June 23rd

 A rarely seen view of the back of our project house. The odd hut shaped affair is known as 'The Shop'. Allegedly, the women that lived here sold things from here to the local community. Crisps and 'pop' the 92 year old next door tells us. This had to come down as the scaffolding needs to go here for work on the roof of this part of the house.

 Just before putting the ridge tiles on the garage roof. The view down the garden to where we are living now. 

The garage is now finished until late autumn when we clad it with larch. The larch can't be added yet as the weather is too warm and dry (Ha!). We can clad the extension and north elevation of the old part of the house at the same time too. 

June 6th

Some great weather over the last few days made a trip to the Brecon Beacons essential. The photo above is of Bannau Sir Gaer in the far western area with  Llyn y Fan Fach in the distance.

Joc looking over the drop from Fan Hir down to some lovely running terrain. We used the superb 3 day weather window to finally tick off pegging the remaining checkpoints.

May16th

Garage/Workshop Roof

 Trusses are the best solution for roof timbers. It's relatively easy to buy the timber and make them yourself... but you can get them made for you and delivered cheaper. It is, as they say, a no brainer. And since they are designed specifically for the purpose from the correct sized timber they are incredibly light.

It suddenly looks suspiciously like a garage. 

 My 'navvy' gets the felt and battens on, so it's now weatherproof inside.

 And today started the tiling... only another 500 to go.

May 11th

 Llyn Y Fan Fach 

We've had frequent visits to the Brecon Beacons in April and May - particularly The Black Mountain. Secret mission! Been some pretty stunning days. This area is so much more interesting than the honey pot of the main Beacons. Sink holes, limestome pavements, crags, crashed bombers... and lovely lovely running terrain.

 

 Sink holes in the middle of nowhere - on a hot day very inviting!
Joc here walking for 5 hours only four days after lung surgey. 

 Some of the crags sport some weird geology.

 What is this all about? Quite a big rock with some pimply doodahs all over it. Someone please tell me what this is. The white lichen seems to adhere well to the pimples too.Oh yeah... the GPS is just for scale.

  A close up of the pimples.

 

 Who in their right mind would prefer running on the road to this?

Building Update

 This is the 'ecocent' hot water tank. Basically it's a 200 litre hot water tank with a mini air-source unit on top. It takes waste heat from the roof (or house if you're running a MHRV system) and tranfers it to the hot water. Theortically it should cost about £1 per week for all our hot water needs...  a couple nearby have the same system and this is what it costs them (maybe they have less showers than us though). Since it's a pressurised tank there's a bit more plumbing know-how needed to install it (tundish, inlet control group...)
 

 Detail of the pipework.

 And... we've had a baby.. foal. Born in the field below us the morning the picture was taken. Ahhh.

April 8th 2013

It never normally happens. Today I made two phone calls: one to Western Power Distribution to ask for the electricity cables to be sheathed near the roof so when we start work on it everything would be ready and another to EarthSave Products to order the 'Ecocent Unit' (hot water tank with it's own built in air-source heat pump). The hot water tank arrived just after lunch and the a very helpful and informative guy from Western Power turned up around 4pm. Two phone calls and two things actioned the same day. Probably have unbelievable hassle with the next two things to suss.

 Had a couple of days in Dartmoor last week- did a run from Shipley Bridge to find the track East of Avon Dam and then up to Puper's Hill. From here across to Red Lake clay works and then back via the bridleway. Objective was to suss potential bike route. Very dry up there and beautifully sunny with cold easterly wind.

 Also did the classic Princetown bike ride via Burrator reservoir.Stayed at 'The Plume' campsite (well - I say camping, we of course kept toasty in the van).

 Back at home, got the sink unit finished (just need a miror and shaver light)...

 and got the shower enclosure finished and fitted electric towel radiator. 

Happy as a pig in..... Yes she is. Finally it's warm enough to get some blocks up for the workshop and garage. We need to get this done now as we've got to find space for all the tools and materials that currently reside in the other half of the property to be renovated. First job is roof off  - and potentially all the things in that half could get drenched if we get a summer like last year. 

 Keeping warm in the lounge - really must get the carpets fitted soon.

March 26th 2013

A lot has happened since the last blog posting. Plastering, painting, skirting board, kitchen installed, lights and electrical sockets and we're now working on the bathroom.

 It took 7 full days to plaster the 4 rooms and landing. They did a great job.

 The floor tiles for the kitchen.

 Kitchen carcassing is positioned.

 Loads of lighting and switches.

 Joc gets the tiling in the kitchen done.

 Skirting goes on.

 Built in fridge/freezer.

 Hidden washing machine,

 Loads of sockets.

 Bedroom gets painted and skirting goes on.

 

Kitchen electrics and lighting sorted.

 

 Now we're working on the bathroom.

 Plastering - 21st January 2013

The deadline for getting everything ready for the plasterers is today. Well, we made it. It took a couple of weeks to complete the first fix electrics (getting the wires threaded) and the plumbing for 1st floor radiators.  The plumbing also needed to be pressure tested so I  had to temporarily fit the radiators too (these are 100% bigger than they need to be since we are running lower temperature water in them).  The pipes for these are served by 28mm speedfit plastic pipes that needed to come through an internal 400mm rubble filled stone wall.

The shower base and waste needed to be fitted so we could get the stud partition walls just right in bathroom. For the hot water tank I had to fit a pressure discharge waste requiring 28mm copper that had to be vented to outside. The MHRV needs a condensate drain as does the air source unit on the hot water tank (Ecocent unit - see here for information) so multiple pipes were connected in the floor void to the internal soil stack. We also needed to decide on a cooker hood and fit 110mm vent pipe to outside.

It took us over a week to decide on the kitchen and supplier (DIY kitchens online). To go with modern green or white units or the traditional wooden oak doors? We went with the tradtional as it seemed warmer.
All new integrated electric units needed though: fridge freezer, oven, washing machine.

We partially fitted the MHRV (see here for link) unit and some of the vents: lounge, main bedroom and through vets to other part of house. There was a lot of taping and joining the alloy rigid pipe to T's and bends.

Wires and pipes in perfect harmony

 

28mm from pump to 22mm on the long runs to 15mm at the radiator.

 Vents and stud partitions in bathroom area.

  Shower base and stud wall - glass block wall opening in shower cubicle

 Yes we have a toilet (no more watering the bushes) and very large radiator in the bathroom.

 Kitchen/Diner all ready for plastering

 Another view of kitchen area

 Not much going on outside

December 3rd

Wires, wires, wires...

Think I must have threaded around 600m of electrical cable of some description over the last week or so: 3x 2.5mm ring mains, 2x 1.5mm lighting circuits, satellite cable to 3 rooms, cat6 ethernet to two rooms, earth bonding cable, telephone cable, 6mm cooker cable, thermostat cables ...

All looking neat and tidy between the joists. 

Sparks Paul wired up the tails to the new consumer board. 

No holes allowed in the membrane so cable is taped on

And now the plasterboard can go on... signs of progress