Merry Christmas everybody!

We're almost done with this extension project. The Man of the Place is enjoying a well deserved nap in front of the fire. Faithful hound is there too.

A few more things need to be finished - but over Christmas, no work is going to be done. Look forward to these finishing touches in January.

The heating was installed. The boiler has now been commissioned and is legal to heat our house. It does a wonderful job. We haven't been cold since. We're not quite used to all this warmth. I'm waking up very thirsty in the morning. Having the boiler commissioned sounded so formal. I was half expecting to have to smash a bottle of champagne over it. "I hereby commission this boiler! Bless her and all who are heated by her!" In reality, it was an unassuming man who came out, checked all the wiring, the exhaust, fuel line to the boiler etc. . .. He had a cup of coffee (milk and one sugar), gave me the forms for the guarantee and went on his merry way.

Henry cutting a channel for the thermostat. This makes for another area that will have to be repainted.

It has been all hands to the pump the past couple of weeks. We now have beautiful oak floors.

There are two places where the oak floors wouldn't be practical.

The orangery and the bathroom. You can see Polly inspecting James' work as he puts down the tiles in the orangery that connects the two buildings together.

This is Andy, helping out James the plumbing and heating guy. The lovely white bathroom tiles are just out of shot.

Holes in the Floor

We are getting so close to being finished with the extension. So close in fact that last night, I asked George if, when the heating is fired up next week, would he like to move his bedroom furniture across. We still don't have doors on his new room, or the bathroom but he could move over.

The major thing going on at the moment is that the heating system is getting hooked up.

The electrician has put up thermostats and control panels for the two different "zones" in the house and the plumber is working on getting the heating system connected to the boiler.

To connect things to the boiler, the floor boards in the corner our front room needed to be removed. This meant disassembling the dining room table and lifting the carpet.

This is what it looks like . . . .

This is The Man of the Place with the enormous power tool he had to hire to do big stuff under the floorboards.

Done by Christmas?
You can see the packs of oak floor boards waiting to go down.