Fitting out the Plant Room (+ some more piping)

It been a busy few weeks for the heating engineers. The boiler arrived and it was a good job the whole team was on site - it weighed a tonne - literally!

A fantastic bit of kit though - Austrian engineering at its best:

It took six men + a series of straps, ropes and ties to get it down a makeshift ramp to the plant room:

Got it in though and it's looking great!

The hot water cylinder had a huge big jacket that was a bit of feat to get zipped up:

And the complexity of pipework coming off it is quite something:

There's also been a lot of progress in the house with the piping:

The beginnings of an en-suite: 

with diagrams to help:

The flue for the boiler has gone through a series of configurations:

And commissioning should be happening later this week too!

Setting up static

As this is the state of the kitchen:

and this is the kitchen sink:

We're now having to wash up in the bath:

Good job there's still running water then! Yes, but not for long.... 

We decided it might be time to consider some temporary accommodation. So, we spent a few days looking for a short term rental but no one would take us with the cats

SAD :( FACE

The one place that would had an infestation of fleas!? And as we really need to be down here more permanently now, that means moving the furry ones. So after much discussion, the only option is to find ourselves a static caravan. It does seem silly, there being so much space in the house, but with most of it unusable, covered in dust and us being in it is actually causing more problems, it would be good to have somewhere that is clean and that we can retreat to at the end of the day.

Looking around the site there is the ideal spot in the old pig sty:

It has hard standing, is facing away from the building site, 

but the only problem might be shifting it over the wall:

Perhaps we could just park it in the field - not a bad view to wake up to in the morning!

And without knowing it, we'd already put in provisions for electrics and water:

The septic tank is nearby too, so ideal really!

We visited a few places to have a look at what was on offer - SurfBay Leisure in Brean and Winkleigh plus Strand Leisure, an independent, in Burlescombe. It all came down to speed of delivery really. Both offered delivery as part of the sale, but with Surf Bay having a 4 week lead time and Strand Leisure able to deliver *NEXT WEEK* guess who we went for!? Simon from Strand Leisure came to visit the site to check that it would be able to be delivered, it could, so we went back again to choose our new temporary home, and here, er, she? is:

I found an excellent resume of what we have lying ahead, and you never know, this could become another renovation project later down the line....

Lifting up the floorboards

We had the carpenter in this week to check out the floor joists in the living room. We knew they were shot, and that there was a lot of damp in the room, after taking up the carpet and the underlay was dripping with moisture! On closer inspection though the end of the floorboards in the corner had gone:

So it was up with the floor boards to assess the damage:

A good 3/4 of the joists had been nibbled by wood worm - ever seen one up close? We found one when taking down the timbers in the pumphouse the other day:

With all the boards up you could see one of the reasons behind the damp. 

There was one air brick below the window on the left that was open and able to flow:

On the right however it was a very different matter:

We had already discussed about needing to introduce a gravel drainage system around the perimeter of the house but seeing the extent of this damage it has crept up much higher in the to do list!

Due to the damage being a little worse than we thought, we decided to get all of the joists relaid and after a few days work it was complete:

membrane on the ends to save any future water damage, 

and with well treated timbers this floor should now last us a good while now - phew!

All that's left now is to take up the rest of the downstairs floorboards - some of which are feeling very squidgy! Watch this space for flooring update number 2, 3, 4...

Out with the aga, in with another hole (or two)

Now that the chimney is down, 

it's time to start on the opening between the kitchen and utility.

It's very messy work and has made the room completely unusable. 

Here's the view from the utility through to the kitchen:

And again after the openings had been made:

Plenty of supports in place:

And all the doors, surrounds and salvage put to one side:

The surround for the old toilet has gone:

The steels have arrived:

 

And the blocks ready for filling the holes: 

A big hole in the roof over the utility, but with bolted doors, screws and no way of getting out once you get in, I think we're pretty safe!

On with the Tiles

Now that the felt and battons are all on, it was time for the tiling of the pumphouse:

last tile on - yippee!!

Purlin, Felt, Batton, repeat

Mike braved the elements today to get the roof structure back on the pumphouse:

Replacing the previous timbers with newer ones, that were worm free 

and offered a more robust framework:

It got too wet to go any further so it was time to take a well deserved break:

 The next day it was on with the felt:

starting to look like a proper room now:

Last nail in the for the day:

And here's a very happy Mike admiring his work

The Piping Begins

The plumbers are in and the piping for the central heating has begun!

It is quite amazing actually that it has all started in the side of the house that has had nothing in it for over 70 years...

Bringing it all up to 21st century spec, here are the pipes all ready and waiting for their meeting with the boiler due tomorrow! What an exciting few weeks ahead :) will update as we go...