A post in which things go wrong

The staircase & entrance hall

We have been a little distracted, dealing with post-CHCH earthquake issues.  And Regan has been sick, so he has done very little work.  And Things Have Gone Wrong.  In the end, there has been nothing that could not be fixed but they did feel a little major at the time.

Regan called on the day of the earthquake to say that when the carpet layer was fixing the carpets (which could now be done as the little stairs were in), he managed to drive a nail through the underfloor heating system.  WHOOPS.  That had the potential to render the underfloor heating for that zone unuseable.  Luckily however the engineer came up with a solution.  They have managed to chip out the concrete around that part of the pipe and apply a patch.  This does mean, however, that we currently have a large hole in the floor and exposed pipes.  It will get fixed though.

Timber reveal on the doors

The big staircase has also gone in, which means that we can actually use our front door now.  The staircase is made of the same plywood that the little stairs are made out of.  They have had one coat of the three coats of varnish applied.  They look somewhat odd in the photo as they have had cardboard treads put on them to protect them while we are still in the building phase.  So they are the colour that you can see on the left of each stair, and there will not be any weird cardboard tread on the centre (or off-centre, as the case may be) when the place is complete!  There will also be a black steel balustrade, as the health and safety regulations don't allow otherwise.  And truthfully, that void at the top of the stairs does get a little frightening!

Macrocarpa wall, near Master Bedroom

And that brings us to the second Thing That Went Wrong.  Once the stairs went in, The Architect and The Builder realised that the door had been manufactured slightly bigger than it was meant to be.  Which meant that the door, when opened, was butting into the staircase.  One minor redesign later...

Official bog inspection

The Builder has also been doing lots of little jobs, like putting in the window and door reveals.  The Architect has decided to put in door reveals that are made of the same timber as the staircase.  So when you step inside, you step onto wood and then on to the concrete.
All of the macrocarpa walls are now complete, and it appears that the timber matches.  So another worry can be crossed off the list.  The final part of the internal wall was the section up the small set of stairs and next to the master bedroom.  It has a low level window, which is set off beautifully by the timber.  Bedroom Two is opposite this wall, and so when its door is open, you can look from the back of the house, through the hallway and out through the front of the house.

Looking out from our bedroom

Why you should not sleep in sawdust if you have a beard

We also now have a working toilet!  It has been installed in the main bathroom.  I think that the rest of the plumbing will only be connected once the Plumber's Apprentice (Regan) and the Tiler (Regan) have sealed the showers and tiled the bathrooms.  No pressure on Regan.

Our permanent electricity supply has also now been connected.  The Master Sparky has connected one electrical socket, so we no longer have to run an extension cord through the storage room door and up the stairwell and pray that a strong wind does not cut the cord in two!

Work has also been continuing on the house in front of us, and we are thrilled that they do not take any of our view!