Sunday 23 March 2014

Dream team

When we started, we didn't have a clue where or how to start. Bumbled around with architects, who appeared fresh and full of good ideas. In hindsight, they weren't brilliant on extensions, might have been better on a new build.

Chucked out the build to several builders, one was a recommendation. You know what, a recommendation is worth it's weight in gold.

Along comes a great team.

Lee Hudson Builders. This is Lee, his sons Charlie and Will, along with Ben the plasterer. Lee is a really nice and genuine bloke. They work hard and they work well. We wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anyone. In fact we have plans for them and phase II, the garden.

J&R Joinery. The J is for John. Although Jay didn't recognise the name to start with, turns out he'd worked on the house 20 years ago when her mum and dad were here. The wardrobes he put in then were a nightmare to rip out last year. He definitely builds things to last! Stephen is John's son and is very much a craftsman.

Del is the plumber, recommended by Lee. Comes in, does a bit of a fix, first or second, then is gone. We may have to pay him money one day.

Mark the electrician, is a bit a of shadow, hardly seen him, but things keep lighting up, so he must be there somewhere.

R&P tiling complete the team, We talk by text, think I've met them once, possibly twice. The tiling in the en-suite is top notch, They're doing the bathroom in a couple of weeks and quoting for the kitchen floor this Monday. Mention their name in a tiling shop, and a discount appears :)

Everybody knows each other and comes on the recommendation of each other. Couldn't be better.

Friday 21 March 2014

Fire, fire

It's the weekend of fire!

Front room fire. Come the 4th April, this will be a log burner. The slate is down. Needs to be rendered. And then the chimney gets lined and the burner is in. Roll on winter :)

Thanks to Batley Barless,









And tomorrow, we are off to York. They have loads of old fireplaces. So we should get one to fit. Don't want a boring old wall. Do we?











In general, it's now a plastering whirl wind.

Tuesday 18 March 2014

The kitchen is coming in April

Sadly not a picture or a plan to share. But here's an old one.

As a rough guide.

The bloke on the left is the bin.The bloke on the floor is the sink with combination hot tap. Then the dishwasher. Turning the corner we have cupboards, including a 90cm wide mug (Jay likes a mug) cupboard, with a small amount of work top.

Then we go floor to ceiling.

Column 1, having drawers an oven and warming drawer and cupboards over.
Column 2, drawers another oven and microwave and cupboards over.
Column 3, wine rack which is floor to ceiling height.
Plumbed fridge freezer, with cupboard over.
And finally a pull out larder.

The 2.4m island has a 90cm, 6 burner, gas hob, drawers, cupboards, a wine cooler, yes we have 2 wine storages! And a breakfast bar end.

In the living end a slimline TV cabinet, we think 120cm.

All 8 drawers are deep and 90cm wide. Plus 2 90cm cutlery drawers.

Very exciting

Storage, everyone likes storage.

The fitted wardrobes have been, well fitted. What else. A little bit of an oops. There's supposed to be two mirrored doors. Now ordered by Dan, Dan the wardrobe man, of Yorkshire Wardrobes.

 The view east. Jay's dressing table. With electrified drawers. Keep those hair electrical appliances in the drawer, with no trailing wires.
The view west.

Plenty of cupboards. The right has 20cm shelves, but we have straight lines. 3 or 4 different levels on that wall.

The drawers in front of the loft access was planned. Everybody, me, Jay, Lee the builder and Dean the decorator, thought major boo boo. They were fixed! Nope, as requested they look fitted, they aren't. Very clever.

We can probably cook an egg on it.

We decided from day one, the kitchen was massive, so radiators just wouldn't do the job. Underfloor heating was the way ahead.


So first of all you need a plan! Who knew you actually had a plan. Just thought they ran pipes from side to side.










Never seen a floor being insulated, but you really don't want to heat the earth.












Sadly I missed the puzzle being put together. Think it may have been quite a laborious job. Seems to have been big sheets of pink foam, with groves.

I believe, or should I say guess, the metal conducts and spreads the heat.












And boarded out. Looking nice and easy.











Then a look in the cellar!! I was expecting the water goes in one end and out the other. Apparently not. Glad Del knows what he's doing. I think

The blue pipes the water main coming in. And I'm guessing the T is to next door. That had better not be just left hanging in the middle of the cellar!

Was that me? Probably.

So we discovered the water feed came up the drive, under the kitchen and branched under the floor in to the neighbours house. In lead! That isn't good in many ways. However Yorkshire water will sort it out for free. Yippee. Actually no. What they will do is replace it up to our boundary and we do the rest.

So after chats with them next door, the plumber, the builder, them next door again, it was agreed, we'd do it. To be honest it had to happen otherwise the build would come to a stop.

 So this our hole. Water and I'm assuming the gas. The water is now going through the cellar. Which is where the gas already goes.
Fairly unobtrusive. So what did Yorkshire Water do.

Day 1 : cone off both sides of the road.
Day 2 : Actual day 1 for them. Yorkshire Water cancelled! Stand down builder, stand down plumber, stand down neighbour. Nb I suspect if we'd cancelled we'd have to have paid a fee!
Day 3 : Woohoo all went smoothly, apart from us blocking the road. See photos.
Day 4 : Saturday they came and filled in the hole. I believe they were called the Hole Filling Crew (Brackets we don't do tarmac!)
Day 5 : It's Sunday. So the road is still half closed. Which takes out about 6 cars usual spaces. I feel we may be unpopular.
Day 6 : Tarmac laid.
Day 7 : We rested. Very biblical.

The warning
You have been warned
See, I told you.
I need a scratch.