Week 53 - Internal doors, Septic tank and entrance hall beams ....

Hi folks,

This week we started to see the internal doors getting hung and ironmongery fitted.  What a difference a door makes!  These are looking even better than we thought fitted and suit the design of the house well.  Doors and ironmongery are from International Door and Windows in Aberdeen, product suppliers are LPD and Karcher Design respectively.

Other than that, another main focus this week has been on getting the septic tank location dug out and unit in place.  Quite a big hole to house that bad boy as you can see from the photos ....

Now that the 3 steel beams are in for the main entrance hall, the builders have started to fit the solid Douglas Fir rafters (steel beams will be clad in same material).  You won't see them in the picture as they were removed again until we get the glass on site.  There will be 5 of them running North to South, with the glass sitting on top in sections.  Again, the glass has been a total hassle but it seems like today (26th March) we may actually have someone down in Enger-land who is prepared to specify the glass spec so we can move forward with this order.  This is the biggest threat to us becoming homeless in May!!

All going well this coming week, floor tiling should start and kitchen will be delivered ... watch this space!

Ta ta until then .....

Tank in a big hole ... that's a technical description! 

Entrance hall from river side - beams in, rafter cut, waiting on glass!

Upstairs bathroom ... we love it, lucky kiddies!

Internal doors

Week 52 - One Year of building!!!

Hi everyone,

Who would have thought it, we've slogged through one year of building and blogging .... scary, but rewarding when we look back at some of the earlier blogs!  Hopefully the end is in sight now as we're knackered juggling this project amongst a busy family and working life!!

This week actually saw a massive milestone being achieved .... yes, the installation and commissioning of our biomass boiler and solar panels - yippee, all done with just one week to spare on our RHPP Energy Trust voucher applications!  Everything is very snug in the plant room ... equipment just makes it and no more!  The first heat source we every experienced on this site back in 2008 was a huge hay and wood fire as we started to clear out the Mill!  Well, 4 years later the first domestic heat for our building is also being generated by burning wood in about the same spot, albeit with flames slightly less insane than the first attempt!!

The septic tank also turned up on site this week.  It's a biggie and will finds its permanent home in the next week or so.  The Hwam stove was also fitted into the fireplace, still needs to get the front glass on.

Carpets are now picked too!  Just leaves wood floors now...

We also made the decision this week to go with an all glass balustrade around the decked area.  We had planned to use the horizontal wire inserts you see at marinas and bars etc, however we've been told that building control no longer allow these to be used for fear of kids climbing.  As such, we decided to bite the bullet and go with aluminium newel posts with glass spanning the posts.  This will allow us to keep views down to the river from all angles on the deck and from inside the dining area.

Bye for now ...

Hwam stove insert and flue was fitted to fireplace this week

Hallway is now nearly complete - old windows were covered with cladding

View from dining space towards kitchen and lounge spaces - space still feels really open

Start of tiling in bathrooms and shower trays - this is the master en-suite

This is plant room with: Biomass boiler (middle), water/buffer tanks (rear), and solar pump (right)

The original Little Ennochie heating system, circa 2008, in almost exact same place as the boiler now!

Filling with bags of wood pellets until we get hopper installed (probably going to be July)

Solar Pump station

Septic tank

Week 51 - All walls up and skimming ....

Hello,

This week the remaining walls were boarded and taped off in the main extension.  The family room was actually given some last minute mods with the addition of a tall internal wall window facing the lounge (see first picture below).  This is a viewing window to keep an eye on the kids!  Looking forward to watching movies in that room!  Tiling started this week in the bathrooms also ... will show some of these photos next week.

Until then .....

Looking from lounge to family room

Family / TV room

Old feature windows framed out in the guest bedroom

Feature window in guest bedroom - just need the glass insert now

Week 50 - Kitchen & family Rooms formed ... cladding continues!

Hi folks,

Week 50, wow, where is the time going!?  We had a lot of procrastination this week trying to figure out how best to use the main living and family snug rooms, in particular, where to put the doors between the two spaces.  This has meant lots of drawings from the architect helping us consider a bunch of options ... thanks Sarah!  In the end, we needed to get the builder to put the wall frames up so we could see the space in the flesh.  That helped, and we have now decided where to put everything .. why do simple decisions always seem sooooo difficult when building a house!?!

The kitchen size and shape looks great, and the old mill lade lever in the wall looks even better now that the main wall has been pointed and roof windows framed.  Other jobs happening indoors this week included more plaster boarding, laying the first floor surfaces with tiles going down in the plant room and store ... those were a nice last minute bargain!  The monster boiler was also moved to location in the plant room in readiness for hooking up.  We also managed to get both kids to site this weekend awake for once .... what a laugh, but never again!  It was like watching the opening 5 mins of an episode of Casualty while they were running about!!

Outside the larch cladding has continued.  The west gable is nearly complete now and the south face is started ..... we think it really looks fab.

Until next week ......

Things coming together outside ... 

View back from the hot tub!?! :-)

Looking down the river

Roof lights above kitchen with old Mill lade lever
(this was used to divert water away from the Mill wheel and back into the Feugh)

Looking down the bank of roof windows

Looking into lounge at fireplace 

Looking into kitchen space

Looking side on into kitchen space

Looking into the family/TV snug room ... door in will be from hallway

Cut offs for the extension metal profile roof