In the last few months work on the house was on hold because of the COVID 19 pandemic. With the rules starting to be relaxed we have now been able to make some progress.

 

A few months ago I posted on BH about being a bit concerned about the bath being a tight fit as it’s 1800mm and the distance between the wall was 1802mm. Not sure how the plumber got it in but happy that it fills the space.

 

 

The bath is made from Carronite so it should feel more rigid when showering.

 

Our joiner fitted the hydro lock panels and the plumber came back to fit the shower fittings.

 

 

 

The Joule Aero tank has now been connected up. The tank holds 260 litres and utilises a heat pump which draws air from the bathroom, utility and ensuite. We visited a couple of properties that utilised this set-up and although they were happy with the efficiency of the system the feedback we got was to consider potential vibration noise from the tank.

 

 

We took some steps to do this, firstly sitting the tank in a cupboard in the utility room, using a thick anti vibration mat with 22mm plywood on top. The ducting throughout the house is metal but we switched to flexible ducting for the last bit to ensure any vibration would not travel through the ducting.

 

We also fitted a silencer to reduce the noise travelling through the ducts particularly to the ensuite.

 

These steps have had the desired effect.

 

Because we have yet to move in, I was able to monitor the electricity consumption of the tank when it heated the first 260 litres. To get the water to 50 degrees it used 4 units of electricity which would be about 50p. The tank also has a dual immersion which could be used to heat the tank more quickly if desired.

 

After the air has gone through the system it passes through an external vent through the utility wall.

 

 

In the last entry I mentioned that we wanting to prepare the ground for grass seed. The first job was removing a lot of stones.

 

 

 I’ll probably use the smaller stones to extend the parking area slightly and it would be good to use the larger ones  for a small wall or some other feature in the garden.

 

 

After the stones were removed, we raked the ground and then sowed the seed. The grass is starting to come through which is promising but we will need to fill in any patchy gaps. I can see why people go for the more expensive option of turfing but a big bag of seed is very cheap and although it takes some time and effort it’s satisfying to see the grass come through.

 

I guess this is a good analogy for our self build!

 

We had a sunny weather spell which allowed me to finished off some painting and my wife put some oil on the cladding.

 

 

This had been previously left to weather but as this is on the southern elevation this could now do with some oil. We chose one which had a slight pigmentation and after applying the finished result was that it looked very similar to the pre oiled look but helped to even out the upper areas that had yet to sliver as they are shaded by the soffit. We plan to work our way around the house with the oil.

 

We have used various tins of Osmo throughout the house and although it is quite pricey it does the job well. This is the tin what we used on the cladding.

 

 

What is next?

 

We had hoped that we could order some furniture from Ikea to furnish the downstairs but I think the pandemic is affecting stock issues and delivery. We now need to decide whether we want to move with limited furniture or wait a few more weeks.

 

The next jobs:

 

- a little bit of electrical work, lighting fittings, connecting up cooker, towel rails etc

- BT due to connect us up on Tuesday 

- need to get some tiling work done for splashbacks

- order some chips to spread around the site.

- need to decide what to put as a finishing layer on the access road.

- need to order materials for ramp, decking and downpipes for guttering.

 

I hope everyone is keeping well and thanks for reading.