Final Post!

This is our 87th and final post of our blog.  Strangely enough our last blog had 87 posts!  We are overjoyed to have finished the house and for our final post we thought we would let the photos do the talking.  The photos below show the first and second floors completed internally.  This marks the end of an amazing chapter in our lives but we have so many new chapters (and potential blogs) opening. We have our upcoming ski season to look forward to, returning to build our annexe and then culminating in our wedding, The fun, excitement and hard work just doesn't seem to look like its going to stop!

The Loft Bedroom

Loft corridor/wardrobes area to bathroom

Loft bathroom

Loft bathroom

Loft shower

Back bedroom

Front bedroom  - B&B ready!

Front bathroom

My office

Hallway

Although its the end of this build - G has already done a great deal of work on the plans for the knocking down the garage and building the annexe so the story will continue. We are thinking about writing a blog for the ski season but not decided yet.  So stayed tuned and we will let you know.  Unfourtunately G is not here to add any final words as he is working a late shift so its up to me to sign off for both of us.

Thank you all and good night
from G&A

G&A Life Conversion Ltd
G&A Chalet Hosting Inc
G&A Annexe Builders & Co
G&A Weddings

What a party! What a night! Saturday 16th July

Its been ages since I have posted in the blog and this post marks our penultimate post of the blog.  The final post is planned to be completed photos of all the rooms on loft and first floor.

To celebrate the end of our renovation project and to thank all our friends that had helped us along the way we decided to throw an end of build celebration party or House Warming Party.  G and I wanted to have some fun surprises for our friends and came up with two ideas.  One was a mock awards ceremony with a PowerPoint presentation with all our friends helping out on site.  The other idea was to have a plaque fitted on the final roof beam of the house to mark the topping out ceremony for the loft extension.  This is a tradition amongst builders to have a ceremony to mark the last and highest roof beam to be fitted.  Its normally done at the time its fitted but as we were so busy at the time of the beam being fitted and far more concerned with getting the roof and getting our home watertight it never happened.

We spent time on Saturday with me making spoof awards and writing the presentation. For example Mogsy won the award for spending the most time on the building site and doing the least amount of work and got a miniature bottle of wine with a label on it saying 'Is it wine o'clock yet?'  We decided it would be fun to have an unveiling ceremony for the plaque so G's spent time making some paper curtains to place over the plaque for the official unveiling.  The photo below shows the plaque on the beam.

It was a small party with the everyone there  having had a part in the build at some step of the way.  After everyone had arrived we filled their glasses with champagne for our topping out ceremony in the loft.  The funny thing about the ceremony is that where we had placed the plaque is where the beam was exposed in our en suite bathroom.  So all of the party had to cram into the bathroom for the official unveiling.  G called me forward to be the person to pull the string attached to the curtains to unveil the plaque.

When I did I was stunned to see underneath the curtain was a sign reading...

Grin City!

I can't really put into words how amazing it all was.  I could hardly speak at the time and it was a while before I stopped crying and managed to nod and eventually say yes!

So our end of build party turned into an engagement party and later on disintegrated into a untuneful Karakoe session. 

End of Build/Engagement/Karaoke Party

G told me afterwards he thought getting engaged  would be a wonderful way to start the next chapter of our lifes now that the current chapter is over and I couldn't agree more.

Rainbow ring

House Hunting

Today we have been house hunting. To be fair it was more like beach hut hunting.  Actually it was more like idea gathering for the next project.  The garage conversion.

I guess you knew we were going to find it hard to relax and do nothing so we are already starting planning the conversion of our garage to a tannexe.  So today we drove to a small harbour side village called Shaldon on the the South coast to view a 'Tardis like beach hut with fitted kitchen', well that was the estate agents spiel.  It all came about because I was reading the daily mail (on my i phone in bed) the other morning when I spotted an article about four beach huts that had been built with kitchen, bathroom and  underfloor heating directly on the sea front.  The thing that caught my eye was the mezzanine level bed as that is what we are planning to build in the office.  I thought it would be interesting to go and have a look to see if we could borrow any ideas.  To do this we had to book a viewing with the estate agents and pretend to be interested vendors.  I am not sure what she thought as we spent a long time in the mezzanine bed with G trying to sit upright unsuccessfully and me getting the tape measure out at one point. At least we now have minimum measurement of what the head height on the bed should be.   Here are some photos of from the estate agents.

Daily Mail photo's of the beach huts

Its was a good day and also a strange feeling not to be doing any building work.  We enjoyed the sunshine and it as different to be on the South coast where the sea is so much calmer.  Instead of the waves and the surfers we saw a lot more calm water and sailing boats.  Its nice to see but I definitely prefer the rugged North Coast.  We had a lovely lunch in a pub overlooking the sea chatting about the garage plans.

Lunch with a view

Major Celebrations! The Building Inspector he say Yes!!!

I choose the title tonight  - when I asked G what it should be he said 'Disastor narrowly avioded'.  His title reflects the stress of the Building Inspectors visit whereas mine focuses on the end outcome.  Which I am sure you have guessed by now is positive and I am sipping champagne as I write the blog tonight.  G is sat next  to me tonight and I just caught him nodding off the only difference tonight is that he is clutching a glass of champagne instead of the usual red wine.

The fact is we never expected to get signed off in our wildest dreams.  As our major failing was the head height on the stairs our biggest hope was that he might turn up without his tape measure.  Our dreams were answered when he not only arrived without the tape measure and also proved to be the shortest of the building inspectors that we have had on site.  To cut a long story short  - he has agreed to issue us with our certificate.  When he told us we had passed G and I could not look at each over for fear of laughing in disbelief.  We both walked off in silence and celebrated round the corner out of site.

The reason that G wanted to call tonight's post disaster narrowly avoided was because in my attempt to divert him away from the head height problem in the stairs I drew attention to the fire escape window that we had fitted in the back bedroom.  Unfortunately unbeknown to me it didn't actually comply and I was talking too much I started to dig a bit of a hole.  At this point G made a zipping action across his mouth to tell me to shut up.  He later admitted he realised some of his own comments were causing us problems too.  So when we went up to the loft I decided to not discuss any building type issues.  In my attempt to stay conversational and look relaxed I thought I would point out our new sea view/glimpse  in a light hearted manner.  As soon as I mentioned it I remembered on the plans the window should have been in the stair well not the bedroom so at that point I totally shut up. 

I cannot explain how amazed we are to get the sign off.  A very surreal visit and a fantastic outcome more than we ever dreamed off.  I think we will be celebration all weekend.

Tonight's photo shows a celebratory pose outside our new front door. Also you can see the new letter box that  fitted today, a major improvement its amazing what problems not having a letter box has caused!

Celebrating!

Exam day tomorrow

Exam season is upon us and I feel sorry for all the students that have been going through exams, Jordan and my niece Juilette a few of the many that have been inflicted by exams.  However now exam fever has come to 63 Victoria road.  Tomorrow is the day of our big test.


 Tomorrow the building inspector come for the final sign off (or not) on the build.  He will be checking that we have complied with the plans and meet all the building regulations.

At the moment G and I feel very apprehensive like students that have not revised enough.  The problem is that we changed the plans to fit a much better room layout and because of this we have not meet building regulations on the stairway which requires a certain head height as you come off the stairs.  I have just asked G how far off we are and he just laughed and said 'quite a way!'.  Practically it doesn't effect anything and G at 6ft 2' finds it no problem at all.  When we made the decision not to follow the plans we thought we would accept the fact that we will not get signed off by the building regulators.  It is an obvious non compliance and they should  be aware of it immediately.  However there is part of both of us that optimistically hopes that he might forget his tape measure and be feeling relaxed and sign us off.  There was one day when one of them came on site without a tape measure and had to borrow ours.  Tomorrow we will be hiding all the tape measures!

So fingers crossed for tomorrow and don't expect a good outcome.  At least the good outcome is that we love what we have done whether or not it goes signed off.

A great day for the start of our new life!

What amazing weather to start our new life.  Yesterday was horrible weather which matched the stressy day of fitting the door.  Today we had planned not to do any work and the glorious sunshine matched our plans.
Its been a lovely day but I am bit tired to blog however I don't want to get behind again so tonight I am blogging about all the things we did  by bullet points and photos!  It was the most amazingly hot day today almost too hot!

• A surprise early morning visit from Mogsy who had just run 16 miles (all but the bit home again) she had left home at 7 ish.
• Breakfast in the sunshine in the Garden
• Morning Coffee down the cafe with a free sample of Pizza made in the new wood fired oven as Tom was testing it out
• Bike to the new 'Weir Bistro' along the canal path for a leisure lunch in the sun

Canal Path to the Bistro

Lunch at the Weir in the sunshine

• Visit to the Castle gallery to see the art exhibition which Sue is showing at
• Walk down the beach to watch the Bude Triathlon

G with Vicko and Ron watching the Bude Tri

Me, Mogsy and Denise watching the sea swim

Me & G relaxing!

• Beer with Mogsy in the garden
• Body boarding down the beach
• Back to G&T and Steak on the Barbie

G cooking the Steaks on the barbie

All in all a fab day helped by the beautiful weather and a great way to celebrate the end of the current stage of the build. I hesitate to say the end of the build as we still have a few plans and of course the potential of renovating the garage is beckoning us!

Don't get hung up about it

Hanging doors is usually a difficult and tricky job.  This multiplies when the door that you are hanging is a very expensive solid oak front door and the finishing touch to the house.  It was a long day and much harder work than I expected but the good news is that I love the finished result and we didn't have another 'carpet moment'  ie what was I thinking when I choose that design.

First thing in the morning with the old door in place
and a makeshift door number as we got rid of the one on the gate.

It took a full day to fit the frame and hang the door.  There was not a lot I could do except help when the door need to be offered up to the frame and help put it back for more planning adjusting.  So while G was working I managed to get up to date on the last three blog posts.

There is also the added pressure that we can not leave the house until the job is finished as we would be unable to shut or lock the front door.

Mogsy popped by whilst out for a run for a quick site inspection. It was a bit busy at that point and she didn't stay long I think she was worried she might end up holding up the door and actually doing some work for a change!  At least she didn't distract me with wine this time.

Look out the building inspector is here

Work in  progress

G was exhausted by the end of the day in fact as I type this he is is nodding off next to me with his glass of wine in his hand.  I should mention that it is only 9pm!  He hasn't done that for a while, he used to do it on a regular basis when we were in the throws on the loft build last summer.  In addition to it being a long day it could also be a knock on from his awful new shift pattern he is working which he is not liking 6pm until 2am in the morning all last week.

We are both really pleased with the door and the fact that we are almost finished.  We are not sure will mark the final " we are done" moment.  We had thought the final moment would be fitting the door but it still needs some making good round the inside and we do have a list of extra jobs that need doing round the house.  The front yard looks awful and we have plans for that.  Maybe we will never now we are finished!

All done

Dans got a new pad

The title is supposed to be a play on words.  G came up with it  - its because of Dan's love affair with his i pad.  Dan's & Hayleys new pad is in Reading and its because of Dan's new job as a software developer for Yell as his industry placement whilst at University,

We had the weekend off the building site to help him move which also incorporated a visit to my parents and G's Mum.  It was great to see him settled into his new flat with Hayley.  On Sunday morning G was treated to Dan cooking him a bacon sarnie on fathers day.  We think this is one of the first ever meals that Dan has cooked for his Dad and here is the photographic evidence....

Happy Fathers Day G!

The carpet gets laid.

I asked G if he could think of a  pun about carpets for the title.  He suggested 'G gets laid' but I didn't think it was an appropriate title for our readers.
The carpet laying day is a major milestone.  We were both very excited about them being in.  We had imagined that in the evening we would be celebrating with a glass of champagne and putting finishing touches to the rooms.  However in reality it didn't quite go like that.

The carpet fitter was unable to fit all the carpets in one day so it was totally finished and G was stressing about doors and wardrobes doors and if he had left enough gap at the bottoms of the doors to allow for carpets. 

In addition to this when I arrived home the stair carpet looked completely different to how I imagined it would from the small sample we had.  I wasn't sure that I liked it so I ended up looking a bit miserable.

Before

After



So the evening was not quite to plan.  However as I am writing this a couple of weeks on as I am so behind with the blogging.  I can say that was it was all fitted we were very happy and it looks fine.  The stripey stair carpet has definitely grown on me. Its a funny feeling to have carpet under our feet.



Landing

Loft Bedroom



Padstow Rock Swim - Sunday 12th June

The morning of the big swim arrived and it was still pouring down with rain.  I lay in bed with the rain pounding against the window checking my i phone for any updates that said the swim had been cancelled.  A sleepy (and hungover) Dan phoned from Plymouth to check whether it was cancelled and G didn't stir in bed next to me.

Miserable Weather

Eventually when we had confirmed that it was still we put the extra seats in the back of the surf mobile and on all seven of us set off to Padstow in the rain (Me, G, Dan, Hayley, Carol, Adam and Horace).  We had to get there very early for registration as the organisers took our dry kit across to Rock for us on the ferry before the event started.  The weather was miserable and instead of wandering around Padstow we all ended up in the car in the rain.  Changing in the car was funny.

Shivering before the start

Eventually the swim started and it turned out to be a fantastic event.  G and I swam with Dan.  We were well impressed on how he did especially considering his lack of training and sleep!



The swim setting off - you can see Rock in the background where we are swimming too

 When we got to Rock we had a pasty and a pint of beer waiting for us and it was a great atmosphere.

Dan's certificate had Mogsy's name on it

Hayley and Dan came back to stay with us for the night and we had a big lasagna waiting for us that I had prepared in the morning. It was great to spend time with them and a nice ending to the day.  In the end after all that wishful thinking that it might be cancelled I am glad it wasn't.   We all really enjoyed it and were glad that we did it.  It makes me think of that saying " Be careful what you wish for you might just get it"

Jubilant finishers

Stress and alcohol

I just read the title to G and Asked him if it summed up the Saturday before the carpets arrived and he said "Yep, you were stressed and I drank lots of alcohol"

Saturday felt like it was the day before everything.   On the Monday we had the carpets coming.  This meant on Saturday we had to make sure all the rooms that were to be carpeted were empty.   In addittion we had the big swim on Sunday from Padstow to Rock and on Monday at 9am!

All this led to me feeling a bit stressy.  So Saturday was going to be a busy day.  I was feeling a little bit stressed so I was really pleased when Sue rang to say did I fancy a coffee.  I was bothered about leaving G doing all the hard work but as soon as I mentioned it G told me to ask Don if he wanted a beer.  So that led to us sitting in the garden in the afternoon sun.  The photo shows an unusually relaxed break.

We also had a visit from Mogsy.  Earlier I had been explaining to her that I was bit stressed about the carpets coming and she told me not to worry she would come over and help.  I felt moved by her offer of help as I was feeling a bit overwhelmed.  I accepted her offer immediately and asked what time she could make it over.  She thought for a while and said ' I will be over at wine o'clock"  So true to her word at about 6 pm she rocked up with a bottle of wine.  Needless to say as always she didn't do any work on site but her company is always appreciated and the wine was good.

So carrying on in the same theme we then went to the pub for Kim's birthday.  Reading this you may be thinking that this was not the best pre race training for the Padstow - Rock  Swim.  However  at this point the weather had been so bad that we were convinced the swim was going to be cancelled.  Also its fair to say that our pre race night was a lot more subdued than Dans!  Although we didn't know that at that stage. 

Mogsy had dropped out of the swim as she felt she had not done enough training and had offered her spot to Dan.  Dan didn't let a small detail like training get in the way and took her place.  It was his leaving do in Plymouth on Saturday night so whilst we were  down the pub drinking for Kim's birthday Dan managed to say up to five in the morning partying! 

Oh my! Carpets are comming

G phoned up to negotiate a better deal on the carpets.  Next thing I know they are being fitted on Monday!  Yes .....Monday that's less a week away.  G just shouted over don't forget to mention they are commencing at 9:00 am.  He is well excited and I am feeling nervous.  Is the stripe for the stairway a bit bold for our neutral scheme or does it add a striking feature?  Or maybe its not that bold.? I can't remember what it looks like now.  All G is bothered about is whether any of the things we have built will need adjusting for the height of the carpet.  I am not sure he even remembers what colours  have chosen but then I am not sure I do either.

Obviously the fitting of the carpet in the loft bedroom, our old bedroom and the landing and stairs marks a major milestone in the renovation.  Internally we are so close to being completely finished.  The two main things that are left are the front door and the shutters in our old bedroom.  I am sure there will be lots of finishing job to do but G has been ploughing through those jobs over the last three days.

Today's major and slightly stressy job was hanging the last internal oak door.  G has fitted eleven of the same style door throughout the house.  Today he came up with an ingenious method of holding the door whilst fitting the hinges and locks.  Although he was pleased about his new way of working it was totally marred by the fact he had struggled with the other ten and had not come up with this plan earlier.

Annie has just ordered me to sit down whilst she cook tea, and unloads the dishwasher, .... I wish she would relax and let me do more!

He really doesn't know how to relax I turn my back for two minutes and he starts writing the blog!  I did just order him to it down.  After a busy day I thought I should cook him tea and of course write the blog at the same time.  I am the queen of multi tasking of course as soon as I start writing he takes over cooking so he had some strong words!! Then as soon as he sat down with his beer he tried to take over writing the blog! Arghh!

Apart from the door G has done loads of other jobs.  Tonight's photos shows one of the jobs he completed today.  Which was saying good bye to the brown cast iron soil pipe.

Goodbye old soil pipe

Need to sign off go watch the apprenctice ...Hope Dad doesn't phone through with the result this week before we have finished watching it.

New Oak floor

Today when I left for work G had just started laying the oak floor.  It was a stressy day as the oak was fairly expensive so G did not waste any of the floor planks with any cock ups.  When I got home it was all finished and looked marvelous.  G just looked exhausted.  I will let the photos tell the story.  We are really happy with how it looks and now it only needs waxing (three coats) and leaving for a few days.

Before

G's outdoor workshop

When I got home from work......Beautiful floor and tired G!

I don't think I have seen G so tired for a while so I cooked him a lovely tea and he is relaxing with glass of wine.

Our next mission...

No its not another renovation project! Our next mission is trying to let up on the renovation work and do some different things at the weekend.  We knew it was going to be a nice weekend so we thought we have a bit of relaxed weekend not doing any jobs.  However after four years of building we are finding this harder than you would think.

We were up early and had planned to meet a group of the last nights party goers at the beach cafe for a full breakfast.  We were meeting everyone at 10:30 am but we managed to squeeze in a few jobs before we even got there.  I mowed the lawn, G took a trip to the tip and put the pictures back up in the hall.  We had a fab breakfast the new cafe has a lovely atmosphere and there were  eleven of us all together, Horace, Trokey, Roger, Jane, Don, Sue and their boys and us.  We managed to pull some tables together and we  had a lovely relaxed breakfast.

Shortly after breakfast we decided to walk Sandy mouth and stop at the caravan cafe at Northcott for lunch.  On the way down we saw Vicko and Denise so invited them to come with us.  We had lovely lunch of pasties tea and cake in the garden.  Then me and G carried on to Sandy mouth while Vicko and Denise returned.  The cafe is very rustic and Cornish.  Margaret who runs it is a character.  G winds her up by asking for a pot of tea for two.  She tells him where to go at the top of her voice which is quiet raucous.  Any holiday makers probably wonder what they have come too.  I didn't take a photo as I didn't have a camera so I got these from the web.

The 'tea rooms'

Margaret

We got home and decided we did have time to get one job done and got the bed head on the lawn to wire brush it and lime wax it.  It looks good. 

Its weird not working on the house all day and it will take a bit of adjusting too!  I think we may have to ease ourselves gently out of not working on the house 24/7.  It felt strange not to do anything at all so after doing the bed head we felt more comfortable.  To go with our new relaxed attitude G had a pint whilst doing the bed.

We have just got out of the hot tub and have roast dinner in the oven.  All that's left is the sofa and some of our favourite recorded tv programs.

I forgot to mention a little job that G did as a surprise for me.  Anyone who has walked to Northcott with me will have experienced me 'touching the acorn'.  The acorn is the symbol for the South West Coastal path.  When we get to Northcott there is one at the gate post where we normally turn round.  It has become a little ritual for me to touch it before we turn round.  I also prefer it if everyone walking me does that same.  So for christmas G managed to get me my very own acorn plaque.  He fixed it to the bottom post of the stairs.  Everytime I walk past it, it makes me smile and of course I have to touch it!  Here is the photo.

The acorn