Silicon Bog

Category: House

  • We are ready, we are ready for the floor

    Title courtesy of my favourite Hot Chip song.  So we’d been getting by with just those €5 black cardboard things over the concrete floors, but that was actually pretty depressing after not very many weeks, so finally it came time to get proper stuff in.

    First up was the kitchen.  It’s not a big room: 3m x 2m.  With space taken out for units, that meant tiling it was a relatively straightforward operation (in theory).  I read somewhere that if you use large tiles, it makes a small room look bigger.  Wherever I read that failed to take into account the impact of uneven floors, which aren’t as forgiving when covered with 600cm x 600cm tiles.  Anyway, we bought some and presented them to the handyman (henceforth known as W) to lay.

    At this point I should explain the operating procedure that W used, which was to do bits-and-pieces, as-and-when.  This isn’t a staggering departure from the M.O. of other tradespeople we’ve encountered, but nobody gets close to W in terms of sheer insouciance.  I won’t go on about him too much as he’s a lovely guy and I’m writing this quite a few weeks on when (spoiler alert) it eventually got finished, so everything’s grand.

    Day 1: 6 tiles down… nearly there…

    … or not.  Just 6 short days later, operation complete:

  • A heap of tyres

    In case you were wondering what a ridiculous number of tyres looked like, here you go.

    Note: this is the first in a series of back-filled posts to cover the months I’d neglected to write anything.  See, you didn’t miss much… I’ve fiddled the posting date to match the period I’m writing about.

     

  • Got plastered

    The main room has been plastered now – the external walls were dry lined first to help out a bit.  It looks much smarter, but we now need to wait another week for the plaster to dry before we can get painting.  Flooring is the next big ticket item – the main room’s floor apparently slopes as much as 3 inches from one side to the other, which might prove challenging.

    The electrician came and finally moved the sockets to where we’d originally asked him to put them, which means that a putting up a curtain rail is once more viable.

    Some of the turf cutters will be gathering the fruits of their labour this weekend, but that might change if the rain keeps up.  Haven’t been up to look at our turf – I’m guessing it hasn’t stacked itself at all.

     

     

     

  • 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.

  • Caught up in your wishing well

    The verdict from the pump engineer was that the well wasn’t Wet Wet Wet enough (an appalling reference to the post title), and they were keen for us to look into getting another one drilled.  I’m a lot less enthusiastic about spending more money that we don’t have on something we might not need.  The pump is rated at 30 litres / minute, and runs out of water after about 30 minutes.  I think average water consumption per person is supposed to be around 150 litres / day.  Consequently, the best course of action seems to be to see how we go.  Oh, and I’ll make sure I get the first shower each day 🙂

    I’ll be doing more measurements over the course of the weekend to see what the actual flow rate and recovery time is over more samples, but I really don’t think it’s as bad as they’re making out.

    We’ve now got this weekend and the one after to complete the move – I did some more painting this evening in between well testing, so we’re getting closer to it looking habitable.  Flooring is a nice-to-have, as is a proper bed.

  • Not very well pump

    It’s a surprise to nobody that we still don’t have running water. I took the morning off from my current client work to meet the well engineer at the bog house.  The pump itself wasn’t as bad as it looked – it did actually run without making weird grinding noises or anything. Unfortunately it didn’t lift water up with enough power to be useful for anything much, so the engineer decided that the pipes would have to come up so the end of them could be examined.

    Two thick, heavy-duty pipes, mostly full of water.

    We now know that the well is 100ft deep, as we hauled that much pipework out, conscious that letting go at any point would mean losing the pipes down the well and ruining everything.  The engineer had warned me that it was a three man job, but the two of us managed it just about – I ache like I did after competing in a bungee run some years ago now, but can’t even blame alcohol for my stupidity this time.

    The engineer will fit a new pipe and exciting new submersible pump tomorrow – thankfully my presence isn’t required.

    Hoping for gravel to be laid on Saturday to get things looking a bit saner. I did some more painting this evening but tiredness stopped play in the end. I also chucked a litre of Milton sterilising liquid down the well to ward off any nasties.

  • 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…

  • 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.

  • File under ‘s’ for stressy

    So I’d contacted the estate agent we’re renting through on Friday morning to request another month’s extension to the lease in order to minimise stress.  No bother, she’ll let the landlord know, happy days.

    Lunchtime today, a phone call from landlord: “how do you get internet there, as I’ve got some AirBnB people coming on Wednesday from Brazil – are you taking your internet with you?”

    Me: “Argh.  But, but…”

    There ensued a discussion where it became clear that the estate agent hadn’t bothered to let the landlord know of our intentions, and had assumed that because she didn’t have any viewings lined up, it meant that we’d be grand.

    The landlord called back sometime later and said we’d be ok for another month, so hopefully that’s the case now.  The bog house isn’t finished yet, and the ESB still don’t have the wiring certificate from the electrician, so are refusing to schedule an engineer to come and move the meter (thus bringing us the wonder of electricity).

    We’ve settled on a kitchen layout with the builder, and hopefully clarified what we want doing with the sockets and switches elsewhere.

    Aaand relax…

    If anyone’s interested, my internet solution is pretty cheap and cheerful to run month to month (no contract).  I’ve got one of these Huawei boxes that I use with Three Ireland’s €20/month mobile broadband SIM, that provides unlimited 4G data (regardless of what the terms and conditions state).  Note that the same deal definitely isn’t available in the UK – they do check which device you’re using the SIM with there, and sharing it to provide home broadband is right out.  I did try.  Also, the “feel at home” thing that Three UK do to allow you free data roaming doesn’t apply to 4G, so that didn’t stay for long as a solution.

    In our rental property, I can easily get 40Mbps down (sometimes nearer 60) and about 10Mbps up.  If you compare that with something like TalkTalk in the UK, for £20 a month (and a commitment to 2 years of it) you’ll get up to 17Mbps down.  One of the few things that’s cheaper over here.

  • Great progress made

    An up-beat post for a change.  The bog house has come along nicely, with the ceilings all insulated and boarded, and quite a lot of the walls too (more than we’d actually thought they were going to do).  There’s some plastering to be done, but our new bedroom floor is down, the doorway has been blocked off, and they’ve made good the parts where the dividing wall was taken out.  All the rubbish has gone from outside too – it really feels like we’re nearly there.  The major thing still pending is the electricity supply.  We need to get hold of the ESB (state-owned electricity supply company) to move the meter outside and put some fuses back in, then hopefully things will look even more homely.

    The eagle-eyed observer may notice an unusual light fitting in the main room… I suspect the builders are getting bored 🙂