eek its been a while !! We’ve had a few weeks in Ibiza in October window but otherwise we’ve been in lockdown or tier3 with not much we can do .. other than work on the house. Its been relentless attempting to finish things which at times has been great fun and others tedious. The worst job was bodging: filling, sanding, painting, repeat above the 12 doors making the plaster good .. fortunately now done. So:
Andy and James found the odd day over the weeks to finish all the electrics in both the house and the garage. All done, with only a couple of problems where cables were unconnected, one being due to the plasterers leaving it inside the wall and the other we are none the wiser.
After 10 weeks from order we have all the oak doors .. well, apart from two and we’ve had Gavin, another of Alex’s recommendations as a joiner fitting the doors, oak architraves and skirtings. Couple of coats of osmo oil and they look a treat. I fitted the softwood skirting in bedrooms and workshops with a top new toy .. a nailer. Endless fakin painting but the last one done today. Also the five eclisse pocket doors are fitted and look v nice and clean.
From the screeding I’ve laid the workshops and services rooms floors with a concrete-effect camaro loc flooring (50sqm). The first sqm took a day as I made a right bollocks .. the last 15sqm took half a day as I’d learnt the knack. This is true for getting the hang of most things.
Most rooms are finished .. carpets due to be fitted in the bedrooms on monday and then the only area that needs doing is the hall and hallways. We even have some mirrors, pictures and ‘stuff’ making the house more homely. Ang has been busy in her workshop making the soft furnishings which are steadily going up around the house.
All bar one radiator is fitted and the five heating zones are all working as they should. I was v concerned as I thought I’d made a bollocks (yes, another one) in the design of the heating system as we simply couldn’t get the lounge warm enough – despite the 10kW wood-burner. Without doors we were unsuccessfully heating 2/3rds of the house from the one room. Fortunately with all the doors its a lot better, but I gotta say the house is not as warm as I expected. Thermal mass and insulation is all very good but when the inside of the house is cold it takes time and energy to warm it up. We’re learning but maybe my antipathy to underfloor heating was unfair.
Many good evenings have been spent faffing on technology. The home controls system is maturing and reasonably working. I had some worrying nightmares with the whole system dying a death twice (sd-cards and databases getting corrupted) but I’ve simplified the systems (with the home controls running on a dedicated computer (pi)) and it seems happier. There are now 20 odd devices with the wired devices (switches, lights) being wifi sonoff-tasmota and zigbee ikea and the battery devices (thermostats) zigbee sonoff and xiaomi. I run homeassistant on a raspberrypi. There are about 30 automations – many associated with the central heating but I also do things like automatically shutting the garage door at 9pm .. in case I’m stupid and have left it open. The final part of the jigsaw is I’ve built a replica pdp11/70 .. the first computer I ever programmed over 40 years ago. Apart from running ancient software it will be a retro front end to the home controls with knobs and lights .. faffing at its best.
I had big problems with supply of materials mid-year with the covid lockdown but now have endless hassle getting simple things – like door handles with supplier problems due covid, brexit, fukit and to the ports being blocked.
Finally, finally we are making progress with the stairs. Bob and lads from Ark Engineering have finally installed the metalwork and it looks a treat. Another of Alex’s recommendation, Dave Sykes is making the oak treads. Its a pretty complicated assembly with 4 pieces jointed and glued so they don’t crack. They are due next week so xmas will be varnishing 30 treads. Steve can then get on with the glass balustrading. Then ….