The Calm before the Storm

The Calm

Hong Kong this week has been on the edge of a typhoon (hurricane) although it seems to have passed by for now and didn't get any worse than a blustery March day in UK but with temperatures around 28degC rather than the biting winds we get at home.  Mind you, they say there's another one closing in, due this way on Tuesday, the night we go to the airport ...

On that note, it's all gone quiet on the barn front, too.  Hardly a peep from the Project Manager this week, just one call asking what type of light bulbs we want, and an email asking for the pre-construction SAP test results.

We could be worried about this, considering we've got the removals van booked for middle of next week to deliver all our furniture!  But we suspect it's because they're so busy finishing off loads of things that they don't have time for pleasantries, and just want to get on with it.

The water was due to be connected on Tuesday (just gone) - assuming they could find their main in the road this time.  Then the heat pump was due to be commissioned and the underfloor heating tested on Wednesday.  The carpets are due to be fitted tomorrow (Saturday).

The Storm

And we've just spoken to Neil on the phone to get an update; it's as we suspected - in his words, manic.

They're busting a gut to get finished by next Weds, and continue to be frustrated by the plumber and the water company.  He says they've "dug up half the village" looking for the water main and still haven't found it.  The temporary solution that the water authority have adopted is to tee off the neighbour's service pipe and run a surface pipe across their drive and the verge over to our place.  So we have water, but they're still looking for the main to make our permanent connection - and it's close to a year since we applied, and paid up front, for this 'service'.

Meanwhile Neil tells us that the week the plumber decided to go on holiday is the week when they've discovered 2 or 3 leaks in the plumbing system, and found a fault in the shower pipe (that had been installed and covered in wall tiles, which have had to be removed).

They also found that the shower screen was damaged when they took it out of the box, and the replacement part that was posted express was the wrong part, so that might not be fixed by next Weds.

The good news is that the warranty company were happy with everything, and just want some evidence that the existing trusses have been treated for woodworm, then they'll process the certification as quickly as possible so that we can get the 10 year warranty in place.

The primary Building Control inspection is booked for next Monday or Tuesday, and Neil hopes that we'll get the OK from them too and get Building Regs sign-off.  And the commissioning of the heating systems started yesterday and continues today - fingers crossed that those systems all work properly.

And the interesting news is that the planning officer made a site visit a few days ago and took some photos.  The planner made some encouraging noises about how impressed he was with the conversion.  Mind you, Neil refused to allow him into the kitchen - he's sticking to Misan's instruction not to let anyone see her pride and joy until she's seen it!

We're looking forward to seeing it ourselves next week.  In the meantime, here's a few reminders of how it looked when we first got it back in autumn 2009 ...