckily we know of a fabulous skip company East Recycling and Materials who can recycle lots of the building waste and put it into other building projects. Being a relatively new company they are offering lots of discounts to. Need a skip call them on 01264 710689 or 07747865537 or e-mail them.

Up on the roof

Why did the roofer go to the doctor?



Because he had a bad case of SHINGLES...



At the present time Keiran has been up on the roof quite a lot. The roofing is coming along with the felt and battoning done the tiles are about to be put on to make it water tight. It looks amazing!



Kieran had his brother on site to help him carry the roof tiles up the ladder and stack them on the roof. Kieran who is a trained roofer has saved us lots of money, so we wanted to pay him back by letting him marry Sabrina; I think that is a fair deal. Good job Kieran has also been in the army as he can practice his marching skills again in August all the way down the aisle, to get wed.

The other lads have been plaster boarding the ceilings in the upstairs bedrooms and are about to get the stud walls under way.

We have also had to make a lot of decisions lately. We had a meeting a few weeks ago with our Uncle Robin (the electrician) to decide about how many electrical plug sockets, tv aerial sockets, phone sockets, light switches, and lighting fixtures were needed for the house. I never realised there were so many types of socket out there. This was also the perfect opportunity to work out where those sockets and lights should go a very important decision. Is there a socket in your house you never use? Do you only have one double socket behind your television? Why do people do that? Everybody knows that behind the television you need to plug in the tv, dvd player, sky box and games console, we will be able to do this in our new places.

Catalogues full of door options



A really pretty door



Sabrina has been busy picking windows and doors. She told us she would like us to have red doors at first I wasn’t so sure but after seeing the brochure she does have taste and they do actually look quite something on the houses in the brochure.



Roof, roof, roof!

With Christmas fast approaching, I have to say I am happy with my present. This year we got a roof on our new house. I am very excited that it may soon be wrapped in batons, felt and tiles.

The lads on site have been working hard. Wonder if Mark used Roofers Ready Reckoner, a book he used to read when we were children full of charts and diagrams and maths. I wonder if he knows the old edition of this book from 1987 now sells on Amazon for over £100. He will do once he has read this.

Daddy Mark has been servicing the nail guns to ensure they are in full working order.

We are still so excited about the build and cannot wait for what 2011 will bring, hopefully two new family homes. We are also going to be spending some quality time enjoying the festivities and seeing our family. Just have to ensure that Daddy Mark and Keiran don’t eat to many mince pies, as we would hate them to put too much strain on the scaffold.

Our windows