Porch is on...

but like many things is not finished. We are partially taking a few days to relax a bit and celebrate what we have accomplished so far. Our first dinner party (not counting the family gathering before Christmas) is tomorrow and will contribute to the feeling that we really live here now.

The projecting part will be glazed in to create a sun (and wind) room. The lawn is another story.

It's a few days after the solstice, but you can still see the warming sun reaches almost to the kitchen door

We've come a long way

The planning application image

The colour is not far off the planning application after all

We're back!

Nearly two years to the day since we first moved in, we have moved back in, and a few days later the boys arrived with their girlfriends for an early Christmas weekend. We have properly christened the kitchen and dining room now.

With the scaffolding down you can see the view from our bedroom

Karen applies the hard oil finish to our beautiful ash floor.

As soon as the oil hardened, we moved in. Karen is a happy girl!

Lyn came for tea, but was persuaded to stay for gumbo.

Christmas lunch practice run - the boys and girls cooked a delicious meal for us and their grandmother.

The stair is coming on Wednesday, but Karen decorated the temporary rail anyway.

The Christmas tree makes it look like a family home.

It's starting to look like home

With the oak engineered floor being meticulously installed by Martin, it's getting better by the day.

We're nearing the winter solstice, and you can see how the low sun reaches nearly to the kitchen door. I love it!

By night - we need lots of curtains now.

The Christmas rush

We are flat out getting ready to move back and welcome the boys and their girlfriends in two weeks - like one of those reality TV shows. I failed to report on my visit to Young and Norgate, who are making the stair. Ross Norgate went to school with Ali, and is now part of a quality cabinetmaking firm in Budleigh Salterton. They are having fun, I think, with my very personal stair design.

This is the half-size MDFcad drawing ot the stair

Newel meets massively oversized tread and riser - I love it!

The kitchen is nearly functional now. Terry came to glue down the stainless steel after doing some experiments with pots of boiling water to make sure it would work, and Eddie got the hob going. Karen was disappointed that you can't see the flames in the photo- but it now produces heat.

Our bathroom is also functional, but what about that grey waste pipe, Eddie? Don't you think white would look better?

Let's hope that's enough adhesive

A select bunch of weights

Yes, it's working

On Tuesday, I joined Simon and Sean to help get the brise soleil up. They put the sills on in lashing rain, and when Simon called the scaffolder to say we were finished, he unexpectedly said he would come the next morning to get it, so we all set to applying the sealant around the upstairs window so we wouldn't be doing it off ladders. Scaffold down and it looks more like the drawings.

Final colour and that's it

We went for the best compromise we could find, but it's still not exactly what we wanted. When the house is finished and covered in clematis and roses it will be more subdued. Thanks, Cyndie, for the suggestion of blue window reveals - but we're not in Mexico.

We had a busy weekend- Karen spent all of today sanding and polishing the stainless steel counter tops. They had forty years of service in their previous life in a University kitchen, so they needed some TLC. We will install them on Tuesday come hell or high water, so we can get the kitchen working. Boys and girlfriends are coming in three weeks, so we need to get a move on. Ordering oak floor for sitting/dining room tomorrow - installation on Saturday!

Spaghetti under the floor

Our shower room - we like the cork floor.

It's Redlands, but not THAT red

We thought we had the final colour, but the primer and render delivered to site were too strong. On a prominant site like this, we have to think of others (and ourselves in the coming years).

Cayenne!

We are going to tone down the colour a lot - if we get this wrong it will be hard to live with. It's a small setback, but nobody died.

Painting party

Friends came over to help us get about 50 litres of paint on our ceilings and walls - all that new plaster soaks it up. Special thanks to Clare (fresh from a successful fund-raiser), Lyn, Martin, Sue, Jo, Liz, Charlie and Di, who made a great team and made our house look a lot more like a home. We will resolve the render colour tomorrow (we thought we were there), but I'll cover that later. A few stylish headscarves created from the rag bag were modelled.

Thanks to:

Lyn and Clare

Liz

Simon (for the tower)

Jo

Di

Charlie and Sue

Martin

Open House

We invited Sustainable Crediton (and my students) to an open house on Sunday, and forty or fifty people came. We were so busy we forgot to take any pictures, so if anyone did, let me know! There were lots of good questions and interest in our project.

We have decided on the render colour, which will go on in the next few days, so look out for another dramatic transformation.

Light (reddish orange light) at the end of the tunnel

The Foleys finished off the first coat of render beautifully - it's a different house again!

That's the latest in a long line of render samples on the window sill - still too strong?

Starting to look like a sitting room

View from the dining room (Karen calls it something else)

We are desparate to finish this project, but it looks like it might be a month before we move back in. There is no boiler, no bathroom, no stair and no working  kitchen. Still, a lot has happened since August, and as our neighbour said today, the old house is unreconisable now. Julie said she was struggling to see our vision for this house, but she gets it now! Sun, wind and light!

Insulation!

   The house is now fully clad in insulation- things are moving forward except on the kitchen front. Our clever re-purposed stainless steel catering tables came back from fabrication and don't fit. Terry assures us he will sort them out Tuesday.

Our new bedroom

With floor and plaster - wet plaster on external wall is part of the airtightness strategy

Lots of wall insulation

Karen loves her ear defenders

Counter needs some help

You can see the new architecture, and see the link to the planning images now

These colours are adjacent on the colour wheel, but miles apart in the flesh

Due to shuttling around, I deleted the lated photos from the camera before putting them on this computer. I'll add the latest tomorrow. Can we decide on the render colour before the render boys leave?

Two steps forward and one step back

The project is still steaming along, The front door is in, and there is one window to go. The external insulatin and render contractor will be arriving this week, and we are about to order the stair, which will take a few weeks. The only setback was the timber floor in the sitting room/dining room; the suspected woodworm activity was throughout and the joists must be replaced. Better to find out now!

Tom came for the weekend. He and Karen emptied the middle bedroom, sanded the floor, varnished the floor, painted it and we moved everything back in tonight. Tom also built shelving for the big back bedroom. And we managed to watch both Rugby World Cup matches.


The old patio door comes out - it will be re-used as the front of the studio





Bedroom 5 is gone - two storey entrance hall is revealed

Floor ready for rebuilding







Full size drawing - the best kind! I'm doing the ventilation system and it's a steep learnng curve for everyone.





We have a load of rubble to shift