So the sands of time have yet again slipped away. We are at the stage where there is so little to do inside the house but we are very nearly there. All of the decorating has been completed and what a stunning job. The walls look fabulous and the glossing just finishes the job perfectly, photos to come soon.

We have moved in at last and started off by living in the new downstairs bedrooms while the upstairs was finished. I will post interior photos when we have moved the furniture etc back in, not quite there yet. Being home has made a great difference and it has been great watching the final stages of the house come together. What has been noticeable is the effect of the underfloor heating. We have had a constant 20 degrees downstairs for the past 4 weeks with the thermostats set to 20 despite the outside temperature varying from -1 to about 28 degrees. And that is just the underfloor heating as the wood burners are not yet installed. Not only that but I have been keeping an eye on the electricity meter readings and the energy use is very low about 20 – 23 units a day over a three week period. This includes our day to day use of the TV, oven, fridge etc and works out at about £1.80 / day.

The kitchen is complete and working including a fantastic engineered oak floor which runs throughout the entire upstairs. All doors are in and the bathrooms fully installed. The tiling has also been of a very high standard and we are delighted with the results.

Meanwhile the outside.

The next stage of the outside thermal cladding is underway with the breathable membrane going up and the meshing ready for the lime rendering.

Here you can see a good cross section showing the original house wall and just how thick the cladding is. Holding the cladding in place are the wooden battens and onto this goes the membrane and then the mesh.

You get a really good idea of the layers in this picture.

The mesh is tightly attached to the cladding.

All ready for the rendering.

Once the final screed floor had dried it was time for the stone tiles to go down.

The tiler ensured that the tiles were level and flat. The entire downstairs floor was tiled ready for the electrician to wire in the thermostats and turn the underfloor heating on.

The underfloor heating was finally turned on and what a difference. The stone tiles look fantastic providing and excellent and warm walking surface. The thermostats have to be set quite high until the screed has properly warmed up and then they can be set to the correct settings.

Now the tiles are down we have been able to get on with final carpentry such as the door frames and start final plumbing and installation of the bathrooms.

As you can see the tiles have started to go up on the walls and the bath and toilets have been plumbed in.

Final electrics were carried out ensuring all plugs, sockets, light fittings and entertainment fixings had been installed.

And so we have finally reached the stage where the whole house had been more or less decorated and you really get a very good sense of what the end result will look like. The light neutral paint work and large south facing windows brings in the natural light creating a bright, light spacious warm feeling. The quality of work has been of a very high standard which becomes very apparent as the inside work comes to an end.

The on suite bathroom has been finished and looks wonderful.

The Kitchen has been completely finished with exception to the wooden floors which will go down last of all. the kitchen walls have been beautifully tiled and painted and all the kitchen appliances are now in place and working.

So, what next? Well there are various bits and pieces to do inside before the wooden floors go down. More importantly we have moved back in, albeit downstairs only. The underfloor heating is working a treat and makes an amazing difference.

Upstairs we are waiting for the wood burners to go in and all the doors and then we are pretty much there. The outside is another matter.

We hope to complete the inside within the next week but outside requires at least another couple of months. The cladding needs finishing and then the whole outside of the house can be rendered. The balconies and bridge to the front door still need constructing and vast amounts of earth and top soil need moving.

As for the solar panels we are waiting for the house to be finished and anticipate then going up in July.

So far so good.

First of all back to the underfloor heating, after the first layer of concrete had dried we were able to get the electrician back in to lay the electrical underfloor cables throughout the ground floor. Each room is zoned to have its own thermostat.

Here is the cabling laid in the master bedroom.

And in the spare bedroom, notice that the cabling goes beyond the concreting. This was because we were unable to dig the floor out up to the walls in the older part of the house because there are no foundations.

The next stage is to now lay another layer of screed on top of the cables. Once this is complete we can finish of the downstairs rooms.

In the second bedroom the windows have gone in, this paves the way to finishing the outside thermal cladding meaning the outside of the house will be ready for final rendering.

The screed floor has now gone down and is drying ready for tiling.

The plasterer  has been able to get in and finish off the downstair rooms.

And the rooms have been undercoated ready for completion of the electrical work, tiling and decorating.

Moving upstairs work is coming on very nicely.

The open landing has been undercoated.

And the kitchen has started to be installed.

Our next immediate tasks include final plumbing and installing the bathrooms, upstairs toilet and utility room, laying the oak flooring throughout the upstairs, installing the wood burners, final fix electrics and decorating.

Nearly all of the plastering has now been completed and in the kitchen diner area white undercoat has also been applied. The space is light and airy ready for the kitchen units to be installed.

This shows what the kitchen will look like once we have installed the units, oak floor and appliances.

The landing has also come on. The old bathroom has gone, there is plaster on walls and great natural light pouring in though the large new window.

Here we can see one side of the living room. You can see the new depth of the windows giving an idea of just how much difference the insulation makes.

So great progress but it is March and there is still a lot more to do. In the next three weeks we should hopefully see the underfloor heating completed, the kitchen installed, all plastering and undercoating finished, second fix electrics and plumbing completed and the bathrooms in.

The bay windows are now almost completed ready for final rendering.

Once the external cladding is completed around the bay windows the final external rendering can begin.

At last the snow stopped and much of the external work continued. The house is all bar a couple of windows finally sealed. However, there is still much to do before we can move back in.

One major step forward was the first stage of the underfloor heating, as mentioned earlier the ground floor was dug out and then filled with a layer of hardcore, damp-proof-membrane and insulation. We were then able to add the first layer of concrete throughout the ground floor.

This has made a huge difference to the feel of the project allowing a much better sense of the space.

The next stage will see the electrical cables being laid, wired up and the final layer of screed laid. Then we can get on with the stone tiles.

Now the first layer has dried the plumper has been able to complete his first fix especially in the bathrooms.

Well it started to snow the week before Christmas and they are still forecasting more to come and its Jan 12th. This has meant no work. So we have lost about 4 weeks but as soon as normal weather resumes work will continue, lets just hope we are in soon.

With the diner now completed and the windows going in we are now able to tackle the cladding. The fixings have been finally sourced and the cladding finally goes up.

As you can see the original rendering had to be stripped off the walls before the cladding went up. Also as the cladding was fixed the new windows were installed. As I have mentioned in addition to gluing and fixing the individual blocks of cladding, wooden battens are also required to hold the cladding tight to the wall.

Finally the bay windows went in almost sealing the house. The battens have all been attached ready for the mesh and final rendering.

There is just one wall to go but this has to wait until the electricity bracket has been moved. Now most of the cladding is up the house is ready for the internal work to move on. We should be able to see the plaster board going up in preparation for plastering.

And yes indeed plastering has started in the new kitchen area. But now the weather is closing in and the days are shorter. This has meant that the muddy churned up driveway will need a spot of work if we are going to be able to get lorries down.

Well at last we have started to see some real progress. The diner has finally been completed but not without some teething problems. Here are some technical details: All rafters are 200×50mm C16 grade timber with 18mm thick T&G boarding fixed over the rafters. Over the ceiling boards was installed a vapor barrier and 200mm thick Dow Chemical Roofmate SL-A extruded polystyrene insulation board. Then we installed a 0.7mm VM Quartz Plus Zinc laid  standing seam roof.

Diner rear wall is constructed.

Floor rafters are installed.

Supporting beams and roof frame completed

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Zinc standing seam roof installed.

We used a company called VM Zinc to provide the standing seam roof materials http://www.vmzinc.co.uk and they put us in touch with their sub-contractors to install the roof. We used a company called Bell Zinc and Copper Roofing http://www.bellzinc.co.uk . The installation was quick and carried out with incredible skill and perfection. The finished item looks really good.

The next task is to tackle the external insulation and cladding and this has presented a few problems, namely the length of the fixings. We initially had real problems sourcing the stainless steel ties of the right length to fix through the insulation and through the battens and insulation. But Ablerow persevered and after a week or two were able to lay their hands on the right fixings. All exterior walls needed to have all rendering removed to provide a good surface to attach the cladding. 140mm Dow Roofmate SL-A Insulation is then held in place with a polyurethane foam adhesive ready for fixing with stainless steel ties. On to this goes a breather membrane and then 50 x 50mm vertical battens fixed to the masonry wall through the insulation with additional ties. This will have a stainless steel expanded metal lath fixed over the battens and then rendered in a 3 coat 30mm lime render.

The importance of this stage is that without the insulation and cladding in place we can’t fit the windows and without the windows in place we can’t achieve a dry sealed house. This is essential before pouring in the screed floors on the ground floor ready for laying the electric cabling to form the underfloor heating. And only then can we think about internal decoration.

So the house stands with almost all of the windows removed and all of the old render removed ready for thermal cladding. From now on (fingers crossed) we should see some more real rapid progress.

Well yes we have been waiting for the electrical and pluming first fix to be completed and now they have. This means that we can get cracking on with all that lovely other stuff. But in the meantime I have been looking at funding again and thought I would take a look at:  http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk   the government funded environmental information site. It is packed with great information and environmental direction with easy ways to stop wasting energy to home improvements and create your own energy. But sadly not a lot of any real tangible funding or incentives. Yes you can enter your post code and it will return a number of funding opportunities but it rather depends upon you being unemployed or retired. However you are directed to the Low Carbon Buildings Programme website where you are invited to fill in a form which could get you up to £2,500.00 towards Solar, PV, Wood burning stoves etc but the supplier and installer do need to be certified by the Low Carbon Buildings Programme. I have a form and I intend to fill it out once we have settled on our suppliers.

Hopefully next time there will be more pictures and progress.