Time Goes By

I've tried out a new software toy on my Android phone, Droid Timelapse Pro. This is a short video generated over the course of an afternoon. If only I had cleaned the windows first and left it a little longer.

Next time I will try and set it up for a full day and night.

 We did get some work done as well. The final floor went down in the sun room. No more laminate flooring left to do, so now it is ready for skirting boards.

 The two sheds got another coat of green paint on two sides. As it is late spring, the other two sides have birds nesting. On the left, the empty shed has been taken over by swallows. On the right, a family of coal tits have moved in to the nest boxes.

We have made a start to the landscaping of the garden on the south side and made the first of several planters that will be in front of the deck, possibly planted with alliums.

The electricians will be in soon to finish wiring the kitchen, outside lights and bathroom.

Return of the Swallows

This time we were only at Halcyon for a weekend, leaving on Friday after work and arriving late. The plan was to complete some of the tasks left over from the previous week long visit.

This first thing I noticed on getting out to start work the next day was how noisy it was. The swallows had returned and were busy chattering away at the top of their voices. It soon became apparent they had set up home again in one of our old sheds as they swept in and out.

Task one was to purchase all of the wood required to complete the deck on the south side. This I purchased from Alpine Wood in Scratby at a very good price, much less than you would pay from a DIY store.

It did not take long to finish off the last few deck planks and the trim planks around the edge, then it was on to complete the cladding. I had been putting this off as one piece of wood that needed to be removed was proving very stubborn. I attacked it with a jig saw and a crow bar I call the persuader and this did the job.
Once removed, the cladding went up without much trouble.





Meanwhile, Helen had started painting our largest and most useful shed green. Having sanded it, she applied the first coat to one side. It will look very smart once two coats have been applied to each side and the roof has been cleaned up.

Once I had finished cladding and decking, I started to work on the finish of the cladding. Each of the windows, doors and corners need new frame edging to hide the ends of the cladding. I was expecting there to be quite a bit of cladding left over for me to make these elements up with but. for once, we seem to have bought just about the right amount. Using my table saw, I attempted to make as many elements as possible from what we had left, but may need to source a few more pieces which is a real pain.

Our next trip will again only be for a weekend and I think our target will be to work on the south garden. We have a few ideas of what we want it to look like including a boules area.

It All Starts Coming Together

Having just spent a very pleasant week in Halcyon I thought this would be a good point to look back at what the house looked like before the latest changes and where it is now. Firstly, this is how the south side of Halcyon looked last year. The remains of the old kitchen were lying around with other detritus that we had removed.

Most of the rubbish has been sent off in a skip and my friend Rafe helped lay a new deck which we almost completed in a day, only stopping because we had run out of wood.

Next is the bathroom which has been more than doubled in size.

The toilet and sink have been moved

and now a new roof has been fitted and the walls re-clad ready to be tiled.

The kitchen started out as just this unit, a couple of wall cupboards and a cooker.

we took down the wall between kitchen and living room to make an open plan space

and with the help of IKEA have a new fitted kitchen with integral cooker, hob, dish washer, fridge and sink. 

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.