Well, I have got  new little camera, nothing as nice as the broken one, but at least it actually does what it says on the tin!, shame that there is not much to photograph!!!!!!,

.......just a whole load of plumbing pipes EVERYWHERE!!!, - Plumbing has started in earnest and to the untrained eye there isn't an awful lot to see, it does look like hard work though lots of drilling massive holes through the joists above your head and then wrestling with a reel of pipe.

I have had to order the paint for the main bathroom (Brighton) and our ensuite (Pale China blue), as the the taps etc go through tiles so you need to tile first and therefore you need to paint first and because of the design of the towel rads we have to lay the floors as well so those two rooms will look very different soon!

whilst I got the paint I snuck a few rolls of wall paper in the virtual shopping trolley as well, I have been busy and choosen most of what we need for decorating now, mostly the interior will be pure brilliant white, but I couldn't resist "William", "Cath" and "Orla" when it came to a few rolls of wallpaper! Pete has to dash down to homebase tomorrow as they have some great deals on paint this weekend, so I need to do the shopping list tonight, is it really wrong to choose a paint colour for the No toy lounge because it has a cool name ?! (Dance Hall), I will also be adding some magnetic blackboard paint to the list for the kitchen,- hope that it is successful.

Yuri Geller, Pete is now bending guttering as well as plaster board!, he did a fab job of the guttering on the curved porch, it cost about £20 as well instead of way over £1000 that we were quoted to have a piece of curved guttering made, now we should be able to get rid of the scaffolding and the annoying scaffolders!

We have got the wood for the underside of the veranda roof ,so we can start to stain it (white), and also the ensuite bathroom floorboards, who knows what colour they will be stained I really hate choosing stain varnish oil for wood!!!!

.... and without wishing to sound boring everythime I go into the house and see the staircase I am blown away.......
.................we actually still can't latch onto the concept that we will actually one day move into the house, everyone is finding caravan living tiresome at the moment ... come on Spring get Sprung!

GOING UP

HOT WATER TANK IT CAME WITH LOTS OF HOLES BUT NO DIAGRAM AS FOR WHAT THEY WERE ALL FOR, THEY HAVE NOW KINDLY PROVIDED ONE

I MIGHT HAVE A CAMERA BUT I CAN'T GET THE PHOTOS IN A SENSIBLE ORDER

FROM THE LANDING LOOKING DOWN

THE AIRING CUBOARD PAINTED BY ME JUDE AND PETE WITH THE SUPER HIGH SKIRTING BOARD!

ON THE LANDING LOOKING TOWARDS THE BACK GARDEN

FINNS BEDROOM

BOYS BATHROOM WITH BLACK BATH, DRAUGHT BOARD FLOOR TILES, TOILET AND URINAL!!!

LEIGH -WE LOVE YOUR CURVES THANKS!!!!!!
JUDES ROOM

OUR ENSUITE

REUBENS ROOM

LANDING LOOKING TOWARDS THE GUEST BED

PIPE WORK THAT WILL RUN ACROSS THE KITCHEN FLOOR

THE CHARNWOOD THAT PETE IS SPRAYING CREAM!

CURVED GUTTERING!

 

OH ORLA!, YOU SAW ME COMING DIDN'T YOU!!!!!!!

WE'RE PLASTERED!

The plasterers left last week they were here about a 9 days and they did the whole of upstairs and some of the hallway, they did a nice job and the curved walls look really great.

We have been to pick up the Chesny it was in a really nice place, and Pete has started to spray the charnwood stove and that is going well. He has also concreted the floor in the fireplace in the family room, and we need a trip out to a salvage yard for the stone slabs thet we want for the finished fire place.

WOW the stairs are looking good, after much discussion and a frantic search for a magazine picture we now have the start of a very modern curved staircase, the plaster board wasn't quite as accomodatindg as the plasterboard uptairs on the wardrobes, about 5 sheets snapped in half, whist trying to curve them!

The fabric cables have now been sent back from |Sweeden - earthed this time, hooray!

|Framefast are coming on tuesday to fix the bi fold doors, they were also coming last Thursday and then cancelled, so we shall wait and see.

The scaffolders have been round giving us grief, Pete has started to take some of the scaffolding down and it should all be down by the end of the week, as he has now finished the repair work to all of the upstairs windows.

UROLOGY- after the stairs are finished they are going to start on the plumbing, hence last weekend we took advantage on  some Tradepoint and Wickes offers and got most of the bathroom tiles, which the kids loved!!!!-not

I am trying to encourage Pete to start building the verhandah now the weather seems to be improving, - now it is officially spring we will never do winter again in this caravan- now that feels good!!!!!!

DANCING QUEEN!

The couloured Fabric cables arrived yesterday from NUD in sweeden- the colours are fantastic even if I do say so myself, but they have been sent unearthed, ( we ordered them eartherd) so now we are waiting for a response to the email we sent last night!

Pete has installed the built in hoover, and it all works, so now we have hidden the hose and all the different heads, just in case anyone thinks its a good idea to hoover up round the building site!

..... the last couple of have been quite exciting, all of the taps that we ordered have arrived as well as the two baths.  Pete, Reuben and I borrowed a tipper truck from a bloke up the road and went off to Newark to get our huge lime green hot water cylinder, the word gypsies srings to mind, which is totally fine by me except we went home the long way (after a flask in a layby!!!) via Mansfield to pick up our uber cool built in coffee machine!!!!,

on another trip out with Pete - to the tip and then the steel scrap yard- he knows how to treat a girl, ( actually if it was between a scrap yard or Westfield, the scrap yard would win every time)
we picked up a fantastic steel pipe that we are going to use in Finn's built in wardrobe to give it a New 'York Loft apartment' feel ...
..... Pete has build and plasterboarded the curved walk in wardrobes in Jude and Reuben's rooms and we are really happy with them, he has plastered the airing cuboard and the plasterers are coming next week to do all of the  upsatirs and the hall.

We are still waiting for the call to pick up the chesney stove, but the bargain basement stove has arrived today along with the spary paint, it looks fine but we will just have to plumb it in and hope the back boiler is not damaged.

The front upstairs windows are going in today, and Pete and Dave are cutting all the window cills and priming them ready for the plasterers.

Reuben and I went over to trade point on Monday to get a load of paint (.... i know! its all very exciting- it was just white, but I have started to look at the colours for the few rooms that won't be white) and while we were there we called in to Sainsburys where I found the perfect shades to make my own version of the Graham and Green bird cage shades (£350!!!! each) and Gardener Mark who has been hunting all over London scince christmas for the birds finally found some in Covent Garden (thankyou friend!)  and they will be arriving any day ( not really a priority???- depends what your priorities are!! )

.........talking of priorities we found the toilet we wanted for the main bathroom, and the ebay shop auctioned one every day we kept missing out so we put in a bid really early and won it for pennies!yipeee!!! now we just need to win the lovely victorian towel rail with a chip in the back- nothing that can't be hidden with a towel!!!!!

THIS MORNING-GETTING READY TO PLASTER BOARD DOWNSTAIRS, - I ONLY WENT TO TAKE OUT THE MORNING BREW AND ENDED UP MAN HANDLEING THE STAIRCASE AROUND!

A NEW DOORWAY- THIS IS THE UNDERSTAIRS CUBOARD WHERE WE WILL KEEP THE 9METRE HOOVER HOSE WE ORDERED TODAY!

UPSTAIRS LANDING, LOOKING TOWARDS BACK GARDEN

BOYS SHOWER

FROM THE BACK

PETE IS TRYING TO TRAIN THIS PIECE OF PLASTERBOARD TO GO ROUND THE BEND!, JUDES BUILT IN WARDROBE

JUDES WARDROBE

MY BEDROOM

LOOKING ALONG UPSTAIRS LANDING TOWARDS THE GUEST BEDROOM

GUEST BEDROOM WITH DOORWAY TO ENSUITE

GUEST BED, LOOKING TOWARDS THE GARDEN

 

GUEST ENSUITE

WE LOST ALL THE SNOW OFF THE ROOF IN ONE GO , FRONT AND BACK THE NOISE WAS TERRIFIC!

THIS AFTERNOON- ALL BOARDED UP

 

BECAUSE WE HAVE HAD THE TIMBER FRAME UP SO LONG IT IS SO STRANGE TO SEE IT ALL COVERED UP WITH PLASTER BOARD!!

WHO NEEDS 31 TAPS? APPARENTLEY WE DO ONLY 2 LEFT TO ORDER, THE POST MAN IS GOING TO TAKE EARLY RETIREMENT!!!,
 BATH NO1 ARRIVING TOMORROW AND NO2 ON 1ST FEB............................

HAVE YOU HEARD THE ONE ABOUT..........

THE ENGLISH MAN THE IRISH MAN AND THE LOG BURNER??????


                       NO???

WELL STICK AROUND AND YOU MIGHT HEAR A GREAT JOKE....

After a lot of discussion, research and a sleepless night we have decided to take the gamble and buy the Charnwood Island III, that was installed in  someone elses house a couple of weeks ago, without water in the boiler, Pete has spoken to the technical team at Charnwood in the Isle of White  for advice and the bloke will sell it with a garuntee, it's a really good price so it's worth the risk.

  The cables have arrived from "fabric Cables", who are part of Urban Cottage Industries, I was really happy with the cable and also the fantastic packaging!!!-( I am a sucker!!!), and today I went all international, and phoned NUD collection in Sweeden ( we had not been having any luck contacting them via email) luckily the girl spoke English (better than me!) and I didnt have to play sharrads, they are able to supply the cables in the lengths that we need.

Harlows brought a whole load of wood today and after we have carried it all upstairs into the house .........they will be coming back for it tomorrow  as they sent the wrong size door frames, the rest of the wood is for the boys walk in wardrobes.

We have had contact from Marvick, regarding the windows and have come to arangement that suits us both, obviously we would rather not have to take out all 31 openers, and plane off the bottom and re paint them.

Plaster boarding continues in earnest up stairs, pete is feeling under pressure as the plasterers are closing in due in 2 ish weeks!

Pam had Reuben today So I was able to spent the whole day working with Pete, it was like the good old days, I really enjoyed it, we also designed the boys walk in wardrobes, which Pete will build tomorrow, and we re designed the guest en suite.

It's all about the taps, we have been busy ordering all the taps, there are still a few left to source this evening, we have found and ordered the two baths,  and if the price is right (come on regavent!!!) we are going to have one of those built in hoover thingies!!!!-it is always a good idea to keep cleaning products well hidden, out of sight out of mind!

Pete has built the shower enclosure in the boys bathroom and concreted the floor.

A bloke in a Landrover turned up yesterday, wanting to buy the caravan from us!!! after clearing out all my mouldy shoes (including my glitzy "camper" sandels) he can have it!!! sadly he needs it in a couple of months, and we will still be happily camping in it...................

lights, camera, action!

Our lighting order came from Barnitts, last week and we were so happy with the lights, however we are not having much luck with our coloured lighting cables.

we have borrowed a camera and so I can now add some photos onto the post.

There is plenty of action, Marvick are coming out tomorrrow to have a look at the windows, so watch this space, we are still waiting for the parts to come from framefast, they are then going to come and sort out the bi fold doors! Pete has finished the first fix for the electrics including the outside lights and doorbell ( we have saved the doorbell chimes from the bungalow), we have a date for the plasterers to come and and start (approx 3 weeks time) and therefore Pete and Dave have started plasterboarding some of the rooms.  Based on the number of floor tiles we had Pete has built the stud wall for the guest ensuite! and yesterday they built the wall in the main bathroom for the boys triple sink to sit on!, they also built the stud work for the shower and re built it this morning as on reflection the room could take a bigger shower. The building inspector came last week and is going to send out someone who actually can check the electrics, but he checked all the steels whilst he was here.

We need 2 computers, there is so much internet searching to do in the evenings, we are currently getting all the quotes for the 2 stoves, Pete has ordered the hot water tank and we are off to Newark to collect it next week,

sink in place in boys bathroom

 

the warmest place on site,- for repainting all the windows

wiring

guest bedroom with stud work for ensuite


 

Break in!

We have had a break in, in the middle of the day as well and I knew the bloke that broke in (dead dodgy he is!,) in fact I helped him break in !!!

We were concerned about security so Pete dead locked and bolted the side garage door from the inside and went into the house to do the electrics, some how the electrics tripped , causing the main box to trip which was locked in the garage!!!!! you can't raise the roller doors with out electrics, ooppps!

We have had loads of pipe insulation and loft insulation delivered, and this week we need to order the boiler. We have been staring at the fireplace in the "no toy Lounge" with different shaped cardboard cut outs in the hole working out which size log burner will look best- its all very technical.

I decided to look for lights in the sales and found some nice ones from  Rocket st George, and a whole load from "Garden Trading" who said there was no way they could offer a discount so after a few hours or research I was very happy to get the same lights from Barnitts In York ( where I have spent many christmas Eves') with 20% off and free deliverey!

We have realised that there is a problem with all of the windows in the house, and its really frustrating because Pete has spent so many hours working on the windows, and we are not 100% sure that the work we will need to do to rectify the problem will work.

We are not very Happy!!!!

Camera still broke so no photos- just imagine 2 sad faces and 3 wooden boards in the holes where 3 windows used to be.

.....it could have been worse we could have a leak.....



oh we have one of those but its in the guest bed room - and it's never wise to make your visitors too comfortable!!!!!!