Sunday, 1 April 2012

Bones!

Here's a few photos of my baby Bones - 
he is really looking forward to moving to his new house in May!


                                 Bones is a 4 yr old Shi Tzu.

He was a little nervous while sitting on the wall but you can see here how he got a bit braver and starting standing up and walking along the wall!

Saturday, 31 March 2012

Some more pics!



The floor has been installed in the bedrooms (it will be stained and varnished.  The coving and skirting boards have also been installed.  And don't worry - we will be painting the yellow fireplace!!!!

                             Here are the plaster ceiling roses.

This is the glass that will make the ceiling of the bathroom and the floor of the studio.

Friday, 30 March 2012

Wanted! 10 strong men!!!!

Yesterday was a big big day on site!


The biggest residential window ever produced by "First Glass" was installed by "Monarch Windows" in our house.  It weighed half a ton and needed nearly a dozen men to lift it.  



It was a big gamble!  The company has never produced a piece of this glass this size or this weight and they said it couldn't be done!  Ciaran insisted that it could be done and he was willing to take the risk......luckily it all worked out and we now have the most beautiful back wall to the house - a glass wall leaning away from the gorgeous stone wall.





It took huge efforts from all the men on site.  The electricians, carpenters, labourers and the glass company all worked together to achieve this amazing result which took over half a day!


It was nearly a "topping out" moment so all the workers celebrated with pizza's and coke sent down to site by Ciaran.  






Thursday, 22 March 2012

Hot tub!!!

Wow!  The hot tub has been delivered to the house!  
Next step is installation.....


Sunday, 11 March 2012

Final weeks of the build.....

 Bricks to the front of the house have been cleaned and repointed. Ciaran specified that tuck pointing should be used on the pointing - when you get up close to the pointing you can see an indented line all the way around the pointing - an element that might be missed but as Architect Mies Van Der Rohe said "God is in the details"


 The back wall has been cleaned down and repointed - Ciaran has made it a feature of the house with the back wall being made of glass and built right up to this natural stone wall. I think it is one of his favourite things in the house!


 We are nearing the end of the main building works - lists of what has to be done in each room have been put up on the plastered walls.

 Some of our new lights ready for fitting in the bathroom 




                              Current state of the bathroom



Thursday, 8 March 2012

Plaster mouldings!

Ciaran visited the plaster moulding factory in Wicklow yesterday to choose plaster coving, ceiling roses and mouldings for the house. He brought along some samples of the coving that was originally in the house so that he could replace like with like.


He bought new mouldings for the arch in the hallway, a few ceiling roses and some new coving for the downstairs of the house.


The company he went to for the plaster works use traditional methods to make the plaster mouldings and all of their designs are based on authentic designs contemporary to certain periods and regions.










Sunday, 4 March 2012

Ready for plastering

Work on the house is progressing nicely.  The place will be plastered tomorrow.  The floor (untreated White American Oak) will be laid upstairs.  Hopefully by the end of the week we will have the downstairs underfloor heating laid and then it will be ready for the big concrete pour!