Marooned in Lima

It was Sunday and we were just ten days into to our 39 day South American adventure when things changed. El Presidente of Peru declared a state of emergency and closed the ports on the Monday at midnight. We managed to get to Lima before the close but no further.

Our bags were packed for 29 more days in South America but our minds were set on visiting Bolivia, Chile,  Aregentina and Brazil, not hanging out in the hotel at the airport in Lima.

The rest of our itinerary is now cancelled and all we have to do is wait for a flight back to Europe.

Meanwhile we have somewhere to stay. Things get tighter everyday but the hotel are doing a great job. Here are snaps of the hotel. Quite pleasant really...

are some snaps of the hotel.

No longer a building site.

It is official, as of last week the main contractor has left the site and removed all the paraphernalia of a building site. The man contractor and subcontractors have completed the first phase of snagging and defined the work still to be done - internal decorating, paint the external render of the extension and landscape the garden. None of this will happen over the next couple of months as we are off on our South American trip, starting Thursday and lasting until mid-April.

For the same reason, there will be no additions to this blog for a similar period of time.
Signing off with one of my favourite snaps

New induction hob, with down draught extractor and moi et mon frére Michael looking down.

Three weeks on

Lots has gotten done over the last three weeks but we are still in a spot where nothing is actually finished, not the electrics, not the plumbing as well as the known problem of getting the upgrade electricity supply to enable commissioning the heat pump.

But, on the plus, everything that is meant to furnish the house is now in the house and we are faced with the puzzle of how to make it all work. Looks like we need a serious edit - perhaps we can get Marie Kondo to help.

We begin our South America trip in 16 days time so we are unlikely to get much more done.
Here are some snaps of the upstairs. Cheers

One end of the salon sejour - bookcase installed

The other end of the sejour, a great view of Smerwick harbour

We are using the sideboard as the location of family photo's

Dining table from The Knoll has found its place

The cooking side of the kitchen

The washing-up side of the kitchen

And we are back..kinda

Sheila writes...
And we moved back in, although the house changed so dramatically it is more a case of moving into a new house rather than our old house. Today seemed a long time coming and then suddenly we are here. The frustrations and disappointments are now a fading memory and our focus is "OMG how much stuff have we to put away". And of course the views.

It has been fantastic today, a few people dropped by noticing that we were in, once they came upstairs words like “wow” “OMG” “Holy Moly” were used. Technical terms, but you get the message.

Don't let me kid you into thinking the project is finished. The project got to a stage where we could sleep in the house because we had working toilets, hot water and electricity. As I type there are workmen crawling all over the house as they set up the utility room, put in skirting in the guest bedroom, starting the clean up outside the house and so on. The plumbers came to set up one working shower for us and will they be back Thursday to finish off their jobs.

The electrician is needed again to put up light fittings, install the network cabling for the broadband and finish off sockets. There is still a lot to do and it is going to take, probably, until the end of the summer before we could say "yes the house is done". 

The overwhelming feeling is of joy and fun that we are in and now have all the time in the world to settle in... well I say all the time I don’t really mean that. Because on Sunday our furniture from The Knoll is arriving at 9am 😊 And how amazing will that be. To see the furniture which we have used and live with for decades installed in our home in Ballyferriter will make it all feel real. Much to Peter’s despair I spend quite a bit of time reviewing the video’s I took before we left The Knoll saying “oh where are we going to put that!!”. 

It’s been an amazing journey so far and I never thought whilst watching all those Grand Design programmes that one day we’d do it ourselves. And we managed to survive without too many arguments or disagreements, maybe the occasional “really, what, are you sure” but mainly it's been good discussions and then decisions are made.

Looking to forward you visiting to see for yourselves.

Look how many vans fit in our "garden"

Sheila writes on Friday, January 17th

Day 17  out of 25

And what a day it’s been. Every trade was on-site beavering away. Workers were complaining there was not enough space for them to work in!

The electrician, who is about to head off to Austria for a skiing holiday, turned on the lights and wired up the sockets.

The tilers are finishing off the bathrooms.

Cremur – the bathroom people – are installing toilets and baths.

The builders are on-site installing doors.

The kitchen man is on-site preparing to paint the kitchen units.



The architect agrees we are on schedule for the house to be officially handed over to us next Friday, 24th January and we’ll begin the snagging list.

There’ll still be lots to do after we move in. The internal painting job is proving a challenge to find a painter. We’ll not have the oven or hob installed as we are waiting for the countertop.
If we were doing a dry January, I think we’ll be doing a "lettuce February". And the bedroom carpets are not scheduled to be laid until February 21st.

It's all go and that’s a good thing. Exciting times. 8 days to go and we’ll be able to move in.

Access to all areas

Sheila writes...

Day 8/25

It might not be THE stairway to heaven but it’s our stairway to our heavenly living room, kitchen and dining room.

We were thrilled when Sean Ní Cinnedie turned up at 10am with the staircase in his van. 13 months ago when we set out with our ideal design for a staircase we had sweeping bannisters, flowing steps that swept down into the hallway. As the quotes came in which were well into five figures we rethought our design. As an architect friend said to us, the function of a staircase is to get people up and down between floors. 

Our life was made considerably easier when we discovered that there is a furniture maker right here in Ballyferriter who made staircases! We saw some of his work and it looked fantastic. A series of meetings resulted in a beautiful staircase inviting everyone to walk up it. We are planning on a funky staircase runner that will add colour and fun into the hallway. The snap was taken before the star was complete but there was still daylight to see it.

There is another bonus to installing the staircase, no longer will we (or anyone) have to climb up the ladders to see the upstairs and the view. In fact for some, the issue was not necessarily climbing up but coming down was challenging.

At the same time the tilers are making super progress. The hallway is done and half the upstairs. The grey floor tile can be seen to the right of the staircase. There is 143sqm of this to lay as it is everywhere except the bedrooms and the bathrooms. The electrician has also got the second fix underway.

Our next big day is Tuesday when Noel Dempsey Kitchens will come to begin installing the units. They expect that to take two days and then on Thursday and Friday the units will be hand-painted.

Sheila writes...

Day 3/25

And the internal painting is complete. That’s to say that the ceilings have all been painted whilst the walls have been given a first coat. Somewhere in the next few weeks/months, the walls will need a second and third coat. But for now, the painting job is done.

The next critical step is for Aidan the floor tiler to turn up on Monday and tile the area where the stairs will be in the hallway as well as tile the flooring where the kitchen will be installed the following week.

And now we rest, or rather now we head to the UK for a very short weekend visit. More updates on what will be the 6th day of 25...

Oh and I just happened to spot a lovely empty field across the way from us #justsaying

And here are some snaps from Sheila

Entrance hall. The ladder indicates where the staircase will be installed on Janury 9th

The guest bedroom

The area for the kitchen and dining room, the stairs will rise in the bottom lefthand corner of the photo

Another view of the sitting room

The decorator has been.

Most of the walls and all the ceilings are being painted the same colour, prosaically called RAL 9002. It coordinates with the colour of the window frames. The ceilings are all done to a finish and the first, mix coat has been applied to all the walls. The walls will need to be hand-finished when the joinery second fix has been done. This is due to be underway on January 20th.

Next Monday will see the start of the tiling. All the floors, except the bedrooms, are being tiled so there is something like 140sqm to be done.
This snap will give you an idea of the wall colour - it catches the view from the two main windows in the sitting room.

Happy new Year to all our readers

Thursday 2nd January
Sheila writes

First day of 25.

In 25 days’, time we hope to be in our house… As someone with a vast amount of experience on builds pointed out to us yesterday (after seeing the current state of the house) with a look of shock on his face, that’s only three weeks’ away! Everything must go right over the next 25 days if we are to achieve our dream of moving into our new home.
The first part of that needed to happen today, Thursday 2nd January
Today the house is being painted internally. It was with relief/joy that we saw the painter's van, along with his mate, in the house at 9am this morning. He is due to finish the job by the end of Sunday. When I say finish, he’ll have finished painting all the ceilings and given all the walls the first coat of paint. The 2nd and 3rd coats will be completed during January and February.

The next critical step will take place on Monday. The tiling of the floors will begin. The tiling of the hallway must be completed by the end of Wednesday. Thursday sees the staircase being installed. An exciting few days ahead.

The heat pump being installed. It is not yet connected to the electricity supply and so we are seeing it as an art installation

One month on....

Although we are just about at Xmas Eve only, this will be the last post of 2019. As previously indicated we have not moved in, despite a huge shove and a push from Sheila to motivate all concerned...well perhaps to leave it to her...
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