Sunday 19 January 2014

A good start to 2014

Since my last blog post, Christmas has been and gone, and it seems like a long time ago now. I had continued to work on the cellar ceiling framework, but over the holidays pretty much nothing got done, which meant playing catch-up in the first two weeks of 2014.

While waiting for materials, I decided to tackle a job I had been avoiding for a long time: underfloor construction in the 2nd floor hall. It's a mess up there, with the beams being quite uneven, and with high points not leaving much room to play with, if I wanted the final floor to tie in well with the stairs riser heights. But, I got it done in a couple of nights, and then took on building under-eve cabinets for storage, and to house the heating distribution manifold for the bathroom.



With that done, I made a start on the next hallway over, which really is the last section of the house we'll work on, possible after moving in.


Some more timber work is needed on this level to build a comms cabinet, to house the telephone and network equipment, probably against the chimney, as seen on the left of the photo below.


Around the same time, Sace popped over with his chainsaw and cut off the beams in the 2nd floor bathroom, which gives now an impression of the height we're going to have in this room. I needed this, as I'll be reusing one of the oak beams as a post in the cellar, but more of that in the next few weeks.


But the big news, is that yesterday, we finally insulated the ceiling of cellar 4. 120mm thick rockwool, with a membrane to keep moisture away, particularly along the side walls. Once the laths are up, we'll be ready to install plasterboard, and the cellar is nearly complete.


At least it looks safer from the bedroom above, with the gaping holes closed, but we need to get the OSB sheets for the underfloor down as soon as I confirm all the wiring is complete. Just a couple more needed, and we're good to go.


And in cellar 3, the ceiling process has already begun, so next weekend this will also be insulated. Lots of empty conduits here, for later pushing coax cables through for a satellite dish.


A lot done, a lot more to do, but we'll be moving in this year, come hell or high water!