1 week till we move back in - aaaaaahhhh!

It's official. It's only one week until we move in and I can't quite believe the time is nearly upon us! Everyone keeps asking me if we are excited about moving in to our lovely new home and whilst I am truly looking forward to living in our new/old home, I am mostly terrified! 

I'm terrified of dealing with the chaos of builders still on site and a roaming toddler intent on exploring everything. I'm terrified of wet paint, wet concrete (which Ellie has already discovered!) and unpacking -again. I'm terrified we will have missed something crucial, chosen something awful or made a decision we cannot undo. But most of all I'm terrified that we're not quite going to 'live up' to this shiny new house and that anyone who meets us will wonder how on earth we get to live in such an amazing place. 

But you know what, I might be wrestling with all these fears right now and I'm sure I'll always be wrestling with some of them; but the one thing that puts my heart at ease is that I don't have to do this in my own strength. I don't have to face the next few weeks alone. By this I mean that each day I can wake up and trust that God will help me. 

I can trust that God, by His power, will sustain me through the chaos and that in the midst of painting, plastering, Ellie falling into wet concrete and a driveway that looks like a bomb has gone off, I will hear His still, small voice that says, "Keep going, you're almost done, you're ok, I've got it covered. I know what is to come and you'll be fine." You might think it's strange but I'm sure there's just a little place somewhere inside of us all that is glad to know the peace that God's care for us brings. He loves me, and boy am I glad that He's got the next three weeks in His hands as I'm gonna need the help! 

Luv

Jo

X

And so it begins - moving back stage 1 complete with the youngest removal team I've seen! 

With temps hitting minus 2 here I'm very glad of our underfloor heating!

Sam's new paint job 

Guest bed two tone

Newly re-tiled family bathroom using the old tiles afresh! 

An important piece of coving - last bit to go in the hallway - let the downstairs painting commence!

Getting ever closer...

Here's some piccies to keep you all going! X

Less than two weeks to go and we'll be in this amazing new home! 

Xx

Getting ever closer to completion...

We're almost there! 

We've put our notice in on our rental property and are now in the countdown phase to completion - it only seems like yesterday that I started to blog and we can't believe how fast this year has gone! Whilst there still looks like a tremendous amount to complete, pace has quickened and there are at least 4-5 guys on site each day. 

Gas reconnection

Last week Rob was spending a lot of time on the phone talking to the gas company about our reconnection. Frustratingly when they initially disconnected our supply they never mentioned that the pipe was too old to be reconnected and that we'd need a whole new gas pipe. So when they came to reconnect they then let us know this crucial fact meaning we were delayed by a week whilst the builders laid a new pipe. Thankfully this was not as difficult to achieve as we thought it might be and the builders successfully managed to run a channel with the new pipe behind their large shipping container which looked like it might be in the way. So this week we now have gas! This means we can now get the heating going to dry out and warm up the house. 

Decorations

Work is continuing at a really rapid rate on the internal decorations, plastering and internal joinery. It's so exciting seeing the rooms coming together and taking shape before our eyes. We've been brave and selected our paint colours and we hope that they work well together and create a proper style to the house. It's a lot of pressure but our only consolation is that we can always repaint if we (or everyone else) hate the colour! 

Money

It's tight, really tight! We'll be hoping Santa pays for Christmas this year! 

So here are the all important pictures: 

We've got windows!

Exciting week this week so I'm gonna post in instalments! First up its the windows:

Can't believe how much this transforms the house! At first look I was rather shocked by how dark they are but I'm warming to them slowly! There's a massive difference between looking at something in the show room and seeing them in place in the house. They've got a couple more to complete but should be all finished early next week and then they can focus even harder on the interiors. 

On another topic - yea! I have a sink!

And here are some of the windows from the inside looking out. 

I'll hopefully get some more photos of the porch roofs by early next week! 

X

The scaffolding is down!!

We're now almost 7 months into the build and the scaffolding has finally come down!!! We are so excited! 

It looks so different without all the poles and boards! The roof is complete and there are temporary window frames in place until the actual windows turn up in two and a bit weeks time - hopefully! 

We've seen evidence that they've been manufacturered and are getting ready to be delivered which is encouraging! 

So now that the outside structure is pretty much complete thoughts are turning inside to paint colours and tiling! Here are some piccies of the bathrooms which are now almost fully tiled.

This is the master ensuite. With Fired Earth Cromarty tiles on the walls and Newlyn wood effect tile on the floor and bath panel. 

This is the guest shower room which is also Fired Earth Newlyn wood effect on the floor (unseen) and Matt white Bilbao on the walls. We're gonna go for a dark grey grout to give a slightly industrial feel and also minimise any mold/damp discolouration! 

The builders have also been busy plastering and I just love the pink tones of drying plaster - it's so pretty! 

The plastering is set to continue this week and next as the entire inside gets drylined and redone. It's then going to be ready for decorations and flooring! 

So here are some other final pictures:

Front porch still to be built but now that the scaffolding is down it can be done! 

Paint colour choosing! Tip number 1: use a sheet of lining paper and paint patches to stick on different sides of the room - that way you can see the effect of subtle light differences! Tip number 2: Dulux Visualiser app for smartphones and tablets is amazingly clever! 

And before we go...we're not sure whether our builders are in need of some light entertainment or whether someone has another life we don't know about but this wig was left hanging up this weekend! 

Captions by comment box please!! 

Hope that keeps you going to the next post which I truly hope will be quicker appearing than this one! 

Luv n hugs 

Jo & Rob

X

Post holiday progress

My lovely kiddies modelling some fine stud work! X

Another three weeks has flown by and the build is still on schedule (amazingly!) I'm truly impressed with the builders and how they've kept on going and kept up the pace. 

We're now moving on to the slower and more detail-oriented part of the build as the external structure is almost complete and the focus shifts inside. 

First fix electrics is almost done but the only evidence of tremendous amounts of hard graft threading wire everywhere is the little cables sticking out all over the place where the plug sockets and media points will be. I have to confess at still being totally baffled by CAT6 wiring (suitable for handling computer networks) and the differences to CAT5 or 4?

 It's also become ridiculously hard to know whether we have chosen the right points for socket positions and lighting. I've found myself staring at the plans and drawings unable to be convinced we've chosen correctly whilst also thinking how hard can this be really?? One other interesting electrical dilemma is the overhead lights in the big open plan living/kitchen/diner. Our initial idea was three zones (one for each area) which would have 9 lights in each zone. However, due to the positioning of the ceiling joist which runs centrally throughout the length of the room the lights have to sit off-centre which makes a pattern of 9 impossible, therefore I've switched to a slightly more ornate pattern of blocks of 8 with four in an inner square and 4 in an outer square, thereby avoiding the central joist. Seriously I'm lying awake at night wondering whether this is a genius solution or a ridiculous mistake! I guess we'll find out when the lights are in and we're going cross-eyed or not! 

Excitingly, the upstairs extension is now being plasterboarded and the rooms are really taking shape which is wonderful as now we can truly imagine what they'll look like. The internal dividing walls have been put up and therefore we can see the exact size of the en suites. The builder has pushed us for answers about what we are installing in the bathrooms. Consequently we've spent a challenging two hours this weekend, with the 3 kiddies again, in Burge and Gunson (Colliers Wood, London) with a salesman who didn't really understand that we wanted to achieve the best quality for the lowest price possible (seriously, we began to wonder if he actually wanted to sell us his products at all.) We had a crazyily idealistic budget of £4,000 for 2 bathrooms which had to include tiling and all the accessories - we've singularly failed to keep to this due to the old 'you gets what you pays for' motto and we didn't really want to go for ultra low-quality as we'd like things to last at least 5 years!! So in the end we have everything except the mirrors/cabinets and we spent another £2,000 or so on top. In the scheme of things it's not a big number but when every £ counts, that amount can help with fitting out a pantry or building understairs cupboards! Hey ho! At least we'll enjoy a slightly more luxurious soak?! 

Here are the all important pictures! 

Underfloor heating in and the screed down already (these photos will be very helpful later if we need to know where pipes are located).

There's something very artistic about pipe work like this! 

Heating controls - we settled on the hallway cupboard to locate them!

Master bedroom...

...plasterboard going in.

A new doorway that didn't exist before! 

Next week we may have roof tiles on if the weather is kind! 

X

Family life and a big build

As you can tell family life has taken over for a while as the blog has been rather quiet! However, I thought I'd update you on progress at the same time as sharing the challenges and blessings of undertaking a major build project as well as managing the growing demands of a family of 5! 

As you'll see from the piccies the house is continuing to take shape before our eyes and it's been amazing seeing the way things pop up or suddenly appear. I know it's no surprise to the builders who are working there every day, day in, day out, but a lot can happen in a week! 

So, progress report: 

Watertight

We are now watertight as far as most of the main roof structure is concerned (felt and batons in place but still waiting for tiles). You can now stand inside the extension and stay dry which is perfect timing as the weather seems to have broken after a gloriously dry year so far and there are now more heavy showers. It also means that the builders are now working on laying the floor screed, underfloor heating and will begin to dry-line and plaster some of the interior. 

Electrics

Dean our electrician is busy with the first fix and covering some of the builders trigger happy tendencies when it comes to knocking down walls that have the mains electricity switch board on! Thank the Lord they didn't fully knock it down before sparks flew!! 

Flooring choices

We've been brave and decided on our downstairs flooring - we're choosing slate throughout the new extension and hallway and outside (in order to create a seamless inside/outside transition) and we've chosen a smoked engineered oak in the formal lounge, playroom and workshop space. 

Bathroom and utility layouts

We've now decided on our layouts for the two new en suites and the utility is almost decided - subject to our plumber guiding us on the best place to locate the underfloor heating controls. Trust me when I say I never knew you could have a full 30 minute conversation on the pros and cons of locating the underfloor heating controls in the hallway cupboard versus the utility! 

And so to negotiating family life! We are now becoming masters at navigating showrooms with 3 children under 7. Our 2 girls are the hardest to amuse whilst visiting window manufacturers (there's something irresistible about opening and closing windows and doors that no toddler can overcome) but we have survived! We were also brave enough to take them to the Homebuilding and Renovating show last month. I'm sure all the tradespeople we've seen think we're slightly crazy bringing them with us. I have to admit, carrying on a conversation about RAL colours and window frames or which side of the sink the Quooker tap should go is particularly challenging when you have the youngest screaming at the middle child 'miiiiinnnne' over a packet of biscuits. However, we cannot just dump our kids on the kindness of our friends all the time - especially when the times we do want a sitter we'd rather be having a quiet dinner for two! I just want to thank the several showrooms (The Myers Touch, Kloeber and Total Windows) for having large boxes of tempting toys which have blissfully managed to distract our brood for long enough to make vital  decisions. 

And so to the piccies;

Looking up at the roof from inside ( the only time we'll be able to see it like this from the ground floor) 

View from the guest bedroom in the new extension.

View of the master bedroom balcony window. Roll on blissful mornings of waking up and looking out at a tree-lined garden) 

Floor screed laid in the formal lounge and slider steels now fully in place waiting for the sliding window which we have now agreed upon.

What was once the wall holding the mains electricity board is now gone and instead the board is rigged to a temporary fix whilst we wait for the board to be re-located outside!

Front view - still waiting for tiles and the room above the playroom on the far left to be done. 

If it's possible we have even less windows than before as the builders now move over to focus on the left of the house (as you face it).

See you all in two weeks with more updates! 

Xx