#2019FebSettingUpOurNewHome

[billinghamn]

2019 Feb – Setting Up our New Home: Week 9 (Mon 01 Apr to Sun 07 Apr)

Mon 01 Apr-Wed 03 Apr

On TP run.

Thu 04 Apr

Knackered after my trip, so didn’t do anything.

Fri 05 Apr

Didn’t do a great deal around the house. Vick planned out the Snug and ordered some nice “snuggle” chairs from Next.

Started cutting the grass for the first time – it took about 2 hours over the next 2 days to complete it. It must have been about 12" tall at the back. Looking much better now, and we need to keep on top of it every week.

Sat 06 Apr

Went to Ikea in Reading to buy a filing cabinet for the HOG and a couple of nice Star Wars like lamp shades for the hall.

Ordered some more Hue bulbs for the lights in the hall. Ordered two new Friends of Hue light switches. Let’s see how those work out.

Missed our Royal Mail delivery, so will need to go and visit the local sorting office in Abingdon to pick that up.

Sun 07 Apr

Fitted the two new lamp shades in the hall. Fitted the new Hue bulbs. These were on separate lighting circuits, but because they are controlled by the Hue app, this isn’t an issue.

Removed the light rose outside the cupboard downstairs – need to work out how to officially close that off.

Measured up the garden, so that we could start designing the deck.

[billinghamn]

2019 Feb – Setting Up our New Home: Week 8 (Mon 25 Mar to Sun 31 Mar)

Mon 25 Mar

Light strip for the loft arrived today. Once fitted that made working up there so much easier.

Fitted the plug to the power feed from the Under Stairs Cupboard to the Loft. Fitted the 4-way adapter in the loft and connected to the power cable from the Under Stairs Cupboard.

Fitted the 2m Hue light strip and a 1m extension. One side is complete. No need to fit the other side just yet.

Moved the final line of LoftZone supports and fitted the half loft boards.

Rubbed down the main filled hole taking power to the blind, to try and make it less obvious. Repainted it. Looking ok, but not great. Fitted the socket for the automated blind.

Ordered the boiler housing unit for the Utility room, so that I can hide the CU. Also ordered the pelmet and cornice for the kitchen units. Estimated 3w delivery timeline from Jewson – about a third of the price compared with ordering direct from Symphony.

Tue 26 Mar

Fitted the mirror and glass shelf to Bed 2 Ensuite. Prepared the windows for the curtains/blinds being fitted tomorrow.

Fitted another section of LoftZone loft flooring.

Whilst Vick was away in Warrington, I had a romantic wave come over me!

Wed 27 Mar

Keith, Ruth and Phil from Abingdon Blinds arrived at around 9am. It took them about 20 mins just to unload everything from their van! They started on the motorised blind. Keith was happy with the positioning of the power socket, and left me cable to switch the socket to an isolating switch if I so desired.

By 11:30am the motorised blind was working, and I had set up the home hub and had control via my phone.

They were here until just before 5pm, having dressed every window in the house. It was starting to look wonderful.

I packed for my trip to Phoenix. Vick got back late from her trip to Aberdeen and was impressed with the curtains and blinds.

Thu 28 Mar-Sun 31 Mar

On my TP run to Phoenix.

[billinghamn]

2019 Feb – Setting Up our New Home: Week 7 (Mon 18 Mar to Sun 24 Mar)

Mon 18 Mar

The windy days seem to be over - nice and calm today. Started on the LoftZone loft flooring, working around the loft hatch. It seems to be a simple solution to install.

Rearranged the sofas in the lounge. Trying to find the best arrangement to optimise the view of the central TV.

Tue 19 Mar

Moved the powered blinds socket so it was closer to the window (as requested by our curtain fitter). Deep gap filler being used to build up the plaster, so not sure how long it’s going to take for that to dry, or how successful it’s going to be.

Did some more work on the loft flooring. Ordered some wood from B&Q to build a wall around the loft hatch.

Charged up at Reading SC, whilst I picked up the wood and got it cut at B&Q (not stocked by Abingdon B&Q). It’s a good excuse to charge the car up. Whilst I was down there, I also went to Ikea to pick up two filing cabinets.

Wed 20 Mar

Mike the painter arrived to paint the gloss on the under stairs cupboard, and the doors. He also was happy to do the new skirting on the kitchen wall.

Built the two Ikea filing cabinets for the HOG. Relocated Vick’s printer from downstairs in the garage up into the HOG. She’s happier now that she doesn’t need to traipse through the garage to get her print outs!

Finished off the loft flooring hatch area. Extended the support system out to the right-hand side of the house – pleased with how much I completed today. Shocked at how poorly Bloor Homes had laid the insulation – ended up relaying most of it myself. Aiming to put the boards down tomorrow.

Thu 21 Mar

Ryan came to fix the Tesla wall charger. The job was completed in about 3 hours or so. Good lad – used my original bits from the installation in our previous house.

Other 3 soft close toilet lid mechanisms arrived so I fitted those - all done now. Fitted the floor boards in the loft, so that’s looking pretty decent now.

Fri 22 Mar

Not a great deal done today, but I finished off a bit of the loft flooring.

Sat 23 Mar

Rubbed down and painted the filled holes around the power socket for the blind, and in the dining room. At least one of the filled holes will need further rubbing down – it is a little too proud of the surrounding area to be acceptable just now.

Installed a Hue PIR and light strip in the Under Stairs Cupboard.

For the rest of the day we headed up to Birmingham to meet our Starbucks friends. We were celebrating the Vickster's birthday and we enjoyed an amazing meal at Fazenda.

Sun 24 Mar

We were out most of the day, so not a lot done to the house. Enjoyed a pleasant lunch out with Andrew & Sam.

Pulled the power cable through the route from the Under Stairs to the Loft to power the lights, which are due to arrive on Mon.

[billinghamn]

2019 Feb – Setting Up our New Home: Week 6 (Mon 11 Mar to Sun 17 Mar)

Mon 11 Mar

Wayne came back to do some further work on the under stairs cupboard. He was happy with the revisions to the kitchen plasterboard and will be able to plaster it either today or tomorrow.

Jamie arrived with his mate to do final plastering over of holes in four rooms, and preparing them for painting later today.

Clint and Paul, the kitchen fitters arrived to reverse the washing machine door, to add a filler, and to fix the oven housing side that is sticking out. I also talked to Clint about my proposal for fitting a housing unit around the CU. He didn’t want to do it, but he thought he might know where a spare boiler housing unit might be stored (in plot 133). Unfortunately, he couldn’t find them – he’s leaving some bits for me though, so hopefully I’ll be able to make some progress with the CU housing.

Paul also removed a bit of the oven housing that was jutting out and splitting the long run of kick board in two. Replaced the kick board so looks unbroken now.

The new outdoor light and sensor for the HOG arrived, together with a new fancy hose gun. I’m sure we packed our old hose gun, but we have been having to cope with the standard hose jet thing that comes with the autoreel.

Fitted the HOG lampshades (from Ikea) – bit of a nightmare and then had to order two E27 Hue bulbs off Amazon – should arrive tomorrow.

Fitted a second CCTV camera which has visibility of the back garden and the HOG door. A couple of the screws were really difficult to screw in, and I had to revert to shorter screws. It was a trouble because I had to use the screwdriver with my left hand. I tried moving the ladder to the other side of the corner, but it was too dangerous. So I have ordered a corner stabiliser, which should help a lot.

Finally got the camera set up, and went inside to hook it up to the DVR. Since I didn’t know which if the three remaining cameras were hooked up, I had to connect all of them to the power and one by one I connected the video feed. The CCTV system clearly doesn’t like that arrangement. As soon as I did that, the existing camera went off line. After some testing/trialling, I deduced that the system doesn’t like power being applied to cameras which are not connected – weird.

Tue 12 Mar

Another windy day today, which meant I heard the eerie squeal that Andrew referred to when he stayed at the weekend. I went outside when I got up at 4am when it was still windy to find out where it was coming from. It’s the gate latch which is scrapping over itself (metal on metal), as the wind blows it – there’s a bit of give in the gate, and it’s this short distance of movement that is creating the squeal. I need to reduce that give, so that the gate is as tight as it can be.

Kevin, the painter and decorator, arrived to work on the architraves. A lot of the screw holes are proud of the door frames, so they need sanding down.

Some foreign guys arrived to lay the tiles in the under stairs cupboard. They also conveniently left me a few spare tiles just in case we need them.

Wayne arrived not long before lunch. I was out but Kev let him in. He did the first coat on the kitchen wall, and it’s already starting to look like a proper wall! 😊

I sorted out the CCTV cables in the evening. I had to disconnect the cables from the two cameras already installed, pull the cables back into the loft, and then drop them back down into the under stairs cupboard, so that the extensions were in the loft, rather than half way up the wall behind the plasterboard, at risk of being pulled apart. If only the wind would die down enough to allow me to fix the other cameras in position! Got a ladder corner stabiliser arriving on Wed.

The Dyson stand arrived, and I built that. Looks great, but takes up a fair amount of space. Worthwhile though in my opinion. Will see what Vick thinks when she gets back tomorrow!

Spent a bit of time talking to Kev and Wayne. Kev is married to a young lady 22 years his junior (lucky blighter), and he gets every Sat off so that he can go watch the football.

Wed 13 Mar

Storm Gareth on the way into Britain, suggesting more high winds over the next few days.

The M&S wardrobe that was broken on the initial delivery, arrived today. Had a load of issues with M&S customer support.

No workmen today. I finished off the cabling for CCTV in the loft, but it was too windy to actually fit anything outside today.

Thu 14 Mar

Wet and windy today (again).

Alex arrived (he’s a chippie) to do the skirting boards under the stairs. He was happy to do the skirting on the new kitchen wall.

Wayne finished off the kitchen wall and sanded it down. Pretty dusty but looking really good now, especially with the new skirting board.

Used my new ladder corner brace to fit CCTV camera number 3 covering the front of the house. Too windy and cold to do any more. Hopefully finish off the CCTV at the weekend.

Fri 15 Mar

Didn’t really do much today. Vick moved stuff into the dining room sideboard, and emptied loads of boxes.

My half pallet of LoftZone kit arrived.

Sat 16 Mar

Tidied up the garage, and moved the shelving unit back against the wall. Prepared for yet another visit to the tip! Still windy, but was hoping to get the CCTV finished off today. Managed to finish the camera at the front of the house, but the ladder wasn’t steady enough after about 11am due to the wind.

Installed a shelf in the utility room in the space normally used for a dryer. That will help us make better use of the space.

Started work on the coat cupboard – provided power from the dining room power socket – had to create two large holes in the dining room to support routing the cable through – managed to patch those up by the end of the day. Couldn’t complete because I needed some earthing sleeve, and I found that the back box I used in the cupboard had one screw fixing missing – will need to get a new one tomorrow.

Sun 17 Mar

Really productive day today. The wind was fairly calm early this morning, but biting cold. So, finished off the garage CCTV camera and the HOG/rear CCTV camera. Fingers were so cold it was difficult to hold the screw driver!

After a quick visit to B&Q, replaced the back box in the cupboard and installed the earthing sleeve. Tested the power supply in the cupboard and all was well.

Installed the shelving in the cupboard – two shelves – one on each side – I didn’t have any material quite wide enough to fit across without a break.

Fitted a 2m Hue light strip in the cupboard, and a Hue motion detector. The light now goes on as you open the cupboard door. It looks really funky.

Fitted the socket in the family room high window to feed power to the blind when it is fitted next week. That was fed from the Bed 2 power socket. Patched up the hole and sent a picture to our curtain fitter. He responded asking for it to be moved closer to the window! Some people are never happy!

Fitted the TV CAT6a cable to Bed 1.

[billinghamn]

2019 Feb – Setting Up our New Home: Week 5 (Mon 04 Mar to Sun 10 Mar)

Mon 04 Mar

Main job today was to start the plastering in Bed 2. I bought two tubs of Polyfilla Skim and they made it sound dead easy. It wasn’t. Only managed to complete half the job and did my best in terms of making it as smooth as possible, but I can’t give up my day job…

I sanded down the 2 WC holes, and then filled the top corner gap. Should do ok. I patched up the Bed 5 holes with the plugs that I cut out together with Polyfilla deep gap in the WC.

The Ring doorbell seems to have settled down now – it seems to ring whenever anyone presses it, as often as they like (as it should do).

Received the CCTV cable 5m extensions – added to the one CCTV camera that is in place. Will pull the cable through to the loft tomorrow.

Tue 05 Mar

I installed the Hozelock Autoreel – almost exactly the same install as the last version that I installed at our old house over 10 years ago. I couldn’t get the massively long screws into the wall, so had to replace them with shorter ones – they should be fine.

A guy came around to break into the under stairs cupboard – so it looks like the show home. He removed the old plaster and prepared the space ready for the plasterer to come in. We will also need the tiler to come in as well. The guy left me some 2x2 wood and some plasterboard screws. Good lad.

Ordered a pallet of LoftZone flooring. Need to get more organised access in to the loft. Also need to rig up the Hue light strips in the loft as well.

Rang Symphony to confirm the kitchen units: Cranbrook Gallery Platinum. Modern Tangent recommended cornice – code CORT30V and pelmet – code UPST30V. Immensely expensive so will see whether I can find an alternative supplier - Jewson apparently stocks it - just under a different name.

Wed 06 Mar

Prepared the kitchen plasterboard with the correct screws. Hopefully the plasterer will be prepared to skim it, perhaps for a bit of extra dosh.

Wayne arrived to plaster the under stairs cupboard, and did a great job. He had to move the wall on the inside of the stairs a little to ensure the plasterboard fitted correctly.

Wayne plastered over the hole in the ceiling on the landing, which was great – really good to see that finally sorted. He decided he couldn’t do the same over the kitchen wall due to the screws not biting and their heads not being embedded properly into the plasterboard.

I plastered over the holes in the HOG and on the HOG stairs. When I got back to the house I received a notification that the HOG Access Point that disconnected, and that could mean only one thing – that I had screwed into the network cable whilst I was plastering up! Nightmare! Luckily, I worked out based on the time of the notification which hole I was plastering over; removed it and saved the connection to the AP.

Last thing I did was finished off the plastering in the spare room.

Firmed up a date with Roger for him to dig in my charging cable (Sat morning) and when my wall charger could be connected up (21/03).

Thu 07 Mar

Apparently, the plumber was due in yesterday, but came in today instead. He moved the small cylinder up and as far to the back as possible in the airing cupboard. That created room at the front for shelving.

The John Lewis Robert Welch Burford bathroom accessories arrived today. After lots of discussion, I decided I would just get on and order the stuff. Worst case, we can just take it back once we have had a jolly good look at it all. As it happens, Vick was happy with the quality, and I installed 2 toilet brushes, 4 toilet roll holders, 3 shower caddies and 8 door hooks before the end of the day.

I sanded down the filled holes in the HOG, the filled holes on the HOG stairs and the Bed 2 skimmed plasterboard.

I finished off Bed 2 wardrobe, reinstalling the wardrobe shelf, the poles, the carpet and the mirror doors. Vick cleaned the bedroom and ensuite, and it was ready for Andrew’s arrival on Fri evening.

Another really busy day.

Fri 08 Mar

I didn’t sleep well last night, so didn’t have a great deal of energy today. The only work I did was to install the two glass shelves in Bed 1 ensuite – Vick was happy with the result.

Sat 09 Mar

Filled the holes in the garage – will sand those down on Sun, ready for Jamie finishing off and painting on Mon.

Prepared the kitchen wall ready for plastering on Mon. Bought some 6mm batons from B&Q, and fitted them behind the plasterboard I had put up previously. This ensured the plasterboard nails were tight and below the surface of the plasterboard.

Roger came to dig the trench for the Tesla wall charging cable. Finished in just over two hours. I had to drill all the holes and help feed the cable through. Ready for installation of the wall connector in a couple of weeks’ time.

Sun 10 Mar

Another windy day, so couldn’t do that much outside. However, managed to fit the outside patio door light.

Rubbed down the holes which are going to be painted on Mon.

Lots of tidying up on the inside, and Vick did a sterling job on cleaning and getting the house in a fit state prior to her going away for a few days.

[billinghamn]

2019 Feb – Setting Up our New Home: Week 4 (Mon 25 Feb to Sun 03 Mar)

Mon 25 Feb

Up at 5am and constructed the second shelving unit. Installed Vick’s VOIP phone and tidied up a bit. All ready for Vick to start working in the HOG.

Picked up the twin & earth cable. Started some initial work in the under stairs cupboard. Managed to fit the power socket spur and all the ducting in the under stairs cupboard. Already got the power and LAN cable through the wall into the garage, so just the ducting in the garage left to do.

Tue 26 Feb

We have new bedroom furniture arriving tomorrow so we emptied and disassembled stuff from the bedrooms to make way for the new stuff.

Black power adapters turned up today, and new loft ladder for the HOG. Fitted power adapters to HOG. Very echoey and it’s proving difficult us both being in the HOG on calls at the same time.

First item on our snagging list has been sorted – we have two wall cupboards in the Utility now – no fillers though. Washing machine door and fixings have also been ordered.

Did more work on the trunking and cabling in the garage. Reached the ceiling section heading towards the ceiling rose. Bypassed the drop to the power sockets – plan to do that tomorrow if all goes well.

Alex the chippie, arrived at around 4pm to fit 4 doors – did a great job and only wanted to charge us £10 per door. Gave him a good tip.

Wed 27 Feb

New bedroom furniture turned up and it looked fab. The wardrobe was damaged in the van, so a new one needed to be ordered – pending a delivery date.

Finished off the trunking and cabled everything up in the garage. New power socket spur in the under stairs cupboard seems to be working, but the lights outside appear now to be driven off the light switch, so something isn’t quite right.

Richard from Silkflow, fitted our water softener in the Utility room under the sink.

Thu 28 Feb

We have been in the house 4 weeks!

Confirmed that I’ve hooked up the new lights at the wrong end of the 2-way lighting! So, need to keep the garage 2-way lighting set in the right way for the time being.

Installed the new power block for the rack in the garage. Installed Vick’s new printer in the garage.

Closed up the double socket in the garage – I was concerned that this might force one of the four 2.5mm Live or Neutral wires out of the fixings – looks like it has been ok. Wired up an extension lead in the HOG as well. HOG now fully cabled.

Drove out to the Oxford supercharger, and then on in to Oxford to pick up some material from John Lewis. The call centre messed up – when Vick said her local store was Oxford – they thought she meant Oxford Street! Material has now been ordered which is the important thing.

Started taking all of the old bedroom furniture to the tip.

Fri 01 Mar

Started routing a CAT6a cable from the loft through Bed5 in to the WC downstairs to feed the Ring Video Doorbell Elite. Had to drill 3 large holes in Bed 5 to get the fish wire through to the skirting board. Have found a potential route from the WC ceiling up, so will drill up there tomorrow.

Sat 02 Mar

Really productive day today. Broke up the remaining old bedroom furniture – those chests of drawers that wouldn’t fit in either of our cars. Took the remaining furniture to the tip as well.

Amazingly completed the fitting of the Ring Video Doorbell Elite by lunchtime. Worked out a route through the floor into the WC downstairs, and then dug out the hole in the brickwork for the doorbell. Found a diagonal route from the WC window between the block and brickwork to the doorbell. Ended up having to drill 5 large round holes in Bed 5, and 2 large round holes in the WC. Managed to repair the two holes in the WC as well, and patch up around the doorbell, with light red brick mortar. Well chuffed.

Also managed to install the first CCTV looking at the garage – the 18m was just long enough – I have ordered 5m extensions so that I can ensure I have plenty of spare so the cables are tidy in the loft.

Installed the two Yale Panic Buttons – one for the bedroom when I am away from home; the other for the HOG.

Vick pickled up a new Dyson v10 Animal – our V8 Absolute is just about knackered now, with all of the dust it’s had to deal with. Vick did a great job at cleaning the house during the day as well. Starting to come together.

Sun 03 Mar

Installed the wifi access point in the HOG ceiling. Nightmare routing of cables from the under stairs cupboard in the garage through the wall, up the garage wall. I couldn’t find a route through a metal framed stud wall, so ended up routing the cables into the stairway up to the HOG, and then back through diagonally up just above the HOG skirting board. From there it was an easy route up the HOG wall and in to the ceiling. The ceiling insulation was immaculate – far tidier than in the house!

I patched up the WC holes with the plugs that I cut out together with Polyfilla deep gap in the WC.

[billinghamn]

2019 Feb – Setting Up our New Home: Week 3 (Mon 18 Feb to Sun 24 Feb)

Mon 18 Feb

Vick drove up to Warrington for her first visit back to head office - she will be doing that every 3 or 4 weeks or so. Keeps her in close contact with her team.

Whilst she was away, I set up all the alarm system (other than the siren) – I plan to do that at the weekend. One more door contact to fit for the garage under stairs cupboard, but the final door contact I have needs a new battery.

I set up the CCTV system. All 4 cameras tested whilst lying on the floor in the lounge. I will fix these to the side of the house over the next few weeks.

I noticed that the rack was warming up the under stairs cupboard when I opened the door – I may need to think about some cooling in there in due course.

Tue 19 Feb

I got the train from Didcot Parkway into Paddington for my first meeting in London. Managed to get a PCN for paying for parking quoting my car reg, even though I was driving Vick’s car! We have only recently won a court fight over a PCN, so another one is on the way!

After lots of research, I ordered a Video Doorbell Elite from Ring. The only one which is natively aligned to Alexa, and avoids any issues with WIFI since it’s hard wired and driven off PoE. I will run a CAT6a cable from the under stairs cupboard to the loft and down the outside of the house to the doorbell. This will give us notification that someone is at the door when we are in the HOG working.

I got the Gym TV bracket secured to the wall, and fixed the TV on to it – no mean feat! That made the gym more attractive to use first thing in the morning.

Wed 20 Feb

The black mini ducting arrived, even though I asked for it to be delivered on Thu at the earliest. Luckily, I was working from home rather than working in London, as originally expected.

Fitted the lounge TV bracket. Managed to get it fitted upside down (no clear up/down shown on the bracket itself), and there was no way I was going to take it off and try and reinstall it – I’d have to drill new holes. That means it’s being held by two relatively small screws now. Cabling all over the place – will look at that tomorrow.

Vick was happy with the progress I had made whilst she was away in Warrington.

Thu 21 Feb

I managed to sort the lounge TV cabling and it looks like it is truly hanging in space now! Just need the sub and surround sound speakers to finish off things - can’t justify investing in that just yet.

Fitted the black mini trunking on the side of the house to hide the grey CAT6a cable. Looks pretty neat if I do say so myself. Would have been better if I had been able to route the cable behind the plasterboard, but this is a decent alternative approach.

Installed the mirror in the downstairs loo. For some reason it’s always nice to check how you look just before leaving the room.

Fri 22 Feb

The curtain guy came around and spent 3 hours writing a quote up (hand written). Tried a bit of hard sell at the end, but we resisted.

The Ring Video Doorbell Elite arrived. I did a quick test and confirmed all was ok - after all it’s just a fancy big doorbell! I need to work out a cable route from the front door to the under stairs cupboard for the PoE.

Installed the Hue lights and Hue motion detector on the front of the garage. Not hooked up to the electrics just yet, but I found a source of live and neutral from the light switch and the light rose.

Posted a plastering job on MyBuilder – got a number of interested parties and one quote of £340! I don’t think so.

Sat 23 Feb

Finished off connecting up the Hue lights on the garage and finally worked out how to programme them – not very intuitive to be honest. Got there in the end. Still need some finishing off with trunking, and I think I’ll fit a proper isolator switch.

Drove down to Ikea Reading and bought the desks, chairs and screens for the HOG. Managed to construct all of it, and videoed it as well.

Had some connectivity issues with the lounge TV, with my floating design. The Samsung One Connect was perched on top of the TV bracket and the connections were moving around. It’s all back on the floor again, so will have to work out a better design.

Sam and Andrew popped in for a quick cup of tea.

Sun 24 Feb

Went down to Ikea Reading again to pick up the shelving. Managed to construct one of those – nightmare instructions! Videoed that as well – should be a laugh.

Laid out the network cable from the HOG to the under stairs cupboard. Temporarily connected up. Bought some mini trunking, so will start getting that laid in due course.

Never managed to get around to the CCTV – second weekend that I have missed making any progress on that. It’s still far too windy to get up a ladder.

The HOG is ready for our inaugural working day on Mon. Ordered 100m of twin & earth for providing power into the HOG – will pick that up from B&Q on Mon.

[billinghamn]

2019 Feb – Setting Up our New Home: Week 2 (Mon 11 Feb to Sun 17 Feb)

Mon 11 Feb 2019

Starbucks in Didcot didn’t have any milk! Can you believe it? I would have thought that Starbucks must need milk for 75% of the coffees they make, so that’s a major faux-pas if you ask me! I didn’t bother paying for an Americano, but Vick tried an oat-milk latte which wasn’t very nice. Hopefully back to normal tomorrow.

Special plaster board fixings arrived, which I used to put up the first shelves in the Study. That made it start to feel like a proper home office.

The flooring guys arrived to fit the laminate flooring to the HOG and Gym. They didn’t have any beading, so ended up coming back the following day to finish off. Another fairly big change taking us that bit closer to having our home feel like a real home.

I moved the exercise bike bits up from the garage in to the gym and put it back together. It had been cold in the garage, and so there was a fair amount of condensation, so I left it to get up to temp before turning it on. Looking forward to getting back in to some sort of exercise regime.

Tue 12 Feb 2019

The flooring guys arrived to finish off the beading since they didn’t have any beading with them yesterday. Two instances where the beading ends were really poorly finished off. Asked them to correct one instance twice! Bit of a poor show to be honest.

Installed the coat hooks in the cupboard. It’s amazing what small improvements like this make to the general tidiness of the house. Rather than all of our coats being piled up in the lounge, they are now hanging where they are supposed to be! We can create a new pile of stuff where the coats used to be!

We pulled our first CAT6a cable from the Under Stairs Cupboard through to the TV in the Gym. Used the fish wire for the first time. It was so much easier, but we never found that lost spoon!

Drilled the hole from the under stairs cupboard in the garage to the garden, ahead of digging a trench to lay the cabling from the garage to the house. I knew I would need some help with the trench so I got in contact with Roger the ground worker! He did this for a living, so had the right muscles in the right places to get the job done.

Wed 13 Feb

I put up Vick’s shelves in the study in the afternoon. The new uprights and brackets arrived from Amazon. This system used to be sold by B&Q in black, but they have now switched to selling the white version - why would anyone want a white shelving system? You can still buy the black Watson Twin Slot Shelving from Amazon which is useful to know.

The 50m fibre cable arrived, which I tested between my two 16 port switches. I moved the HOG switch in to the Under Stairs Cupboard in the Garage. I added a bit of carpet to make it bit more cozy, but no power supply just yet.

Roger the ground worker agreed to come around on Fri afternoon to dig the trench. That would allow me to pull the fibre and other cables through on Saturday when my “helpers” are on site.

Drove up to Liverpool Airport to stay over before spending the following day on site in Wythenshaw. All of this work stuff is getting in the way of me getting this house in order!

Thu 14 Feb

Spent all day in Wythenshaw. Nothing much done on the house.

Fri 15 Feb

Tidied up the garage – everything out, swept clean and then everything back in. It was then in some sort of order. I had to look in all of the boxes since we had mislaid some stuff, and we didn’t note those items down explicitly in our moving box list.

Roger and mate arrived to dig the trench between the HOG and the house for the cabling. Only took them 2 hours. Paving slabs mortared back in place as well. Great job!

In the evening we had our first meal sat at our dining room table. Vick had spent some time moving boxes, tidying it up and cleaning it. Lovely.

Sat 16 Feb

My “helpers”, Andrew and James, came around to help with the cabling between the HOG and the house.

Managed to pull the 3 cables through from the garage under stairs cupboard through the underground ducting, up the drainpipe into the loft and down into the under stairs cupboard in the house. All connected up – the fibre worked, (which I was concerned about), and the CAT6a backup cable worked as well.

The CAT6a TV cable pending routing up into the HOG. Temp power supply into the garage under stairs cupboard.

Hooked up the HeatmiserNeo Hub and set up control of the underfloor heating system.

Sam came later and we all went out to the pub for dinner. It was a really nice break for all of the house construction work…

Sun 17 Feb

Cabled up the lounge TV – had to route the cable down the side of the house. Ordered some black mini trunking – very difficult to find – expensive from a specialist place and £15 for next day delivery!

We had a wander around the village, finding some interesting tracks. Looks like we should be able to get access to the East Drayton Way, just south of our house.

Set up the lounge TV and Sonos playbar. Good to get our primary evening entertainment organised finally!

[billinghamn]

2019 Feb – Setting Up our New Home: Week 1 (Fri 01 Feb to Sun 10 Feb)

Fri 01 Feb 2019

We awoke at a local hotel and it had been snowing hard. Not what we expected to find on the morning of our first day in our new home!

Our Sky man arrived early doors, and fitted the satellite dish to the corner of the house. He was happy to route the cable through the loft and down through the open hatch, leaving me with some spare cable. Later on that would be the first cable I routed down the newly formed cable route from the under stairs cupboard in to the loft.

Today we had underfloor heating being laid in the HOG ahead of our laminate being put down. The Rayotec team (James and his mate) arrived at about midday. The sparky (Billy) didn’t make it from Brighton due to the snow. They laid the insulation and the heating mats and identified the cable routing from the consumer unit to thermostat on the wall in the HOG. They were done in 90 mins or so.

The British Gas Hive engineer was due, but cancelled the previous day. We didn’t have a new date for them to install the multi-zone Hive system, but I would ring them in due course to get that organised.

I had a big plan for creating a cable route from the under stairs cupboard to the loft, so that I could store the rack out of sight, and route my cables up via the loft to wherever I needed them. So whilst Vick was opening boxes, I started (tentatively) digging out a channel upstairs in Bed 2’s fitted wardrobe.

Sat 02 Feb 2019

Our carpets were fitted which took all day, but the guys did a great job: Nick, Nathan and Jack from Tapi in Abingdon. The place was starting to feel like a home. Just got the HOG and the gym to floor (laminate) which was due to take place in a week or so.

We enjoyed our first glass of champagne in our new home.

Sun 03 Feb 2019

Enjoyed a trip to our local Starbucks in the wintry weather, still in my shorts! We will be making this trip every morning when we are at home, so time to be nice to the locals!

Started digging out the cable channel on the kitchen wall. The Site Manager had provided the plan of joists in the ceiling, so that I could find a slot in between the joists.

We erected our desks and made the Study usable as best we could ahead of our first day back at work tomorrow.

Mon 04 Feb 2019

First day back at work - it felt quite odd us both sitting in the same room working. When we were both on the phone at the same time, it was quite difficult to hear, so we will need to work out some sort of sound barrier when we move in to the HOG.

Finished off the downstairs cable channel as best I could. Decided to compromise on the mess against a workable solution. Drilled the two holes into the under stairs cupboard.

Tue 05 Feb 2019

Second day back at work, and we seem to have settled down in to working in our study. The study was in quite a decent position, compared to the view around the rest of the house!

Wed 06 Feb 2019

We received a lovely surprise from Nat, Stew, Janet, Su and Dave this morning: a hamper from Fortnum & Mason. Wow - we are lucky people. Some tasty looking goodies in there!

Billy arrived to fit the electrics for the underfloor heating in the HOG. Took him just less than 3 hours and the underfloor heating was working.

Thu 07 Feb 2019

With the rack installed in the under stairs cupboard, I fitted our Sky Q Silver, Sky Q Mini and Samsung Blu Ray player in to the rack. I feel like we are starting to get some control over all of the devices we have hanging around.

I installed the first Unifi WIFI Access Point on the landing ceiling, and pulled the first CAT6a cable through the wall. However, I had clearly forgotten how to fit a plug on to a CAT6a cable. It took me 9 attempts before getting it right. It was a great feeling when my network plug/cable tester lit up all 9 connections in the correct order!

Fri 08 Feb 2019

Turned my attention to installing the loft ladder in the house (we also have one ready to be installed in the HOG), and overall it went really smoothly. However, I did make a mess of the ceiling!

To feed my OCD, I tidied up the rack cabling, and on a more human note, we both registered with a local GP in Abingdon

Sat 09 Feb 2019

First morning off – we went to Starbucks at Oxford services whilst the car was busy charging. Carried on to the Westgate shopping centre in Oxford to go to John Lewis to enquire about the curtain/blind design/fitting service. I can’t say we were inspired by the team, and although we organised a design visit (4 weeks in the future), we ended up cancelling it a few days later.

We headed over to Oakland Furniture Village (which was closing down) to check out the bedroom furniture, and then Wickes on Burford Road. From there we picked up some black downpipes for covering the cabling between the house and the HOG.

Received a gardening shelving unit, which would sit next to the stairs and would house all of our hubs, with some plants. We now call it the “Hubs and Tubs” shelving unit.

Sun 10 Feb 2019

Drove to Whitney and tried the Starbucks there – very nice spot. I can’t say I was that impressed with the picture that Vick took of me in Starbucks - looks like living with Vick is taking its toll on me!

Popped in to B&Q at Whitney and picked up some plaster board to start the repairs on the cable route I created between the under stairs cupboard and the loft. Got that fixed to the walls in Bed 2 and the Kitchen.

Vick transformed the dining room, cleaning and sorting boxes etc. She was keeping things moving along whilst I was still in destruction mode.

I tried to fish a string down from the loft to the gym (following the line of a coax cable), aiming to drop a CAT6a cable to feed the TV. Unfortunately, the spoon got stuck and its now lost forever! That would need to wait until I get a fish wire (a tool to help route cables behind walls etc), which was ordered from Amazon the same day.

The Yale hub failed to respond when I plugged it back in with the aim of configuring it. Burning smell coming from the hub, so had to unplug it, and report it to Yale. Got a new one a couple of days later.

[billinghamn]

2019 Feb – Setting Up our New Home: Intro

So we moved in to our new home in Drayton, just south of Abingdon, on 31 Jan 2019. It’s a lovely little Bloor Homes development called “The Dovecote”, and I had a list of jobs I needed to do as long as my arm.

A number of these jobs were related to my desire to turn it into a smart home. I was contemplating setting up a business selling smart home solutions, so how better to market my wares than by demonstrating them in my own home?

This series of posts covers the changes that we made to our new home, over the next few months as we knocked it into shape and converted it into the home we wanted to live in.

Access to each post (blog entries need to be loaded in the browser for these links to work):

Week 1 (Fri 01 Feb-Sun 10 Feb)

Week 2 (Mon 11 Feb-Sun 17 Feb)

Week 3 (Mon 18 Feb-Sun 24 Feb)

Building Ikea Furniture (video)

Week 4 (Mon 25 Feb-Sun 03 Mar)

Building More Ikea Furniture (video)

Week 5 (Mon 04 Mar-Sun 10 Mar)

Week 6 (Mon 11 Mar-Sun 17 Mar)

Week 7 (Mon 18 Mar-Sun 24 Mar)

Soft Close Toilet Seats (video)

Week 8 (Mon 25 Mar-Sun 31 Mar)

Week 9 (Mon 01 Apr-Sun 07 Apr)

[billinghamn]

2019 Feb – Setting Up our New Home: Soft Close Toilet Seats!

A short video showing our new soft close toilet seats!.

[billinghamn]

2019 Feb – Setting Up our New Home: Building More Ikea Furniture for the HOG

A short timelapse video showing me building Ikea furniture for our HOG.

[billinghamn]

2019 Feb – Setting Up our New Home: Building Ikea Furniture for the HOG

A short timelapse video showing me building Ikea furniture for our HOG.