Light switches and insulation.

It has come to something when my life revolves about light switches and insulation but there we go. Life can't always be exciting.

Having said that though it was very exciting when the light switches arrived this week. These light switches have been the objects of my desires for many months now after I spied them at the Grand Designs exhibition last year. I thought they were wonderful, sleek and very stylish and different from your  common white boring box. Hubby on the other wasn't really fussed, although the price was a major factor. These lovely things would cost double what a normal light switch or socket would cost.  

My argument was that I would only be fitting out this house once so I wanted the nicest things rather than feeling I had settled for second best. OK so they are a bit more expensive but I'm only going to be buying them once! 

I recently took a second job so I said that for each shift I did that would mean I had bought a couple more light switches. 

Robbie the Spark, spoke sense when he told hubby to let me have my way, because otherwise he would never hear the end of it and if light switches were my 'only demand' he was getting off lightly (no pun intended).

So I ordered them and they arrived and how excited I was, i know I'm building them up now, and i expect when you see the photo of them, you'll think, 'mmm its a light switch so what' but I love them and I'm happy so thats that.

My dream switches.

Of course the next thing we have to decide on will be things like taps or door handles and no doubt I'll get a little excited about those too.

Hubby has just returned from another short trip over to see how things are progressing in the house and has come back armed with new photos. It looks like things are moving along nicely.

Upstairs has been insulated, so again it looks different from the past photos.

My craft room, insulated.

Insulation on the external walls downstairs is also in progress,

The sun room before

The sun room now

We even have windowsills too!! Does the excitement never end?

Also during this visit:
 - The electricity board visited site to plan where electricity will enter our property.
 - The plumber and plumbers merchant visited to count how many radiators we need.
 - We have ordered the two fuel stoves for in the lounge and dining room.
 - The stairs are now on order.
 - Because we will not be using oil to heat our house the tiny boiler room which is at the back of the hot press(airing cupboard) is no longer needed so Kevin the builder is going to brick up the external doorway and knock through from the hot press to make a much larger space. This will house the new heating system but also provide a much bigger walk in hot press which will be very handy for drying clothes especially during the wet months when drying clothes outside is not an option.(to be fair this is most of the year)

After the insulation has been completed the plasterers will be in to start work on the internal and external walls. I expect by the time we visit again August we will see another huge difference.

So many taps!

Hubby and I have just got back from another trip across the water to Ireland. We've recently purchased a house there and have set ourselves the task of getting it finished. You see it was built to its present condition about 10 -12 years ago and has lain empty since. It has walls, windows, external doors and a roof and that's it.

We like a challenge!
It's the potential you see. That's what they say on these property programmes, isn't it? We saw it and loved it and the area straight away.
At present there is no water, electricity or septic tank.
So we are deep in thought about the best heating system to use.
This last week we met our builder, electrician and plumber. All lovely guys who also seem to look on this job as a challenge too. Nothing is too hard for them, it would seem which is a good sign.
When you buy a half built house, who knows what went before!
We spent nearly 4 hours walking from room to room with Robbie the spark, marking the location of every switch and socket. Luckily we have already thought through how we would like our finished house to look so we already had in mind where most of them would go. Its deciding ahead about which direction a door will open which is harder to think about at this stage.
Then we met Pete the Plumber who has the rather hard job of locating all the plumbing pipes which have been laid under the floor and not marked! Again though, it seems nothing seems too much of a challenge about this, unlike hubby who is worrying now about what will be found.
Of course we have also had to think about the kitchen layout so we visited several kitchen showrooms and have had two lots of plans drawn up, both look very nice and workable but who to choose?
Bathrooms, there will be 4 in total, so we have to choose a style which will fit in each one but which taps to choose? Who knew there were so many taps?
We are hoping work will commence in the next couple of weeks so will be able to post some progress photos as and when we see any progress!