Category: Build

It only took two years but the blue shipping container shed we bought when building the house is finally clad in larch.

We bough the container from Atlantic Cabins (www.atlanticcabins.ie) to use as secure storage during the building process and decided to keep it as our garden shed.

Following a clean and paint touch-up to fix any rusty spots I fixed 2×1 treated timber battens to the side and door using 38mm self-tapping countersunk tek screws for steel.  Due to the corrugation on the side of the container I then had to fix 2×2 battens onto the original battens to be able to fix on the horizontal boards.

We had bought enough larch cladding from Corell Timber (www.corell.ie) when doing the house to allow for the container however it was a close call as I had only 2 lengths of cladding and a few scrap bits to spare by the time the final board was fixed in place.  We also had enough left over of the coated aluminium capping which is on the house which finished the top edges of the cladding.

Now we sit back and wait for it to silver and fade to match the rest of the house.

Another job finally completed.  The door under the stairs is completed and looking good.

Having fitted a standard 800mm door into the opening, I added 2 MDF panels to the exterior of the door to line up with the recessed skirting. As the door hinges inwards there is no need for any handle on the outside.

To keep the door open we found these clever foot latch door stops – delivered all the way from New Zealand for just a few Euro.  We ordered a selection of door stops as well and they arrived within 7 days – now there is service.

http://www.miles-nelson.com/latching_door_stops.php

 

The sun was shining early last week and I couldn’t resist setting up the Time Lapse Camera which we used during the building of the house.

Setup to run over a full day you see the shadows passing across the living room and hallway.

With no more major build projects on the cards I’m going to sell the Brinno Time Lapse Camera .. anyone interested you can see it on Adverts.ie – http://www.adverts.ie/5048466.

We had a house-warming party on Saturday night with all our neighbours invited for a few drinks and nibbles.  We had a great time and it was good to get to meet many of the locals and we look forwards to many happy years in Knocknagoug.

As there’s nothing like a deadline to get things done, the party was a good opportunity to get lots of jobs finished.   The window ledge in the living room is finally finished, painted and varnished and looking well.  It doubles as a bench, seat and steps and worked well on the evening.

We also managed to get some of our prints, paintings, photos and mirrors hung around the house to add a little character and personality.

With Autumn 2013 on the way and the trees starting to shed it is time to sort leaf-traps for the roof gutter downpipes.

The fibreglass roof has integrated gutters and downpipes. The roofing material is moulded to fit down into the top of the 4in waste pipes which are nice and big but the downside of the downpipes is that they could eventually fill with leaves and block-up.

After calling into half a dozen builders merchants, plumbing suppliers and gutter companies it the Limerick and Clare region it became obvious that nobody has leaf traps for 4in (100mm diameter) waste pipes .. and with the fibreglass around the top of the opening it was a bit smaller (95mm diameter) which made standard 4in pipe accessories unworkable.

Eventually after a bit of hunting I found galvanised wire leaf-traps on eBay & Amazon (both from the same supplier in the UK).  With postage 1/3 of the price on eBay I ordered 6 on Thursday and they arrived 2 days later .. they sit nicely into the top of the pipes and will hopefully do the job.

After quite a bit of shopping around and over & back we finally settled on a supplier for our bedroom wardrobes, hall wardrobe and kitchen cupboard units downstairs.

We’ve opted to go with Limerick-based Slide Glide for a combination of cost and selection.  They were one of the few companies who could supply the door finishes we wanted, custom manufacture for the kitchen shelving units and a range of flexibility that was unmatched elsewhere.

There were a few little niggles with shelves & rails being slightly out of alignment but a few return visits fixed the majority of the problems and the shelves are now complete.  The biggest problem was getting silicone buffers on the sliding doors as we had ordered them but when the doors were delivered they came with a fabric/fur strip.  Apparently the  white door profiles we chose do not come with a silicone buffer.  A bit of DIY was required to remove the strips & backing glue and then trimming standard silicone beading with a stanley knife and glueing it onto the door with clear adhesive.  The finished result is not perfect but close enough.

Now we can empty the last of the boxes, suitcases and hang up all the clothes at last!!

We have to fit the skirting boards (with openings for the kickspace heaters) in the bedrooms and hall wardrobes and a fair bit of paint/plaster touch-up around the edges will also be needed to finish the job.

 

With the completion of the floor and stairs by Tower Carpets we were able to fit the bedroom and bathroom doors which we’ve had in storage for months from (IP&M).

As the Pergo floor is floating on a thin insulating mat and not fixed to the subfloor it requires the fitting of a skirting board to cover the board edges and give a finish to the floor.

The bevelled skirting boards in painted MDF are used throughout the upstairs and are mitred around the openings as the skirtings are about 7mm deeper than the Lebo Door frames.

It took about half a day to fit the 4 doors including some trimming of door frames of the two bathrooms to allow for door sills and height differences between the timber and tile floors.

The skirtings have all the nail holes filled and just need a final few bits of filling & caulking and a coat of paint to complete the landing. Skirtings in the bedrooms are awaiting the installation of the wardrobes.

After two months of a delay we are finally getting the floor fitted upstairs.

The floor is a manufactured laminate board by Pergo in Sweden – http://www.pergo.com/en-gb/Consumer/Home/

We chose a timber oak effect in a pale grey colour called Greige Oak which should compliment the exterior larch timber cladding boards when they weather in a few years.

The Pergo floor system also includes stair nosings in matching colours which allow us to run the timber all the way down the stairs to the ground floor.

The floor is being installed by Tower Carpets in Limerick who also installed the rubber tile flooring in our ensuite bathroom.