Month: March 2017

Interior Doors, Skirting Boards and Laminate Floor

Our interior doors and skirting boards on the ground-floor and the cellar are installed. One man arrived (completely on his own) on Thursday and installed 6 door frames (complete with hinges), then came back again on Friday and installed the skirting boards.

The doors are not hanging yet, as the adhesive that holds the door frames in place needs a day or two to completely set first. All we need to do is to lift the doors onto the lugs, in a few days time.

The first-floor doors and frames have not been installed yet (although it was originally planned that these would also be done).  It is simpler when this is done after the laminate floor is laid, so he will come back and do them another time.

On Friday, we started laying the laminate floor. The first room (bedroom) is now finished. Four rooms to go!

We will install the first-floor skirting boards, after the door frames are done.

Plumbing, Heating & Electrics

Another midweek spurt today as the plumbers and electricians were all back.

The electricians have now fitted nearly all of the plastic covers on the power sockets, network and TV sockets. Here are the ones that will be hidden behind the TV in the lounge (so it doesn’t really matter that they are not in a straight line!)

The plumbers meanwhile have installed the toilets, sinks, taps and shower,  connected up the ventilation system for the heating so that is now running in heat pump mode (rather than in immersion heater mode).

The front cover has now been put on the heat pump for the first time and looks much neater.

They even fitted the outside tap (this one is connected to the main water supply, the water from the rainwater tank comes out somewhere else!

The plumbers are more or less finished, other than that the shower tap they have installed is not the right one). Hopefully they will come back and change it soon.

The electricians have still got to fit a few more socket covers, complete the satellite TV cabling and install the cables that run outside.

In this picture, the main electricity supply (left), water (bottom) and fibre-optic telephone cables (right) can be seen. The empty holes at the top are for the outside cables (for the shed and the water pump in the rainwater tank)

Interior doors should be coming in the next couple of days…

Paintwork Completed

The painters were at the house this morning to finish off and clear up. The paintwork is now complete. Other than that, no work at the house today.

We did, however, have two deliveries today:

    • Our laminate flooring was delivered ready for us to start installing it next weekend.

    • The plumbers dropped off two toilets, two sinks and shower fittings. They will be back on Wednesday to install them.

Utility Connection Completed & Stairs Installed

After several days of not much happening inside the house, the painters were back at 8 a.m. this morning, and by this evening had painted the lounge, the bathroom and the guest WC.

Outside, the electricity, water and telephone connections are now installed, so now we have mains electricity running to a junction box in the cellar, a water supply (including meter) ready to be connected up and an FTTH (fiber-to-the-home) telephone connection.

We are not sure exactly who Osman is, but he seems to have been proud of his work, and has written his name on the cellar wall (right-hand side of the photo)!

When we arrived at the house this evening, we saw that the two flights of temporary stairs that were installed when the construction started (see “Stairway to Nowhere” from 6th December) are now laying outside.

Inside work was underway to install the stairs. The cellar stairs were already installed and we were able to try them out, and the first few of the stairs to the first floor were installed. An hour or so later when we left, they were almost done and were already working on the bannisters. We assume they by the time we are home and writing this, that the guys are finished and gone.

We are really pleased with the way they look (even though they are still wrapped in polyethene) and because they are no as steep as the temporary ones (because they turn the corner) they are much easier to use!

There’s really not much more to be done now:

  • Painters still have to come back
  • Internal doors and skirting boards
  • Laying the laminate flooring upstairs (will be delivered on Monday for installation by us)
  • Installation of the electricity meter
  • Connection of the water to the boiler
  • Installation of the bathroom suites
  • Installation of the solar inverter and battery
  • Attaching the plastic surrounds on the sockets
  • Installation of the air vents
  • The bricks will be cleaned
  • (Hopefully we didn’t forget anything on this list!)

Utility Connection – Day 1

Since it rained a lot on at the weekend (about 14mm) we estimate that the rainwater tank should have about 1000 litres of water in it now, ready for watering the garden in the summer. Better still, since the downpipes are now connected to something, we don’t have a moat this time.

No work happened on Monday, which meant that the windows were not opened at all during the day, and by the time we got there in the evening, the upstairs was a tropical 29° Celsius.

Like every Tuesday, today we met the Construction Manager first thing. As we arrived at the house, we saw that two grooves had already been cut into the road in front of our house by the energy companies’ groundwork company and they were working on a neighbouring plot.

The Construction Manager had taken the polythene off all of the windows where it hadn’t already been taken off, so the first time we can see out of all of the windows properly.

By this afternoon, the groundwork company had dug out the channel all the way across the road and were in the process of laying ducts for the water, electricity and telephone companies. Each of the companies should be on-site in the next few days to make the connections, and then the road will be closed up again.

The yellow duct is for gas, which is being laid even though we are not having a gas connection (presumably not connected at either end) in case we want to install gas in future.

 

Tiling Complete, Rainwater Tank Installed, Garden Levelled

Another week is over and looking back, a lot has been achieved.

The tilers finished grouting and set off for home at around 1pm on Thursday, having done all of the tiling in three and a half days. Someone else then showed up to start the silicon joints. The painters should be back again next week to finish off.

The electricians have now finished connecting up all of the wires, and the LNBs are now on the satellite dish, although the cables are not yet connected to the LNBs. The distribution cupboard is ready for the electric meter to be installed, once we have our mains electric connection.

Outside, a 3m x 3m x 2.3m deep whole has been dug out and the rain water tank installed. The downpipes for the water coming off the roof are now connected and as it is likely to rain in the next few days, the tank should start to fill up.




The road was dug up on Thursday to connect the waste-water and rainwater pipes to the mains, and new tarmac was laid today.

We also had the garden levelled at the back and side (where we are not laying driveways) so the original heap of soil that was dug out for the cellar and the new heap that was dug out for the rain water tank are gone!

Tiling Day 3

Although the tilers were planned for the whole week, they have already finished laying all of the floor tiles and the wall tiles.

Even though it is only Wednesday, they have already started grouting, and told us that they will be finished and heading home around lunchtime on Thursday.

The electrician is making excellent progress in the cellar, and seems to have remembered which cable is which and where they all should go..

Next to the electrical distribution board, but not in the picture, the satellite multi-switch has already been installed as well as the network patch panel.

Outside, the groundwork continues. Today the road was dug up and our waste water and rainwater connections to the mains were made. The rainwater tank should be coming tomorrow. By the time I got there this evening, the digger and bulldozer were parked up for the night on our front parking space.

Floor Tiles

Today we met the subcontractor who is tiling the floors and bathroom walls for the first time.

The first thing we wanted to discuss with them was some minor changes to where the bathroom wall tiles are going (not tiling one wall at all in favour of tiling to the ceiling in another place.

Secondly, we wanted to look at the options for tile edge trim and to get a price for this (originally we did not order any). We have decided on a brushed metal trim.

While there, one of the tilers took a look at the bath, and commented that the distance between the bath and the wall was too much (about 5mm too much) and that he would arrange for it to be taken out and put in nearer the wall. At the same time, he noticed that the sockets by the sink were at a height where they would be on the join between tiled and not tiles, and that the electrician would need to move them down about 7.5cm.

By this evening, the sockets had been moved down, and the plumber was there moving the bath 5mm nearer the wall.

Since the tilers were not able to start in the bathroom until these things had been changed, they have done half of the ground floor floor tiles instead today. By tomorrow they will be set, and the electrician will be able to come back and continue installing the electrics.

 

Sockets, Light Switches and Diggers

We visited the house this afternoon to ventilate it, but no need as lots of work was going on and most of the windows were already open.

Inside, the electricians are back and have been installing sockets and light switches.

Outside, more work was going on. The diggers were at work burying the neighbours rainwater tank which has been installed today. We talked quickly to one of the digger drivers who told us that they will be starting with our groundwork on Monday (connection to waste water, rain water and installation of the rainwater tank).