End of half term

Half term is now over and the children back at school. Here are a last few photos of the new deck taken  in the light.

Now its time to start planning the next trip which sadly will only be for a long weekend.

Half a Deck

Up at 7am this morning to receive the wood for the first of two decks that need building. The wood arrived at 8am and then I started the job of digging out the turf under where the deck would go. The turf will be used to level the river side garden that has a few dips in it a the moment.
I dug out the 6.5m x 1.5m area by midday then set to work driving the supporting posts. Much easier than the fence posts yesterday.
By the end of the day I had completed half of the frame and laid some of the deck planks on to see how it will look. By then it was getting dark so the photo is not the best. I'll try to get a better one in the light tomorrow.

While I was building, Helen took the children to the beach at Horsey Gap. I am told it was very cold, but they did get to see a pair of kestrels and a barn owl on the way back.

Off home tomorrow in time for the boys to go back to school. We will be back in a couple of weeks to resume the deck building.

Snow

The weather forecast was right. It has got colder. So much so that is has been snowing lightly on and off all day. Both Helen and I felt our faces turn to wax and our noses go blue, however work went on and we now have a nice new fence and some nice before and after pictures to show it off.

From the initial messy hotchpotch of hedges that we inherited when we bought Halcyon, Helen has cleared an burnt the old privet bushes and we now have a smart new fence. We chose a low fence to open up the view over the fields behind the house.

I have been eyeing up the bedroom doors for the last couple of days. We do not like the plain doors that are there currently. Our plan was to throw them out and get panelled doors. Having sawn one of the old doors up to fit it in a skip, I noticed that they had a solid pine core and a hardboard skin.

This evening I went at one of them with a crow bar and claw hammer and this is what I found. On the left is the door with skin on, on the right, the skinned door. A bit of sanding and a few coats of paint and we will have what we nearly paid out for.

Tomorrow we are off swimming as we still don't have a bathroom and we are all in need of a dip. None of us are quite brave enough to face a dip in the sea. Watch out Great Yarmouth, we are on our way. Peg your noses ;-)

Slow Progress

The outside thermometer read 2 degrees, but the wind made it feel well below freezing. The children only managed a few sessions outdoors, and only then with much cajoling. Both Helen and I were on fence clearing duty today, all of the waste wood going straight on the bonfire. We have burn our way through 3 gates, a hedge, a door frame, a post box and half a shed. The cold made it slow progress, with regular pauses to defrost our fingers at the fire.
A stop to fix a water leak in the bathroom did not help, or the failed attempt to turn over the boat engine. I now smell of a mixture of wood preservative and petrol.
Here is a photo of Helen at work.

The fence wood and posts arrived in late morning from the local wood yard, a very reasonable price that made me realise what a bad deal you get from the big diy chains. In this photo you can see the stretch that has been cleared for the new fence. I should add that Helen has done most of the work to clear this space as her cut hands bear out.

The first fence panel can be seen propped up in the bottom left of the picture. Lets hope that tomorrow brings better weather, the forecast is not good :-(

The day started cold. Very cold. Even the local heron was feeling it, but I started on the cladding before 10am and worked through until 3pm when it was completed. Meanwhile Helen worked on clearing the path side hedge ready for the new picket fence.

The sun came out in the morning and cleared the heavy frost from the night before. 

Working in the sun was quite pleasant, but in early afternoon, a fog came in and the temperature dropped, so by the time I had completed the cladding, my fingers were pretty numb. Luckily Helen has a bonfire going to burn the old hedge so I could use this to defrost.

So here it is, the east side of Halcyon clad in Thermowood. Only the west side left to clad, and that wont happen until I rebuild the bathroom, which wont happen until another trip.

Tomorrow we will be concentrating on preparing for the new fence and planning for the first of two decks.

Preparing for sping

We've arrived at Halcyon for the school half term holiday. We got here on Sunday evening, just as it had got dark. All of the flooding that had been there in the week before had gone, however we were met by our own mini flood inside, as some temporary plumbing had been dripping on the floor and had created a large wet area.

The new plaster work looks good, and makes a real change to the look of the place. Clean flat surfaces which we have not seen here before. Considering that I we had put up the plaster board, the plasterers had performed wonders. We have had all of the heaters on for the day, which has transformed the place into a sauna. The walls have already turned from a muddy brown to a pale pink, and only a small patch marks where the flood took place. The windows, however are dripping with condensation.

The plan for the week is to complete the cladding on the east side of the house, put up a picket fence and move the gate along the side that borders the footpath to the south, and place gates and fences to the sides. The next step is to create two decked areas, one on the south side as a BBQ area and sun deck, and one on the North side as a river view deck and an area to contain small children like our daughter. We went to the local wood yard this morning, who were very helpful, and got quotes for the projects. Neither they nor Helen believe I can get all of this done in a week. I probably agree really, but we may as well aim high.

Today I managed to get the bottom half of the cladding complete. I intend to finish the upper part tomorrow. Helen has been rooting up the decrepit privet hedge bordering the footpath ready for the new picket fence that arrives tomorrow.

Halycon Plastered

It will be half term next week, so we (the family) will all be travelling up to Halcyon for the week. The plan is to get all of the cladding on the east end complete before the return of the house martins so they will not be disturbed. I just hope they will rebuild their nests on the new wall.

The plasterers have just finished plastering all of the inside rooms and have done a fine job as far as I can see from the photographs they have sent me.

I am looking forward to seeing it up close and getting the heating on to dry it out. Considering that I put up the plasterboard, they have achieved a small miracle :-)

My next task inside is to lay a new floor with under floor heating. Luckily this something I have done before with more success that my attempts at plaster boarding.

Flood Alert

I have just received an automated flood warning for the river Thurne (the river that Halcyon is on) and thought I would investigate further. It turns out that the Thurne bungalows are not in danger of flooding, and in the process found a couple of web pages that give live feeds from river level monitors nearby. 

• http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/riverlevels/riverstation.aspx?StationId=6210&RegionId=1&AreaId=2&CatchmentId=5
• http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/riverlevels/riverstation.aspx?StationId=6217&RegionId=1&AreaId=2&CatchmentId=5 

 A very useful resource. Halcyon has it's own river level indicator in the riverside garden. It consists of a floating marker and gauge. I am in the process of improving it with a new gauge and an electronic level and salinity sensor. Hopefully this will be ready to install on our next visit.