Photos from the past few days around the bog. Some misty mornings, some golden hour evenings…
Category: Bog
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More progress
We now have a bed and a washing machine. Tremendous improvement all round.
The washing machine took me ages to find – I wanted one that would work fine gravity-fed from the header tank 3 metres above it. Most modern washing machines specify a minimum of 1 bar of pressure for the feed, as that’s the least that a mains water utility company will deliver. Water from a well really doesn’t do that – 1 bar of pressure is 10m of head, which is very tricky to achieve in a single-storey cottage.
Anyway, the washing machine is really good (so far). It’s made by a New Zealand company called Fisher and Paykel, and works via direct drive so it’s very quiet (no belt or anything to contend with). An online company was selling off ex-display models, so that’s what we got. Unfortunately they missed a couple of components out (the manual and an inlet cap), but the former was available on the internet, and the latter from Homebase, so worked out fine.
We’ve continued to work at stacking turf but we’ve not made much of a dent in it yet. It rained yesterday for the first time in ages, but hopefully it’ll remain dry now to avoid putting ourselves under too much pressure.
Here are some pictures of the bog I took this evening – I was lining up shots of bog cotton against the bog wall and noticed that a rainbow had photo-bombed the frame so that’s in some of them too.
Due to popular demand, there are fewer shots of bits of turf this time 🙂
Sunny driveway 
Sphagnum moss 
The rhododendron is out 
Bog cotton 
Bog cotton 
Bog cotton 
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Saving turf is hard work
As soon as the turf has been cut by the machine, it’s sitting in long snakes in the wind and sun, forming a crust on the outside. It then needs to be divided into sods, as shown in my previous post. That was what the other turf cutters did almost immediately, but with one thing and another, we’ve been a bit slower. V did a lot while I was away at the weekend, thankfully, but there was still plenty to do.
Unfortunately, the delay meant that this evening when I went up on top of the bog where our cut turf was laid out, I found the remaining turf quite unyielding to the “pizza cutter with long handle” device that a friendly local leant us. It’s an old angle grinder blade welded to a metal pole – clever stuff. Some time later, I’d cut most of our turf, but there’s still some to go… it really didn’t glide through.
The weather was pretty good for working this evening at least – a mixture of sun and hail (!). A cuckoo called persistently in the distance as I hacked through the turf – apparently in Ireland their “host” species is often the meadow pipit, which we’ve definitely seen around.
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Say we can, say we will / not just another drop in the ocean…
The cutter arrived yesterday… I was sat minding my own business in the house, then heard a tremendous rumbling noise approaching. At first, I thought it was a helicopter landing, but having dashed around to the back of the house in my flip-flops, I saw the giant turf cutting machine in all its splendour. It rumbled on for hours, and produced plenty of turf for the winter:
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We’re in!
We moved in officially on Monday. Things are quite basic to put it mildly, but we’ve made it. We’re still short on a few things that many would consider fundamental (like flooring), but the roof is sound, there’s electricity, the stove works, and we haven’t run the well dry (yet).
The first night’s attempt at sleep didn’t go so well – the futon mattress isn’t the same as a proper sprung one, especially when you’re dealing with aches and pains from moving stuff around. After that experience, we added the Bongo cushions to the mix and it’s bearable now.
Due to cash flow issues (it’s pumping out a lot faster than the well water is), we’re on a real economy drive for the foreseeable future. There’s a shop called Home Store & More where we picked up a couple of fabric wardrobes for about €8 apiece, and we’ll be attempting to fit our bedroom’s laminate flooring ourselves. How hard could that be?
I installed a couple of security cameras to keep track of what goes on when we’re out/away – so far the answer is: nothing much at all, at least human-related. The cameras trigger recording on motion and sound, so I’ve had to tweak them to avoid them going off all the time with birdsong for a start. The camera I put in a tree is especially prone to this.
Last night the camera I put under cover of the well roof triggered from a local cat (I’m guessing the one that signed its name in the cement all those months ago):
This morning it decided to inspect the security a bit more closely (which the camera didn’t cope well with):
Hopefully it’s happy with everything now, as otherwise it could get a bit annoying having my phone buzz at all hours.
Lots of things to do, and a long snag list for the builder to consider. Apparently the reason we don’t have a new bathroom window to replace the one he broke last year is because he needs to order one and it takes time. Another impossible-to-foresee situation, I suppose.
We can’t really use the kitchen sink much at the moment without a bowl in it as the sink’s drain pipe just goes outside and straight onto the juncture of wall and muddy ground. We need a French drain all around the house, but I might rig up something until then. At least the bathroom sink/shower/bath drain down into the ‘proper’ drainage pipe (which goes under the driveway and into a special grey water treatment appliance known as the D.I.T.C.H. We still haven’t found the septic tank, but at least it looks like the toilet’s output isn’t into that same ditch.
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We’ve got the power…
The electricity got connected on Thursday, a mere three weeks after we paid them to do the job. Of course, as soon as it’s done, all is forgiven! We were so relieved to get to that point, albeit with not a great deal of time to spare before we need to move in.
I started the dehumidifer working that very evening, and it’d collected over 10 litres of water in about 40 hours. It has shown no signs of slowing down either, which is handy. I’ve included a photo of my earlier setup for it where I had it perched on top of a washing machine with the collection tank below – I’ve refined this now so that it sits on the outer shell of an old gas fire instead. Much easier to move between rooms that way.
We’ve borrowed an oil-filled heater as well, so it’s getting a bit more homely.
I spent the long weekend (Friday was St. Patrick’s Day) stripping old paint and filling holes in the walls, in preparation for painting once the rooms are dry enough for it to be sensible. Old paint layers include: dark green, light green, scarlet red, pink, pastel blue, and of course magnolia. I started to wonder about how it would have looked in its various guises, but became horrified at some of the imagery, so gave up.
The kitchen was completely re-done, with plasterboard and skim throughout, so I was able to paint that today. The first coat went on fine, and I’m hoping to do the second during the week. We got some cheap mould-resistant paint in Lidl a couple of months ago, so that’ll be put to the test.
Lidl has been a great provider of other things too – I picked up a wet and dry vacuum cleaner for €49 this week, along with a detail sander and other bits and pieces. They’ve all come in very handy… I’ve pushed the vacuum cleaner hard but it’s been very cooperative in clearing up all the mess.
There are a couple of big items left to sort out. The first is getting some gravel (‘pencil’) for the driveway. I’d spoken to someone about that a couple of weeks ago, but they’re obviously not keen to do it right now. When the time is right, I’m sure they’ll be in touch.
The second, and obviously it’s only a minor thing, is running water. The well pump didn’t leap into action when electricity was provided, and I think it’s safe to say that a quick squirt of WD-40 isn’t going to fix it (as it’s probably been dormant for the past 6 years at least). A man will be coming to investigate on Monday/Tuesday, depending on how the stars align, etc.
Stay tuned…
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Closer to fine
So we’ve got until the end of this month (March) to get the bog house sorted now. The builder managed a couple of days of work last week, which has resulted in the kitchen being fitted and the bathroom mostly done. The plumber has also deigned to pay a visit, and has installed the hot water cylinder, along with most of the radiators. He clearly improvised due to lack of water supply from the electric well pump, as there was evidence of sinks being tested, etc. using big containers of water. I didn’t check the toilet – hopefully that’s either been left well alone or flushed properly.
The main hold-up now is the electricity – the ESB haven’t been brilliant (which is a very toned-down version of what the builder called them), but after a lot of hassling, they’ve agreed to move the meter on Wednesday morning. They said our electrician would need to be there, but there’s almost no chance that such a thing will happen (I believe that such a confluence is similar to Halley’s Comet’s visibility from Earth). The electrician claimed that he didn’t need to be there again when I spoke to him once (he has since stopped answering the phone to me).
The weather at the moment is brilliant – I’ve just mowed the front lawn at our rental property and am writing this sat outside in the heat of the sun, the smell of freshly-cut grass mingling intriguingly with recently-blended cat mess. Apparently good weather is bad news for getting hold of the electrician, as he’s a mad keen cyclist. Hoping for torrential rain next week.
So, progress at least. We went to the local post office and told them we’d be moving in soon. Having covered the basics of who we knew and how, our details were duly registered. We even got a leaflet about external mailboxes (ah, happy memories of moving into our rental place). As it’s within our power this time, we might actually go crazy and get one.
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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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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…
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Stop press: builder thinking about starting work sometime next week maybe
Hopefully a more accurate headline than many we’ve seen of late, but not holding our breath on that one.
We’ve whittled down our list of things for the builder to do:
- Main roof replacement.
- Kitchen flat roof replacement.
- Electricity – complete re-wiring.
- Plumbing – fitting of new back boiler stove, new cold and hot water tanks, etc.
- Knock two of the bedrooms into one, seal off one of the doorways, make flooring nice and insulated.
- Replace all ceilings, plaster and insulate.
That’s pretty much the whole budget used up, so the oil boiler I wanted is going on the long finger, as they say around here.
The featured photo in this post is one I took the weekend before last when we did a day trip over to County Clare on the Tarbert ferry. The view is of the dock on the Clare side as the sun was going down while we were waiting for the return ferry. It’s a really decent (if not particularly cheap) service – you can take your car/van/whatever over with passengers for under €30 return and it takes about 30 minutes to cross.