Riverview

I finally built my desk. I used a 3 metre 720mm x 40mm Bamboo kitchen work surface from these people:

First I built a framework from 3 of 2×4″ joists. I wanted a full 2.8 metre span without any legs so I needed a pretty strong frame.

It was actually quite hard to keep these level due to the wide span, so I had use to use my luxury laser spirit level. Well I probably could have done without, but I hardly use it and it was expensive!

Since the panelling is a full 22mm thick I was able to screw it direct, however, I did add some substantial legs to hold them.

Here’s it finished:

…and here’s it is in action:

We bought two new engineered oak doors for the house, plus a softwood stable door for my shed (ironically the last was the most expensive due to the non-standard size). We wanted antique black ironmongery as we dislike most brass ones. I had meant to look around and find some decent ones, however, whilst I was in B&Q I saw some that looked nice, and so I succumbed to buying theirs. Well about 2 weeks ago I shut the back door only to find the door handle in two pieces. The so called cast iron handle had snapped right off! After removing the handles I found that all four of them had fine, although deep, cracks that had already started rusting. What cheap rubbish!

I looked on Google and came across Kirkpatrick. These appear to be a good brand, and have been made the same way for about 150 years. You cannot buy direct, and so I ordered them from ‘Any Old iron‘. These are identical designs to the B&Q ones, except these are heavier and just look better quality. They are made from malleable iron, as opposed to the cheap ‘whatever’ of the other ones. As their suppliers website says ‘The ” KIRKPATRICK” range is still made by hand today in a traditional English ironfoundry in the Midlands.’.

The Kirkpatrick handle is the one on the right in all photos. Check out the finer detail.

Goes to show you that you get what you pay for, except these ones cost the same as the cheap ‘quality’ ones… Sheesh!

Well the wood is piled up in the fireplace, the goose is chilling (in the frigid air from the air source heat pump!), the utility room is stacked full of food, so I guess our first Christmas in River View is upon us. Technically speaking it’s our second Christmas, but since all the food was cooked in the other house last year, I guess that does not properly count!

Here’s a few obvious pictures from the last few days. Quite picturesque, and it’s actually helped us test out the heating of the house, and have a few insulation glitches sorted out.

If you’ve been following this blog through the year, then thanks for reading and a very merry Christmas and all the best for 2010!

The electrician came on Friday to do the second fix. I’d previously finished the floor, forgetting to take pictures, on weds.

I have a proper ring main with a 30amp box. Ten double sockets, and 2 lights on a separate circuit, and also an external PIR. IF you are interested click through on an image and you’ll see the wires in the ‘Don’t Cut Through Wiring’ set.

Now that the electricity was live I could start working on making this into a proper office. That is finish the networking, and get myself a desk! I intend to use some 2×3 timbers and a solid wood kitchen worktop to make a desk, but in the meantime I used some of the surplus flooring chipboard and two trestles. Seems solid enough!

(This is a placeholder post to preserve the timeline, as I’ve not yet got around to taking some piccies).

I was unsure what to use for the shed floor. I wanted something cheap, easy to lay and low maintenance. I guess all three was a tall order, yet the bamboo flooring I ended up with might just do. It was fairly cheap, looks good and was very easy to lay. The floor consists of 100mm non-foil Kingspan on a concrete base. A DPM (that runs to the ceiling with glued 1 metre overlaps where necessary. Over the DPM is 22mm TGV flooring chipboard. I used some thin underlay (not sure this was strictly necessary, then floated the bamboo over the top. Took me about 2 afternoons in total to do the floor. I’ve the skirting to finish, but for the moment, the shed is almost ready for action!

I’m going for the sauna look for my office! I started panelling it out on the weekend. I was going to go for the bog standard 7.5 mm pine panels, but instead I got some 20mm boards from Fenland Timber. The boards are really nice and my original plan of painting has been shelved. I’m going to stain them slightly darker then oil them.

I am regretting all those plug and network sockets though! That 20mm board is a pain to cut out!

After the excitement of moving in, I’ve finally returned back to working on the shed. I’m more motivated now by having to work from the kitchen table….!

I got the network cabling done in a day. This is fed by 4 x cat6 cables coming underground (outside grade cable buried in a PVC pipe about 0.5 metres below ground) into a patch panel, then 16 cat6 cables around the office. Perhaps overkill, but it’s a lot more flexible. Incidentally one of those cat6 cables will be a phone line.

The cable looks a little messy by running around the floor, then up to each socket. However, I wanted to keep it as far away from the ring main as possible.

I managed to find time amongst all the box moving and unpacking to get the windows of my shed glazed. So now it’s watertight. About time really!

The insulation is properly finished now, and the first fix electrical is done.

Et voila, since Friday we have completed on the other house and handed over the keys to the new owner… This also means that we have finally managed to fit in all our stuff in the new place ! Here is home :

And the “apero corner”

Everything is in, I confirm…

Some things are still outside and on the patio (and in the sheds !). Thanks to the dry and sunny weather :

This is how it looked like before we brought everything in. We’ve finally managed to sand and oil the floor downstairs in the evenings after work. It was hard work as we also had to pack and prepare the boxes to be ready for the moving. But it was worthwhile I think. We will paint the rooms later on.