July, 2016 – Graham Miln

Windows, Doors, and Water Tight – Part 7.0

With two invoices since our last visit, we expected windows and doors. What we found was much more. The house is now water tight and the garden is blooming.

Credits
Transcript

Good morning. A lot has happened since our last visit to the land.

For one, the trains are running again.

And we received two invoices from the builder. One of those invoices says the house is now water tight.

And if that is the case, then we have windows and doors to see today.

We have just gone and got the car. We have got about half an hour to spare before we have to head towards the land. So we are going to have our coffee.

We have had our coffee. Not at the usual place. That place seems to have changed its hours. So, I think, two visits to that place.

Discovered it, liked it, probably not going back.

Bit unfortunate.

Quiet That’s a house. Did we just buy a house?

There are tiles. There is a chimney. We have a house.

It is amazing.

It has transformed from a building site into an actual home. Let’s go and see. Yes.

Just had the meeting with the electrician, with the mason, with the project manager. That was a long meeting. It was an hour and a half? Yes. And we kept it short because we had everything planned. We could just hand over page after page of our decisions. That was great.

It looks like everything we want is possible. The electrician can do all the specialist things I want and that is a great relief for me.

So much has changed. Let me show you.

The windows and the doors have gone in. So we are actually in an enclosed space. The house is deemed water tight and is truly a house now and not a building site.

Absolutely incredible.

The retaining wall is done. It looks good. It is the right size. It is not too imposing and that is helpful because the original plan was for something that was ten metres, not six. That was two metres tall, not one point six.

So to get the slightly more scaled down wall, it is what we wanted.

The chimney has gone in. It is a fairly modern construction. All metal. Designed to keep the cold out in the winter.

The staircase is yet to go in but that should be done by the next time we are here. That will make it easier to get up and down because at the moment the ladder is a bit precarious.

It is safe but it just feels precarious.

The really big news. We have got a door key.

We have actually got a key to our house. It is not the front door. It is not even a key we will have in the end. This is a temporary key they give to all the builders and all the trades people to get in and out. When the house is done, they will change the locks. Then we will get that set of keys and that will be it.

For now we can access the house whenever we want and just enjoy it.

I am so happy. It is fantastic. It is great.

Could not be better.

We have actually got keys.

We have the keys. It is ours.

So good.

We have a new mystery fruit tree. This is the tree that have talked about maybe having to remove. We are still going to wait for a tree expert, an arborist, to come and look at it after we have moved in. For now it is doing well and it has got fruit on. Just do not know what type of fruit it is.

No doubt what they are. They are cherries.

We have a second cherry tree. This one is doing better than the first.

Means they are not ripe.

OK.

Dark ones are good.

Dark ones are good. Red ones, not so much.

Wow. First cherry from this tree.

She wanted poppies. We got poppies.

And that is it. We are done. There is a lot of progress in two weeks. To get it to water tight stage this fast.

It is amazing.

Yes. We keep thinking it is going to be faster than the quoted time but speaking to the project manager today confirmed that things like the electrics, the underfloor heating, are going to take a particularly long time. So while a lot of the infrastructure is done. The masonry, the roof, the roof tiling, some the stages now can be particularly slow. I think the underfloor heating they need…

At least a month.

At least a month because they want it dry out?

Yes.

So those stages may feel like they drag on.

They are certainly not predicting it to take any longer than they expect. So that is reassuring.

Another great visit. See you next time.