The builders have made good progress on ceilings, and the stove is mostly in.
Year: 2017
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Gallery of bog house taken 28/01/2017
We thought we’d go along and check progress, as we’re due to give notice to our landlord that we’ll be moving out in a month’s time. The builder is confident that we’ll be able to get in here before then. A lot has been done, but you’d have to say that there are one or two rough edges to be smoothed-off yet. The plumber is coming Monday apparently, which is good news – there’ll be radiators and a new water tank and cylinder then. The main thing is to get the electricity back on, which will happen after second fix. Electricity will get us well water (hopefully), and the means to run a dehumidifier.
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AddressPal works!
I got an email this morning letting me know that the parcel I’d had sent to St. Albans in the UK (which arrived there on Monday) had made it to my nearest post office in Ireland. I collected it after work and paid €3.50 for the service – very happy! I now have this plinth heater (electric/central heating switchable) and it cost a lot less than it would have any other way. Barring minor details like my An Post ID not having made it onto the address label (despite having entered it when I ordered), things went very smoothly. The consequence of not having the ID on the parcel was that someone stuck a label on it threatening that things might not go so well in future if I didn’t buck my ideas up (in slightly less aggressive phrasing).
The featured photo attached to this post is of the box concerned. Note how I’ve carefully shot it to remove any visual cues to help you see how big a parcel can make it through. The answer is “quite big”.
I’m trying to motivate myself to blog more frequently again. Things are moving at a reasonable pace on the cottage renovation now – I spoke with the builder again today and apparently the wiring is done. I’ve got lots of photos still on my camera covering house renovation work but have been very pushed for time recently, which has resulted in their upload being put on the long finger. See, I’m like a native now.
As a not-in-any-way seamless link, I’ve added a new “glossary of terms” section to the blog to cover stuff I’ve heard in Ireland and what I think it means. Please let me know if I’ve got it all wrong.
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New year’s resolution clearly wasn’t to keep my blog up to date
Progress continued on the bog house. The last time I saw it before Christmas, it was full of rubble and in an utter state. It reminded me of when we first met the builder and he told us to bear in mind that we were seeing it in the worst condition it would ever be in. That wasn’t actually true, as with the ceilings all pulled down it looked significantly less homely.
Anyway, a week or so ago we met the builder on-site, and they’d removed all the rubble from inside the house, and had also demolished the (correct) wall between the two bedrooms to make one big space.
We talked through where we wanted sockets, radiators, etc. and he spray painted their locations onto the walls. The main push now is to get all the fittings for the bathroom, a special plinth radiator for the kitchen, and the new stove ordered.
As of 17th January, all this is pretty much done. I’ve ordered the plinth radiator thing from the UK, which will make it here via An Post’s “AddressPal” forwarding service. You sign up with them, get given a special code to use as the first line of your address for UK deliveries, then get stuff sent to their place in St. Albans. An Post then pop it onto a plane and it arrives at the nearest post office in Ireland and they let you know. It should cost €3.50 when I pick it up.
I went to look at a heavily-discounted solid fuel stove today, and will be buying it tomorrow (their card machine didn’t work properly and despite their request for me to fix it, I thought better of meddling). The stove is really heavy, as it has a lot of metalwork in it for water pipes, etc. (it’ll be our boiler for hot water and central heating). Last main item to buy now is a bath…