When you find a dream site for your project there are a whole lot of things you have to do immediately and simultaneously. Which is impossible of course but if you are determined you will manage it somehow. One thing is talk to your local council roads department.

Our site is along a single track road which goes over a little old hump back bridge and through a narrow gap between two farm buildings. It’s a very quiet road and we are concerned neither to cause any damage nor nuisance with our construction work or our subsequent visitors. The roads department was mercifully unconcerned about us adding maybe 30 cars per day to the traffic on the road, perhaps because it currently averages 2 cars per hour, sometimes 6 at rush hour.

That left the very serious subject of ‘access’. Don’t think just because you have an existing entrance to your site that it will be suitable. Regulations cover the design of access off a public road. We had to find a position where approaching traffic could see our access, and we could see them, from 150m in each direction.

On a very cold day in March I assembled on site our architect, civil engineer, environmental consultant and the head of the roads department (Tech Services).

We walked up and down trying to figure out where to put the new access track. In true Highland fashion, pelting horizontal hail started as people commented from their various professional perspectives. In the teeth of the gale, our architect paced out the 150m sight lines to show his proposed position would work and then driving freezing sleet hastened our agreement that a handy tree marked the centre of suitable proposed access. We retreated to warm cars and flasks of coffee and I considered how such permanent marks upon the surface of the land can sometimes be decided so rapidly.

Don’t let anyone leave until you have marked on a plan what you just agreed whilst shouting in a winter storm and if there is no handy tree, do remember to put in posts to mark positions. (It’s a young tree, hopefully we can relocate it successfully).

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Our last visit to the building site revealed that the team left our old toilets, sink and other house debris to sit heaped in our back garden – an eye sore for our neighbours. Being one of those people who manically vacuums and dusts before anyone visits my house, I was mortified by this discovery. We have such lovely new neighbours – they’ve been very good about putting up with the disruption of the works – and they certainly shouldn’t be punished with a view of a 1960s turquoise WC.

I can deal with the fact that the interior will probably be a mess for the majority of the project, as one would expect on a full-blown renovation, but the outside mess brought out the Kim/Aggie in me. I showed Paul No. 1 the heap of junk and asked that it be cleared immediately – and be kept cleared. I hope it hasn’t crept back by next week.

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We just completed the 4th week of our renovation works. A local company called Challenger Construction is doing the renovation for us and we’ve had a stream of builders, plumbers, electricians and plasterers in over the past few weeks.

The way the project is run is like this:
•Challenger have a project manager named Paul (out of our long list of Pauls, he is Paul No. 1) who is running the works
•Every Friday my husband goes down to check on progress and meet with various specialists to answer questions & provide specifications for things (like socket locations)
•Now that the worst of the building works are over I will also start going down every Friday to review and discuss progress (we decided to spare our baby the stress and noise of the first few weeks)
•Every Monday I have a phone call with Paul to go over outstanding questions we have, and provide answers to questions he has
•Then we contact each other as things come up

So far it’s worked out fairly well, and as expected the first weeks of a renovation are the most chaotic and grubby. Our carpets, kitchen, bathroom and wallpaper were all stripped out in a flurry of dirt and mayhem. Doorways were cut, a redundant chimney breast was removed, steel lintels went in to support the structural changes, floorboards were pulled up for wiring and to lay pipes, a few walls were knocked down – then the sanding and plastering started.

Our house looks like a wreck. But a promising wreck. Our decision to create a doorway in between the living room and dining room has opened up the ground floor beautifully. And the removal of a cumbersome chimneybreast in the kitchen has done wonders for the symmetry of that room.

It’s hard to tell if we’re actually on schedule since there are so many things happening in tandem. I feel like we should be further ahead on plastering in order to keep things moving and unless we have a large decorating team in I’m not quite sure how the walls will be done in time to allow for the floors to be completed in the last week. But I have to trust that Paul No.1 has it under control and that our Friday visits and Monday calls are enough because making more frequent visits to a building site with a baby strapped to your front is very, very difficult due to the levels of dust, grime, deadly wires, nails and noise.

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With fireplaces out of the way, I had to get on with the radiator sizing and buying, which I found out actually requires a maths degree. You have to figure out optimal radiator sizes per room, based on heat output requirements per room. But of course, each style has different outputs. We had to create a spreadsheet just to keep all of our options straight.

The radiator style we liked most, called Old Skool, was out of our price range. So in order to stay on budget we decided to go with the good old reliable Stelrad Compacts.

After hours of matching size to BTU output, time the radius of Pi divided by the speed of sound, I finally had the info I needed to place an order. And that’s when fate intervened…because no one I called could get the Stelrads delivered to us fast enough to meet our scheduled installation date. (Kevin or Sarah would have told me off if this had been a TV moment.)

I had to think fast with a crying baby in one arm and an annoyed husband on the phone. I decided to call the Radiator Centre, who I had ordered a heated towel rail from earlier that day. And they also happen to carry the Old Skool range. I explained our predicament to a helpful man named Paul (yes, another Paul, who we now call Paul 4) and asked if they carried a Stelrad Compact equivalent. He wisely asked me what sort of styles we liked and I said ‘Old Skool, but we don’t have the cash.’ To which he replied the magical words ‘We are having a clearance sale with a range very similar to Old Skool. Let me see if we have what you need.’

I zapped Paul over our size and BTU requirements, and explained our budget, and a few minutes later he got back to me with news that they could get us a set of cool looking column radiators for our budget. I confirmed everything with my husband, who double checked with Paul in case I was having a radiator hallucination. We ordered them straight away and are now just hoping the lorry unloads them before our plumber arrives.

Looks like we won’t have to huddle around the stove to stay warm this winter after all. And I think our selections may even look better than hoped. We’ll see in a few weeks time.

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Fireplace and radiator selections have been driving us to drink. I never knew that picking out a few mantelpieces and some radiators could be so mentally taxing.

We decided to focus on the fireplaces before the radiators since the builders needed to know our requirements straightaway. And I thought this would be an easy and fun job, a quick trip over to the local fireplace store in London followed by a ‘we’ll take those, thanks.’ Oh no. My visit to the local fireplace store resulted in me finding out that most styles I was curious about were actually not in stock. So I ended up shoving about 20 catalogues in our pram and walking home in the blazing sun thinking ‘who needs heat anyway?’

The catalogues I collected didn’t have prices (annoying) so I then spent ages calling various fireplace stores getting them to rattle off prices, looking for the best deal. I momentarily considered leaving the very dated gas fires in place and hoping that they would one day become retro chic. But we want big open fires in the living room and dining room, with lovely and simple mantelpieces, so I persevered.

Finally, I found a fireplace store down near our new house in Hove, called Grate Fireplaces, who told me they had most styles in their showroom and also had some very good deals on. So we made a trip down, expecting to be disappointed, but instead spent ages in there with our jaws dropping at the sheer size of the showroom which had some of the most incredible reclaimed mantelpieces I have ever seen. I asked my husband if it was wrong to pick a mantelpiece first, and then buy a house to suit it? Because the 18th century blue veined marble French mantle I was looking at was too incredible not to build a house for. Budgets suddenly meant nothing.

That’s when Paul, who works there, snapped me back to reality and said a house like ours needs a much, much, (cough cough) much smaller and simpler look. On our way back down the stairs to the section-for-modest-homes, we saw a striking metal surround, just the right size for our dining room. It had four ominous ravens, which for some reason made me think it would be a bargain (don’t loads of people get creeped out by ravens?) so we rushed to ask the price and were quickly depressed by the answer. It was owned by Roger Daltry and thus commanded a hefty rock-n-roll price tag.

So it was back to the simple surrounds. We eventually decided on a style called Henlow in wood so we could have our painter coordinate it with our walls – a look that will suit our tone for the house much more than limestone or marble. No blue vein or ravens for us. Not this time, anyway.

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This week, my Tuesday evening was occupied with Property Snakes & Ladders and Thursday by The Home Show. Nestled snugly in between, my Wednesday viewing entailed a feature length documentary by the name of Garbage Warrior.

The film focuses on mildly hippyish West coast architect Michael Reynolds, who has dedicated his entire adult life to studying, experimenting with and finally perfecting sustainable building methods. He specialises in earthships, much like the Brittany Groundhouse Grand Design. read more

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Following this week’s Property Snakes & Ladders in which Sarah oversaw the Tavistock railway station renovation, the team over at FindAProperty have dug out some similar properties that might be of interest.

In fact, they’ve gone a stage further. If living in a station isn’t enough to satisfy the suppressed trainspotter within you, they’ve found a couple of railway carriages that have been turned into holiday homes. read more

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In a somewhat unusual episode of Property Snakes & Ladders, tonight sees Sarah following developers Colin and Jenny as they embark on an epic project to completely renovate and convert a disused, Grade II listed Devon railway station. read more

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As a native Brummie, the notion of living near water evokes pangs of romanticism presumably felt in coast-dwellers when they imagine living in the shadow of Spaghetti Junction. Or perhaps not. For me, the only thing better than residing close to the lapping sounds of the waves would be living in an old, characterful period property a stone’s throw from whitetops and weather-beaten beaches.

Following a quick play around with the 4Homes Property Search, here’s five fab houses that are both within touching distance of a river, estuary or the sea, and come with the prestige (or potential headache) of a Grade II listing. Just click on the photos to see the full listing, complete with more photos and info. read more

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