the further adventures of Genghis Pudleduck

 

Fans of Genghis will be delighted to know that he has been visiting as the flood waters go down. You can just see his partner, eating the weed by the bank.

Sensibly, when a swan tells him to get out of the way, he does,

 

but just waits on the bank until he can get into the water again

Swans

This picture shows some of the swans, including the near-adult cygnets who have settled here as the worst of the floods go down. We haven't seen much of them this year as they nested further away, but this area seems more comfortable for them at the moment.
The geese & ducks were here earlier, including Genghis, but I didn't manage to get a picture then.

Christmas begins this afternoon in Denford at our lovely pub: lights, tree, mince pies & hot pork rolls!

Floods

A lot of friends have wondered how we are faring. 

We are fortunate - all new builds have to be above the 1000 year floodline.

This is the highest it has been since we've been here; what you can't see in the photo is how fast the water is flowing.

It has not gone above our bank, but it has covered the water meadows as far as the river.

The birds are struggling - this shows the swans trying to eat their usual water cress, and the 2 ducks you can just see are the only ones we have seen.

good news & gorgeous fabric

I last wrote about the tests done for our Energy Performance Certificate. We received an A which really pleased us as we had been predicted a B and had worked to improve our efficiency. It was the first that the East Northants Building Inspector had seen. Our thanks to their department who have been supportive and easy to work with for the last 3 years.

This beautiful fabric is from mayakotan who import it from Guatemala. We met Jude at a Fair Trade fair in Oundle selling scarves, table runners & cushions. She kindly agreed to sell us some of the original fabric so that I can make my own cushions. Our thanks to her & her family.

Keith has set up his weather station ( a gift from 2 Christmases ago!) and here it is in the garden, from which you can see the flooded water meadows

APT; EPC & SAP

Or: Air Pressure Testing, Energy Performance Certificate & Standard Assessment Procedure.

LABC, who are providing the warranty for the house, did these today. Jamie came all the way from Wales. We had a good chat about the Centre for Alternative Technology (see our post on 14 September 2009) where he did a course on sustainable construction.

He taped up all the ventilation ducts, and put this contraption over the front door (to the dismay of our postie who had to leave the post outside!). The air is sucked out to create negative pressure, and we can then feel the draughts where air is leaking in. We did very well, thank goodness.

He gathered all of our information on energy use & insulation and will give us a rating in the next few days. This is our last step before being signed off by the Building Inspector, so more about that next week.

staircarpet, a wardrobe & meteorites

John Kerr has fitted all of our carpets beautifully, and here is the final one:

Keith is fitting our wardrobe, here are the early stages:

 

It will not look empty for long!

We have added another of Anja's meteorites to our collection

And I have been enjoying the new kitchen, making the Christmas cake & pudding ready for our first Denford Christmas.

all moved in!

 The house is looking more like our home, although there are still a lot of boxes around the place.
Having got used to Kindles over the last couple of years, we finally ditched a lot of books, and gave 10 boxes full to Oxfam. We still have plenty, as you can see from the lovely hall bookshelf that Keith has made:

Here, unpacked, are our 2 lovely dressers, big table and chairs:

And here is the family (minus Edmund) gathered for my birthday, with Joe in pride of place:

We were taken by Anja Penger-Onyett's ceramics which we saw at Art in Action. She calls them "meteorites" and we went to see her at Blunham (just off the A1) where she and her husband made us very welcome, with excellent coffee, whilst we chose some to put on the deck.

Last Saturday, the Brights and Martins had a great get-together with Keith managing the barbecue. As at many such gatherings, I was in no state to take decent photos, but did get a nice one of Kirstin & her partner Paul, and the cheesboard with Lindsay presiding (and Shona distracted by her father's lovely St. Clements' cake which can just be seen)

so, although there are still jobs to be done (the porch, tiling the utility room, more woodwork, and of course, the curtains!) it is really beginning to feel like home

some finishing touches

Tomorrow is a momentous day, as our furniture comes out of storage, after 20 months. Strangely, some of it we are not going to keep for long - we just didn't want to rush into getting new settees, for example, until we could see how best to organise seating in the living room.
Some we are looking forward to seeing again, like our lovely dining table & chairs.
Most of our pictures & ornaments will stay boxed whilst we decide where everything is going.

This is what has been happening since our last post:

All of those cables (Nov. 18th 2011) are neatly fixed into place in this box:

Our wood burner is installed, and the test fire was lit on a very warm afternoon (a contrast to when the chimney & flue were installed - see 15 Jan 2012)

Our deck is finished, and we have an awning:

Thanks to Samson in Wellingborough & Markilux.http://en.markilux.eu

This last picture shows the lights installed in the living room today (thanks Paul) and the staircase (see 17 Nov. 2011) which has been unwrapped, finished, and oiled

a scarecrow

Denford, like some other villages, has a scarecrow festival. Here is our builder scarecrow - he won't "medal" but is delighted to be participating.

Inside, today, Mike & Tandy from ACA-Apex are installing our "smart home" system. They have been very helpful & are much better value than many of the systems we looked at. We installed all the cables ourselves (see Nov. 18th 2011) and it seems that all of my labelling has worked well.

Keith has finished the flooring downstairs and it looks lovely. Now he is doing the skirting and door frames. We have, in a triumph of hope over expectation, booked Ace Removals again, to take all of our stuff out of storage on September 20th.

the light at the end of the tunnel

We now have proper flooring in 4 rooms, and here are pictures of the "guest room" (or bedroom 2 as we know it) carpet and the study with ash flooring.



Next step is to move ourselves out of our bedroom, so it can be finished & carpeted.
Keith is about to lay the rest of the downstairs flooring.
We still have to finish tiling in the utility room and the downstairs shower room needs to be finished.

We have been able to enjoy sitting on the deck & using our new barbecue. We now have lights installed there, so can sit out reading.

The post you can see is for the steel wire fencing that will surround the deck when it is finished (at the moment I have to be careful not to fall off!)

banister

Keith installed it yesterday - the rest of the staircase is still under wraps, but this looks lovely.
So does the whirlpool bath, all connected up, so I had my first bath in it yesterday - bliss!

We have now ordered the awning, and the decking work continues at the back, despite the downpours.
When our trees were planted, we were told to give them 2 buckets of water each, 3 times a week, whether or not it rained. This has led to passers by enquiring about my state of mind as I water the trees following torrential rain!

decking

as

Addingtons from Rushden, have been doing our decking. When we researched raised decking, we found it was advisable to get it professionally done to ensure it is structurally sound. The deck itself is done, here it is before the steps and balustrade are done.

I type this in a room with a real floor - the larger front bedroom will be my sewing room, so Keith has laid ash flooring from Kahrs, the same as he will lay throughout downstairs. I am unpicking and re-sewing the curtains from our old bedroom to go in here. They are a beautiful rich coloured patterned corduroy, and I am very glad that I can (I hope!) make them fit here.

We have had 2 fantastic days out at the Olympics - one at the Olympic Park where we saw women's basketball, and one at the beach volleyball. The travel was good, there were lots of stewards to show us where to go, and the commentators explained what was going on and how the games scored. The rest of the time, we listen to the radio.

general update

I am told it can be difficult to get a general idea of progress from the posts on the blog, so here is a round-up:
The main bathroom is just about finished, here are Ewan & Keith installing the shower screen:

All that remains is to connect up the bath, and tidy up the tiling.

As I write, Keith is painting the last room upstairs. That means we can consider flooring up here in the next few weeks. We have found a local firm Oundle Carpet Weavers who make their own carpet locally (although the one we have chosen is actually an Axminster, who they also make carpets for)

Downstairs, I am tiling the utility room. There is some tiling that needs doing in the downstairs shower room, but we are waiting until Keith has installed the door frame.
The main jobs remaining downstairs are to finish the study, and to put down the flooring.

Outside, the drive is complete, thanks to Rob for an excellent job:

Work on the decking at the back begins this week.

And off-topic, we have had 2 lovely days out. Art in Action were as well organised as ever, with parking on an old airfield, and fleets of coaches to ferry us. Thanks to the sunshine that bathed Folk by the Oak, and to Sarah & Bob for their hospitality & the excellent picnic, despite their being as busy as we are, renovating their new bungalow.

We have seen less of the swans this year as they are nesting further away, but Keith got this picture of the cygnets being taken around their patch:

And for the followers of Genghis: he has mostly been absent, but during the flooding (when from our brook to the River Nene was a complete sheet of water) he did appear, playing with the the other ducks!

a bathroom & the beginnings of a drive

Rob has been levelling the ground outside - not an easy job, but finally is ready to lay the paving blocks. He and Stuart have been dodging the rain to get the work done - but it is a lot easier than when he was here before (see 7th February)

The mosaic in the bathroom is finally finished - each piece put in individually. So the bath is installed (but not yet wired up for whirlpooling)


The rest of the bathroom will be done in the next few days and we move on to Bedroom 3 (the large front bedroom, destined to be my sewing room)

trees

The long gap in our blog is partly because we took a break and went to Crete for 10 days - thanks to Margaret & Terry for suggesting Paleohora, which was wonderful:

Most evenings we ate at one of the cafes with this view.

When we returned, we met up again with Rob, who was one of the groundworks team during the freezing weather in January. He has returned to level the ground for the drive, install soakaways, and to pave it. He has dug the border that enabled us to plant these lovely trees:



From the front: red robin, rowan, holly. Thanks to Majestic Trees for all their help (not to mention looking after them for 15 months!)


Thanks also to Stephen Molcher at Storefield Aggregates. They have delivered all the materials on time, at a good price, and Stephen's advice & patience have been invaluable.

Inside, I am doing the mosaic in the bathroom, and Keith is installing doors. More photos to follow.

a hand basin!

Keith has used iroko wood to make the stand for our hand basin:



Oh, the luxury of being able to use it instead of a bucket! It will have doors eventually, but at the moment I don't mind.

more thanks

Often on this blog, I thank people who have been involved in the build, in many different ways.
This post is for other thanks:

First of all to Medea Misch, who organised Charing Cross Medical School's 40 year reunion. We met up with a lot of Keith's old colleagues and it was good to catch up with them all.

Then on Sunday we went off to see the Underdowns, who have been supportive of & interested in our build from the beginning. They too have moved, to "Sussex by the sea". Their kitchen is in a worse state than ours (currently the oven is in the garage!) but the weather was kind and Nigel barbecued, so we sat in their lovely garden and caught up with all the news.

On Monday, Joe allowed us to look after him while his mum went to work. We all had a good time together and look forward to seeing him next week as well.

Thanks also to Jane, from Nene Valley Homemade, who selected me to trial her new handcream. I have been doing a mosaic in the bathroom tiles, so it has had a very hard trial, and has kept my hands nice & soft. Her products are sold at Daily Bread Co-operative in Northampton.

A final, dubious, thanks to the swallows who chose our garage loft to build their nest in.

a sunset, a heron & news of Genghis

Keith took these lovely sunset pictures:




The next day, I borrowed his camera and just managed to get a picture of the heron as he lunged for a fish.


Those of you following Genghis' adventures will be glad to know that today he heroically defended his ducklings against another drake (who should have known better!).

Inside, we have begun work on the main bathroom, tiling the floor & preparing the walls.

another room!

The walls of bedroom 2 (as it's known on the plans) are now scraped, filled, sanded, treated & painted. It will be the main guest bedroom, but for the moment I have moved my sewing machine in, and Keith has set up shelving.



I won't be making curtains yet, just some bunting for the village celebrations and some repairs that need doing, but it is nice to sit at it again.

Next job is the main bathroom, which Keith prepped today and I have to begin tiling tomorrow.

This picture shows Genghis & his mate, but you can't see their ducklings nestled between them.

a living room

The task of smoothing down, filling, scraping, treating and painting the living room is now finished. We celebrated by moving our table & chairs down. No more carrying trays upstairs! Keith has also done part of the hall - and - a mammoth task - the stairwell.
The lights are in place and we can begin to get a sense of how it will work.



We took some time off this weekend to go to Raunds Music Festival. It's a small, community based festival in a market town a few miles away. It's our kind of festival - you can walk to the car & be home within a quarter hour of it finishing. There is beer (including a special brewed "Raunds Revelry") and tea & home-made cake as well. It attracts all ages & kinds of people. A big thanks to the volunteer organisers who make it happen.

The waters are going down. we can see the footbridge & path now, and the birds are returning to find their way around again.

not-so-fine weather for ducklings

This afternoon a mother duck came into the garden with her ducklings. They appeared quite happy, running about & cheeping, although she seemed to be keeping a close eye on the high, fast-flowing brook.
After about an hour, they left. We found out later that they were unable to cope, and she took them into our neighbour's garden. She tried to find a safe place for them, but the ducklings kept jumping into the water, whilst she tried to shoo them out! She attempted to put some safely in the log store, but they got stuck, and our neighbours had to rescue them. She finally managed to lead them off, but had to return for a missing one. By late afternoon, it did seem that they were back safely at the War Memorial.

All of this water has disconcerted both the heron and egret who have difficulty wading through the fast flow to catch fish. As I wrote yesterday, this is more typical of February than May. Tiny ducklings would not normally need to cope with this weather.

rain

The 2 winters we have spent in this area have been dry ones, and the flood meadows at the back of the house have been relatively dry.
This week however, has seen them covered in water. Keith took these 2 photos yesterday afternoon and evening:


It has also filled up our rainwater harvester, so our washing machine & loos are functioning on recycled water.

We were pleased to see Brian & Ann Carter, old colleagues & friends from Dunstable. Now living in Gloucestershire, they called in to see us and brought a lovely plant for our garden. As Jackie & Rob from Irthlingborough have given us fruit bushes, and a new acquaintance, Rachel from Thrapston has given us some lemon balm, I must make time to look after them all!

photos

The kitchen is now largely done. The ceiling cannot be finished until all of our "smart home" wiring is connected, and the floor has to wait until other downstairs rooms are finished.
As our next step is to finish the walls in the living room, which will create dust, we haven't put anything on the shelves.
But here it is, with the units all in place:




The Denford ducks have produced 2 broods of ducklings so far this year. Here is one of them:






And here is our house, nestling among the others in Denford:

It is the buff brick, with red detailing & red roof.

And finally, a heron at Denford Weir, about 1/4 mile downstream from our house: