Stepping Over Pounds To Get Pennies

Ugh. I mean, we are trying to be careful with cash.  But my attempts to save some money sometimes backfires.

Like on the lawn.  We decided to go forward with getting sod (turf) laid by the gardeners.  I asked for the cost of supplies and called around to get a better price.  I found another grass supplier that would deliver for £50 less than what our gardener could find.

So, we went with the supplier I found.  Bad choice.  Last Friday I was told they could deliver on Tuesday.  On Monday (a bank holiday) I was told they couldn't deliver on Tuesday.  The gardeners rescheduled, and when the delivery arrived today it wasn't complete.  We had to buy more turf layer (it's like compost to help with the soil nutrients and make the ground more level) and get it delivered tomorrow.  Anyway, to save £50 it is going to cost us £170.   And maybe even more because of extra labor costs.  So, uh, not great.

Also, to get the stairs sanded, we got a quote for £300.  I thought we could do it ourselves for less.  So far we've spent £200 (£160 on two days labor, £40 for a paint gun).  And the stairs still need a lot of work.  Seriously, stepping over dollars to get dimes.  Or pounds to get pennies.

Anyway...even with my failed attempts at saving money on the lawn, I do think the backyard (garden) is going to look very nice.  The gardeners did get to lay some grass today.

And overall the house is really coming along.  The granite cutter was able to find an extra piece of granite for the 600 mm cupboard (the one right behind the range cooker in the picture) and upstands (the smaller pieces of granite against the walls) and fit the rest of the granite.

A joiner has started boxing in the extractor hood vent.  I'm guessing this will be a work in progress for a while.

And guess what?  The plumbers came!  And the radiators are mostly installed.

We even got new toilet seats installed.  (Another cost saving measure?  We bought trade toilets and then upgraded the seats.  To ones that have built-in training seats for the kids.)

Week Seven

On Monday the decorators finished painting.  Well, sort of.  There's still some things that need to be touched up and other places that need to be cleaned, but let's just say the painters finished.  Also, we got the front wall repaired and repointed.  It still doesn't look great, but at least there are no longer large chunks falling of!

On Tuesday...nothing.  It was just me at the house, working for a couple of hours.  It was strange.  For the past seven weeks there has been work going on (except for Sundays).  

On Wednesday we got the cavity wall insulation.  I hope it works.  It was a good test to see where the walls had leaks.  (Answer:  Around several windows.  And the flue for the boiler.  And the pipes going out of the bathroom.)  The walls are filled with little Styrofoam (ish) balls with adhesive.  And where there were leaks the pellets got inside the house.  They look like rodent droppings and gross me out every time I see them.  And then I remind myself they're insulation.  Glorious insulation!

On Thursday...BAM!  We were back in business.  The electricians came and finished the second fix.  There are maybe two very minor things left before we get the certificate.

Our electricians has been really thorough.  And threw in a bonus for us.  They ran a power (light and sockets) out to the bomb shelter!  I'd mentioned we'd like to leave a line to do it down the road and they surprised us!

Another surprise (less pleasant) is that our earthing was not good.  I'd like to pretend that I know what this means or involves, but I don't.  I just know that it was a problem that we weren't sure how to solve (possibly adding new rods or running off our neighbors!) but it got sorted.  We called Scottish Power and they sent out a technician right away.  (Maybe it's a serious issue?  Or maybe we were just lucky.)  He took a crack at it, and then another team came later in the day and took care of it.  Our reading is now 0.22.  I don't know what that means either, except that it's very good news.

Our plumbers were supposed to come on Monday (nope), then Thursday (nope) and then Friday for sure.  (Still nope.)  I'm really hoping they actually show up next week because we have to have heating before the sanding guys come on the 10th.  Also, to manage a few bits and pieces a joiner was supposed to come yesterday (nope) and then today (nope.)  Fingers crossed for Monday.

No plumbers or joiners, but we did arrange for two guys from church to come and help me.  There are so many things that we haven't managed to take care of yet.  Some we thought we'd do ourselves because the work quotes seemed too pricey (like sanding the stairs).  Some we didn't realize needed to be done (like painting shelves and doors, I thought the painting quote included the items.)  And some seemed so easy we should do it.  (Like cleaning.)  These 'many things' are a list of about 130 items.  And if each one on average takes an hour, well...we won't be ready to move in 12 days from now.

  

Some items have to be done before we move in.  Some things can wait, but it would be nice to have them done.  (Like painting the storm doors and stripping the paint from the pull.  Because of the way the lock is situated, the bolt to remove the pull is buried in the door!)

Anyway, we decided to ask two guys from church who are between jobs if they would come and work with me for a few days.  The work was dirty and mundane, but it has been so nice having them help.

Look!  The storm doors are primed.  (We're still trying to decide if we leave them white or to paint them blue.)

The back door has been painted.  (It used to be red, now it's blue.  Still no glass.)

The exposed collar and oxter supports in the loft have been sanded.

And the stairs?  Well, sometimes I think we made a choice that's too labor intensive.   They used to look like this.

Then this.

We could have just carpeted them.  But that would be too easy.  I painted the stairs in our house in Cardiff, and Niall and I both like the look.  (And how much easier they are to clean than carpet.)  But these ones had at least 1/3 of each tread unpainted.  So we want to try to paint the risers and take the treads back to the wood.

I bought a heat gun and we went to work stripping the paint.  It was a slow, tedious, sticky and not-very-rewarding-mess.  Each step took about 40 minutes.  

They looked awful.  One of the guys spent a good portion of yesterday and three hours today sanding.  The stairs look better, but we're not there yet.  I'm not quite sure what to do. 

I'll probably sand over the stairs a few more times next week.


And then we'll decide whether to paint them or if the wood cleans up nice enough to varnish (and possibly stain.)





In other heat gun news, it worked a treat (funny what I consider a treat these days) on the funny box thing (where the stairs cut into part of the room) in the smallest bedroom.  Same story...not sure if we'll paint this or try to restore the wood.

We bought a second hand dual-fuel range cooker.  It has been in the garage for the past six weeks, but the electricians connected it on Wednesday.  (Now if the plumbers will just show up so we can truly be cooking with gas!)  The ovens were filthy.  I started cleaning it and then one of the guys spent six hours scrubbing it yesterday.  It's almost clean.  Oh, please let it work!

And how fantastic is this?  Four missionaries from church came over yesterday and helped us for two hours.   (They do service every week, and have come to help us a few times.)  Four guys + two hours=the equivalent of a full day's work of what I'd do by myself.  They did all sorts of odd jobs, mostly scrubbing off residual paint splatter.  With all the sanding the house is a dusty mess.  I laughed today when I saw that two of the Elders had left their mark on the banister dust.

So, all in all, things are moving along.  Up next week is the garden/yard (we're getting turf/sod laid), heating (please show up plumbers!) and sanding (if the plumbers arrive.)

Current count on dump runs:  25.

As a closing note, sometimes when I watch TV I find myself looking at the decor on the set instead of watching the story.  The other day I was watching "Borgen" (is that bad to admit?  Sometimes I think it might be a tad too racy, but I keep watching anyway) and was so pleased at the yellow, blue, grey and white contrast in the Room of Mirrors that I took a screenshot.

Week Six

Niall has been sitting here gloating, saying "I was right." And, technically, he was. I said we'd be in the house by the beginning of May. He said mid-May (or June.) But, in my defense, Niall didn't want to give the required two-month notice on our flat until March 26, meaning we have to pay for our rental flat until May 26. So when the decorators asked for an extra week and the floor sander couldn't re-arrange for us until May 10, I let the schedule slide. Well played, husband. Well played.

Anyway, since we're not going to be moving into the house this week, we've been focusing on getting some things on the to-do list done.  One item was to re do the front steps.  They've been a hot mess since we viewed the house.  It was only when we started really looking at them to get them done that I realized how lucky we are that they didn't collapse on us.  Here's how they looked when we viewed the house:

Yesterday one of the builders let me know I couldn't use the front door for a while because, uh...no steps.

We decided to re-use the slabs that were already there since they were the right size, in good shape, and it would be a waste to throw the old ones out to get new ones.  Let's pretend I'm an eco-warrior, but we both know I'm just cheap.

Building up the sides and relaying the slabs was grueling work.  Not that I did it.  The guys were completely spent after they finished, and called it a day.  I think the steps look better (and are more structurally sound), but I also think they look a little sloppy and might be sloping downwards.  I'll check again on Monday.

So, we have a list of about 130 things we need to do before we move in.  Niall watched the kids and I spent most of yesterday working at the house, slowly checking off items.  I decided to focus on the kitchen.  For the first time, I got to see the granite exposed and use the sink.  (I LOVE our sink.)

Eight hours later and...well.  Maybe you can't tell much but the cupboards have been cleaned, the cabinets sanded and varnished (again) and everything except the plumbers' stuff has been cleaned out.  The kitchen was so dirty.  And (given our experience in Cardiff) I'm going to have to deep clean a few more times and deal with the settling construction dust for a few months. It gave me a better sense of what the space is going to be like.  Also, I love our shop vac.  (And the hand vacuum from the dump.  One one of my dump runs a lady was throwing it out and I asked her if it worked and if I could have it.  Niall was slightly embarrassed.)

Tonight Niall went up to the house.  He's at work during the day and has been watching the kids on a Saturday so I can work at the house.  Most of what he sees of the house is after the kids go to bed.  Anyway, here are a few shots of the things he liked.

The doorway in the understair WC has been painted.

Here's the inside...we'll work on getting a better picture.  It's small, but I'm so grateful for the extra toilet!


The backdoor has been filled and painted.  We still don't have the glass for above the door.  (It's a reclaimed pine door.)  Funny the things that I find myself loving about the house.  One is the Yale nightlock on this door.

We bit the bullet and painted the front door.  When we got the door (also reclaimed, but this one is oak instead of pine.  I hear oak doesn't do as well in Scotland) originally we intended to paint it.  But we liked the wood look once it was hung.  However, the condition of the door (five holes, three filled and two for locks.  Back window molding missing, we're working on getting some replacements cut.  Grain pronounced and somewhat weather beaten) kind of forced the decision.  Here's how the door looked when I first saw it and how it looks in the hallway now.  (We have a lady that watches the kids two hours every day during the week so I can manage the house projects.  She loves unpainted wood and is a little disappointed with the paint.  But not enough to stop watching the kids, thank goodness.)

And the upstairs hallway, looking towards the bathroom.  (The bathroom door has glass in it.  It's nice for the extra light, hopefully it's opaque enough.)

Good Morning Hallway

So remember how Niall thought there was too much blue in the house and wanted to get yellow for the hallway?  And I wasn't sure about the yellow but Niall said to trust him so we got mis-tint paint?  Well, the decorators painted the hall yesterday.

I wasn't sure about the yellow.

One of the painters asked what I thought and I said I had no comment.  He said something about how the color will certainly wake us up in the morning.

Niall went up to see the house last night and was so pleased with how it looks.  That's good enough for me.  (As a note-can you see that plug with a cord?  Yup, that's right.  The house is fully wired and we can use the plugs! )  And can you see the finial? (One of the round ball we had on the banister.)

The guys are doing the woodwork today.  It has taken two men, working full-time with an arsenal of paint sprayers and rollers, two full weeks to paint the house.  Ha!  I did have a passing thought we could do it ourselves before moving in.  (There are still plenty of things that need to be painted by us, like the inside of closets and shelves.  And stairs, vestibules, storm doors and utility closets.)

So, the loft.  I have mixed feelings about it.  The ladder access really is a bit of a pain.  But once I get up there, I think the space is coming together.

We made the decision to leave the structural supports (I learned yesterday the vertical supports are called oxters, which means 'armpit' in Scots!) exposed.  It does look a little odd, but I feel like it makes the room look more open.  Now we have to figure out how to finish them (we bought a belt sander with the intention of trying to sand them back) and flooring.  

I think we'd both like carpet, but getting around all the oxters means lots of cuts and may not look very good.  We've talked about doing a border of laminate or hardwood behind the oxters and then carpet in the middle. We'll see.  The only bit of the brickwork that was decent enough to leave exposed was a bit of the chimney.  We're still going to have to clean it up and then seal it.

Like I said, I like the loft once we get up there.  But, uh, how we chose to do it is a bit unusual.  I wanted the ceiling to go down as far as possible on the outside wall.  As a kid I loved spaces like this!


But, uh, with a big hole in the floor dropping down 10 feet, I don't know how much time the kids will spend up here.  The joiners put in that little dividing wall so we'd have a place for a light switch when entering the loft.

And the new Velux window gives the room so much light.  Did I mention that Niall's already claimed the space under the window for his desk?

Because the decorators have been busy in the whole house, I haven't been able to do much work physically.  I did manage another sand and coat of the cabinet doors, but they still need some more.  And we've made a list of things that we need to do to move in (or shortly there after.)  The list is currently sitting at 135 items so far.  I've been focusing on doing research/getting quotes/making a game plan to manage the list.

And we're still trying to figure out how to finish the countertops.  One problem is a backsplash (or splashback as it's called here.  Actually, we don't want it very high, so I think it's just called an upstand.)  Anyway, we have 17 of these granite tiles that match the countertops.  They have cement and plaster stuck to the back and I've struggled to clean them.  I think we've found a tiler that will grind off the backing and put in the tiles.  We only have enough to cover part of the countertops...


And the front steps!  They're a mess and need to be replaced, which we knew.  We planned to replace them a little later, but they are not holding up well so we're getting quotes to get them fixed before we move.  I had big plans about putting in sandstone steps with a bullnose, but Niall has convinced me to follow a more economic route.  (We'll basically going to have the steps look like this.  Except cleaner and more structurally sound.)