An update on the last three years....And it all kickstarts again!

I cannot believe it is at least 3 1/2 years since we last posted on the blog.  You've missed moving in and everything...!

The new series of Grand Designs has just started and a few people have asked us about where we are with the house now, and did we 'do' Grand Designs! It made me realise that we hadn't posted on this blog we kept up with diligently for years.  So it was time for an update.

We didn't 'do' Grand Designs. To be honest we didn't think about it early enough, but I am not sure that we could have coped with Kevin's questions as well as everyone elses!

So, I think it's fair to say that the last few months before we moved in on the 28th May 2012 were somewhat full on.  We were trying to finish tiling, decorating, and all those pesky jobs that you know if you don't do now, you never will.

You missed me getting very emotional with the Building Control inspector when he gave us our Certificate of Completion and Occupancy Certificate, without any red items that needed rectifying. None.  We did it in one(ish).  I was so proud of us that day.

You missed move in day. Something of an anti-climax if we're honest.  We seemed to have been in the house forever building it, falling in and out of love with it many times over the three years, and now we were actually in.  I think it hit us about a month later when all the furniture arrived, then it felt like a home.

And here we are.  We still pinch ourselves sometimes when we have time to reflect on what we actually did, at our age (young apparently, not old!), with our own bare hands, while living over 2 hours away by car for the first 18 months, working full time throughout, and we're still speaking and married!  Result!

We still have a distinct lack of light shades, and only two pictures up in the whole house; Darran's collector's edition The Simpsons stamps, and a picture we bought in Paris when we got engaged in 2004.  We really need to get more up, but have always wanted to find things that mean something to us, rather than trot off to Ikea and buy load of random pictures.

Moving in was only about two-thirds of the way to the whole project being done. We now have the outside to do.  The house is in the middle of the plot, so there is more ground at the front than the back, but also quite a lot either side too.

We didn't do anything from 2012 to now, but last year we started the back garden (then decided to go on holiday twice to make up for the last 6 years!), lawn and raised veggie beds went in.

This year we have done the decking which adjoins the back of the house (washing line still to move!), and have started to put block paving around the sides and along the back.

Our goal by the end of the year is to have all this block paving done, new slabbing under the breeze way and up the ramp, and then next year we will do the drive, but we have decided to get contractors in to do that for us as there is a lot of levelling to do.

So, it's starting again.  Just when you thought my pink steel toe-capped boots had gone in to retirement, they're back.

What did we learn throughout it all?

Anything is possible.

We had the idea. We found a plot. We planned it, drew it, financed it, project managed it, built it.

We jumped through hoops, fought a few battles. We compromised, we sort counsel.

We tried.  And then we tried again.  And again.

We celebrated, we cried, we laughed. We fell out.  We made up again.

There were times we wanted to sell everything for 50p.

But we did it.

And I love that we did.

Top 10 things not to say when someone you know is self-building!

We've haven't ranted that much on this blog, so now we're about to make up for it!

If you know someone who's building their own house, and when we say building it, we mean them and not a builder (big difference) here are a few tips on what NOT TO SAY!!!!

Our 'Top 10' of the most annoying and testing things you can say to two people who have devoted the last three years of their lives to building a house are:-

1. I remember having the extension built on our house, such hard work (key difference there....having it "built" for you).
2. What are you doing this weekend? (The same as we have been doing for the last 150 odd weekends).
3. It's taking a long time to do isn't it. (We're building a house in our spare time).
4. Still doing DIY? (Don't even get us started on the difference between self-building and DIY).
5. Why don't you just do it this way...? (You honestly think we haven't thought of that?)
6. When do you think you'll be in? (Soon. And it's been soon since the 16th July 2009).
7. I couldn't do it (well don't then).
8. You need a team of people to help you (and you'd get another list of 10 reasons why that is a disaster waiting to happen).
9. You must be tired. (Tired happened Christmas 2009, try again.)
10. Can't you just move in anyway? (Occupancy certificate? Structural warranty sign off? Building Control approval? Insurances? Shall we go on....?)

We've heard them all, several times. We know people are just trying to empathise and be supportive (most of the time). But please. Enough now.

One of the best things that you can say, which was said to me last week, is quite simply....

"Wow. You are amazing. Well done".

And then prepare for that person to burst in to tears!

Extraction!

We fitted the extractor fan and splash back in the kitchen a few weeks back. It looks lovely (even with protective covers still on!) and makes a hell of a noise even on the lowest speed, but that's want you want so there's not curry smells the next morning and so on.

The gloss black kitchen tiles have arrived so before the tile cutter gets put away, we've the kitchen to do too. The cooker has also been delivered and the gas man will hook that up when he comes to install the boiler which will hopefully be in the next couple of weeks.

Tiling (again)

Just when you thought it was safe to put away the tile cutter, it's back out with a vengeance. Darran's back on his favourite job (not!) of tiling the ensuite and bathroom. Here are a couple of pictures at the half way stage.

Bath in, and waiting for gloss black border tiles to arrive.

Ensuite, with borders fitted. Looks very nice!

So, a couple more weekends and that will see that tick. Not much more left now.....

The Bathrooms

You've seen the kitchen done, now on to the bathrooms. We certainly weren't idle on our two week break over Christmas and New Year!

As we've got more of a wet room set up rather than a shower tray set up in the bathroom and ensuite, we needed to do 'tanking' (technical term!) around the corners and floors of the wet room areas.

Then it was on to tiling the floors. We've gone for black in the bathroom as we have gloss white tiles for the walls, and a dark brown for the ensuite in keeping with the rest of the colour scheme in that room, and we have gloss cream for the walls.

(Both room still need another couple of washes to get the grout dust off so look a bit dull).

And now it's on to tiling the walls. Just the mosaic and feature tiles to decide on. More decisions. Anyone want to make this decision for for us....please.....anyone.....?

The Kitchen

We now have a kitchen! Well all bar the cooker, fridge and dishwasher.

We spent AGES faffing about on the Ikea website, visiting Ikea, thinking we had made decision then changing our minds. We went from gloss black, to gloss red, to gloss white, to gloss black, to limed oak, and finally settled on gloss white. And we're so pleased we did. Anything else would have made the kitchen really dark.

The worktops also came last week so we've fitted those, with just the raised bar bit to go as we don't have the stilts for that yet.

Even though it's still got all the blue protection on the doors, we're really pleased with it.

Now to choose tiles - here we go again!

The Story of The Floors

Are we sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin!

We decided we would tile the kitchen, dining room, sitting room, lobby and cloakroom floors, and the front bedroom floor as this will be used as a study/home office for us. We found some lovely Travertine floor tiles which we would use for the sitting room, kitchen etc. and shiny black granite for the home office. The total floor area of all these rooms are around 70msq so we had a pretty big area to cover.

We had originally laid the screed ourselves (you can read about that here) and although wasn't level, wasn't too bad in places, but as you need screed as level as possible to make laying floor tiles as easy as possible, we decided to put self levelling compound on the areas that were seriously out to make our life easier.

You would think, as we did, that self-levelling compound would do what it says on the bag and self-level. Well, no. It doesn't. We followed the instructions to the letter, and when it had set and we came to lay tiles, it was more out of level than it was to begin with. So two rows of the Travertine tiles back up again, and silence. Now what do we do? We had all this expanse of floor and 2.5 tonnes of floor tiles, and a floor, which at that time, wasn't suitable to lay them on.

As we assessed the damage, the levelling compound had seemed to set in mounds, so Darran was down there with the grinder over the next few days making good the floor, and after about a week we felt brave enough to start the tiling again. And it was fine, albeit a little bit of levelling needed to take place with using more or less adhesive as necessary, but we were at least on our way.

Well, it took weeks and weeks to lay the tiles. Not helped by the floor problems at the beginning which took the edge off it all. I'm not sure why we thought it wouldn't take that long. I think you just get swept up in a new phase of the build and all that enthusiasm outweighs realism sometimes! And with only working on it at weekends, it dragged on and on and on and on.

The granite tiles on the other hand, went down a dream.

Both floor areas are now grouted. The black granite is almost finished, although the final top coat of sealant has not buffed to a mirror shine (which it should) so we've washed that down as instructed and will see what happens when it has dried.

The Travertine needs the top seal coat, but will need a wash down first is it has a film of grout dust on it at the moment.

Both floors look fantastic. And they needed to after the struggle we had.

No pictures just yet, I'll wait until it's finished.

We've Gone National!

Darran and I appear in the Mail on Sunday today as part of a piece Stephen Womack wrote on 'How to get a lot more house for your money'.

This came about via Buildstore and Jaclyn, their PR Manager. We were really pleased to be asked, interviewed by Stephen and have an 'action photoshoot' a few weekends ago. The online article doesn't show the photo of us tiling the kitchen floor, that only appears in the printed copy.

The picture above was another taken by Paul Lewis, one of the Mail's photographers who came out for the photoshoot, so we thought we'd share this with you too.

Autographed copies are available by request!

Photo Credit: (c) Paul Lewis.

And There's Still More Colour......

The painting is finished! Only the odd touch up to go in the corners, but other than that, we have rooms with colour, real colour in a real home!

Cloakroom

Master Bedroom

Guest Bedroom

The Study

These photos come with the usual caveat 'bear with it until it's finished, you're not thinking what we're thinking'!

We had all the skirting and architrave delivered on Saturday so the next step will be hanging the doors, and fitting the skirting and architrave, and glossing. Our internal doors are being delivered next Saturday (hopefully) and that will move us on a bit more.

We also sat down this afternoon to make a list (if you haven't realised by now I am the List Queen) about what we would like to do before our two weeks off in August, what we need to get, and do a bit of a stock-take on where we are. If you write really really small, everything between now and when we move in just about fits on one side of A4!

Surely that's a good sign.

More Colour....

The painting continues.....

Sitting room with side walls done in Rum Caramel.

Our bedroom in Ginger Glow. You'll need to bear with us with this room as this colour doesn't do it justice at the moment.

The study in Jade White.

We now only have the feature walls to do so that'll be a day next weekend and then the painting will be done.

Then it will be on to glossing the skirting and architrave.

In other news, we now have lights in the garage and utility and the sockets also work.

Colour At Last!

Well, we said we wanted colour!

(The gaps are where units will go).

Here is the kitchen and dining room in all its Redcurrant Glory. We weren't sure when we opened the tin as it looked more Raspberry Pink, but we love it! It's difficult to imagine it with all the kitchen units, furniture, skirting and coving, but it's how we imagined colour-wise so far, so that's a relief.

Other than the kitchen, the Guest Bedroom has had its main colour, and the hall, lobby, utility room and all the ceilings have now had two coats.

It seems to be moving on a pace again now, which is great, and just what we need.

Painting Has Started

Today saw the first coats of the final finish paint applied.

The ceilings have been done in the lobby, cloakroom, bedrooms 1, 2 and 3 and the hallway.

It all seems very close to the end now!

The Hormanns From Hell

Note to self for fitting any future remote controlled roller shutter doors - DO NOT follow the instructions but use the common sense you were blessed with.

We had fun and games fitting these Golden Oak Decograin Hormann Doors.

The instruction book contains 'Maintenance and Operating Instructions' in over twenty different languages (2 pages for each language), and is then followed by 16 pages of diagrammatic instructions. All the manufacturers stipulate you need in order to fit the doors is 90mm around the opening to fit the frame on to. What they don't tell you is you also need room either side of the door frame in order to attach various Important Parts that require nuts to be done up.

After 4 1/2 hours of frustration with barely the four outer parts of the frame attached, and mutterings of "I'd like to see their guys try and fit our doors in six hours", and announcements of new words not currently included in the English (or Australian) Dictionary, we decided to abandon the instructions, and do our own thing!

Ta Da! A lot easier, which is reflected in the construction times. Door 1 = 12 hours, Door 2 = 2 hours

Notice the painted white ceiling and 'Stone' walls.

Despite all that we're very very pleased with them!

Testing Testing

I have been living in Tester Pot Heaven for the passed few weeks, as you'll see by the photos below. So far we have decided on: -

Guest Bedroom: feature wall = Mulberry Burst, contrasting walls = soft stone

The Hive (aka the office): feature wall = Lapis Blue, contrasting walls = TBC. We don't like the current contrasts so will have some more coming in a few days.

Main Bedroom: feature wall = Volcanic Splash 2, contrasting walls = TBC. We have some chocolate and coffee browns coming shortly.

Sitting Room: feature walls = Potters Wheel, contrasting walls = Rum Caramel 5

Dining Room: Two walls = Rum Caramel 5 linking with main kitchen colour below.

Kitchen: Main Wall = Redcurrant Glory linking with Rum Caramel 5 above.

Cloakroom: feature wall and alcove = Blue Reflection, contrasting walls = Wellbeing

Lobby: all walls = Putty

All ceilings will be Contemporary which is a slight off white. Skirting and architrave will either be Contemporary, or the contrasting colour in each room.

We have yet to decide on tiles for the bathroom and ensuite.

Skimming

Yep, the house is now complete and ready for final fix, decoration and fit out.

The plasterer and his team have done a great job of the final finish of both the house and garage. Darran has finished spraying the seal coat and we're ready to go. There are some pictures below which give you an idea that everywhere is WHITE, so I didn't put too many on as everywhere looks the same!

Note the 'Paint Station' in this picture used to help with refilling the sprayer. This must-have self-builder's kit isn't available anywhere else! Dragon's Den here we come....??

Kitchen looking towards the lobby and out the front door.

Looking into the dining area from the kitchen.

Sitting Room towards kitchen

WARNING: the next post will contain bright colours!

Buildstore Case Study

A little while ago we were contacted by Buildstore, the UK's leading organisation for self build, renovation and conversion products and services. Our mortgage is with Buildstore Financial Services and during a conversation with our mortgage advisor, Tom McSherry, he asked to see some pictures of our project which he had helped to support, I sent him through a link to this blog, and the next day was contacted by Jaclyn Thorburn, PR and Communications Manager for Buildstore wanting to feature Darran and I as a case study!

We were really, really chuffed, to say the least.

Buildstore often get approached by national newspapers and magazines for stories for self-build projects and Darran and I are now in the mix should they get any requests. We are also featured on their website here.

Jaclyn has also requested a picture of Darran and I in front of the house, which we have promised when it's looking a little more picturesque i.e. when the Roundup has done its job, which shouldn't be too long now.

Thank you again to Jaclyn, Tom and the team at Buildstore for taking an interest!

Plaster Boarding: Part 1

Photos of the plaster boarding so far. Two weekends have boarded....

Study

Study

Study

Hallway from the study.

Bedroom 3 - wardrobe.

Bedroom 3

And as you can see from the photo above, still quite a bit left to go at (and there is one more pile round the corner that you can't see...)

The (Almost) Final Stretch!

Well, here it is. A long overdue blog post.

Although we haven't posted for a few months, we certainly haven't been idle.

All electrics and plumbing are now installed. The electric sign-off has taken place and Darran got top marks first time! He has researched and installed all electrics himself, and Building Control then appoint an electrician to sign off the works (they don't like doing it because it's a free service, but it worked well for us!). All plumbing pipes are in, including gas pipes. This sort of thing isn't that photogenic hence not posting regular photos for a while.

The next task was to fit all door linings and the insulation in the external walls and acoustic insulation in dividing walls. Building regulations only state that you need acoustic insulation where bathrooms join another room, but we decided to acoustic all of the bedroom wing.

This picture shows some of the heat recovery system pipes across the sitting room ceiling.

All that is now complete and we had our pre-plasterboard sign off last Friday 11th March and we passed with flying colours! This involved a visit by Building Control, the Structural Warranty Surveyor and Architect. Now it's on to the plaster boarding and actually making rooms! It is already half way there having the insulation in and you can no longer see from one end of the house to the other! Not wanting to get cold, we have already plaster boarded the study!

We have lined up a plasterer to come in and skim the walls and ceiling when the board is up and then it's on to the fun bit, decorating and fit out!

We're off to the Ideal Home Show on the 18th March to try and get some ideas on interiors, and specifically the use of colour - having only ever lived in rented accommodation since we have been together the only colour we know is magnolia!