Our New Home

[Xylophile]

Epic epic thread,

I envy you the project, but not the paperwork.

The absolute best of luck with it and please keep the updates coming

 

[Dave]

After watching all the work being done, like the roofing joists going in, do you ever think to yourself, damn i bet i could have done that!

 

[Badger74]

Xylophile,
Thanks, my biggest headache is the mortgage. I'm still not fully convinced they will honour it. I was told we will give you a mortgage, but then they ask for more information. I supply it, and then they ask for more, and so on. The last hurdle was life assurance; I forwarded an email from my assurer, but because their attached letter was not letterheaded, that wasn't accepted. I will find out next week as we have applied for the first payment. Its only took 5 months since I applied!!!

Dave,
Not on the scale they have done it. I will try on the old stables, but that will only be to support a tarp!

 

[Le Loup]

Lovely looking place Badger, you did a good job finding this. Well done.
Regards, Keith.

 

[Badger74]

Thanks Keith, we can't wait to be in it and finally settle down.

Keep posting your videos and observations, I very much look forward to them, here and on YT.


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[Badger74]

Things are moving quite quickly now; every thing apart from the first mortgage payment

First floors are down, stud walls up and first fix electrics and plumbing in progress. Roof felted and nearly tiled and the doorway on the first floor has just been broken through between the old house and the new.

Only down side is that I cant get away without treating my water. The bacteria is quite simple but the softening of the water is the major thing; about €1400 thanks very much! Apparently my water is very very hard and needs softening and because of this and the iron content I also need osmosis to remove the sodium used in treating the hardness.

20160428_185812 by chrstphrferg, on Flickr

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20160505_165218 by chrstphrferg, on Flickr

13112778_10153527010492374_4963162079414927148_o by chrstphrferg, on Flickr

Working out the best layout for the bathroom!

 

[Badger74]

New front door and widows and doors fitted to the extension. Roof pretty much done. Finally got the first bit of the mortgage through, THAT was a big relief!

20160506_194854 by chrstphrferg, on Flickr

20160506_195037 by chrstphrferg, on Flickr

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[CumbrianLad]

looks great wishing you all the best on your future in your new home

 

[Badger74]

Things have been a bit slow lately and it just seems to be dragging. I did get the chimney breast of both rooms and the stone floor sand blasted, and we have started removing the concrete rendering at the front of the house. Instead of putting a lime rendering back on we will leave the stone exposed, but getting it clean and re-pointed will have to wait.

We have had the house and extension plastered and the woodwork is getting added. Some of the rooms we have even managed to get a bit of undercoat on, but the big thing was, we got electricity last weekAll we need now is the septic tank and clean water.

The garden has changed a lot this week. All the heaped soil has been leveled into the wood and and the remaining areas given a bit of a tidy.

20160611_095121 by chrstphrferg, on Flickr

20160611_093309 by chrstphrferg, on Flickr

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[British Red]

Awesome project - glad its going well. Was going to suggest an in line filter and UV treatment for the bacteria - quite common here - but haven't had the hard water problem - thats a pain

 

[KenThis]

Really enjoyed this thread. Best of luck and thanks for sharing.

 

[Badger74]

Awesome project - glad its going well. Was going to suggest an in line filter and UV treatment for the bacteria - quite common here - but haven't had the hard water problem - thats a pain

Apparently, the water can't get much harder and it would have my heating wrecked very quickly. The softening system is half the cost of the whole treatment system. These are the little things that i didn't include in my budget planning. I also have to have an anaerobic treatment tank for my sewage, and I have to get one for 10 people; there is only four of us, but it goes on how many can sleep in the bedrooms that we have. I'm actually going to get the one up from that for 12 people, in the hope that in the future I can convert the old stables into a self contained space. I'm only 5 miles from Ballycastle on the Wild Atlantic Way, so I'm thinking of future tourism.

Thanks Ken, we are already thinking of chickens and then a couple of pigs at the back end of the year.

 

[British Red]

I did the same in terms of septic tank - fitted a huge one, never regretted it. Chickens are fun and easy to look after - my one advice is to have at least one spare coop and run for isolation. Save all your offcuts of plank and ply because making coops is a doodle and they are much stronger than commercial ones

Nest box and floor on coop by British Red

 

[Dougster]

This looks like a fantastic project. I'm going to enjoy reading this.

I sort of wish I had done something similar but my journey of finally understanding myself over the last eighteen months has shown it would have been a bad idea. Our house is village edge , 25 years old - very thermally efficient but lacking in soul - very different from what you have shown.

I have discovered that my kids are at an age where a small village in NE Scotland is very limiting for them and I am shocked at the miles I am doing, I have had to sell my pickup and go back to a VW Golf. I have done 4,500 miles since mid April!

We're chatting about going back t Western Ireland where we went on a honeymoon tour. We'll look forward to your accommodation being up and running.

 

[Robson Valley]

We lived in the city when the kids were in school and a thousand other things.
When they were fresh grown and gone, there seemed to be less reason for city life.
When I retired, there was no reason to stay on the city.
Another 10 years, cities are nice to visit but I couldn't live there any more.

It's a delight to watch badger's home unfold. I am totally envious of the stone fire places.
Do you all realize that it will actually be DARK at night?

 

[Janne]

Badger, a great thread and nice eork!
Is it a legal requirement to have an anaerobic sewage system?
When I lived in Sussex, all we had was a brick lined tank down the field, about 150 yards away. Was open when we bought the property so I covered it with raileay sleepers.

The radiator you have mounted on the wall beside the door will be very inefficient, not enough airflow.

Robson, I am sure he will have a 12ga standing beside the bed. Brst protection against the evil spirits that live in the dark....and the monster that lives under the bed........

 

[Badger74]

Thanks BR, we DO have a lot off offcuts!

Dougster, I understand all the running round and the potential lack of options. I dont think we are as stuck as you as the big town is 10 miles away, but as the eldest is 15 we have accepted that at 18 she will be leaving as the college she wants to go to is 2 hours away. You're welcome to call over but I doubt we will have the stables sorted by then; we'll be lucky if we can aford carpets. That withstanding we have loads of room for a tent/caravan/camper van if you called by and wood to burn.

RV, yep, yep and yep.

Janne, yes it is now part of planning requirements. I did contact the tank producer to ask about if it is possible to produce methane to run a gas hob, but the answer was no. The old tank was just a block pit with concrete slab covering. The photo doesn't show all the room. It has 2 more rads the same size and has 2 doors opening on to the room with the big fire place and another leading to the utility room as well as 2 sets of patio doors, and it will be the kitchen.

And yes I do have a shotgun to keep the evil spirits away

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[Janne]

Thanks for the explanation. I understand the sewage is a closed system, but you are not allowed to tap the Methane? Where does it go?

 

[Badger74]

It's not a true oxegenless anaerobic system suitable to produce enough methane. It's an aeration system through a bug filled filter on a continuous circular flow. I did suggest that they look at the idea though for the future though .

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[Janne]

It's not a true oxegenless anaerobic system suitable to produce enough methane. It's an aeration system through a bug filled filter on a continuous circular flow. I did suggest that they look at the idea though for the future though .

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Interesting. So it needs a pump = constant electricity which costs money?

Here on island we are not so advanced in the environmental dept. We do not need any of those fancy systems, just a concrete subterrain box ( septic tank) where the clean-ish overflow goes into a borehole ( 25 feet deep) type soak-away.
Cheap and it works, no smell ever! All I use is one bottle of an bacteria/ enzyme mix once every year to keep the system healthy.