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Irelandhorse
Please visit again. Help translate this page click below: Still to add : TB's to breed jumpers. Map of local studs etc. One day soon!
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Day 201 Tuesday 4th November. Brendan sent two guys to level the floor with a machine I hired. They also made two square holes, by removing the render and polystyrene, so that the TV brackets could be fixed directly to the concrete wall, a much sounder way to fix them. Micheal from Powerteck was working away with the heatpump etc Day 202 Wednesday. The TV guys came and spent ages drilling the wall to fix the Brackets. I think they managed to hit the reinforced bars in the wall, I did not want to interfere, and luckily, they got the job done. No builders in at all this week so far. Day 203 Thursday. I had to go away on the very day all the heating experts were here. Richard spent the whole day with them. Even though progress was made, it was found that the Kilowatts here were running as low as 209, whereas they should run at a minimum of 230 Kw. (I have since found out that the minimum is 207) So once the Climate Master had been commissioned by DC Computair, it was still not advisable to run it. (There was also the chance that there was a problem with one of its pumps). Everybody was so disappointed, almost more than we were! Day 204 Friday. After hiring another digger yesterday to dig more trenches for the geothermal loops, it was idle today. I had a glimpse of Karl who came to meet Micheal who never made it, so I visited the Plan Expo at the RDS encase I missed something there. Day 205 and 206 Monday, Tuesday 10th and 11th November. David came both days and got all the electrics in the house finished. Oliver did a lot of digger work, the trench for the extra loop was dug and the pipes were laid. Day 207 Wednesday 12th November. Paul did remaining bits of the kitchen which was great to get done. The painters started and did the majority of the ceilings and two rooms in base coat, they were so quick. Micheal from Powerteck was here getting everything finished for the under-floor to be powered up tomorrow. I just wish the rest of the builders would turn up to get it all finished. Day 208 Thursday. The heat pump was put into action by Fergal Loy this morning, it is all working. Just one of the pumps in the heat-pump itself is running rough as it had been seized up so I hope it will be replaced shortly. Everybody else was here too and did a good bit outside to tidy up again after the extra work was done for the loops etc. By this evening it was just evident that the floors were warming up, this is to be expected. The painters finished our living room and probably have a days work left to do. Day 209 Friday. Karl is working now off the 'snags list' he asked for. It is not easy to remember the last bits and pieces that need doing. A print out helps and when you are not under pressure for time it is easier to see what needs to be done. Painters (Midland Painting) finished well, what we needed doing. Day 210 Monday 17th November. We are so close to finishing. The painters came back to do a bit more for Mum as it is so much easier than doing it all yourself!. Karl and Oliver were kept busy plastering bits, plumbing etc inside. Can't wait to get the paths and drive done outside as it has been rather wet and muddy, probably too muddy to lay the gravel at the moment. Day 211 to 216 This time I documented the work on a sheet of paper and will now have to find it!!! but it involved five days which included the making of the concrete path around the house. Soil was used around this to keep the batons in place. All of the path was done in a day and it was finished on about the 25th November. The team said they would be back to finish the rest on the 18th of December. The window guys came and did more alterations on the windows, were the air was getting in around the window. But were unsuccessful in making one of the back doors seal closed at the top at all. After they left, I again found two windows letting in a draught, as is the front door, rather badly. A worrying situation. They did leave me a number if I needed them again, so after Christmas I will get back to them. Day 217 Thursday 18th November. Yesterday and today we had parties of people viewing the house who were very keen to use the same building method and seemed very impressed. Builders arrived at 11.30 and after 25 minutes were gone. This was a serious problem because our family had already started to arrive. The spare bedroom upstairs still had the manifold exposed in the room and after spending a night there we realized that the noise can be a bit disturbing. The whole heat system still has to get a last check up, so far I had only managed to get instructions from Powerteck on how to bleed the system upstairs to remove any air in the pipes, which could be the reason for the extra noise. (I don't think I did it right) Day 218 Friday. Karl was good enough to come back and make a temporary box to close in the manifold. I say temporary because it will need a door to access the manifold. Then the worst happened, once we had the house full of family for Christmas. As the upstairs bath was emptied the downstairs toilet in my mothers side of the house backfilled and flooded her end of the house. Her toilet had started to fill a bit at flushing and the day before it had backfilled slightly to flood only the bathroom, but this time it did a good job of it. Again Karl came back from Wexford the next day to rod the drains and say that loo paper had lodged out the front drain. I now fear this will be a reoccurring problem we will just have to keep dealing with. Brendan Kelly laid the majority of these drains. The tileing was finished in the house on the 15th of December and Malcolm Fitzherbert had done a great job. We just have to get the skirting boards painted and back up. We had to use so much more tile adhesive than normal because of uneven floors put in by Brendan Kelly Construction. Some extra floating of the floors was also done but when you have to use special flexible products in both instances it is expensive which ever way you do it. The cost of doing the tileing was just over €4,000 so remember to put this in your budget too! The year is nearly out. I can see so much still to be done, corrections still to be made. I will add some pictures to this as soon as I get my camera sorted out. Day 219 Monday 5th January'04 Carl came and started the steps by each external door by making a frame for the concrete. He also boxed in the upstairs bath pipes along the wall. Day 220 A new outlet for the downstairs shower, drilled through the wall. The new stopcock put in where the mains comes in, one that will not corrode. the step made ready at our back door to cover the pipes which were lagged first. Day 221 to 223 By Friday 10th Jan, our path now had decent steps to each door, manholes and stop-cock covers where needed. I mentioned that we were having serious problems with the windows letting in the wind around the sashes, quite a few of them infact. The front door does not close thoroughly and neither does one of the back doors. I have since spoken to the company who put them in, and they said they would come out again and make sure that they are right. 14th March '04 The window guys have been back a few times, we are nearly right. The builders of Eurozonethermoforms have not been seen since the end of January. It is not looking good. I have decided to do a lot of the work myself with tiding up and repairing. The chimney is still not the correct height. There are manhole covers missing, loads of rubbish everywhere, doors not working, chew strips missing on the stables to name but a few. The good thing is we are in the house and comfortable. 1st May '04 We did have a meeting with Eurozonethermoform a few weeks ago but we are still in the same position today. Call back to this page in about two weeks time and if nothing is still the stage of play I will wrap this up with a 'conclusion'. Do call back. 18th May '04 Well, this must be the end. The end of Eurozonethermoforms anyhow, as there has been no sign of any progress since the end of January! just promises so we will move on without them. I will tell you the position now. Good part We have a fine warm house and sound yard which we are making full use of. Bad part We have a list ;
We have not fallen out with Eurozonethermoforms, we were getting on. They appear to have become silent and the job not finished. I feel rather stupid as we kept paying before work was completed. We were even unable to hold our open day as planned at the beginning of the season. Our stud season is in full swing now. We fully intend to start finishing this project and then getting a digger in to clear away the rubbish, move the soil from the front of the house, mend the bank, level around the house again and get the edges done. Level soil for a small garden and fence it, plant the trees and get tradesmen to fix up inside the house. All to include fixing the above list in time. I will put in some more pictures of good and bad work, to do/being done, soon.
The next page is OUR progress to be posted up shortly |
Hot Press- not plastered and left like this!
Remember- this is our NEW finished house !! downstairs toilet.
Probably where mice get in to our kitchen from outside. Hot supply on left!!