Mothers Approval ?

Took my mum and the boys down to the chalet this weekend. She has not seen it since it was a hole in the ground and was surprised by the change, although she expected it to be more finished than it it. Even though she reads this blog she expected it to be more finished, perhaps I give the wrong impression here.

The chalet is not finished. It is a long way from finished. I need to do more work on the chalet.

OK that should help.

We arrived about midnight on Friday and it was cold. The chalet was about 5 degrees and bundling the boys into bed I was concerned at how warm they would be.

Rather disappointingly even with the radiators on full it was a chilly night. The morning was horrible. Put on as many clothes as you can and get breakfast.

I sparked up the dalek as soon as I could and a bit of heat started to fill the upstairs. Turning on the underfloor heating in the dining room suddenly tripped all the electrics.

The temporary supply I have only supplies a few amps. If I pull more than that the trip goes and has to be manually reset. Normally this happens in the dark in the rain or in the snow.

This was to be no exception as it was actually snowing now! With the trip back in and the bedroom radiators switched off we could use the hob and the underfloor heating at the same time.

It would be interesting to see how much the various appliances pull from the electricity. My brother has some gadget thing that lets him see what power he is using, maybe I should put that on my Christmas list! (hint hint)

So with the fire lit and the heating on it was slightly more than chilly. I wanted to get the new radiator and the ebay bathroom cabinet installed. The radiator went up quite easily with a bit of help from my mum positioning the four supports which have to all go in at once.

How are you supposed to do that on your own? I chased out for the cables and built in a cable box. The other end goes off to the other bathroom and is not connected yet so I can really test this out just yet. I have the earth cable here that the heater does not require (?) so I bring it back out and do some earth bonding on the copper pipes (about time)

The bathroom cabinet is a bit more tricky although simple enough. I need to get the cables, one fro power and one for the switch to come in right in the middle of the back of the unit. This means I need to chase out a channel in the concrete. So I slice the plasterboard and drill holes in the studding to get the cables through then break out a channel in the concrete for the cables.

Thinking about what the electrician said I know that the switch has the wrong colored wires in it. It has red blue and earth in it. There is no earth and there is no neutral. The wires should be red and black. So these need to come out and be replaced. Its not a long run but its annoying to have to replace stuff.

Eventually I have the cabinet on the wall after some more help from my mum holding things in the right place while I screw it to the wall. A nice switch installed and connection down on the really messy consumer unit...

and it works!

Well that was a busy day now I think I should round it off with some painting. The wall down the stairs get the textured paint treatment and I manage to cover up some of the concrete badness where the reinforcement was showing through at the bottom of the stairs. Just camouflage really and the rust might show through again but for now its hidden.

Saturday night was another cold one. Not too cold to start with as the bedrooms had had a chance to warm up but at 4 or 5 in the morning it was getting a bit chilly. Apparently it got down to minus 5 degrees and the hard frost on the ground in the morning make me believe it!

October and the first frost. More snow is forecast next week.

Not sure the family should keep coming with me until I can get the place a bit warmer. I need the doors on the bedrooms and the stairway heater working. But that might just blow the trip withe the bedroom radiators on? Hmmmm. Well we need to sort it out so we will just have to see what happens when we turn it all on! In the mean time there is the radiator to put up in the shower and tile and all the rest o it to do!