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Post by ajski2fly on Dec 30, 2020 16:47:41 GMT
So after nearly 6 months and several false starts we are moving next week to our new home, a bungalow from the 70's era, it is only just over a mile away. It sits up a nice quiet lane in a lovely village on the edge of the 70's estate, it has quite a large level plot about 90' by 100'. We are quite surprised to be moving next week as the original owner sadly passed away in early October and thus had to go to probate and were told at 4-5 months. Out of the blue before Christmas we were advised probate had been granted and all was in place and to set a date, also to our surprise our purchaser had already gone ahead and sold his home and was waiting for us, making it easy to move.
The bungalow has been empty 18 months but is liveable, it needs the central heating replacing, a new kitchen and bathroom and decor throughout. We are going to knock out a couple of walls to make a kitchen/diner and go from a L shaped lounge to a 22' by 11' rectangular connected to the dining area by dual pocket doors. We have spent the past 4 months getting a builder, electrician and plumber on board, and it seems they are all keen to get going in February, the only hold up may be delivery times of some replacement windows and a bi-fold door for the kitchen/diner. I will be taking the opportunity to run a discreet mains feed for the hifi and un-switched new wall sockets.
So 2021 will be an interesting year for Sue and me, hopefully when all done we will have a lovely home we can be happy in, till we are forced to move on. Sue has been off work for the past 2 weeks and has been slowly packing up and I have done what I can to help. As we are pretty organised and do not hoard much it is pretty much in hand, there are a few things left, mainly my precious hifi system which I will carefully box up next weekend. I will move it myself in the car apart from the speakers, for which I have the substantial original boxes for and the heavy hifi stand, carefully wrapped in bubble wrap.
This will mean that musical entertainment will be somewhat limited to the Yamaha Sound bar and Sub from Volumio - RPi/HifiBerry and the Schiit MAGNI 3 Heresy amp to KLH Headphones for discreet listening, I will either be streaming from Qobuz/TIDAL or listening to files from my NAS. The hifi will remain packed up until all the nasty dusty work has been done and the lounge is sorted, I hope this will be by the summer, by then it will be time to be sorting the garden out a little at a time, but this is really Sue;s domain, so music may take a back seat for a while.
I will be looking in as often as I can and for a break from the building work, and will keep up with the Album club, which I enjoy. I will keep you posted on progress or lack of it as it goes along.
Wishing you all a Happy New Year for 2021, and I certainly hope it is much improved over 2020 for us all.
Adrian
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Post by Slinger on Dec 30, 2020 17:40:56 GMT
Enjoy your new home, Adrian. It's nice to see a bit of good news in 2020 for a change.
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Post by John on Dec 30, 2020 17:52:51 GMT
All the best with the move
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Post by speedysteve on Dec 30, 2020 17:55:07 GMT
Sounds great.
Love a project 👍💪😀
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Post by MartinT on Dec 30, 2020 18:07:54 GMT
Good luck with it, Adrian. What a fab way to start a new year!
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Post by MikeMusic on Dec 30, 2020 21:09:49 GMT
All the best Adrian
Hope you can keep the builder, sparky and plumber honest without too much trouble. Get a timetable agreed even if it slips keep on at them
Underfloor heating would be nice. Look to get draught proofed and as well insulated as you can. Will pay you back.
Check the BS lock numbers on the doors for insurance. Window locks on all the windows of course
Have the loft at least as good storage or even another room or two
I'd love to go back to a bungalow. Everything is so much easier.
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Post by jandl100 on Dec 31, 2020 5:22:03 GMT
Good luck with the move and settling in, Adrian.
It seems that the fates are with you as it all seems to have come together nicely so far.
Oh my gosh, though.
Months without vinyl.
Still, the resurrection of the full system will be worth waiting for.
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Post by julesd68 on Dec 31, 2020 12:10:37 GMT
Sounds like a great project and am sure it will be very satisfying!
Wish I was on the move too.
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Post by MikeMusic on Dec 31, 2020 16:09:18 GMT
A GANNT chart will help for you and the guys
Wish we had used one in our refurb
Didn't help our builders lied a lot
The project management we were promised did not materialise.
Didn't need much, common sense would have done most of it
7-8 months became 14
Most of the things we wanted as we got into the build we couldn't have for one 'reason' or another
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Post by ajski2fly on Jan 1, 2021 13:02:50 GMT
Thanks to you all for your good wishes for our house move, we are nearly packed.
Mike, as I was an IT Project Manager and Programme Manager for 12+ years I gained quite a bit of experience with GANNT charts and project plans. Problem was getting people to honour what they had agreed to deliver, in terms of time and costs as well as quality. Most people that came across me did not like my approach, which was a mix of contractually signed for deliverables with quite severe penalties for failing to meet them, including the sack, along with big dose of JFDI. Strangely enough 90% of the projects I headed up were delivered on time and usually under agreed budget, I always had a good amount of wiggle room in the plan.
I am glad I gave up the PM jobs for a simpler life down in Devon, I am sure the high stress levels of the job role was partly responsible for my heart problems.
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Post by MikeMusic on Jan 1, 2021 14:35:45 GMT
Aha you have the knowledge - what I don't guvnor Most people do not like being held to account or deadline The task is to get the job done right - not win popularity contests  We gave up far too much to our builders who promised much and under delivered. Many times we should have threatened them with no money at the end of the week and even throwing them off the job One classic was them knocking down walls inside the house and then arranging for the rubble to be taken away. Easy to work out that the patio we were having needed a load of that. Two outside taps asked for and supplied. I assumed we would have a stopcock inside as well - "No you didn't ask for that" No underfloor heating and lower than anticipated ceiling as the floor was "impossible to dig into" Too much trust in people who let us down |
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Post by ajski2fly on Jan 9, 2021 5:53:11 GMT
So we have moved, Thursday at 11:00 we got the keys. The movers left us in chaos just before 5:00 pm. Two bedrooms we could not close the doors to as full of boxes and stuff. After restacking, making our bed and get the tv unpacked and going we sat down to a pre-prepared chile at 8:30am. By the way the heating does not work, but we have hot water. Sue’s sister brought an oil filled electric rad round, with that and the gas fire in the lounge we got the bungalow to a balmy 11c Thurs night.
Friday morning it had gone up to 15c and by 6pm had got to 19c, which is liveable. Our plumber who came on Thursday afternoon worked out the control unit is done, he freed the valves to all but one radiator, and manually operated the heating system valve and briefly we had hot radiators. he brought round a spare controller and arranged our sparky to fit it this afternoon, so hopefully by this evening we will have proper heating.
I had to remove a 1000mm kitchen base unit on Thursday to get the fridge/freezer into a recess, and the refit it. Then I had to re-arrange the garage, to get the cars in, and remove the ivy around the up and over doors so they were easier to use.
Friday 8am the new washing machine arrived, so later in the morning I fitted it, which was a pain as the feed pipe did not quite reach, so I modded the bottom of the offending base unit, the kitchen is being replaced.
Sue has been great, doing all sorts of stuff and helping. We are now both knackered happy we are in and having a couple of quieter days to recover.
Off to order new bathroom stuff this morning, which we have already chosen and get Harry some food, he has been very good and seems to be settling in, even barked when someone came to the front door yesterday.
The adventure continues.
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Post by MikeMusic on Jan 9, 2021 10:16:19 GMT
Ouch
Having boiler problems I started one morning at 11'c
Very, very glad to say it went up from there.
Take heart that once you have done it - it is done
Always takes me weeks to get sorted after a move. Philosophical me
All the best with the saga !
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Post by MartinT on Jan 9, 2021 11:57:57 GMT
It's useful to have multiple sources of heating if the worst happens.
As well as oil-fired underfloor heating, we have electric underfloor upstairs, a propane gas fire in the kitchen and a log burning fire in the sitting room. Just had another 47kg propane bottle delivered, too.
Glad you're getting it sorted, Adrian. Not the best time to move!
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Post by jandl100 on Jan 9, 2021 15:09:13 GMT
We just put another layer of woollies on.
Living room current temperature is 11.4C (but that's by the double glazed window).
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Post by Slinger on Jan 9, 2021 15:28:41 GMT
Hopefully, the only time I ever move again will be into a custom-fitted wood and brass affair, suitable for burning.
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Post by MikeMusic on Jan 9, 2021 15:46:04 GMT
Meanwhile Slinger looking on the bright side Hopefully, the only time I ever move again will be into a custom-fitted wood and brass affair, suitable for burning. |
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Post by ajski2fly on Jan 9, 2021 20:33:42 GMT
We have heating and all rads are now working😃
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Post by ajski2fly on Jan 20, 2021 8:53:05 GMT
After what can only be described as a week of torture moving boxes and stuff we have SME semblance of organisation. All hifi and boxed records are now neatly stacked along one wall of what will be the study,leaving enough room to be able to use the small desk and get past to the old built in wardrobe that houses some of my clothes for now.
Our bedroom is orderly and not cluttered with boxes. Bedroom 2 has been a major undertaking, it was full and is now empty apart from a mattress with some pictures and mirrors behind it. We had to clear it to use as our temporary lounge in the evening, the builders arrive next Tuesday for lounge and kitchen/diner alterations. Bags of soft stuff was re-homed to mother-in-laws loft temporarily, and the rest was either skipped or moved to the double garage. It still has enough room for one car, my MX5 has been taken to a good friends garage for 4-8 weeks.
So we just need to clear the lounge on Monday, large sofa, TV and occasional tables to bedroom 2. The other sofa to the garage, along with the Ekoness stressless chair.
Plumber has been in twice this week to finalise where pipework for new bathroom and radiation will run. Also the renewable energy company supplying Solar thermal and air source heat pump has been to finalise it all and discuss radiators sizes based on heat-loss calcs, gear is all ordered.
Electrician is in place and will come in as needs by builder and plumber.
In the midst of all the above we managed to go to kitchen/bathroom supplier and finalise the order, pay deposits and get ordered. Also collected new in the wall meter box and bathroom tiles all in the same morning.
Replacement windows are all ordered as well.
😱😱😱
So to say we are knackered is an understatement, it is taking its toil on me a bit with my health issues, so this week is rest and chill week as much as possible. Sue as she says “Has gone back to work to rest”, she does 5 hours a day locally at a Chandlers, and is the career for her Mum for at least 3-4 afternoons. Sue has also managed to clear some of the garden from horrendous ivy growth over a wall and some of the garage and removed a load of brambles in one area.
So I think we are all set for the refurbishment, I will be keeping out of the way in the temporary lounge with Harry whilst the builders are here, or will be in the garage fitting old kitchen units to be used for storage.
So that’s it for now, I will try and take a few pics of the before and the after as things progress.
Happy listening everyone, I am missing the hifi very much!🥺
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Post by jandl100 on Jan 20, 2021 9:43:15 GMT
Bloody hell.
You are bonkers, you do realise that, don't you?
Good luck with it all.
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