Sheila writes
November and December turned out to be a couple of roller-coaster months. Progress on the house has been at a pace, even though the plastering took longer than planned. We’d been promised four guys would be doing the work, then only two ever seemed on the job at any one time. Maybe the builder meant there would be four doing the work but never at the same time!
In early November we had notification from ESB Networks that after completing their initial inspection to reconnect our house to the main grid they had to upgrade the wiring and three telegraph posts. In order to run a heat pump to power the underfloor heating, we needed to have a power rating of 16KVA’s rather than the 12KVA’that the site previously had. We also received a bill for just over €1,200 for this work.
Getting electricity to the house was/is mission-critical because the concrete floor and newly plastered walls need heating to dry out. Only after the heating has been on for at least two weeks can the walls be painted, stair installed, floor tiles laid, kitchen installed, and carpets laid. The electrician also does not want to complete the 2nd fix unless the heating is about to be turned on because he is worried that the damp walls will corrode the fittings – he is probably right.
Early December had us on the phone to everyone lining them up to come the week of 6th January. Tiler on Monday 6th, Tuesday 7th and Wednesday 8th, staircase installed on Thursday 9th and kitchen installation beginning on Monday 13th.
All of this to happen by working on the key event that the electricity would be reconnected week of 9th December and the heat pump installed and turned on by Thursday 19th December. This would allow two weeks of heating in the house ready for the 6th of January. In order to complete their work, the ESB had to gain permission from each of the landowners to access the poles. There are two landowners, our direct neighbours and a neighbour with a field across the road. Our direct neighbours said no problem whilst the neighbour opposite said yes but…. the ESB can only gain access when the field is dry. In truth, the farmer might as well have said no. We will need a sustained period of no rain for fields in Ballyferriter to dry out, a prospect that is unlikely for many months.
OK, I thought, I’ll track down who the farmer (the ESB would not divulge their identity) and appeal to them directly. I’ll explain why we need the connection. The farmer lives quite close to the house, about 6 doors up from us on a small farm. The short version of the conversation was an adamant no and it would not be an exaggeration to say I was told to take a hike. Under no circumstances would they let anyone in the field to carry out work. Did I not understand the land or farming? Did I not understand that trying to make a living out of that field is hard? I have no idea what it was like for farmers, and so on. Safe to say Christmas Cards will not be exchanged.
Once I relay the story to the architect/project manager, he gets on the case to come up with some solution to power the underfloor heating without the heat pump. The issue is that the heat pump needs the upgraded electricity supply so was there a way around it.
He phones to say that what he is looking at is a mechanical heat recovery system and has asked a company in Kenmare to quote on the job. The company says they have time to put it in before Christmas. We await the quote and all the time I am googling what such systems are and their costs.
Thursday morning and after back and forth conversations between everyone, it turns out that the only option now on the table is a Gas Boiler. He describes it as a gas boiler on wheels that heats a tank of water, with a pump that is connected to the underfloor heating manifolds.
We call the company installing the heating who have been fantastic. His initial reaction is “ah feck” what’s this? Ok leave it with me he says. He phones back an hour later with his solution which he is confident will work. His version is just the same but powered by electricity. All he needs is our electrician to put in a 6sq metre twin and earth cable in the utility room. And of course, the electricity to be connected - but it only needs the same level of power output that was connected to the house before we started the work. Can we get hold of the electrician, can we heck. Now I am googling twin and earth cables whilst trying to track down the electrician.
The upshot of the week is that my google profile will be thrown into disarray with the variety of searches recently.
In the middle of all this, we were given notice to move out of our rental house at the end of January. That’s fair enough because I had said to them when asking for an extension we’d probably be gone by the end of January. But as there are new tenants ready to move in, we cannot ask for another extension.
Friday, December 13th was a momentous day in many ways. The UK committed itself to 5 years of a right-wing government led by a person who could not lie straight in bed if he tried. But more importantly in our world, we met with the architect and builder to work through what is happening in the next 6 weeks in what was a really good and positive meeting with everyone agreeing on the tasks.
Monday 16th and the electrician confirmed that the necessary work to get the essential certificate off to the ESB has been done. And they confirmed the y would reconnect at the old level.
Monday 16th we took delivery of all the tiles for the floors. We also took delivery of the hot water cylinder plus the equipment to run the underfloor heating in the short term. The house has no stairs so today’s challenge is to get an 84kg cylinder upstairs to the utility room. Another round of panicking phone calls between the plumbers, builders and project manager means that on Tuesday morning 17th there are 5 lads on-site to lift it upstairs using a ladder!
Tuesday 17th and a team from Cremur was on-site installing the system to get the underfloor heating working. All is going smoothly. I drop Peter off at the airport only to receive a phone call on my return from the plumber panicking over the wiring for his connection. Sorted by Denis about 8pm, gin and tonic time.
Wednesday 18th I meet with a potential painter and decorator. He is set the challenge to do the initial job before 6th January which would be fine, we both agree if the little matter of Christmas and New Year were not in the way. He is originally from Neasden and we have the inevitable conversation of “how mad is it all over there, can you believe it...
Wednesday 18th and it’s more saga when the builder calls to say the ESB Network are ready to connect the house but cannot see that we have a supplier. I call Electric Ireland to establish if this is true and it is. Sheila had dropped the ball on this task and immediately sets about setting up electricity supply. Electric Ireland then need to tell ESB Networks that it’s all ok to go and they expect this to take about 24 hours = sigh.
Thursday 19th ESB reconnect the house. The plumbers install the temporary heating fix and we hope for at least two weeks of heat and dehumidification to ready the place for the decorator, the tiler and uncle Tom Cobbly in the new year.
Wish us luck.
Coda. Monday, December 23rd, site visit - its close to sauna time in the house as the underfloor heating drys our more than the dehumidifier can expel, goodness knows if this is good or bad.
Happy Christmas - Sheila
And Peter
In early November we had notification from ESB Networks that after completing their initial inspection to reconnect our house to the main grid they had to upgrade the wiring and three telegraph posts. In order to run a heat pump to power the underfloor heating, we needed to have a power rating of 16KVA’s rather than the 12KVA’that the site previously had. We also received a bill for just over €1,200 for this work.
Getting electricity to the house was/is mission-critical because the concrete floor and newly plastered walls need heating to dry out. Only after the heating has been on for at least two weeks can the walls be painted, stair installed, floor tiles laid, kitchen installed, and carpets laid. The electrician also does not want to complete the 2nd fix unless the heating is about to be turned on because he is worried that the damp walls will corrode the fittings – he is probably right.
Early December had us on the phone to everyone lining them up to come the week of 6th January. Tiler on Monday 6th, Tuesday 7th and Wednesday 8th, staircase installed on Thursday 9th and kitchen installation beginning on Monday 13th.
All of this to happen by working on the key event that the electricity would be reconnected week of 9th December and the heat pump installed and turned on by Thursday 19th December. This would allow two weeks of heating in the house ready for the 6th of January. In order to complete their work, the ESB had to gain permission from each of the landowners to access the poles. There are two landowners, our direct neighbours and a neighbour with a field across the road. Our direct neighbours said no problem whilst the neighbour opposite said yes but…. the ESB can only gain access when the field is dry. In truth, the farmer might as well have said no. We will need a sustained period of no rain for fields in Ballyferriter to dry out, a prospect that is unlikely for many months.
OK, I thought, I’ll track down who the farmer (the ESB would not divulge their identity) and appeal to them directly. I’ll explain why we need the connection. The farmer lives quite close to the house, about 6 doors up from us on a small farm. The short version of the conversation was an adamant no and it would not be an exaggeration to say I was told to take a hike. Under no circumstances would they let anyone in the field to carry out work. Did I not understand the land or farming? Did I not understand that trying to make a living out of that field is hard? I have no idea what it was like for farmers, and so on. Safe to say Christmas Cards will not be exchanged.
Once I relay the story to the architect/project manager, he gets on the case to come up with some solution to power the underfloor heating without the heat pump. The issue is that the heat pump needs the upgraded electricity supply so was there a way around it.
He phones to say that what he is looking at is a mechanical heat recovery system and has asked a company in Kenmare to quote on the job. The company says they have time to put it in before Christmas. We await the quote and all the time I am googling what such systems are and their costs.
Thursday morning and after back and forth conversations between everyone, it turns out that the only option now on the table is a Gas Boiler. He describes it as a gas boiler on wheels that heats a tank of water, with a pump that is connected to the underfloor heating manifolds.
We call the company installing the heating who have been fantastic. His initial reaction is “ah feck” what’s this? Ok leave it with me he says. He phones back an hour later with his solution which he is confident will work. His version is just the same but powered by electricity. All he needs is our electrician to put in a 6sq metre twin and earth cable in the utility room. And of course, the electricity to be connected - but it only needs the same level of power output that was connected to the house before we started the work. Can we get hold of the electrician, can we heck. Now I am googling twin and earth cables whilst trying to track down the electrician.
The upshot of the week is that my google profile will be thrown into disarray with the variety of searches recently.
In the middle of all this, we were given notice to move out of our rental house at the end of January. That’s fair enough because I had said to them when asking for an extension we’d probably be gone by the end of January. But as there are new tenants ready to move in, we cannot ask for another extension.
Friday, December 13th was a momentous day in many ways. The UK committed itself to 5 years of a right-wing government led by a person who could not lie straight in bed if he tried. But more importantly in our world, we met with the architect and builder to work through what is happening in the next 6 weeks in what was a really good and positive meeting with everyone agreeing on the tasks.
Monday 16th and the electrician confirmed that the necessary work to get the essential certificate off to the ESB has been done. And they confirmed the y would reconnect at the old level.
Monday 16th we took delivery of all the tiles for the floors. We also took delivery of the hot water cylinder plus the equipment to run the underfloor heating in the short term. The house has no stairs so today’s challenge is to get an 84kg cylinder upstairs to the utility room. Another round of panicking phone calls between the plumbers, builders and project manager means that on Tuesday morning 17th there are 5 lads on-site to lift it upstairs using a ladder!
Tuesday 17th and a team from Cremur was on-site installing the system to get the underfloor heating working. All is going smoothly. I drop Peter off at the airport only to receive a phone call on my return from the plumber panicking over the wiring for his connection. Sorted by Denis about 8pm, gin and tonic time.
Wednesday 18th I meet with a potential painter and decorator. He is set the challenge to do the initial job before 6th January which would be fine, we both agree if the little matter of Christmas and New Year were not in the way. He is originally from Neasden and we have the inevitable conversation of “how mad is it all over there, can you believe it...
Wednesday 18th and it’s more saga when the builder calls to say the ESB Network are ready to connect the house but cannot see that we have a supplier. I call Electric Ireland to establish if this is true and it is. Sheila had dropped the ball on this task and immediately sets about setting up electricity supply. Electric Ireland then need to tell ESB Networks that it’s all ok to go and they expect this to take about 24 hours = sigh.
Thursday 19th ESB reconnect the house. The plumbers install the temporary heating fix and we hope for at least two weeks of heat and dehumidification to ready the place for the decorator, the tiler and uncle Tom Cobbly in the new year.
Wish us luck.
Coda. Monday, December 23rd, site visit - its close to sauna time in the house as the underfloor heating drys our more than the dehumidifier can expel, goodness knows if this is good or bad.
Happy Christmas - Sheila
And Peter
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