We're in!

We're in! Finally moved into our house, however we are kind of living in a building site! Not a lot has really changed, as we've been waiting on the trades to start on the bathroom, however we have managed to remodel the ground floor by removing one non-loadbearing* wall, and putting a door in another.

We have had our quote back from the local underfloor heating company - I'll come to that in a later post, however whats interesting is that their quote to install underfloor heating, ground source (or air source) heat system, all the associated gubbins, and solar panels comes to less than the first undiscounted quote from the "specialist" solar heating company / rip off merchants for solar panels alone!

Living in the house does make you look at things differently. For example, our upstairs shower-room is too small to swing a cat in - unfortunately with our hot water switched off, its the only room we can wash in as it has an electric shower! We'll be remodelling this room as soon as we have our proper bathroom....

We did plan on insulating under the floorboards, however it never occured to me that they would be tongue and groove floorboards, and therefore next to impossible to get up! I'm not quite sure how to deal with that now..! :c(

The other thing I've found interesting is quite how windy it is here! We are on an exposed west-facing hill, with not a lot between us and Dartmoor, so it makes sense being that the prevailing wind direction is westerly. I can't help wondering how effective a wind turbine placed at the bottom of the garden would be.....

I'll eventually post some pics of the house and location, and will try to break down each of these at a later date!

(* this non-loadbearing wall in fact is.... despite what the structural engineers report said.... We now have an unsupported section of first floor, which is being held together by the pressure of the surrounding beams! Its quite safe in the short term, but we'll now have to get an RSJ put in following the line of the now ex-wall! I think I need to have a word with the structural engineer, cos sure as hell we're not paying for it!!!!)