Peering into the Void

Well, all went extremely well over Christmas - the house delivered a most excellent Christmas dinner and proved comfortable for our first guests, Alan's parents Pat and Judy.

If you lie down in the front hall and look straight up, this is what you see.  The front door is the dark thing on the right with a bit of window either side - top and bottom in this pic - and the upstairs front window to its left as you look at it.  You can see some tinsel draped over the baluster on the left and you can just make out the central horizontal line which is the roof apex.  Arty, eh!

On a more earthly plane, the advantage of having a heavy concrete staircase is that it is in many ways the same as a cave...guess what we have stored in ours!

If you look at the downstairs loo curtain you will see why I bought this particular material.
No, NOT the beach huts, don't be obtuse.
Immediately below is the snug seen from where the new sofa will be situated when it gets delivered next week.
Below right is the utility room where we have mounted the hat and shoe racks although the coat rack proper awaits the reopening of West Dean Sawmills after Christmas for a plank to mount the hooks on.  The coathangers are temporary.
And finally, the pantry.  It's a bit difficult to get far enough into any corner to take a pic of it all - I just about climbed into the fridge alongside the remains of the turkey to take this one!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

... etc
When we got the outdoor fairy lights out, they were sadly deceased and we didn't have enough time to go and buy more.   So the candle arch in the front door will have to suffice.

Oh - and mistletoe.  This village is overrun with the stuff, happily!

 Meanwhile, I expect you want to know what it looks like with furniture in, and this is the dining area yesterday.

Here is the living area, taken today - and the more observant will have spotted that the clock is doing the old twice-in-a-school-photo trick as we consider where it lives really.







And finally I want to share my usual tasteful Christmas cake decoration with you, to thank you for following our blog and to wish all our dear readers a very Happy Christmas and best wishes for a splendid New Year and entire 2016. 

The blog's job is of course not yet done, so... don't touch that dial...

Before / after

Saturday/Sunday/Monday have been ceaseless shuttling of our belongings from the cottage and stables into the house.  Mercy, how my shoulder muscles ache.  Anyway, it's done now.  Thanks to John for reminding us of the baseline.  This was before:

And this is after:

 I reckon we've survived it well - and no divorce papers have been served either (yet...)





This is what it looked like as we started to move in - bathroom and guest bedroom

and main living room

Saturday was ridiculously warm weather for moving house in December.  This gave us the excuse to collapse after lunch with a coffee and the bifold doors open enjoying the view.  Ignoring the wet mud in the foreground, that is.

By this evening it has cooled down enough that we have been unable to resist firing up the logburner which needs to be run low and slow for a bit to cure the paint finish.

We have now moved just about everything in (still using the washing machine up the road mind you!) and have the house pretty much in order with the exception of the office.  Done the main Christmas food-shop.  Stress levels are gradually reducing.
Oh yes, so, on Saturday, worried that everywhere would run out of nice Christmas trees, we went to our local Christmas Tree Lady who we've bought from for the last ?? nearly 20 years.  As we drove down the rutted track, we could see no trees tidily stacked up for viewing.  'We've sold 'em all' she said '- all that's left is the Norwegian Firs in the field'.  So we wandered round the field, picked the nicest one in exactly the right size, and it was cut down specially for us :)

Creak!!!

'Creak' is not the noise made by our staircase, which is solid as a solid thing.  It's the noise made by various bits of our bodies after moving in yesterday.  We got ourselves in ok for last night, today we've moved more stuff down and in from the stables and after lunch we'll be packing and moving the stuff in the office.  Oh, and the stuff parked in the roofspace... It's impressive how much stuff we got into a really small cottage - Cumulus is far from full, but it's also far far from empty!  And we really did throw an awful lot of things away when we moved down here.

Last night the house was splendid but all a bit empty and with the hard floors, also echoey.  As it's filling up today it's getting quieter.  This is set against the almost hermetic calm of the triple-glzed bifolds which make it very quiet indoors*.  Happily we still heard the birds singing this morning.  And I'd forgotten just how good the view was - can't post you pics as the camera battery is flat and the charger is in the office... - even if the foreground is currently wet clay with puddles and a mountain of topsoil.  It's still utterly glorious.
Pics later, now for 5 mins break then the assault on the office...

* apart from the two intermittent hooting noises.  One we think is the boiler resonating as it fires (for the avoidance of doubt, no, it shouldn't), and the other when it was windy last night and something sounded a little like an Oly 2B opening the airbrakes**.  I suspect something on the flue - Tim-the-Logburner is here in the morning and we'll get him to check it all out...
**for our non-gliding friends, this is a glider (my first glider!) with open-ended tubes in its construction that sings when you are landing.

Keys!

 All finished (apart from the things that aren't) - we move in tomorrow.

Cor!!

Not the noise the rooks make, that's 'Caw'.  This is 'Cor!!':

There's a snag...

...ging list.
You will recall (we certainly do!) that yesterday was Finish Date.  (And thank you Boris for calling to check how it was going.)  Well, it was fairly close to finished, if not absolutely so. Peter the Architect however warned us that there would be quite a lot of snagging to do and he was unsure when it would be possible for us to move in. 

I wasn't very happy.

However they did decide they could do the snagging, and this morning James the No2 Architect, Ray the Builder and Alan the Client spent a happy few hours going round and making a list, and Ray and James between them think it can be completed by COP Friday.  The plan is to complete the external works after we're in.

So

We move in on Saturday!!!! How very exciting!!

Pump it up

Today they did the air-tightness test which I was worried about, but apparently on the first run it was just outside the (exceedingly tight) limits set by the architect and with only a little bit of extra attention to gap-sealing it beat the spec.  Ray the builder was quietly pleased - he'd planned all day for tracking down and sealing leaks, and instead set the team to cleaning up and putting a last coat of sealant on the floor after lunch.  The shower screens arrived today and will be fitted on Monday, everything else seems to have been done inside - hanging rails in the wardrobes, curtain poles, shower baskets, loo-roll holders, that sort of thing.
And it looks like this:
Splendid, eh?
Tomorrow they're back to do proper cleaning prior to snagging on Monday.  Then our move date will depend on what Peter-and-James-the-architects come up with and whether it needs to be resolved before we move in.

Outside is definitely not going to be finished for Christmas though.  Yesterday they made heroic efforts with the digger and have turned the Somme trenches back into a flat paddock with topsoil on top - amazing.  But - I think I mentioned that some of the patio stone turned out to be damaged - last night the stone supplier announced that the delivery due last week won't arrive until after Christmas.  So I'm afraid we won't be able to sit out and eat our Christmas dinner on the west patio.  And they're also worried about the front drive which is self-amalgamating gravel - apparently it needs to dry out and harden after which it is ok, but as it's forecast to rain regularly over the next couple of weeks, the suggestion is that we leave it with scalpings while we move in and wait for a dry week forecast before laying the gravel.

Cumulus

Not Cumulus House,
just
Cumulus.
Phew - it's been a long slow climb to get there...
So - a quick sprint through some key achievements of this morning:

The banisters are in!  









The one alongside the stairs was a gurt heavy number!



The more observant amongst you will notice that the hole in the paddock has gone.  It got worse before it got better as they put a couple of tons of stone and gravel around the drainage field, but it's all filled in now and being flattened as we speak.

 And the carpet is being fitted in the bedrooms. 

I can't show you a picture of the patio as previously promised as they discovered a big wadge of the stone was damaged and we're waiting a new delivery at the stoneyard.  Curses.

Flooring - the good, the bad and the beautiful

Unfortunately this is the 'bad' - we arrived just as he finished the first coat of the wrong sort of paint.  Not sure what happens next on this one.

The 'good' is that the carpet has arrived and is sat in rolls upstairs waiting to go into the bedrooms. 

The 'beautiful' is the patio which is now partially built - will let you see it when it's done.


Below is one of the craftsmen who paints the blue blobs on the balustrade...They have fitted the bolts but the glue needs to go off overnight before it is up to holding up the 15mm safety glass baluster.


And here is the Morso log-burner looking rather curvily splendid in its curvy corner. 
Oh those sexy curves!!!

What's in a name?

OK, everyone, you've been sat back enjoying the ride so far.  Now it's payback time - see below.  But first, enjoy the pics of the day.
Are we flagging? Yes... in a good way! - here's the threshold to the garage - same flags as the patio.  They're still wet in places after pointing , hence the darker bits, but they splendidly pick up the zinc cladding and soffit colours - almost like it was deliberate...
Fence started, gate to follow.

Left is the main living room with the kitchen island and sitting area; while to the right is a very strange picture that seems to show I am only as tall as three steps on the staircase.  The balustrade was supposed to be fitted today but the fitter apparently went off sick so it's now due Monday.


Now for your bit.  The house needs a name; we aren't sure what to call it.  We've abandoned Walnut Tree House due to the excessive number in the village already (although no visible Walnut by any of them).  We're on the historic Norman Court estate, as per Domesday Book, but there's no real record of anything of interest where we're building - the previous house was possibly the first on this plot.  And I bet nobody ever called a nice new house 'The Old Bungalow'... There have been various suggestions, some rather less helpful than others - NO we are not going to call it Sparrows' Nest - but we're looking at a shortlist of three:
Rookery House - if you've been here, you'll know why: the rooks are a major feature of the location, cawing away in the trees on the ridge in their hundreds.  I love them although that may change if they start to eat my veg.
Solstice House - we will be moving in around the Solstice, and if that's not cause for pagan celebration, I don't know what is - and with Stonehenge, Woodhenge etc all very close by, it's regionally appropriate - and it's a particularly pleasing word.
Cumulus House - the obvious gliding connection means that this would be bringing a bit of our own history to the area, and the shape with the gables and different roof-heights makes it look (well, ish!) like a multi-celled Cu building nicely...
There are a lot of Rookery Houses in the country, but not many Solstice or Cumulus Houses.  And oddly neither of the two Cumulus Houses belongs to a glider pilot...  So, what do you think?

Ivor(y) Biggun

Huge excitement the worktop arrived just now.

'Before'











I say I say I say - how many Landford Stone men does it take to fit a worktop?
Eight, apparently, as they said 'it's a hefty lump'...

It's a biggun! 3m x 1.1m.








1 - 2 - 3 - Hup











 

And here it is! You can't see from this pic how gorgeous it looks in its Ivory Fantasy glory.

So indoors is going very well.







Outside however:

Apparently the building inspector isn't convinced that a drain route all across the paddock is sufficient.  We think he's talking a lot of crap...

Mud mud glorious mud

It's thick wet sticky clay and it's difficult to see how this is going to change until a fair way through next year - it's a bit too late for grass seed to germinate.  The space at the east side of the house where the vegetable garden will be is even worse.  And of course half our furniture is in the stable block and needs, fairly soon, to be brought into the house.  Sky hooks? Zipwire?  I expect a solution will propose itself to us in the next couple of weeks. 
Meanwhile the closer bits to the house are coming on well - the front drive is pretty much ready for its topcoat of gravel, and here is the terrace retaining wall nearly built.  The patio flagstones are, in a seasonal manner, 'behind you' in this pic and ready to be laid when the wall is finished.  We are told that the structural engineer happened to be in the area and drove up the road looking for the house he'd worked on but could only see what was obviously a barn conversion in progress... This has good and bad points - it's great that it fits that well into its location already, but it is NOT an imitation barn - for sure it has barn proportions but it's quite clearly modern to look at.  And I'm a a bit worried that he didn't recognise the house whose drawings he'd been working on...

On the left is the splendid pantry shelving as previously advertised, and these are the stair treads in fat beautiful oak.  The bamboo floor in the bathrooms is in place as is getting on for half of the oak flooring downstairs. More coats of paint have gone on everywhere including the garage, although there is some doubt as to whether the main wall colour is actually Chalk White, Chalky White or Pseudo Chalky Chalky white.  Or something.

Dehumidified!

The good news is that the floor screed has apparently dried out enough and they have started to lay the oak flooring downstairs.  And they've painted the garage.  And apparently the carpenters are so chuffed with the pantry shelving they're going to take pics of it for their own website, but as I haven't got a current pic of it I can't post one here for you.  But at least you know about the flooring now! 

Doors and floors

With only three weeks to go (maybe) the finishing touches are starting to appear. Here's the pantry door -  complete with porthole. It's in the pantry rather than in the door frame, but you get the idea.

Still waiting for the floor to finish drying downstairs, but work is under way on laying the floor upstairs.

...and the stone tiling in the utility room downstairs.

It'll all be over by Christmas - Official!!

14 December is the new completion date.  Which has a day's contingency in it...  We will hand in our notice to Bev accordingly.  And hope....
Meanwhile, today's report:
Ground Control - James the Digger, his dad and their No2 Connor (left) - are hard at work facing the gabions after we spent an hour or so working out how to circle the square this morning - the ones they've filled so far look gorgeous - but will my grand plan of a deconstructed stone and flint wall work?  We will know soon!  Inside, the pantry shelving is all built, the hearth stone is down and the oak flooring has been delivered.  The screed is down to 6% moisture, it has to be below 5% before they can fit the flooring - this is planned for late next week so hopefully it should be ok.

The decorators have put quite a lot more paint on the walls.  More bits are appearing slowly in the bathrooms. 
Guttering is going up and looks splendid - although the boys are cursing us as it's stainless steel and instead of clipping together like any gutter I've ever installed, it's riveted and then sealed.  Some of which obviously has to happen in situ.  And finally, out the front, the drive is getting the MOT roadstone layer (technical update for John) en route to the top coat.  

Hey Baby I'm your Telephone Man

You will recall earlier posts on the subject of utility angst.  The latest chapter came when we needed to move the phone line from the site van into the house. ..

You will recall (of course you will!) the pics showing a nice trench from the pole towards the house.  It was neatly lined with the trunking supplied, and a wire run through it to use as a threader for the right wire at the right moment.  So all the Telephone Man had to do was pull the existing line through the new route and connect it in the box on the side of the house.  Simple, eh?
And indeed he did.
And all was good.
...
But but but and again but.... part way through the following morning, the telephone number changed.  All of Ray the Builder's suppliers now had a line that when they called it said 'number unavailable', or, as there's no mobile signal, got his voicemail.  Doh!

You might like to guess how many more calls Alan made to BT trying to resolve this, but we lost count so we can't tell if you're right or not.  It became clear somewhere along the way that a ticket had been raised to put the number right, but repeatedly it didn't happen.

Then on Monday Alan spoke to someone who said 'Oh, but that's not a problem, I can put it right from here...yep, that's done, it will be on the overnight computer run'.  I had to administer smelling salts and pick him up off the floor.

And indeed in the morning, 309 had been restored to its rightful place and the (phone) bells rang out with the good news.

...It makes you wonder how much too much we're paying for utilities for getting it so wrong so often...

Dangle Barn

To fit in with the house's "barn" style the oak posts are mounted on top of short stone pillars. For reasons that remain obscure they built the house before installing the pillars. (I think it's called top-down design.)

So the house is being held up with acro props while they insert the the  pillars underneath.

Plans for the chinchilla farm come on apace...

...here's the team assembling the cages...



 


OK, it's really the gabion wall being put together.  No chinchillas will be hurt in the making of this house.

Amongst the many things happening on site today the decorators have been putting more paint on the walls, Sean is building the pantry shelving, Steve is putting the oak angle braces in outside - and here you can see the Rectory Hill gridlock as the Type 1 roadstone (I think that's what it is, John!) is delivered to be the base for the driveway.

Tomorrow we may well bring to you the latest episode in the Continuing BT Saga.  I think we've not mentioned it recently, so I suggest that the more nervous among our readers look away from tomorrow's posting, or at least view it from behind the sofa...

Can you see what it is yet?

Prize for the first correct answer...  (John, sorry, too easy for you, you aren't allowed to play!)





And this is the Utility Room - bamboo worktop, space for washing machine and tumble dryer; broom cupboard* and 100-channel heating controller.

*for storing my back-up transport, obviously ;)

I may be exaggerating slightly about the heating controller, but given that we basically don't have a heating system - one radiator and two towel rails - each has its own separate loop.

Outside the huge pile of mud behind the house has now been spread back around whence it came and the patio is laid out.  We're now able to start to envisage what it will look so have spent some time stood in the paddock considering garden design.