Not August 2014 or even December 2014. We are only 6 months beyond the deadline we'd set for the works to be finished on the barn. And what are we waiting for, do I hear you ask?
The heating. The sign off on the final fiddly plumbing jobs.
Chas.
We have been in grindingly slow communication with him over the weeks since the holidays, and he has been characteristically negative about How the Heating Will Work (optimistically subtitled: If Indeed It Will); specifically, the combination of underfloor heating and radiators, since they have different temperature parameters and we don't want the concrete to get too hot, nor our toes to get too cold and our morales plummet.
After much prompting, Chas sent through a circuit diagram showing valves, pumps etc (below), to which G added his comments. I'm standing well back. I reckon my role is to be the end user and I will approach that responsibility with my shoulders squared (and maybe a thick fleecy jumper to fall back on).
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| OK, so you have to turn your head - is that so much to ask? The handwriting is G's. |
We have been wondering how to test the system, since it would be best to be in situ, and Chas is not going to set up camp in the salon de sejour (we hope) in order to commission this baby. G and I decided to ask Gregg, who is a) next door b) practical and c) happy to talk to Chas (that narrows the field) to come over to the barn twice a day for three days to measure temperatures upstairs and down. If we are to make use of the cold weather, this needs to begin soon (daytime temps are already in the low teens, and it's only February).
So, in a burst of last-thing-before-going-to-bed enthusiasm last night, G got hold of Gregg and put the idea to him. Luckily he is happy to oblige, and offered to go and get details from Chas there and then, since coincidentally, C was busy at the barn with this and that.
G and Chas spent a while on the phone too, and we now have an update on the plumbing/heating side of things: Chas has found the MIA large stainless steel cap for the vent pipe (it had been squirrelled away in the cabine by J-M, as G and I had suspected); he's fixed the bath feet to the floor to stop it shifting; he's completed the splash back tiling; he has charged the heating system with anti-freeze, which, being fluoro pink, will alert him or us to any leaking joints (ulp); and he should be ready to commission the heating once the anti-freeze has settled, i.e. within a day or two. He's even promised photos! Here's hoping...
It's hard to sleep after midnight calls like that.
