A new blog

Halcyon now has another blog specifically for wildlife seen when visiting. You can view it here.
This blog will continue to cover the work done to get Halcyon ready to share with visitors and the blog http://halcyondaysout.blogspot.co.uk/ will continue to cover places we have visited.

The Flags Are Back

This trip was for a long weekend and to be more fun than the last week of bathroom bashing and toilet plumbing. The new concrete had set and the floor had dried.
Even with it being a fun weekend there were still several jobs to complete:

• A new outside tap for washing the boats.
• Blinds on several of the windows facing the footpath.
• A small amount of cladding on the river side of the house around the door.
• Wiring up the outside cameras for remote monitoring over the web.
• Testing the underfloor heating in the bathroom, set into the concrete floor.
• Raising the newly repainted flag pole.

The underfloor heating worked well. Theo really liked the touch control display and regularly came to tell me what the temperature was. He was a bit disappointed that his feet were only half warm when sitting on the toilet.

The blinds went up a dream. IKEA really have instructions sorted.

The camera wiring failed as I had purchased the wrong spec power cable and they could not draw enough current. Better luck next time.

Waterhen got a well needed wash, although she still needs to be treated for woodworm and her varnish patched. The water level seemed very high, leaving little of our slipway left dry to haul her onto.

The cladding went up that was required before the flagpole could be raised. Once up Helen and Sephy chose lots of flags to put up. The pole has 6 minor flag lines and one major flag line. It is a tradition that was started by the previous owner, Robin, who would raise flags for the nationalities of the people sailing by. Thanks to this, we have an extensive set of national flags from Japan to Australia, Greece to Canada.

We made the obligatory trip to Potter Heigham for breakfast, and the boys bought tackle and bait, about a pint of maggots in various colours. Over the period of the weekend, they each caught four fish and were very happy. Not so sure about the fish.

We had several trips out which are covered in Helen's blog Halcyon Days Out which I will link to when the entries are ready.

A toilet named Niagara

I had forgotten how long it takes to strip out the walls of a room. Progress was slow, not helped by arriving to a flooded house and some deliveries needing to be chased when they failed to materialize. As the roof did not turn up until late in the week, we had decided to only prepare the walls up to about half their height.

I feel I should start with a couple of shots of the bathroom as it was when we bought the house.

There was just room for a toilet, shower tray and sink, but not enough room for a person. We have knocked through into another part of the house and extended it to fit a sink, bath, shower and toilet with room for some people as well.

Once stripped back it looked a lot bigger. Well it is a lot bigger, and it will be a lot brighter as we will have a translucent roof to give natural light.

The now standard procedure was followed, sheep wool insulation up first followed by a layer of interior wrap. This time we went with an exterior OSB board interior wall as this will be the bathroom and get damp.

Helen and I then worked late ( until about 1am ! ) laying heated floor cables and pouring a new concrete screed floor. Helen was on mixing duty and I was on pouring duty. I think I got the better deal. We were using a drill with attachment to mix the concrete up in batches. It got so hot that it started to smoke and may not recover.

By the next morning is was set and looked a lot better. The next task was to fit a new toilet and sink. The little wooden stopper in the floor is protecting the water outlet from filling with concrete.

The next task was to add a new macerating toilet and a new sink. I took the easy option and decided to do all of the plumbing using push-fit fittings and plastic pipe. Waste pipes are in solvent bonded plastic.

The toilet has a hidden cistern and macerator that will be behind a false wall and a waste pipe that goes up and out like something from a Dr Zeus book (macerator pipes should not turn at right angles as this can cause blockages). Clearly they are not hidden yet, but they will be soon. I have decided to name the toilet Niagara as it flushes like the great water fall and makes a garrra sound as the macerator does its work.
I did ask my son Theo to name it but he wanted to call it after his brother Alex. I di not feel that was to be encouraged.

The sink is in place and plumbed into the supply, but does not have it's waste pipe fitted. I'm not sure this industrial look is what IKEA's designers had in mind.

That is where our week ended, but we will be back up next weekend, although I am told this time it is for a holiday and Helen never wants to mix any concrete again in her life.

Light and hammer.

Waterhen has new navigation lights. It took quite a while to complete but now we can go out after dark and be seen. Helen spent some time painting the flag pole and I made a start on stripping the bathroom with a hammer. Its taking longer than expected but it always does.

The great flood

At Halcyon for a weeks "summer holiday" which will mostly be spent re-plumbing and fitting a new toilet. We arrived at midnight on Friday to find the temporary plumbing to the old sink had burst (probably several weeks before !) and one of the rooms was about 2cm deep in water. It took most of the morning getting the house back to normal. There will be a lot of heaters on and the dehumidifier trying to dry it all out.
We don't have long as lots of orders like the Kitchen, bathroom roof and the heated floor will be delivered on Tuesday with the wood flooring arriving on the Thursday. It could be worse and have burst once the new floor and Kitchen were fitted.