Our third flood!

One thing is certain: we have to move out of our current abode on Monday 6th.  Unless we want to move everything into storage, camp out on the boat, then move everything out of storage, we have to move in this weekend.

But the house is far from complete! Fortunately, the joiners have re-appeared this week so the woodwork is coming on rapidly.  However, the joiners are being chased by the carpet-fitters who cannot fit carpets until the skirting board and doors are fitted.  Today, the decorator who is trying to touch up and add final coats was sent home as he was in the way of both of them.

One room complete with skirting board, carpet and plastic film protection

Yesterday was a big day as most of the renewables were turned on.  That meant that we had hot water for the first time and apparently if it wasn't July, we would have had underfloor heating as well.  The solar panels on the roof were also switched on and for most of today, we were getting around 2kW of electricity free.  We are consuming a good deal less than that (except when the builders kettle is on), so the excess is finding its way back into the grid.  Since the appropriate certificate has yet to be raised, we can't claim any money back from the supplier for giving them electricity.  This certificate cannot be completed until the assessors have worked out the performance of the house in terms of energy required to run it and this may take a week or two yet.
The turning on of the renewables, was not without excitement.  Whilst the installers were filling the system with water, it turned out that one of the connections in the supply pipes had not properly been secured, and this objected to the sudden increase in pressure by failing and spraying water around the bottom of the staircase, narrowly missing the electricity fuse box.  This was our third flood, but the first to affect the house.  Fortunately the large number of people running around like headless chickens did eventually stumble upon the stopcock and the water was limited to under the stairs and one corner of the lounge.  By today things had dried out and it looks like our nice oak staircase and skirting boards may have escaped any staining.

The aftermath of the flood

..and under the staircase

The Mechanical Ventilation & Heat Recovery System (MVHR) part of the renewables has not yet been turned on as it needs to be set up to ensure the correct air flow between the rooms according to how well sealed the exterior of the house is.  This is a challenge at the moment as we still do not have a front door.  Clearly this allows for a significant air leak!  The required air pressure test we had last week was run from inside the hallway rather than the front door, but it was not very satisfactory.

The lack of a front door is also a bit of a problem for moving in.  The current arrangement involves a robust wooden shutter which is attached each evening and removed each morning.  We, and the builders still cannot get a delivery date out of the suppliers.  We don't even know if it has left Germany yet.  If it doesn't appear by Friday, then we will need a slightly more permanent temporary arrangement which will effectively seal off the front door, allowing access only through the patio doors which are secured a standard lock and key.

Tomorrow, BT should move our phone over from the rental property to the new house.  There is however one problem with this.  Despite setting this up with Open Reach many months ago, allowing them to survey the best method of connection,  and being provided with assurances that they will support BT (as the provider) by physically connecting a cable to the nearby telephone cable pole and presumably connect it back to our little village exchange, many Open Reach vans have driven passed, but none have stopped and no cable has appeared.  In total, I estimate that I have spent over 3 hours on the phone to BT (Open Reach won't talk to me as I'm not a provider!), and their stance is that if Open Reach haven't connected it yet, there must be very little work for them to do and it should be completed on time.  So we're waiting with bated breath, but I think we all know what is probably not going to happen.

Since we are to move this weekend, packing has started.  In fact Lesley started packing some time ago and what has not been sold, given away or thrown away has been neatly put into the many packing boxes which have been acquired.  I do detect a sense of frustration in Lesley in that she has done nearly all the packing so far and I have barely started.  My excuses are that I have had too much to do around at the new house, and that Lesley is a much, much better packer than I am!

The comments regarding the front door, also apply to the garage door which is being supplied by another German company.  Whilst garage construction is well underway with the roof going on at them moment, shortly followed by the eye-wateringly expensive Welsh slates, it cannot be made secure until its door is fitted.  This means that our short term plan to put some of the packing boxes in the garage would not work and we have had to negotiate with our neighbour for some space in her very large garage.

Useful storage space - if only it had a door!

...and a completed roof

On Friday we are hiring two men and a van to move some of the boxes and larger items a whole 200yds to the new house.  We will then spend the weekend unpacking and re-assembling, as well as taking delivery of the new furniture which is scheduled for Saturday.  On Monday the two men and a van re-appear and help us clear out from the rental property.

So, by Monday, we will be inside the house, but the builders will still be outside.  They still need to finish the garage, level and surface the drive, level and landscape the garden, lay all the paving and build the final brick garden wall, so they'll still be around for a while yet!  The annual Fairport Convention Festival start next Thursday (9th) and of the 20,000 people that descend on the village, 2 of them will be staying with us.  I think we may need to do a little expectation management!!