It seemed to be all about the levels this week....

It’s been one of those weeks where we all seemed to be busy, but progress appears to have been slower.

Boundaries

We saw the boundary wall finished and our neighbours seem very happy with it. Sandra’s dad is 100 this month and they are throwing a little party next week for friends and family. We were determined to have them all back together by the party and thanks to Paul and Jim it got done with a week to spare. Here it is from the neighbours side, through their green house that is yet to be put back together. It won't get rendered on our side until towards the end of the project.

Tired of tiles

In last weeks blog I was bemoaning having to choose tiles from silly little samples the tiling shops seem to display or provide to take home. A very lovely reader (who happens to also own and run the best wine bar in the UK, BinTwo) kindly FB’d me a recommendation to try a Tile shop, also in Wadebridg, as they will let us take full sized samples away to look at on site. So, while we were over looking for lighting, we popped in to check it out and what an Aladdin’s cave and a super helpful and patient shop owner. We didn’t bring any samples away this time as it's a little bit too early, but we did manage to get a good idea of what we might like and most importantly what the approximate cost per sq metre might be.

Levels, Levels, Levels

Much discussion about “level’s” this week. Levels of walls, levels of lights, levels of patios and levels of steps. The Dunlins is on about a quarter acre plot, wedged between two roads. The front of the house and the postal address is on Treverbyn Road and the back of the house is on Egerton road. The plot slopes significantly from Egerton to Treverbyn so in order to have level patio’s and paths around the house there was lots of discussion and then calculations done to determine the levels should be and where steps would be best placed. Luckily for us Paul (AKA Dave), loves a conundrum and will not rest until it has all been worked out perfectly. He's very good and getting us to the right answer and letting it think that it was our idea.

Another key level discussion was the level of the retaining wall. Not only does the garden the wall is holding back slope significantly from front to back it also slopes sided to side! I must say I quite like a bit of quirkinesses so we aren’t going to fuss too much about how the grass meets the beautifully level wall, but we did need to give some considered thought to where the conduit for the lights will need to come through the wall before they back fill behind it.

Before the hard core comes in to adjust the ground level, Paul added a planter, and steps, both of which will also have lights.

Paul (AKA Dave) & Jim left us a little surprise on Friday. Obviously they didn’t want us to forget who built the steps...

Let there be light

Deciding where lights are placed sounds easy, you would think you could look a the wall and point to where you want to lights, job done. No, no, no, not at all, because the bottom of the wall isn’t the bottom of the wall! The ground level will rise and certain bits of the wall still need to have some more height added, which then led to the question I was not prepared for, "how big are the lights?". "We haven’t picked the lights, this is only week 4” I say! “Would be good if you give it some thought” say’s the electrician.

So, off we go in search of lights. Again, how hard can this be? Well, firstly, if you live within 6 miles of the sea any material that is not galvanised or treated won’t last five minutes. This immediately narrows our choice and what do you know, pushes the prices up significantly. My first port of call was to check in with the company that did our lighting design. They were very helpful and sent us through quite a few suggestions. However, their idea of coastal proof (they are based up country and nowhere near the sea) was plastic, not very attractive and the cheapest was coming in at £140 per light! Given we need upwards of 15 lights and thats just for the back of the house, some more research was required. Good old Google did throw up some nicer and more cost effective options, including the same lights that the designer suggested but cheaper - which proves it is always worth doing your research. I don’t know about you , but I really do like to see them in all their “galvanised” flesh, before I buy, so off we went again in search of local shops that might have something we like and can afford. Just when I was starting to despair we popped into a little shop (Granville’s) in Wadebridge which sells everything “kitchen” downstairs and, as it turns out, a considerable selection of lighting upstairs, on the off chance that they might have something. Low and behold, tucked in the corner was whole array of “costal” proof external lighting. Which again, goes to prove - what you are looking for is often right under your nose!

Here is our favourite for the wall, the small one, to go where the conduit is poking through below. We are still on the look out for ankle lights for the parking area:

Here are all the boys having a board meeting:

I do hate to pull out living plants, but we need to reposition and will replant the hedge all way down the side of the garden, creating triple the amount we are pulling out:

No, not a badly placed window, it's the hole all ready to install the new main electricity board, when Western Power eventually get here. Last ETA is 6th March!!!

Some pics from me getting distracted while looking for external lighting with all the lovely internal lighting that I don't need for another 9 months - damm want to be at this bit already.

That's it for week 4, sorry I was a bit late up-loading this week. Until next time....