We have a new Arts Consultant

Easter's been and gone - my, how time flies when you're busy.  We had a lovely break in Vietnam, and our Project Manager went off for a week's holiday himself.

But work continues on the barn.  Before he went away, Neil sent us a few photos of the progress on the interior.  By the time he'd sent them on Maunday Thursday, we were already in Hanoi.  Then he phoned us on Good Friday and we were in a beach bar in Halong Bay.  We'd just met an English guy who lives in Stockholm and was on holiday with some giggly Vietnamese ladies who were all intrigued by my beautiful wife and wanted their photo with her.  So we were in the the process of emailing it from my Blackberry via UK and Sweden back to the guy who was standing next to me in Halong Bay when Neil phoned and wanted to discuss the width of the driveway.  Isn't modern technology amazing!

Things are going on well on the inside now.  The interior is almost fully plastered, and they're fitting the kitchen this week.  Misan is frustrated - she wants to instruct Neil to lock it up once the kitchen's in as she wants to be first to see it!

They're also doing the landscaping and driveway this week.  We've had some long emails and phone calls with Neil to try and agree details, and we think we've managed it, although we'll leave some things 'till later like a (possible) pond and (maybe) a sliding gate.

Good news on the services front, too.  The electricity is finally live, and the sewers are connected.  Just waiting for final approval of the plumbing installation now by Anglian Water, then the water supply will be linked up, too.  That has been a real nightmare for Neil, as he's had to source taps that are WRAS approved, not an easy process (he's even been calling manufacturers in China to ensure he proposes approvable products).  Apparently WRAS is a mandatory scheme that has been around for 5 years or so but not all authorities enforce it and even suppliers and manufacturers aren't fully aware of it's implications.  Of course, our water authority had to insist on us complying with it, hence the headaches for Neil!

And the news from Hong Kong is that Misan has a job!  She's the Visual Arts Technician at the local college.  That's it, she'll be able to choose the barn decorations with confidence now!

Shaki's shots

Our daughter Shaki sent us about 60 photos after she'd visited the barn last weekend.  The good thing was that she took some from different angles to what we're used to, including a few from across the road.  The Barn looks pretty exposed to the world now that the overgrown hedgerow along the front wall has been removed, so I think one of our first jobs in July (although it's not the best time of year to do it) will be to plant a new hedge along the wall to give us back a bit of privacy.

We can also see from the interior shots that the first fix electrics and plumbing are well on.  Seems like we have wires and pipes everywhere, which is understandable to some extent when you consider we have underfloor heating and also need a separate plumbing system to bring the harvested rainwater into the bathrooms to feed the cisterns.  The understairs cupboard was meant to give us some much needed storage space, but it looks like it's come in handy as a hub for the control systems.  Being green is not cheap at initial build stage, let's hope we get a payback on running costs.

There's also a nice little photo of the planters that we left at the barn because they couldn't go into storage - some lovely spring bulbs have flowered amongst all the builders rubble.  Shows that spring has finally arrived in the village.

More progress

Just had a 1/2 hour phone discussion (by mobile from HK) with Neil our builder/project manager about how things are going.  It all sounds good.  The rainwater harvesting system and soakaway are in, the underfloor heating pipework is laid and first fix plumbing and electrics are just about finished.

They've also been doing some regrading of the 'garden' and building a small retaining wall behind our (future) shed and laying a stone base for the (future) shed.  It's all (future) because the planners won't let us put up a shed without planning permission - which is OK, except that if we apply now we'll have to pay a planning fee whereas if we apply once the barn is completed and is habitable (and therefore is a house not a barn) there will be no fee as it will be a householder application.

And some good news about our front wall.  It seems the stone wall is in fairly good condition and has a reasonably deep 'foundation' that means we shouldn't need another small retaining wall inside it where we intend to create the car parking area.

Mind you, it seems like we have tapped a spring, from the amount of water that is flowing from behind our new retaining wall.  We have to find a way to deal with that - seems like we might be having a water feature after all.

Neil is also frustrated by the utility companies.  Both the electricity supply cable and water supply pipe the are in, but not yet connected.  This despite the fact that we paid up front - last July for the water and mid-Dec for the electric.  These companies do things in their own time, not yours.

We hope to get some new photos this weekend as Shaki is visiting the barn just before she comes to Hong Kong in a few weeks time.  When we do we'll post another blog, but until then ....

Looking Good

We've just had some photos back from Neil the builder, showing that the scaffoldings down and the doors and windows are in.  They've also built the brick lean-to and started laying the underfloor heating.

They are now levelling the upper garden and taking out the remaining tree stumps against the fence, so that they can store all of the materials up there and clear the driveway so that they can install the rainwater harvesting tank and the soakaway.

Next they're going to plough on with the interior.  The floor screed should go in next week and the first fix plumbing should be completed.  We're looking forward to more pictures, especially of the inside so that we can plan where to put our furniture, including our new acquisitions from the antique furniture shop here.

Time to catch up

Hello Readers, sorry we've been away for a few weeks but we've been busy - as have the builders.

We now have a slate roof, with some nice rooflights and a stainless steel chimney, and more recently some doors and windows (don't have photos of those yet), and they've started on the internal works - the brick fireplace is completed, and they've done the stud walls and first fix wiring.

We've also been selecting sanitary wares and light fittings from the internet from our base in Hong Kong, and emailing our selections back to the building team.  And we've chosen the kitchen and appointed the kitchen company.  We had a lovely morning in bed last Sunday - careful - browsing websites about sinks and taps and ovens to make all our choices.  Mind you, we'd been out all of Saturday, me working in the morning whilst Misan went to collect her ID card, then shopping all afternoon for the last bits of furniture to make our little HK flat a bit more homely, so we deserved a lie in.

Misan's getting into life in HK now, and has even been playing Mahjong with some interesting new friends - Marion, Marcelle, Patricia, Pat and Mary amongst others - and we're hoping they'll sign up to this blog too, and maybe even come and visit the barn whenever they're visiting UK.

We're now looking forward to our children coming to Hong Kong later this month, then all going together to Kuala Lumpur for the second Grand Prix of the season.  We also hope they'll bring some post from UK for us as, despite paying over £100 to The Post Office to redirect our post to HK, we haven't had anything for 3 weeks here.  We've phoned them twice to complain, their last excuse being they'd run out of sticky labels.  I despair!  HK could teach UK so much about providing a service; the irony is it was the British that taught them how to be so efficient here in the first place.

Progress at last

At last the weather has relented and allowed the builders to make some progress.  They've managed to complete the roof carpentry, including remodelling the existing trusses, and get some of the stone walls built up to eaves level in readiness for the roof slates to be laid next week.

We've also had a visit from the electricity contractors to install the supply from across the road.  They've got it in up to our boundary, and they just have to run the new cable through the duct round to the back of the lean-to now.

Our builder has sent through some photos of the recent works, and he's justifiably proud of the roof structure, as it required considerable adjustment to get it all level because the walls bow out and are not parallel.

We're now in the process of selecting finishes, electrical layouts, sanitary wares, etc remotely (i.e. from Hong Kong) and communicating our choices with our builder/project manager by email.  Fortunately it's possible to do all this from 5000 miles away these days.

We continue to be disappointed by kitchen companies.  It seems like once they've given you a design and a price they are reluctant to provide prices for alternatives even if that means you might go elsewhere.  I really can't believe the poor quality of service when they should be doing their utmost to get your business.

New Year, New Start

Not only have the building works been severly disrupted by the harsh winter, but the blogging has been affected too by my posting to Hong Kong and the difficulties in accessing the blog site.

Although I got back onto the internet within a week of moving into our apartment, each time I log on to the blog site I get the instructions in Chinese, and I've only just worked out how to access the edit mode.

So now some catching up.  The builders had to stop work in early December once the freezing temperatures arrived, and have only just restarted this week.  Almost a month lost.  But during that time Misan has been really busy identifying a very interesting independent kitchen company and a local wardrobe fitter, so we made sure during my Christmas trip to UK that we visited them to help finalise our decisions on some of the finishings.

We also made time to visit the barn - twice.  Once when it was still buried under 10cm of snow, then a week later with Michael after the thaw.  There is good progress, with the first floor structure installed and the walls being raised, and with the roof off it's possible to get some good views of the inside of the barn - and some of our son scrambling over the scaffolding!

We also managed to deliver two trailer loads of our pot plants and window boxes to the barn, and to park our trailer there in readiness for our move out of the rented house and onto our temporary relocation to Hong Kong.  It's amazing that, these days, you can still keep in close contact with all aspects of the project even from 5000 miles away in a different time zone - since I arrived back in HK on Monday I've sorted details with the wardrobe company, clarified quotations with the removals and storage company and had two discussions with the builder about construction details.