Beautiful Autumn

In our rather unkempt garden there are quite a variety of plants. This one is looking stunning, especially due to the deep green of the surrounding foliage! I've the same photo taken with a flash, which is a little sharper, but unfortunately not quite true colours.

We also have this crazy rose, and my tomato plants are flowering again!

Progress!

We now have most of a ceiling! This is the area of beams I showed in an earlier photo, looking much closer to finished. There is still one half board to go up at one side of the room, and lots of short sections to fill in along another, but none of this will be as strenuous as putting up full boards. They are 12mm thick, 1.2m x 2.4m, and incredibly heavy.

Then we were finally able to wire up the dining room light, and the four spotlights. The main kitchen lighting is awaiting the arrival of proper plasterboard fixings. After one small glitch (a snapped connection up in the area of roof only I can get to now, through the thin strip where the ceiling is not yet up), it all works. Who'd have believed it? ;-)


So, having made such fantastic progress, I was then hit by insanity, and called the worktop guy. I've made an appointment for him to do the templating on Monday morning, leaving us with just days in which to finish the plumbing for the outside tap, connect bits for the fridge water supply(!), sand and seal the two really big units, and then level them all. Once the templating is done, they are not allowed to move!

The rush here is because it will take time for the worktop to actually arrive and be installed, and it being done is one of the things we agree is essential before we have relatives up for Christmas. They will have to put up with no decoration, no carpets, and lots of unfinished bits and bobs, but if a useable (and cleanable) kitchen and bathroom are not in place, we'll be the guests elsewhere this year.

Please excuse the disgraceful state of our kitchen: it is very hard to keep a place tidy when you keep having to empty the storage to work on it! This is the view from the dining room, and the closest unit is the "breakfast bar" one, and will have an overhanging bit of worktop. Will be very handy for the pasta maker I inherited, which needs to be clamped on to something!

Correction

I have discovered the real reason for our house being so cold downstairs! Look who is absorbing all the warmth:

House is a bit chilly in places

When we installed the central heating, we made a small mistake, in that modern boilers like the one we now have use "intelligent" control of a lowish powered integrated pump to operate the system as efficiently as possible. Our layout was perfect for the old "bung in as high powered pump as you need" separate systems. So right now, it works, but not very well: Some radiators get hot, some get warm, and one does nothing. Two radiators aren't even on the walls yet, as we've not finished the plastering and bathroom tiling.

Coupled with the lack of ceiling in the extension (there is no insulation there either!), no curtains downstairs, and some holes in the pantry in need of bricking up, downstairs is hovering at around 12 or 13°C. A tad chilly, even for me! (My husband and I have thermostat wars, with him wanting 19°, and me putting it to 17°. We both have a laugh at the adverts asking people to save energy by turning the temperature down, showing someone changing the dial from 22 to 21°)

Our plans for a solid fuel stove have slipped drastically behind schedule, not least because we wanted a quote for having it done before rushing in to do it ourselves: sometimes it is worth paying a little more in order to regain some of your own time. It has now been 3 weeks since the guy came to measure up, and we've yet to receive a letter from them!

So this weekend, Simon will be disconnecting the heating, in order to connect up some different pipes. Both days are reported to be around 11°, fortunately a little warmer than it has been. I'll be seeing what I can do about temporary curtains, and hopefully, putting up insulation between the joists in the extension.

I'm enjoying the weather generally: it is reminding me of when we first saw this house on the market (though it is the wrong time of year, the temperature is similar), and how excited we were to be buying our first house. There was a lot of nervousness too, not knowing whether our offer would be accepted, but now I'm only remembering the good bits!

Anyway, I seem to be writing an essay again, so I'll just quickly mention that Simon picked up our bathroom cabinet the other day, and hopefully that will be going up this weekend. Depending on how things go with the heating, we may also put up the central light fitting in the bathroom, and repaint the ceiling. We will also be rearranging the kitchen units, to their actual final positions!

First picture shows part of the view from our bedroom window. I've never lived in a place with a view of fields before, not bad for a city! Sometimes you can see a horse on the green blob of grass. Second picture is my tiling, which is getting there slowly.