Point North, Gloster Hill Self Build

Long time since my last post and some parts of the build have happened quickly and other parts painfully slowly. But the big and most important thing is that we’ve finally sold the Warkworth house, this has given us certainty on finances and a date. We now have 42 days before we are homeless and just to challenge the builder we’ve decided that we are moving in to the new house on the 28th June… in 31 days and counting !

Last post was over 6 weeks ago, so what’s been happening and what hasn’t happened?

It’s been uncovered…

The biggest change since my last post is that finally after 164 days the scaffolding has come down, exposing the final finish, this was a little bit later than planned (isn’t everything) as we had a delay in getting the external blinds installed. The external blinds are critical to prevent over heating and enable us to get Part O building regulations signed off. We just have to remember to close them when it’s sunny – maybe I’ll add it to my automation list.

At the moment the house looks a bit stark, but this will change as the externals and landscaping are completed. It’s fair to say that opinion in Amble is split, some stop and talk to us about how they love it, others anonymously post on social media how they don’t like it as it’s too ‘different’

Internally it’s looking like a house.

Kitchen and wardrobe works have continued at a leisurely pace, which is a bit frustrating for all concerned but we are very nearly there, a few little snags but they will be sorted over the next week.

The biggest problem has been trying keep the place clean with decoration starting and still ground works making things muddy outside. Fiona is doing a brilliant job each weekend of tidying up whilst I tinker around doing other stuff (more on that later)

Bathrooms are coming along, we have toilets, baths, basins, and showers mostly in place and water running through them.

We’ve avoided tiles and gone for shower boards which have taken a trade out of the build and look stunning.

We’ve had a slight problem with the guest en-suite where the taps were installed 100mm too low, so we had to get the plumber and plasterer back to fix it!

The exciting (or boring) bits are installed.

The plant room and heating have always been the exciting bit for us, and these has progressed rapidly and are due to be commissioned next week; the hot water system, air source heat pump and all pipe work and pumps are ready to go.

Along side this we’ve also had the radiators installed. These are from Eskimo and specially designed for low temperature heating systems – ie low running costs. I wrote these here Boring stuff (😉)

However in the Entrance Hall, in pride of place, is one of our very few indulgences: a bespoke bench radiator in Fiona’s favourite colour. We will always have a warm place to sit whilst putting on our shoes and boots

The final part of the exciting bit was that I spent the bank holiday putting some the networking equipment together. For those who care we’ve got Cat6a cables running throughout, with UniFi switches, access points and cctv plus hard wired ports in a few key locations

This activity was delayed due to the FA Cup final and Manchester United’s fantastic and dominate win against city 💪

Finally, the green roof

Just a final note about the green roof described in my last post, the weather warm, wet, very wet, and more rain has been really good for the green roof.

Next time ..

Significant work is going on externally which has made the site a muddy mess again ….

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