It's the Christmas Special

It's been a while and I have promised this so here you are. Our Blog Christmas Special

The big news is that we moved in in October and have slowly been trying to finish it off.

Outside is looking better, most of the black cladding is complete. It took a while as the original cladding contractors went under, leaving us to find someone to pick up where they left off. Thankfully someone was prepared to do it.

But we're still waiting for the yellow cladding around the windows and carport.

Oh and we've named the house. Neuhaus.

So what elese have you missed since the end of the Summer? Well there's the kitchen and dining room

there's the lounge and its wood burner

The kids rooms are done (and lived in)

Our bed room is complete

The attic access is in

Which leads to a more space

Whilst at the other end of the house the basement has its wine rack

Outside still needs a little work

Especially the back garden, but we do have a shed

It's the big black wooden box on the left and we've started stoning up the patio area

The front has seen the drive area stoned up and the feature planter installed. One day we'll replace the Christmas tree for a specimen birch tree.

Merry Christmas to you all and a happy New Year.

2012 should see our house finished and I'll make it a resolution to update the blog more frequently.

Here we go again.

Is it good sign when you see this van?

Not if it's parked outside our site, because before too long you get one of these.

which leads to this.

Which in turn should hopefully see the end to the basement leak. But to be honest I'm not sure yet as they poured that much water in the hole they found that it'll be coming out for weeks.

How's your memory?

Take a good look. A really good look.

 Now please help me find my lighting cables.

Add bricklaying to my CV

My skill base is increasing.

It's a step, if hadn't worked it out.

Is anyone still there?

and do you still care?

It's been a while, but things have progressed.

The timber cladding has moved on a little. OK the photo looks pretty much the same as the last one I showed you. Hopefully the roof cladding will go on next week, but I guess you've heard me say that before.

Next week should also see the gable trimmed.

Other progress has seen the plastering start.

with our bedroom

the landing bookcase

our en suite

and we've started to paint some of the rooms

and bought the bathroom tiles

(but more of this later)

Alex has picked his room colours

and so has Ellie

The attic is nearing completion

and the plant room is slowly filling up.

So you can see we've got lots of good news, but there's also bad news.

We had a tiler, who struggled to tile. So we had to get rid of him.

And we still have a

leaking

basement

Scaffolds down!

Well, half of it is. And the first section of timber cladding is on.

Forget the basement and carry on

With water coming into the basement there was nothing we could do but carry on with works above ground.

So it was on with installing the membrane and room edges, ready to take the

underfloor heating pipes

and then the screed. We now finally have the floor up to the correct level

after months of struggling with large first steps and impossible thresholds.

Here's manifold 1 for those of you who like this sort of thing. and if you do you'll love next week as 2 more will be installed.

We've also had our first intruder on site. The evidence is there for all to see.