Thursday 27th January we had the solar hot water system delivered - big 315L tank with gas-boost mounted on the side, and 2 solar panels for the roof. They ended up sitting around for quite a while as all sorts of other more important things got done around them. Even at the time of writing, the tank itself is still sitting patiently in the container waiting to be put in place and hooked up.
Phil and I also started framing in the kitchen bulkhead the same day, after mapping out the kitchen with chalk lines (which allowed me to see how close my amateur permanent marker scribblings on the floor were to reality... we'll not say too much more about that...) Basic idea is that the roof rakes quite high over the kitchen area, so we didn't want it to feel like we were preparing meals in a circus tent or giant cave - the bulkhead brings down the ceiling to a normal, flat 8ft across the kitchen area while the rest of the space rakes up to it and around it.
Then the extras began to arrive...
Plumbers first. They spent a few days on site running all the pipework through - cold water, hot water, gas pipes, outside taps (which run off a different system so that we can get full pressure), etc, etc. This was certainly one of those, "Well, if we don't get it right now..." moments as they set up inlets and outlets for every tap, toilet, bath, sink, plug and other liquid dispensing (or draining) item throughout the house. Being efficient sub-contractors they just work to the principle that unless someone tells them (at least twice) exactly where something should go, they'll just assume it's meant to go wherever is easiest, quickest and least hassle for them - sometimes even writing things down doesn't always work! All the pipework looked quite impressive running across the ceilings - I found myself wondering how they kept track of which bit went to where.
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| Black pipe everywhere! |
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| Mixer set-up in our ensuite - we decided to spend a little extra and have a double shower in this house. Whether we get to use it together in a house with 3 kids remains to be seen! |
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| Kitchen sink tap set-up. Apparently not many people have their taps coming out of the wall any more - surprised the plumbers with that one. Sink-mounted mixers have taken over the world. We just wanted the tap up and out of the way. |
After the plumbers (and overlapping with them, to the accompaniment of the usual jokes that little cliques always have to make at the expense of any other - where plumbers are concerned, that will often involve some level of toilet humour... naturally...) came the electricians.
If I thought the plumbers work was complicated, these guys took it all to another level. Photos don't really do justice to the somehow organised, but to the untrained eye completely random and undecipherable, jumble of wires running through every available roof-space, draped down through walls and hanging out of the framing everywhere you turned. They somehow kept track of what seemed like several kilometres of wiring and appeared to know exactly where each bit should go and confident that it would actually do what it was meant to do when it all got connected up later. We designed the house and the electrical plan and still get confused about which wires are meant to do what...
The other amazing thing is that with all this complexity and effort and time gone into making all these bits of the house 'work' - so that we have access to lights that turn on and water on-tap - in the space of a very short time, it'll all get covered up and forgotten about. People will walk in and flick a switch and think it just kind of magically makes light... but behind the paint and plaster, running through the cavities and framing and empty spaces of the house, lies the work of some very clever people. It's been good to see it and appreciate it up close.
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