22nd February 2008.
Click on the pictures for larger images.
It has been a while since my last update. The main reason is I thought I had not done much. Sorting out the pictures from the many taken I realise that I have done lots of small bits.
Starting to move a whole floor of pebbles.
The picture on the left shows a room with the floor lifted and the joists removed. I have started to move all of the pebbles to get to the earth and lay a sheet of polythene as a damp course. Then it all needs levelling before putting the joists back and then the polystyrene insulation and the floorboards.
The next picture shows the pebbles replaced and the first floorboard replaced to check for a level floor. It also shows one of the new radiators attached to the wall. The floor is waiting for the central heating pipes to be placed and connected to the radiator, and the rest of the floorboards can be replaced.
I have done two rooms out of the three to do since the last update.
The pebbles and joists relaid.
Other things I have done are mainly small preparation items for the central heating such as knocking holes in walls for the pipes and distribution boxes. It has just taken time and I did not feel I had done much to report on.
Another item I had to do was to dig out the floor in the room for the boiler. This was to be prepared ready for the concrete floor.
The boiler room floor newly laid.
After I dug the floor out, I had to wait for some good weather to lay the concrete. I had the prospect of mixing a cubic metre of concrete, I had borrowed a cement mixer so that bit was not too bad but we still don't have any running water in the house so I would have to draw water from the well outside using buckets.
Our builder friend came to give us an update and told us he knew someone who delivered concrete and could have some left over from a large load. He contacted him and Thursday, 21st February we got a call to say he could deliver.
We thought he might be able to put it through the window and it would be easy. Not so, the truck would not fit through the gates, and so he dropped it off just inside the gates. This left me with just over two cubic metres of concrete to move into the boiler room with a wheel barrow and a shovel !!
I called Sue to see if she could find anyone to help and within half an hour there were four of us. Thanks lads.
Part of the stable floor laid.
I did not need that much concrete, one and a half cubic metres would have been fine for the boiler room and the other part that is to be the extra part of the dining kitchen but that was what he had and that was what I got!! I did mean that I laid half of the old stable floor, not something I was going to do now but was a job for the future.
In the photo above you will see one of the holes I made in the wall. This is so we can get the heating pipes into the main house and to the radiators.