The Self Builder’s blog

You know the old censored saying - if you can urinate you can paint? 

Well, I might just be able to blow that myth.

I’m not well known for my practical, hands-on skills.  In fact my Manuel Labor joke is one of my favourites.

More patience and less frustration are needed.  I tend to get annoyed that I can’t do things brilliantly straight away, and jobs like painting are boring for most people.

Anyway this week I decided I needed to actually get some paint on the exposed woodwork of the porch.

Since this has been constructed I’ve been umm-ing and arr-ing over whether to paint the non-oak woodwork white, or to stain it a similar colour to the oak beams.

Having seen both types of finishes on properties around this area, I plumped for white paint.

This woodwork has been exposed a while so I thought it was getting necessary to start this process.  And who worse to start it than myself.

So, off I went armed with brush undercoat and steps.  All the woodwork is painted, as well as some of the house and some of the roof felt.

I shall just have to fit some really nice front door furniture on to stop visitors looking up in my porch, and when I say fit, I mean by someone else! 

While the building has been going at a fair rate of knots, the service connections have been meandering along like a broken canal barge in the background.

The builder has had nowt to do with the connections, and predicted they would take as long as it will to build the house from start to finish.

Hopefully they’ll be complete by the end of May, what will be at least a month prior to completion.

But, I suppose, as they were ordered, or at least enquired about, three months before we cut sods.  Then his prediction was bang on.

The latest to go in has been the electric, which I had a minor concern about the position of the box on the house.

I’d had a few minor panic attacks that the powers that be would decide the position was actually on the back of the house, and therefore not allowed.

It’s actually on the side of the house, and will be relatively easy for the reader to access, once they realise where it actually is.

The meter itself no longer looks very substantial.  I think it looks more like a large fuse, than your traditional bricks-wouldn’t-break black metal machine.

Sewer connection is scheduled for early May, and I think that will cause the most disruption.  An absolute necessary evil though.  After that the disruption to all around me should subside somewhat.

The second phase of this project, the ‘inside’, is continuing at a good beat.

My involvement has increased somewhat, I’m having to make decisions and look at sourcing the finishing materials from now on in.

It could have been a lot worse, as I could be liaising between trades, sorting out problems and actually getting people to arrive in the right order and without any gaps.

After due consideration, the only trade I’m directly responsible for is the electrics.  So, therefore I’ve just had to make sure that his work is done for the plasterers and the plaster doesn’t cover over his good work.

We’ve had a slight problem this week with that very practice.  When boarding the kitchen ceiling, the plasterers assumed the electrician had mapped out where the spot lights were and would drill the holes once the plaster was on.

Yet, the electrician expected the plasterers, much as they have done elsewhere, to pull the cables through for the spotlights.

After some quick liaison I worked out that as these spots were in ‘runs’ that the plasterers would only need to physical find a few, and then the other positions could be worked out by measurement.

And I think that this is now sorted, and however brief my worry level was raised for, the overwhelming feeling was relief and reassurance that the correct method for finishing this project was chosen.

We should be water-tight in less than 24 hours.

A huge achievement in my opinion, based on the amount of work done and the time of year it has been carried out.

We seem to be much nearer the end, than we are to the start, which of course, I hope that we actually are.

The windows look really good.  I’m looking forward to seeing my stain glass design in all its glory tomorrow.

This also means that our Gantt chart of works has got no gaps in it again.  Once the plastering is done, the underfloor heating can be put in and the floor screeded, and thus and on and on.

Which means that the kitchen could do with being on order, and I need to get the floor choices on order.

Good timing for the Homebuilding and Renovating Show then.  I’ve been sent tickets from the people I’ve been eyeing up wooden floor from.  They reckon they are the only ones to guarantee their product for use with underfloor heating.

I’ve been sent various samples, but I really want to see a decent chunk of it before deciding if it’s for me, and if so, what derivative.  Fingers crossed they can afford enough floor space at the NEC, or failing that, work out that they could display their stuff vertically.

Or at least the bare bones of one.

It is absolutely fantastic when people can turn my picture from a magazine and vague verbal description, into what I actually wanted.

That’s what the carpenters have done on this job.

It was essential we stuck exactly to the planning permission,  but the materials, construction and finished are not specified in detail in the approved application.

Originally the porch was designed with dwarf walls, which I think would have been great to stow wood against, and outside shoes would have stayed dry even when left outside.

This design was rejected by the planners, so instead we have what you see above.  Two oak uprights supporting a simple pitched roof, with the aid of the wall.  The actual roof should match the cottage style finish of the overall house roof. 

By painting the exposed beams white, I’m hoping to create a nice contrast against the treated oak and granulated roof tiles.

I’ll have to invest in a waterproof box for outside shoes, and I’ll have to have another look for a wood store.  So not perfect, but not a big compromise and still absolutely brilliant.