Self_Build_Dreamers

Week 60 – Site Progress! First fix is almost finished plus window cills and using the bifolds..

Another week and the first fix is just about done…honestly ha! The waste pipes are now in but the plumber is missing a few bits and so hopefully he will be back in week 61….

Plus Harold has been busy with bay window cills and has almost finished the roof tiles too..just ridge tiles to go!

And we had a visit from this guy…he actually walked into the house! I wonder if the peacocks will sneak in when we actually live hear! The cheeky monkey!

I’m also loving these paint colours for the guest bedroom…obviously Farrow and Ball and should work well together!

We were also going to use some brick acid to remove salt from the exposed brick in the house buuuttt we were a little hungover so it’s probably a job for next weekend!!

There isn’t a great deal comparatively speaking, it was worse, but as it isn’t open to the wind and rain it needs a little elbow grease to remove!

And Eddie the electrician has almost finished the first fix, as you can see, we have exterior wiring and he is back on Monday to finish off!

We also moved the makeshift doggy gate so we can use the bifolds…Lola likes it anyway!

And that’s it for another week…building regs are paying a visit next week to sign off before we can move onto the insulation and screed etc.!

Selfbuilddreamers

Caz and Andy x

Week 59 – Site Progress! Plus lowlights and an antique brass tap..

Another week and the bay window tiles are almost done! Just ridge tiles and some leadwork to do on the second bay window then we are good to go!

Plus Eddie has been, and is almost there with the first fix electrics..all socket boxes, and kitchen/utility wiring done now and week 60 will be the last of the downstairs lights. Eek!

Also how many decisions need to be made before first fix! Wow! I mean, it totally makes sense because it’s essentially all your wiring and plumbing so it’s a good job we are organised ha! Such as where the hob’s going…utility layout etc.! As I’ve said before though, it puts us in a great place for second fix..

And I have a whole lot of wires in my dressing room/ensuite…lots of lowlights, downlights…central lights! Plus I’m going with some sort of central unit in here too so decided it would be best to have electrical options in case I decide to go with draw lights..

And another tap delivery, this one is for the downstairs toilet, in antique brass. It’ll work well with the peacock vibe we are going for in there!

The weather has been amazing this week too and so we gave the front a little tidy and got some nice shots with the safety fence down…isn’t she looking pretty, aside from the scaffolding!

And that’s it for another week…the plumber should be back in week 60 to finish off the first fix plumbing as we now have waste pipe…finally! And we should be able to insulate and move onto the screed…watch this space!

https://www.brinno.com/time-lapse-camera/TLC200Pro

Gifted http://brinno.com/time-lapse-camera/TLC2020

Selfbuilddreamers

Caz and Andy x

Week 58 – Site Progress! Plus “fiddly” lights and brick slips..

Lots going on this week! Eddie the electrician has been on site for most of it, finishing off the upstairs wiring and thermostats. The cinema room certainly took some doing…as you can see…

Lots of twinkly LEDs to go in here, and doing this now will make the second fix much easier!

And next week Eddie will crack on with wiring downstairs and should hopefully finish off the first fix, yay!

Plus plumbing first fix is underway, and Andy’s drilling was spot on apparently. He’s very happy!

And we couldn’t resist trying out the taps in their soon to be places! Shouldn’t be too long now

Lots of pipes and holes…

Annndddd Harold has made a start on the bay windows eeekkk! I’ve been eagerly awaiting this…

So far so good, and it’s great to see the facade coming together! It’ll be so exciting when the safety fence comes down too, it’ll feel much more like a home then don’t ya think!

Also, more samples! Andy’s decided to go with brick slips on two walls of his ensuite…watch this space for a more detailed blog post!

And more, what we have come to call “fiddly” lights arrived this week, and these Borgo ones are lower wall lights….

Using Lola for scale ha! They are pretty small..

These will be in my dressing room and ensuite eek! Can’t wait.

One last thing…the plasterer (whom will also be doing the screed) came to price up this week. They should be available pretty quickly too which is great!

And that’s it for another week! Hopefully we can get some good pics of the front of the house next week when the bay windows have been finished and possibly first fix complete!

https://www.brinno.com/time-lapse-camera/TLC200Pro

Gifted http://brinno.com/time-lapse-camera/TLC2020

Selfbuilddreamers

Caz and Andy x

Week 57 – Site Progress..we have wires! Plus door casings,and great finds!

Busy week this week, Eddie the electrician…official name ha (!) has been on site most of the week and has pretty much done all the first fix electrics upstairs

Wires..wires everywhere! And lots of them in the cinema room…we will be having twinkly LED spotlights in here…

As you can see, very sparkly and we’ve just ordered from here

Improvisation..using a headboard for wall light positioning!

And a top tip! If you are thinking of, or in the process of self building make sure you’re organised when it comes to lighting, before first fix. Luckily we had already purchased all our lights or at least had an idea of dimensions and had a fab light plan as well from Luxplan

Eddie had so many questions with regards to where to wire, and positioning. It makes life so much easier if you know light sizes and where you want them..plus have a good think about circuits and light switches too. How many circuits to what switches etc. It can be pretty mind blowing!

Sidenote..we are thinking of going with smart switches but we’ll go into more detail in a separate blog post! Watch this space…

Plus Harold has been too…we actually had a day in which both him and Eddie were here, it really felt like it was all go ha!

And he has been busy doing door casings, he just needs to do some more stud wall related jobs and then we should be ready for screed once Eddie has finished and the first fix plumbing is done

Plus we found some fab midcentury chairs on ebay, love these and should work well in the open plan kitchen/diner…

And that’s it for another week! Eddie is back on Monday to crack on with wiring downstairs and hopefully we can get the first fix plumbing sorted. We’ve just been waiting on some fittings, as there has been stock issues but to be expected in these crazy times hey!

Plus Brinno time…

https://www.brinno.com/time-lapse-camera/TLC200Pro

Gifted http://brinno.com/time-lapse-camera/TLC2020

Selfbuilddreamers

Caz and Andy x

Acoustic panelling..

As we are underway with the stud walls, and rooms are starting to take shape, we can give a little more thought to the hidden door in the tiki bar!

If you have seen on our Instagram, we will be having a coat cupboard in this room,and as it is just off from the hallway and entrance, it should work well…

We love the look of this acoustic panelling, and think it will work great as an hidden door to the cupboard. This should tie in nicely with our tiki bar theme!

Plus we are going with a dark blue on the rest of the walls and ceiling eek cannot wait to do this!

Watch this space for another DIY project, it’s a little way off yet but I’m hopeful it is something we can do ourselves

Selfbuilddreamers

Caz and Andy x

Week 56 – Site Progress..first fix electrics and more stud walls

More progress this week! Andy has been assigned some plumbing tasks and so he made a start on those…cue plumbing related items laid out all pretty in the house ha ha!

And he invested in a new drill, and special drill bit making drilling the plumbing holes much easier!

Needless to say he’s very happy with this one Einhell drill and drill bit More info in the youtube below…

Plus Eddie, the electrician made a start this week! And we have back boxes for sockets, thermostats and light switches yay! And I thought we were organised with regards to lighting…until we realised how difficult it is to decide which circuits to go with which switches! Especially in open plan areas. Wow! Blows your mind ha! But we got there in the end

And Harold, the builder has been cracking on with the stud walls!

This one is on the landing, for Andy’s dressing room. And, as we’ve mentioned before, will stop short of the full roof height to create some interest and show off the roof line

And Harold has done the door casing too now…

And the guest ensuite as well…

Plus this one divides my ensuite and dressing room…and will have a secret mirror door!

Also we needed to decide how big to make a coat cupboard in the tiki bar, cue me pretending to be a coat ha ha! To which Harold pointed out that it simply needed to be the depth of a wardrobe…that works too!

And you’ve guessed it, there will be another hidden door using acoustic panelling, watch this space for a blog inspo post!

Week 57 should see the last of the first fix electrics and Harold is going to contact the plasterer screeder to arrange screed and plastering eek!!

https://www.brinno.com/time-lapse-camera/TLC200Pro

Gifted http://brinno.com/time-lapse-camera/TLC2020

Selfbuilddreamers

Caz and Andy x

Picket fences and brick walls…

So…we have been giving a little more thought to the landscaping, its still way off yet but I can dream ha!

Once the drainage has been sorted, we can at least level out the front and side of the house but we probably won’t get really stuck in until the cottage we are living in at the moment is demolished

One of the biggies though is the fencing or wall, and the numerous options. We actually live on a corner and so the divide would need to be around 3ft on both the front and side…

Excuse all the weeds ha! As you can see, corner of a road/cul de sac. And so, after a lot of thought, we think we will go with a low brick wall and a picket fence…and what colour fence you ask?! Inchyra blue of course!

I love the idea of having a mixture of the two, bricks and fencing, and we are hoping we can use bricks from the cottage when it comes down. It would be lovely to take something from the history of the building. And if the bricks aren’t a great colour, we could always paint them, potentially even a whitewash maybe. Something to think about! But if not probably a reclaimed brick would work well

I do like the finish on this brick..

As you can see I’m liking alot of the picket fence options too, and I don’t think we can go wrong really. I think the mix of the two will really suit the look of the exterior of the house!

Stay tuned for more updates..

Selfbuilddreamers

Caz and Andy x

Week 55 – Site Progress..another stud wall plus ready for first fix!

A pretty quiet one but we do have another stud wall and the first fix on the horizon!

This one is the Jack and Jill ensuite upstairs for the guest bedroom and cinema room

It’s pretty cool being able to play around with room sizes. In this case we made the window central to the room…symmetry!

And a storage cupboard for the manifold and robot hoover! Obviously!

We have also needed to order taps at this stage as we have decided to go with wall mounted ones. The plumber will need the exact sizes, pretty exciting ordering interiors!

I’ve decided to go with a simple design for the bath and twin sinks..love black taps!

And excited for the roll top bath!!

Plus first fix electrics is due to start on Wednesday week 56 eek! And so we really need to make some light switch decisions…not the actual heights, just where really in the room

And Andy has some first fix plumbing jobs to do, lots of drilling before the plumber comes back

Lastly, we finally managed to get the new electric connection booked in, we always thought this was going to be straightforward with the old cottage already having a connection but it turned out we need a whole new connection, and it has to cross the road too. To further complicate the situation, our heat pump and electric car charger mean we need a 3 phase supply not the usual single phase. Anyway it’s all booked in now so we should have power to the new house soon. Fingers crossed!

https://www.brinno.com/time-lapse-camera/TLC200Pro

Gifted http://brinno.com/time-lapse-camera/TLC2020

Selfbuilddreamers

Caz and Andy x

Week 54 – Site Progress! Stud walls, more chipboard and a huge light..

Oh my goodness..the stud walls are going up! And so far we have the utility/downstairs toilet forming eek!

Our eagerness took over and we had to make a mini layout beforehand ha!

Looks a little bit like a cage at the minute!

And the great thing about self building is the numerous tweaking that can be done! We’ve actually measured exactly to the kitchen units in the utility!

And this will be the downstairs peacock themed toilet!

We are thinking something along these lines for the utility with a pantry cupboard at one end and a broom cupboard at the other. Oh and also going for all the same colour, both cabinets and wall to give more of a pantry feel! Watch this space…I will no doubt do a more detailed blog nearer to the time!

Plus more lights!! This one is huge and we will be having three, slightly different sizes, above the bed in our room

And the last of the chipboard! Woop!! Look out for a chipboard DIY blog and video…

Also…we had an architect visit and official sign off for the next stage of the mortgage…wind and water tight woop!

https://www.brinno.com/time-lapse-camera/TLC200Pro

Gifted http://brinno.com/time-lapse-camera/TLC2020

Self_build_dreamers

Caz and Andy x

Spray painting…

Eeek now we have flooring upstairs we can start to visualise and put our planned layouts into practice!

Yes we have been playing around with sketchup but it always helps to actually spray paint in the actual space…I was tempted to buy some inflatable furniture too ha ha!