We have progress.

Hubby's trip to Ireland went well.  It was a quick dash across really but achieved a lot.

He impressed to see how much Robbie the spark had done, all the first fix electrics are in! So he said there were cables everywhere. Glad the electrician knows what leads where because it does look quite complicated.

This is going to be our sitting room.

We have had an engineer go out to the property and measure up for a staircase which will take us up to the first floor.

When we first viewed the property there was a temporary staircase there and we were blown away when we walked up to the first floor. It is built as a bungalow with all the living rooms and bedrooms located on the one floor. However the people who originally designed and built it, allowed space in the roof for future development.

We decided that we would go ahead and develop it at the same time as the rest of the house. I was particularly excited as I could picture

 a rather lovely craft room for myself.

This is what the space looked like when we first viewed it. It measures about 10m wide by 20m length.

So we have plans which do indeed allow me a craft room but also gives hubby a room too. This will be a typical lads room with TV, and gaming consoles as well as comfy sofas.I suspect there may also be a little bar area too! Both of these rooms will also double as extra bedrooms should we ever have a huge crowd of family/friends staying, which we sincerely hope to happen. There will also be a small bathroom too.

So this is what it now looks like. Kevin the builder has been busy.

The next things to be done will be installation of the insulation throughout the property. We have also chosen the stoves/fires which will be in the sitting room and dining area.

Hubby is going back over in about three weeks time. Sadly due to work commitments I can't visit site again until August when I expect I will notice just how much has been done. 

Work has started

I'm feeling excited today as tomorrow hubby is off over to Ireland for about 4 days to check out progress on the house.

I say progress, but I mean to say, if anything has happened at all since the last time we were there.

West of Ireland time is a lot slower than anywhere in the world I have been so although the surveyor said we would be in by Christmas he failed to say which Christmas. We are hoping he meant Christmas 2015.

We speak quite regularly to our lovely neighbours over in Ireland who update us as to the recent activity (or lack of) at the house.  Our house is situated at very end of a lane, you can go no further except up a great mountain so everything has to go past our neighbours house to reach ours, nothing is missed it would seem!

We heard from our electrician that he had been working here and he had a few questions needed answering too about certain positioning of lights, he has now finished the first fix of electrics. So I am excited now because I've sent hubby off with strict instructions to get as many photos as possible to update the blog and we can add it to our timeline of our house,from start to eventual finish.

Hubby has also got to count all the light switches and sockets so I now how many to order. Last year we visited a large home show event and I spied some gorgeous light switches and sockets. Quite unlike anything I have seen before and I fell in love with them. Initially we felt we couldn't justify buying something that was double the price of a normal white light switch but finally we decided we would go for them. We are only going to do this type of project once and so we are going to fit what we like (within reason and financial constraints of course.) I have taken second job and now every time I do a shift I can boast that I just bought X number of light switches.

In other news, the staircase people have been out to measure up and we've totalled up how many led light fittings we need?

Looking forward to showing the progress with some photos soon.

Kitchen designs

We've been trying to decide how to set out our kitchen.

We need to do this quite soon so that Robbie the Spark can run electricity to the correct places.

At the moment it looks like this,

We've had a couple of companies do some plans for us and these are the photos we have to choose from. The main difference is the positioning of the hob. At the moment I'm liking the corner position one although I wouldn't want the cupboard on the far left. 

Isn't technology great? Being able to see in 3D what a room can look like instead of just looking at a piece of paper with a drawing on it.

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!

I might use that to one again.

I don't often write about my patients. After  all, I visit them, trim and file their toenails, maybe get rid of some hard skin or even a painful corn. I very rarely get a verruca to treat although this year I have managed to get rid of some for someone who had suffered with terrible verrucas and warts on her hand. I did a bit of research and got the right ointment to use and within 6-8 weeks they had completely disappeared.  Not only did my patient feel on top of the world but so did I. I've seen her a few times around town and she always comes up and waves her hands at me delightedly. It's nice to have a success every now  and again. That's not to say that every visit I do is a success. For the patient in question I arrive and sort out their feet and when I leave I hope that they feel better than when I arrived. It's a nice feeling, I enjoy seeing people, and I really enjoy the feeling of being able to help someone, make them feel better, because there is nothing worse than painful feet!
I often find it funny that most people I visit think that they have the worst feet in the world or at least the worst feet I've ever seen. Obviously I assess their feet and try to explain what I will do for them. Some of my regular patients are a little easier because their treatment, on the whole, stays the same each time. Luckily their feet are never as bad as the very first time I see them, because we keep on top of it with regular visits.
Some  patients like to make sure I'm doing a proper job, by pointing out things on their feet and asking me to file this nail a bit shorter or trim a bit more off this one here. I don't mind at all, after all they are their feet! 
One lady I visit regularly made me inwardly laugh the other day because she kept saying, 'you will cut that nail shorter won't you?'. If she said it once she said it ten times and each time I replied that yes I would, no problem. It was her reply that made me chuckle though. 
"I'm sorry, I'm not trying to tell you your job, I'm just thinking aloud".

I might use that myself!