A new year, and we get going again

A happy new year to any readers! 2022 has started off wet and grey, but perhaps not quite as wet as did 2021. This is where we were with the house exactly a year ago:

we had concrete foundations, mud, water, floor beams and insulation blocks for the walls .....

..... which were very small, but beautiful in their own way

Now the structure is complete, though we await the slating of the garage/workshop, with this next image taken from a similar place to the top photograph (trees and beech hedge for reference):


Progress is now counted in the amount of plastering that has been completed - just about all but the two biggest rooms and the hallway is finished. Before we had the week away with our children and their families in Devon over the New Year, we did a little beech hedge-trimming near to one of the smaller windows in the sitting room. We will probably also in due course take down the smaller of the two trees which have been allowed to grow out of the hedge.

it's still difficult to see how this will be when the scaffolding and the scrubby hedge around the sitting room are removed

it will soften with some new growth in the spring, we hope

We came back from Devon to find that Melvyn and his assistant had resumed plastering, and we had a call from Rob, the electrician, to check his order for fittings for his second fix. Less positively, we learned that Pat is locked up at home with Covid. He tells us that he is well enough to be thinking of ordering floor finishes and joinery supplies, so we hope that he will be back in action soon.

having been plastered, the kitchen is now serving as the storeroom .....

while the sitting room, having been tidied, is ready for boarding .....

..... as is the last wall of the dining area, where the pocket door kit has been fitted

we know that Rob is on the scene again, because he has drilled up from the living room to run cable to what will be the dwarf wall at the head of our bed (he told us last year that he wasn't looking forward to doing this, as he had to avoid the underfloor heating pipes)

to the left, the recess in the wall of our ensuite shower enclosure suggested by Ian the joiner (the black box will hold the shower controls) awaits tiles and shampoo

Quite unreasonably, we are hoping for a temperate month or two to begin the year (though it's not unusual to have snow as late as April) so that the outside rendering can be completed when the inside plastering is done. We also have our fingers crossed for the connection of the water supply, the installation of the air source heat pump system, the arrival of the remaining double glazing units, etc, etc. So much to look forward to!





 

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