Saturday 15th May 2004

Kelvin hired the floor sander and with a mate from work (thanks Glynn!) sanded and gave the floor its first coat of diamond glaze. The floor proved to be harder to sand than originally thought but the coating went on a lot easier than Kelvin thought it would. Mum came over and continued painting on the landing.

Sunday 16th May 2004

Today another two coats of diamond glaze went on the lounge and dining room floor, it is looking very good. Although it is 'hard' now, you aren't really meant to walk on it for 7 days so should any builders decide to turn up tomorrow they will need to put boards down on the floor to walk on. Mum came and finished painting the landing, she also did any touching up in the bedrooms (and there seemed to be alot) - it is all finished now upstairs. In Billy's room we noticed that were filler had been used around a plug socket it seems all bodged up and as for where the wood is on top of the 'box' in Billy's room that is very bodged up. More things to mention when we next see the builders.

Was thinking today exactly what needs to be done still;

Lounge - floor socket needs to be fixed (eventually cupboard doors and shelves in alcoves plus painting)
Dining room - plastering on ceiling, two sets of French doors need bolts and one set needs a lock (eventually airing cupboard doors and shelves)
Kitchen - waste disposal unit needs to be put in place, kitchen doors need to go and so do the drawer fronts, French door bolt needs to be put correct way up and on the right door (windows eventually need another coat of stain and more painting in kitchen)
Porch - Finish plastering inside and the roof needs slating
Rear - The drains need to be made from concrete and the ground needs to be made ready for paving.

Of course we need electricity and water but this is up to relevant companies to do not builder.

So, as you can see there isn't a HUGE amount left to be done. The most frustrating thing is 1) we should have been moving this weekend so therefore I should be surrounded by boxes and finally unpacking and 2) we could have moved in if the builder hadn't lost the electricity meter and we had been connected up for power. How frustrating this is....

Monday 17th May 2004

Just as I predicted no builders turned up today. A message was left on Kelvin's phone telling him that no one would be there because of staff shortages. Apparently there will be three of them tomorrow here all day! Mmm will believe it when I see it. The carpet fitter came and fitted the carpets in Lauren's room, the landing and the stairs and it looks really really good. Very impressed. This evening I put up Lauren's and Billy's ceiling light shade just so it looked like we were getting somewhere! The specialist roofing contractors STILL haven't turned up - something else to speak to the builder about.

Tuesday 18th May 2004

Two builders arrived today (main builder plus one), the third one who were really hoping would turn up appears to have disappeared! The porch roof slating has been started and also the drains have been continued with. Doesn't appear much was done but I am presuming both jobs are fiddly work.

This evening Kelvin put up the curtain pole in our bedroom (haven't a clue where the curtains are though!) and also Lauren's curtain track and curtains are now up.

Wednesday 19th May 2004

One builder was on site by 9am (his Dad dropped him over - he is also a builder and is working in Redruth) and main builder arrived at 11.30am. The porch roof was slated today and the drains were continued with (seems to be a repeat of yesterday!). I chased up South West Water gain who put yet another note on their system that I was waiting for a telephone call. Decided to call Brents (company who do the work for South West Water), so phoned their head office (Bodmin), who told me to call St Austell who said they would phone me back........ and they did! Apparently the work is being done this Friday at 8.30am! Should be fun if they have to block the lane at that time in the morning! Found our bedroom curtains and hung them up today. Kelvin put Billy's curtain pole and curtains up and also fitted the bathroom bamboo blind (which I spent ages cutting to size today only for it to still be too long when hanging up!). Kelvin also put the shower spray together and fitted that on the bath taps.

	Our bedroom with curtain pole and curtains up, carpet inplace and painting all done! (It was very very sunny and picture hasn't come out too well)
Billy's bedroom with curtain pole and curtains in place, carpet and lightshade.
	Lauren's room with curtains, lightshade and carpet in place.
View of the lounge from the main doorway. (That is our new front door leaning against the wall!). Walls still need to be painted. Floor is in place and granite inglenook and stonework can be seen.
	Lounge from dining room doorway. Floor is looking lovely and so is the granite stonework.
View of the dining room from the lounge doorway. Beyond the french doors will be a patio eventually but currently it is all dug over for the drains, the other french doors lead into the kitchen. The floor in the dining room is looking excellent also.

Thursday 20th May 2004

The builder has reverted to his inability to work the full day on site - although we had one of his workers there from early in the morning, main builder hadn't arrived when I went out at 11.30am and when I returned at 4.30pm he had left again. He had been there though because Kelvin's parents had seen him (or perhaps a mirage?!). The specialist roofing guys came out today to inspect the roof and a plan of action has been decided - not sure when they are coming back though. The porch roof is fully on now. South West Water telephoned me to confirm Brents were coming on Monday to do the water supply - queried that because according to Brents yesterday they were coming on Friday. Brents duly phoned me back and said was going to be Friday but because it is such a large job they are going to start on Monday instead. Confused as didn't think it was a big job! Oh well - they seem to think it is.

This evening we started moving some furniture down using Kelvin's Dad's car - so far we have moved Billy's wardrobe and chest of drawers, Lauren's wardrobe, bedside table and chest of drawers and the headboard and footboard from our pine bed (which we obviously aren't sleeping on at the moment!).

I sanded off the paint/plaster/sealer splodges from Billy's window sill, Lauren's window sill, Billy's bedroom door and the bathroom window sill. Still a few to go but it is a start!

Friday 21st May 2004

Mmmm no builders this morning. Kelvin spoke to main builder who said he would be coming down later. I didn't believe him so Kelvin's Dad and I set off to Truro to have a chat with builder and we must have passed him on the road because he phoned me to tell me they were nearly at the house! Oh well, the baby went to sleep in the car anyway so not a completely wasted trip!

It was main builder plus one other and between them they did a few bits and pieces - second coat of rendering in the fireplace and the mortar fillet around the bottom of the lounge wall to join wall to floor. Also a bolt was put top and bottom on the dining room french doors - we were a bit reluctant to move furniture in without being able to lock the doors properly and main builder wasn't keen to put locks on himself as he hadn't done that type before.

I put up the border in Billy's bedroom today - am very pleased with myself! Kelvin is more impressed that I actually bothered to measure and use a spirit level! (I usually just guess!). It is looking very good, all ready for him to pick off no doubt when he gets a bit bigger!

Saturday 22nd May 2004

Mum came over today to start painting the downstairs, she started with the lounge ceiling - a bit of a nightmare in between the beams but not as much of a nightmare as the dining room ones will be!

Kelvin fixed the wardrobe feet and they are now in place so I can start taking bits down tomorrow to go in them, also can start bringing stuff down into Billy's bedroom. Kelvin was going to put our shower curtain pole up but unfortunately cracked a tile so that will have to wait until a new tile can be put up, opened a brand new shower curtain from Ikea and one of the eyelets at the top was broken and another one was completely missing! Don't think I will be driving to Bristol (3 hours away) just to replace a shower curtain!

Sunday 23rd May 2004

More painting was carried out by Mum today - she has finished the lounge ceiling and has started on the dining room wall. Mum is painting 'patches' of wall where we have furniture going so we don't have to move it once it is in place (we are talking heavy furniture ie piano and huge dresser/chest of drawers!).

Kelvin took the upstairs window sashes out so we could clean the muck off the front of them - I started and Kelvin finished (weak hands that my excuse anyway). Our bed is now together (I cannot wait to be back on our pine bed again - can't believe it is a year since we last slept on it!). Lauren's bed was taken out of the shed and shock horror - we have lost ALL the fixings with it. Hopefully I may have sourced some from a very kind lady on a parenting forum. Lauren may well be sleeping on the floor next Saturday! This afternoon Kelvin and his Dad did the first 'box' run - all the Christmas decorations are now in the loft and some of our clothes are in the wardrobes. Wonder how many builders we will have tomorrow....

Monday 24th May 2004

Day started well with Brents (water board workmen) arriving at 7.50am!! They started work pretty much straight away and were very good about people driving up and down the lane. At 8.50am a chap from Forresters (the specialist roofing firm) arrived to check out measurements on the roof - unfortunately he thought main builder would be here (ha ha ha ha) and because he wasn't, and he couldn't get the tarpaulin off the roof by himself he went again saying he didn't know when he could come back but it would have to be a time when main builder was here.

One builder managed to get here by himself and arrived just before 9am, he changed one of the bathroom tiles that kelvin accidentally cracked yesterday, he also tiled the kitchen wall by the sinks and continued with the kitchen plumbing.

Main builder and one other eventually turned up at some point after 11am (and managed to work until 4.30pm!). He carried on with the drains and apparently they are all finished now and tomorrow he is going to connect up the water supply. The remainder of the dining room ceiling was plastered inbetween the beams so that will be ready for painting once dried.

Mum came over and started painting the lounge, I painted the wall under the Inglenook fireplace (the only bit Mum didn't fancy doing), didn't do a particularly good job of it though!

Wonder how many people will turn up tomorrow.......

Tuesday 25th May 2004

Two builders on site by 9am - they both cracked on straight away with the doors. Mum came over mid morning and got on with the painting in the dining room. Unfortunately she had to spend ages clearing room to get near the walls as the builders had covered every available bit of floor with tools and 'stuff'. The kitchen guy also came today and was quite annoyed with the state of the kitchen as loads of stuff had to be moved before he could even get to work including removing wire/plug sockets/empty milk containers and various other bits from the larder cupboard. The kitchen has all the doors on cupboard and drawers and the extractor hood is in place and it is stunning!!!!!!!!!! Absolutely amazing and we are so pleased with it - going for the 9ft high units was definately the right choice. The cooker hood is very modern looking although if I was a little bit taller I'd bang my head on it (very stupid regulation height).

	The kitchen with the doors on. It is quite difficult to get a good photo as the units are so tall! Aren't they just stunning!
The other side of the kitchen (excuse the mess the builders don't know how to tidy up). The dishwasher is looking very trendy with it's door front - the space next to it is for the washing machine and on this end the fridge/freezer will go.

The french doors from the dining room to the patio now have the handle and lock on - Kelvin and I went down this evening to move stuff in and couldn't open the door because it is locked and we don't have a key (very useful). The front door has the letter box on it now and also the handle. Unfortunately main builder forgot to order the glass so it doesn't look like that will be done by Saturday. The lounge/dining room french doors are back in place now and the handle has been started.

Mmmm main builder, sorry who? Oh yes, man in charge - not seen today that often. I phoned mid afternoon to find out where he was as he was meant to be sorting the drains so that the patio can be paved but unfortunately he didn't answer his phone nor did he phone me back (although I know he got the message). Turns up he forgot something and had to go and sort it out and therefore had no intention of coming down to us today.

Apparently .... he is coming tomorrow but I will believe it when I see it. It better all be finished by end of the day on Friday or somebody won't be very happy......................

Wednesday 26th May 2004

We had three builders on site by 9am today - both sets of exterior french doors have their locks now. The kitchen french door has had the bolt corrected on it so it is now the correct way up and on the correct door! Kelvin's dad took the glass template (translate as piece of cardboard box with outline drawn on it) to the glass shop and luckily they cut it for him there and then, glass was then duly fitted in front door. The front door should be going in tomorrow or Friday.

The Building Inspector came and is very happy with the drains and has passed them. Trenches were duly filled in. Hopefully the guy who did the stonework is coming tomorrow to lay the slabs. It never occurred to me how much hassle it would be to have them done after we were living there - loads of sand would have to be brought through the house to bed the slabs in - too much mess I think!

The porch floor was screeded and that is looking good, hopefully it will be dry enough to walk on tomorrow (although I have my doubts) otherwise we shall all be traipsing through Kelvin's parents house to get in the back way.

Just in case anyone didn't notice all the nice smooth wet concrete!

Main builder never turned up, he had a crisis at his other site (you know.... the one he isn't working on anymore), one of his men injured his elbow and ended up at casualty and as they had already started work he had to continue with it.

I have booked a self drive van for Friday evening till Saturday evening. At the moment Kelvin is unsure if he can find his driving licence, if he can't it means I will have to drive it. Now that will be fun.....

Thursday 27th May 2004

We have electricity! We have central heating! We have water! After all the waiting Western Power came this morning and the electricity is now on. We don't have any lighting at the moment because there is a bare live wire in the porch which is of course dangerous. Once this wire is sorted then the lights will work (well, once we have put lightbulbs in them anyway!).

Four people on site today (three builders plus stone guy who is doing Kelvin's parent's patio and our patio).

The water was tested this morning and we had our first leak. One of the fixings in the bathroom didn't hold and water leaked out. Unfortunately it was the toilet pipes (the pipes that had been boxed in!) so a bit of fun was had whilst trying to rip the boxing off to get at the leaking joint - this has now been redone with something more secure.

The rear patio has been levelled and loads of bags of sand have been carried through to the rear garden ready for the slabs to go down.

The front door has been put up - unfortunately the door frame the main builder 'gave' us is the wrong size (apparently for a fire door!) so a new frame has to be purchased and refitted tomorrow.

Kelvin and I went down to inspect the house this evening and the central heating had been left on - it was sweltering in there! As soon as you opened the front door the heat hit you! Finally got to fiddle with the kitchen appliances and all I can say is WOW! The hob is amazing and I am so glad with the products I chose.

So it looks like everything is on for Saturday - how scary is that?

Friday 28th May 2004

Four chaps on site today - three builders plus stone guy.

The patio was continued with and the front door was put into the new door frame. The builders were very good and and removed all their tools and bits and pieces from the house and they even tidied/cleaned up!

I'm sure more was carried out today but I haven't had time to go down there and check it out!

Mum and I spent the day packing boxes but there still seems loads to do. Kelvin hired the van this evening although we didn't load it as planned after recently seeing 'New Homes from Hell' on the tv where a family had all their possessions stolen when their removal van got pinched over night!

Saturday 29th May 2004

Moving Day - Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse it does........

What a day! Kelvin and I started fairly early, we loaded the van with the two leather sofas, the bed settee, the dresser top and a few other bits and pieces. The leather sofas were very heavy. Came down to unload it, opened up the house and that is when the fun starts! The understairs cupboard was chock a block with builders stuff (tools, wire etc etc), there was carpet left on the dining room floor and when this was lifted there was dust and filth underneath plus various other bits and also there was tiles, worktop etc on the other side of the dining room, when it came to the kitchen there was stuff in a lot of the cupboards, under the sink there was glue with no lid and the list goes on and on (not a very good start to the day!).

Mum and David arrived and suggested we call my cousin Chris as he may be around - thank goodness he was so he came over to help. Kelvin and Chris loaded the van to capacity and took it down - Kelvin then realised that the time was getting on so he called us down to help unload it (the van had to be back in Redruth by 5pm - in hindsight we really should have hired it for 48 hours instead of 24). Everybody was getting a bit tense by this point due to struggle with very little amount of help - for about 10 minutes it seemed everyone was having a go at each other but after that time the air was cleared. I had Billy in my sling on my front and was unloading boxes as well (Billy found this quite funny and was trying to grab everything!). One of our neighbours, Julie, also came to help which we are very grateful for.. We then did one final load (about 10 minutes worth of loading and then 10 of unloading) and Kelvin took the van back.

We have found some things wrong that will need to be put right - one of the sockets in the kitchen doesn't work and one of the lights won't switch on either. The light on the cooker hood comes on but won't stay (possibly a faulty switch). The boiler does work but sometimes when you run the hot tap the boiler doesn't switch on straight away. One of the dining room lights doesn't work either.

Mum and David stayed a bit longer to help unpack some stuff in the kitchen. Luckily were the bedrooms were concerned our bed had been put together for a week and it literally needed making. Kelvin made Lauren's bed up with the fixings sourced from two wonderful people (thank you Steve and Heather) and it just needed making up also. Billy wasn't overly impressed with his bedroom and wouldn't go to sleep till 8.30pm (which is one and a half hours later than usual). By 10pm we were in bed watching Friends!

Sunday 30th May 2004

This morning we all traipsed up the farmhouse again to finish packing and cleaning. When we got up there we found one of our cats (who we hadn't seen that morning), he had obviously gone 'home' again! Lauren was very good and entertained Billy while I vacuumed (luckily I had done the upstairs cleaning as I packed the day before). There wasn't very much left upstairs but the floors were quite 'bitty' from moving all the furniture out. The downstairs was a nightmare as there were loads of odd bits to pack so they just got thrown in boxes (and will be a nightmare to unpack also!). After all was vacuumed and swept that was it for us, Lauren and I came back home only to remember we had locked the cat inside so duly back up to retrieve cat and then back home again! So far the cat has remained here....

Kelvin went down to the Pine Factory and questioned whether our brand new pine table should be wobbly, the chap reckons it is easily to solve and is coming out to check it next Friday.

Chris arrived with the trailer and him and Kelvin took a load of rubbish to the dump and then they brought the last load of boxes down to the house. Kelvin's mum went up to the farmhouse and mopped the kitchen, back kitchen and shower room floors for me (I hate mopping!) and then the rest of the day has been spent unpacking (and updating the website - well priorities!).

Kelvin got our wireless network up and running (I am now truly 'wire free'!), he also plugged in our home phone - we have had the phone line connected at the house even though we weren't here. There was a BT answer message on the phone - we checked and it was from the main builder left on the 17th May - perhaps he forgot he hadn't actually finished our house and he thought we'd moved in!