Some like it hot

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This is all about insulation.... and the faster we can get it in the better, cos our electricity bill was £200 last month in the straw house. We're running a couple of electric heaters and a couple of de-humidifiers 24 hours a day to try to dry out the plaster on the straw walls and in the block walls and soon in the screed too.

I am hoping that once we get the insulation all in, then lighting a candle for a couple of hours at night will prove adequate in the super-insulated house, but I fear that this will not be the case.

We had a nice break in Haarlem, though we didn't do a lot - a little bit of Christmas shopping and long walks in the scrub/woodland just inland behind the dunes. We did see a fair bit of wildlife including a couple of jays, a shag (fishing on one of the canals/drainage ditches that criss cross this area) and most surprisingly a small herd of roe deer (we were less than 5 miles from Haarlem). Weather was sunny but cold if out of the sun - a bit like the recent weather back at Tombreck without the snow. All in all we had a really good time and I can report that the Dutch still make some of the best pastries in the world (especially their apple cakes or appelkoeken).

Back at Tombreck it once again proved that the best laid plans of mice and men ..... . We had hoped to get the floor insulation and screed in before Christmas, but delays with the delivery of the insulation meant we've had to cancel and the next available date is Jan 7th. In some ways this is pretty good - we would have been under quite a lot of pressure to meet the original 18th Dec date, but it will likely mean the loss of a week or two in Jan but so be it. The first fix plumbing was completed in an impressively efficient manner thanks to Ronnie and Gordon. The insulation is now on site (ready for Ewan and I to lay early in the New Year), the chimney/flue has arrived and Douglas is coming on Tuesday to do first fix electrics whilst Ewan and I carry on with plasterboarding walls and ceilings.

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Photos

What some people do on their holiday
We were wandering the streets of Haarlem when we came across this scaffolding tower. I didn't think they came that tall, so we took a photograph.

Hearth
This will look a lot better once it has tiles and a wood burner sitting on it. The flue has arrived, so all we need is the stove itself and we're cooking, so to speak

Upstairs from west looking east
Looks really different now the shape of the rooms is clear

Bathroom
Takes a lot of imagination to see it, but this is where the bathroom fittings will go

Grey wall and pipes
Where all the pipes meet, is where the hot water cylinder is going to be.... and in the large cardboard box is the hot water cyclinder