Building progress report - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Wednesday 30 June, 2010

by Rosemary at 8:24pm in Renovation Comments closed

Well, the floor is well and truly set, so that's good news. The builders have been here all week fitting roof vents, replacing any damaged slates, re-fixing any slipped ones and renewing guttering and downpipes. They assure me it's a great roof, which is a comfort. They've also put up some scaffolding so that part of the wall can be repointed and concreted the pantry floor. It's been really windy, so I've been watching them on the roof, with some anxiety.

Harry and Kevin, the electricians (Harry's my cousin and Kevin's his son), were here yesterday doing some bits and pieces. We had them have a look at the wiring in the West range; it looks "home made" so it's coming out and the professionals will put in some additional features, like a few more double sockets, another strip light, an outside light and an infrastructure to support it. At the moment, we get regular shorts and trips and since our freezers are in there, that's not a good thing. Harry and Kevin will be back at the end of the week, once the plaster boarding has started.

The plumber was here today, so we finalised the type and position of the upstairs radiators. He's not got much left to do - couple of days, he reckons.

The joiners will be here tomorrow, emergencies notwithstanding. They have three windows and the new front door to put in, and then they'll finish the insulation in the ceilings, roof and round the windows. They should start plaster boarding towards the end of the week.

The downstairs floors will take about 60 days to dry completely, so the tiling can't be done until then, and the kitchen can't be put in until the floor is tiled, so that's going to hold things up a bit.

Planning permission for the ground source heat pump and PV array goes to Angus Council on 9th October; it should be OK, but we're not counting our chickens. The planners aren't happy with our proposal to demolish and rebuild the East range, but it wasn't an outright "no", so we'll get a local architect on the job.