Trev and Hil's New Build in Polemi

[trevnhil]

It has been mentioned that it is a while since I updated this thread. Well it is summer holiday time and until a few days ago we had relatives visiting.

My DIY work is at a standstill at the moment and Hilary has not been adding much to the garden.

But some things have happened in the last few days......

The Heating engineer has been and installed the Baxi boiler on the outside wall. It has been tested and all the radiators are getting warm so that would seem to ensure that we are not cold during the (few) Winter months.

However to test the boiler out the thermostat in the hall had to be 'shorted out'. This was because the air temperature was higher than the 30 maximum that the thermostat goes to. This of course meant that it was always telling the boiler that it was too hot to fire up.

Yesterday day we had an an aluminium man round ;D

He has measured up for a cupboard to encase and weatherproof the gas boiler. He said he will let us know the price.



Another job that the heating engineer will be doing shortly is moving one of the water tanks that the original plumber put in....



The tanks are to close together because there is an electric supply point for the water pump on the wall between the tanks in the picture. But you can only reach it with one arm, there is no way to get both hands and shoulders between the tanks.
So as I said the left hand tank will be moved about a foot to the left. This will mean that the engineer will have good access to the electric point when he installs the water softener and a filter.
We have also had another Visitor a couple of days ago.... The Mayor of the Village. He came to tell us that the track to our bungalow will be concreted within the next couple of weeks. He cannot be more precise as it is a group of workmen from the Paphos area who will do the job. There are other jobs to do in the village and he cannot say which will be done first,

Bearing this in mind we thought they were starting early yesterday morning when we heard what we though was a digger.
I was wrong about the digger but it was an earth scraping machine which made the track more suitable for the concreting of the roadway.









You will see that I have placed some shuttering at each side of our drive. I am hoping that the concrete will be laid up to the boards.

So we now just have to wait until the concrete mixer turns up one bright morning.

Cheers. Trev..

[geoffm]

Trev.
Is the aluminium man Mario from the village, if not then get him to quote,I've had a few bits from him and been very pleased with the standard and price.
Geoff.

[trevnhil]

I presume you mean the aluminium guy on the road out of Polemi to Kallepeia. I suppose I could give him a try. I have used him once for a renewal of the mesh in a fly screen when we were renting in Polemi. I thought his price was OTT.

However there is nothing wrong in getting a price off him.

Cheers. Trev..

[trevnhil]

Well we had a guy round to give us a price for the cupboard around the gas boiler.

Very nice chap who measured up and then rang us yesterday with a Very Good price, in our estimation. So we told him to go ahead and make the cupboard and he is going to ring us when it is ready for fixing.

Here are pictures of the boiler area as it was yesterday.



These are the electric boxes which provide the supply to the boiler

However we didn't want to pay for the cupboard to be wide enough to encompass these electric boxes... So it called for a little D I Y....



There we are, weatherproofed with little cost.

Cheers. Trev..

[geoffm]

The box is excellent Trev, but that plastic bag is all wonky
Geoff.

[trevnhil]

Ha ha..... I will tidy the Plastic up, and paint it the right colour. It will look fine then.

I will post some pics when the proper cupboard is fixed. I am not sure when that will be, as we are awaiting the track (which you know) being concreted.

Cheers. Trev..

[geoffm]

Lets hope the concrete contractors beat the rain !!!
I'm sure it will all look great when it's finished mate.
Geoff.

[trevnhil]

Rain.... What rain I don't think that a little inclement weather will bother them. It's only a rough concrete roadway. But at least when it is done it will mean that when the rains do come down we will still have reasonably clean access to our bungalow.

Cheers. Trev..

[geoffm]

That's what I meant, I remember last year the trouble you had with muddy access, would be nice to not have that any more.
Geoff.

[trevnhil]

This is how it was just before we moved in during March this year..





Hopefully it will never be as bad as this again. The gas tanker man refused ( rightly so) to bring our delivery of gas. And my FIL who lives with us could not get to his bungalow.

Past times, hopefully.

Trev..

[geoffm]

Yeah right.
Is there anything you DON'T take pictures of..... perhaps I shouldn't ask that.
Geoff

[trevnhil]

Ha ha...Probably not Geoff. I did used to carry my camera around with me on my belt, but I don't do that any more. The picture of the state of the track was not just for my benefit, but was to send in a complaint to the Paphos district council.
Although the track is in Polemi, and I believe that Polemi will be paying for the concreting, Paphos council supply the manpower and materials. So it it Paphos district council to whom we sent a written complaint, with pictures of course.

I don't know even if the complaint had any effect, but at least I am assured that the track will be concreted in the next week or so.

Today's job.... Fitting an electric 'plinth heater' into the kitchen plinth. This came from the UK, via Lee at the Duckpond. I will fix it in position today and then I will need to get it wired in and the fuse in the control / fuse box changed a little later on.

Will I take any pictures?? Probably.

Cheers. Trev..

[trevnhil]

Well that's today's DIY done and the kitchen given back to Mrs N. It's amazing what you find when you follow other (so called) Tradesmen. I found that the plinth was just a tight fit and had not been fixed at all. I wondered why after the kitchen was done that there were so many plinth clips left.... The don't fit the legs.

However here is the (not too exciting) picture of the plain plinth...




And here is another picture of the plinth with the heater in place....



I put a plug on the feed wire to check that the heater worked before installing it And after removing the plug I have run the wiring to a supply box in the wall.
Later on the 6 amp fuse will need to be changed for a stronger one. Another CL member has kindly offered to install the new fuse for me.
I have of course made sure that the wiring has the capacity for me to use a 2kw heater without any problems.

Cheers. Trev..

[trevnhil]

Well that's today's DIY done and the kitchen given back to Mrs N. It's amazing what you find when you follow other (so called) Tradesmen. I found that the plinth was just a tight fit and had not been fixed at all. I wondered why after the kitchen was done that there were so many plinth clips left.... They don't fit the legs.

However here is the (not too exciting) picture of the plain plinth...




And here is another picture of the plinth with the heater in place....



I put a plug on the feed wire to check that the heater worked before installing it And after removing the plug I have run the wiring to a supply box in the wall.
Later on the 6 amp fuse will need to be changed for a stronger one. Another CL member has kindly offered to install the new fuse for me.
I have of course made sure that the wiring has the capacity for me to use a 2kw heater without any problems.

Cheers. Trev..

[trevnhil]

Well a bit more work got done this morning. I think I said previously that I had a price for a cupboard being built around our wall hung gas boiler to weather proof it.

Yesterday the man phoned to tell me it was ready for fixing. So this morning the boss and another worker came and installed the cupboard for us.....

Here again is just the boiler.




And here is the finished cupboard and the men fixing it....









We are very happy with the installation, the finished job and the price. And I have emailed the firm to tell them this.

We chose a (Family) company from a recommendation, and in turn we would recommend them as well.

Cheers. Trev..

[trevnhil]

Hi again.

Well under the general heading of building, a couple of things have been happening.

Firstly the plumber /heating engineer has been back and installed a water softener. This is a machine that pumps the water through a filter. The main filtering agent is Salt. I suppose it is a but like adding salt to a dishwasher. The theory is that it will do way with the limescale in the water. This has got to be good thing as the worst problem with the limescale is the inside working of the toilet cistern sticking. This means that you can flush the loo last thing at night and the cistern just keeps filling as the valve letting the water into the bowl is stuck. This has happened a few times but we are alerted to this by the pressurised water pump continually running.
As I say I am hopeful that this problem will now be in the past.

The other job that is still underway is that (at long last) they are concreting the stretch of track / lane that leads past our bungalow.

Just to refresh your memories her is a picture of the track when it was almost impassable last March...




The length of lane that they are doing is about 400mts..... It is a Cul-de-sac...... Did they start at the far end ?..... no did they heck, they started about 20mts short of our bungalow driveway...





But here is a picture of the area where it was really bad, but as you can see it is OK now.




The situation now is that we don't know when they are returning to finish the job. I know that they have to wait for the concrete to harden enough to drive a 20 ton mixer wagon over.

Here is the area from the concrete that they have laid, on past our driveway and up to the end of the lane.






Regards. Trev..

[trevnhil]

The last post was about things that happened last week.

The men did indeed return before 8-00am on Monday morning. This time they started at the far end of the lane, and worked down past our drive to their last concreting.................










The workmen's boss then asked if I would park my car just before the beginning of the wet concrete, to prevent anyone accidentally driving through it before it dried.

The following morning it was fine to drive on and here are a couple of views of the finished job... Yawn yawn.






Next week the same men are going to repair anther dangerous area of the roadway to our bungalow. It is at the bottom of a concrete slope, but the rainwater has washed away the land beneath the concrete.

Maybe more news next week.

Trev..

[trevnhil]

Good Morning Al. It was only last Wednesday the 19th when I last posted.

We are still awaiting the road gang to start on the repairs to the undermined concrete roadway.

Re the street lights Ha ha. I cannot ever see street lights all along the road. They put them on the electric poles here as you will know. When we paid €14,000 for the electric supply, there was in addition to that a cost of a couple of hundred euros for 3 street lights. The Polemi council paid for those.
However our electricity comes from the direction of Stroumbi. This means that the street lights are down into the cul de sac past our bungalow. But there is no street lighting between us and the main road.

Probably next week I will have to move my car out near the main road (400 yds) or be trapped in for a few days.

Regards. Trev..

[Macattack]

Might be worth investing in a Snow Blower!

[trevnhil]

Might be worth investing in a Snow Blower!

Ha ha, although we live down an isolated (concreted ) track. I doubt that we will have enough snow to blow anywhere.
We do however get snow and ice up in Polemi occasionally.

I March this year our electrician came to the bungalow early.... 6 ish, to test all the electrics before the inspection that day. At 7-30 am when came to get out up a steep concrete slope he found that the hail shower and freezing temperatures had coated the slope with ice. He could not get out and the inspecting electricians could not get in. Everything was cancelled until the following week.

All happy memories behind us now. One of the next major tests will be to see if the Gas central heating keeps us warm in the winter, especially with my Father in Law who is not too good at the moment.

There is enough insulation in the building, especially the false roof, so I think all should be OK.

Cheers. Trev..

[trevnhil]

Just because I have a little spare time I have taken a few pictures to show where the workmen will (hopefully) be working next week.

This is a overall view up from the bottom of the slope, which has been concreted since this picture was taken.





This next picture shows the general degradation that has happened at the bottom of the slope.





Here is a view from part way up the slope. When it rains hard all the water runs down the slope and then off into the field on the right hand side.





This final picture shows where the rainwater has washed all the banking away and into the field. it has left an almost vertical earth bank which is obviously dangerous because 2 cones were put there. You can only see one as the other fell into the chasm.





We will have to see what they do to prevent a repeat of this dilemma.

Regards. Trev..

[trevnhil]

Hi all. Well nothing has been done with the road where the cone is... at least not yet.

But, a sort of momentous day today. As you know it was bad weather yesterday pm, and certainly no sunshine. Today also there has been very little sun up here. This has meant that it has got a little chilly, especially now that evening is here.

So, I have put the heating on for the first time other than testing. It will be a time of turning valves up and turning some down. It has certainly quickly raised the temperature in the bungalow. Each radiator has its own thermostatic valve so the lounge can be a bit warmer than the bedrooms.

It will be trial and error for a little while, but at least we know we can all be nice and warm.

Trev..

[trevnhil]

Hi Al. Yes I am sure of where we are. We were in Paphos this morning and most local blokes had long trousers on. But the holiday makers were still in shorts down there.

It is a good few degrees cooler up here, sometimes as many as 5 or 6. We have had the heating on for just an hour early in the evening. The temp: inside is 22c and outside is down to 10.3c

As you say, we get used to the warmer weather, so a colder spell seems to hurt a bit.

I have certainly not needed to water any plants for the last few days.

Trev..

[Jim]

Trev those ''birds of paradise'' plants grow massive, had to take mine out.

[Memory man]

...but it's a beautiful flower.

[trevnhil]

Hi everyone. Maggie was the person that supplied that plant and many others as well. If it needs moving in a few years than that will not be a problem.
Hilary is out in the sunshine now planting peas and cauliflower and Brussel sprouts. I have been out shopping and chatting to a mate. Now it is almost lunch time and then some general repairs.

Cheers. Trev..

[jagwheels]

Sounds a very nice way of enjoying retirement Trev. Relaxed activities

[trevnhil]

Eye it's not too bad here at Trev n Hil Towers Norv. There are not many jobs that are urgent, most can be left for a while.

I had a leaky shower mixer tap, but I went to the supplier and he told me how to take the inside 'cassette' out. I did this and he supplied a replacement free of charge. I put everything back together again and all is OK now.

Regards. Trev..

[Jim]

It was not possible to move ours, it was killed digging it out, and we had to dig very deeply. We were also given the plant.

[trevnhil]

Well during the last day or two the weather has not been at it's best. But I cleared a little of the land yesterday. So I thought I would include what I have been doing today.

We have been wanting to put a fence along the (new) boundary between our land and the next door plot.
We have gone for the minimum cost option, which means collecting and using Euro Pallets.
I collected about 20 a few weeks ago and stained them all the same colour.

The first picture was taken in August but shows the weeds on the area to be partitioned off.



The weeds had grown somewhat, but a few hours with a hedge trimmer at ground level got rid of them.





The line of the fence is straight ahead from the red and yellow post.



And the final picture shows the start of the fence. The panels are screwed together, and once I have got them all in place and correctly lined up, I will drive some reinforcing bars down inside the pallets to keep them upright.



I just have a few aching limbs tonight, but should sleep well

Cheers, Trev..

[jagwheels]

Thanks for the update Trev

They say it is a very fine line between xxx & yyy but that boundary you are building is a very fine line indeed

Knowing you this line will have been well researched

Incidentally first Christmas in your new home. You & Hillary putting up some decorations?

[trevnhil]

Ha ha, it has indeed been well researched Norv. That particular boundary was measured by OUR topographer in 2008. The man next door objected that he thought his field went to the dip in the land. So the Land office had to come and measure again in September 2008. The pins that they put in were exactly the same.

But it has taken from September 2008 until July this year for the Land office to come to a final decision and state who owns the disputed strip of land. Fortunately and correctly, they have written to all parties and declared that the land is ours. Their wording was that the (disputed) strip of land belongs to plot 818, which is ours.

I have done a little bit more at the fencing today, and am little bit weary at the moment. I also know that I want another three fence panels.

Re the Christmas decorations, yes we have some up in the lounge and a Christmas tree as well. It will be a quiet Christmas with us two and Hilary's Dad. But we will no doubt be drinking to our first Christmas in our new home.

Regards. Trev..

[jagwheels]

"Christmas decorations" coming next

Trev like us kids used to say "I will show you mine if you show me yours" & I did show you mine. Xmas tree that is

Christmas gets quieter for us each year as well but unlike some of us here on CL you still have a dad who I am sure appreciates the work his son has put into making his life as comfortable as possible

Get that house decorated & start posting the photos. I dont want to be spending Christmas looking at Trevs new wall

[trevnhil]

The tree is not in a good place for a picture, but we will see. No promises mind.

Trev..

[trevnhil]

Well I had a hard day yesterday, at least for a pensioner. I realised a few days ago that I was short of pallets so I went and got 5 in my car. I stained them all the same colour and then yesterday morning I was set to finish my fence to the end.

When I got to the end I then had to make some kind of attempt to make sure that they stayed upright.
So I cut many lengths of re bar to an appropriate length and hammered them down into the ground inside the pallets. I had already used shorter lengths to make the fence straight at the bottom.
Boy does my arm and shoulder ache today. I have done a little shopping this morning, but I am having the rest of the day off.

I still have to buy some 6x1 from Mexpo next week to put on for a capping and to straighten the top.

Here are some pictures of it part finished and then of the total length..........











Aren't cats Nosey




And not forgetting a Christmas tree for Norv...





Hopefully I will complete it next week and then in the future we intend to get the 'hole' filled in to the same level as the ground on the left hand side. That will take a few wagon loads no doubt.

Cheers. Trev..

PS... did you spot the ballet dancer.

[Biddy]

Oh my gosh, you are a very clever man. Looks wonderful, both the fence and the tree. Merry Christmas in what must be the perfect home

[trevnhil]

Merry Christmas to you as well Biddy, and to all those who are reading this thread. I will be back outside shortly to do the finishing touches to the fence. It needs a capping on it and I have just been down to Mexpo and bought 30mts of 6x1. I just have to stain it all and screw it to the top of the pallets.

By the way my wife did the Christmas tree.

Cheers. Trev..

[trevnhil]

Hi Again.
Well Christmas is fast approaching now. I finished the capping on the fence today so that is another job completed. It was done very cheaply as well, because the pallets were free, and the timber for the capping was just over €50.
Unless we have some very strong gales it should last quite a good while. Here are three pictures of the finished job.









That is probably the last big job this year, but no doubt I will find some small ones to occupy me.

I can see from the number of visits / views of this topic that some people are still visiting to see what is going on.

Thank you all for your interest and to each and every one of you, MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Best wishes from Trev.. n Hilary

[Memory man]

PS... did you spot the ballet dancer.

I spotted Nureyev, but he should
have been on top of the Xmas tree!!

[trevnhil]

You are a bit late with that Brian.... And it would have been too uncomfortable up there.

Cheers. Trev..

[Biddy]

Downed tools for the year!! Now I've got a few jobs around my house!!!!!!!!!
This project has been a delight to follow from start to now.My OH can't even change a plug!

[trevnhil]

Thanks for that comment. I can change a plug and a bit more on electronics as well. I have already put extra sockets inside and outside. But I had to get Geoff from Gioulou (sp) to change a Circuit breaker for me. He's a good man.

Regards. Trev..

[Keoking]

Very impressed with the project as a whole, but you could have stained the back of the pallets!!!!

[trevnhil]

Ha ha.... Hi Dave, I think I did enough staining all the fronts. If you look closely you can see that I did actually stain the horizontal rails at the back. Maybe I should give them a second coat.
That side faces our neighbours field so we only see it as we are returning from any trips. The fence is our 'NEW' boundary, as our neighbour thought our land finished at the drop in levels to his field. A lot of satellite measuring and a number of years to and fro at the land office, confirmed our land goes to the new fence.

We are as you can imagine quite pleased at the (eventual) outcome.

Regards. Trev..

[rival beacon]

Best Wishes for Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year to you and your family.
We are about to begin our project. Just waiting for the new access to be added to the title deeds. We are coming over at the end of January to hopefully meet with the architect and start the process. Cant wait.
Your project has been an inspiration to us. Thank you.
x

[trevnhil]

Thank you R B. Good luck with the build and my biggest tip is to put plenty of insulation in the walls and the roof especially. 6 to 8 inches would be a minimum.

Happy Christmas. Trev..

[jagwheels]

"Oh my gosh, you are a very clever man"

Not so clever. Hillary decorated the tree & I bet thats her present to Trev sitting underneath it

Trevs present to Hillary, a new fence. No offence

"PS... did you spot the ballet dancer"

I take it you want some recognition that it was you who placed it there

Enjoy your first Christmas together in your new home Trev & it really has been a great pleasure to me & inspiration to so many in watching the project progress

[trevnhil]

Hi Norv. The 'Ballet dancer' was the shadow on the ground in one of the pictures.

Those who live in Cyprus will know that the weather has been a little nasty to say the least. We certainly have had a lot of rain up here in the hills, and it is still raining heavily as I type.

Hilary seems to have tomorrows main meal in hand, and the meal for this evening is sorted. So, having a little time on my hands I though I would post a few pictures that I took during a short dry spell this morning......

I'm not sure if you will be able to see how wet everything is, especially the soil.



In this next picture you can see the barrow is full of water... It was empty yesterday.



The next two pictures are taken from either end of the patio. There is certainly no use for the sun lounger at the moment.






This is the view from the patio to the edge of Polemi village. Many of the fields are a little waterlogged.




And the next picture is general view of the front of the house.




And finally a closer view at the front, showing the driveway, garden, and 'Dads' Weather vane.




Best wishes to you all. Trev..

[trevnhil]

Good morning Milo. Many thanks for both your interest in this thread and also your kind comments.

I must admit that when I was still working I never thought that in my retirement I would still be doing all the jobs that I manage to do. The fence was one of the medium to large projects as was all the guttering and downspouts around the bungalow.
I count myself fortunate that at my age (70 this year) and after a heart attack that I am able to do these things. I am certainly pleased about it.

Re the Pallets..... In my last job everything came on Pallets and as you say they soon stack up. In Cyprus they do not seem to have as strict a regime about them as they do in the UK.
In the UK the pallets do not belong to you.... Certainly Chep Pallets do not. A full size articulated trailer used to come and collect the Chep pallets, and they had a rep that called regularly. The smaller Euro pallets which I have used were a little more of a grey area.

However I am glad that here in Cyprus I was able to find a good supply of them and also assure them that I was not just wanting them for firewood.

Jobs should get less as time goes on but they are also seasonal as well, so not as much gets done in Winter. The next job is sealing the lids on the septic tank. But I will do the job properly, but probably without pictures for the 'Blog'.

Happy New Year to you...... And to all the Readers

Regards. Trev..

[trevnhil]

I think your last sentence says it all really. You really CAN (mostly) do things exactly when you want.
As you can see, I am active at times but I probably spend too much time at the computer. The number of forums that I contribute to daily is unbelievable, especially as I had not been a computer person before retiring.
I also find interesting websites and then can't leave them alone. This is my latest one but it will have to wait until tonight for a further visit.....

http://www.historiclancashire.co.uk/category/morecambe

Cheers. Trev..