From Stables To House: #2 Underfloor Heating

Good Day Everyone,

I never thought that something as nondescript as underfloor heating would ever get me excited - but boy was I wrong! To say that I was very excited would be an understatement. Perhaps it's because summers in the UK never actually get that warm... you can forget about hot! Also, having spent the last four+ years living in temperatures of 30+ degrees C, the thought of actually getting some warmth into my bones was just too much for me to remain calm about ;o).

Hubby and I are always cold. You'd think that having been born and raised in the UK, we'd be accustomed to the climate, but no. You will always find us in front of the fire or sat with our backs to the radiator whenever we are in the UK. Growing up, my bedroom was the only bedroom in the house that, as well as a central heating radiator, also had a gas fire. As a child I was always cold, even in summer. In fact, me feeling cold all of the time was seen as being completely at odds with the rest of my family (who feel warm very easily), so much so that my mum actually took me to see the doctor about it when I was a teenager. She felt it just wasn't normal to feel this cold, all of the time - but it was. This is just the way my body is. My mum has always said that having a hubby who feels the cold as much as I do, was a real blessing for me because now there are no arguments in our house about the heating, unlike when I was a child ;o).

When I used to work (pre severe arthritis) there was a joke in the office that I had the world's most traveled hot water bottle because I used to take her (yes, my hot water bottle is a pink and fluffy 'her') on every overnight trip, and I traveled quite a lot with work. Not only that, but I also used to and still do, take her on every holiday even if it's to a hot climate like Australia or Dubai because often I find that I can never get the air conditioning in hotel rooms warm enough. The thought of feeling cold is just too much for me.

Needless to say that it came as no surprise that hubby and I opted for underfloor heating in this renovation. The idea of walking on warmth pleases me more than I can explain! Not only that, but it also meant that we would not have to have radiators on the ground floor which gives us so much more freedom on where to place furniture, and what we can do with that unoccupied wall space.

Underfloor heating pipes

Now, there is no way that I can write this blog post without giving a massive shout out to my amazing hubby because he laid all of the underfloor heating himself, having never done it before (with a little help from Andy, our carpenter). Hubby spent many nights researching, reading and watching YouTube videos all about underfloor heating.

Insulation being laid

The ground in our house was prepared with a concrete base that incorporated a damp proof membrane. Hubby then started by laying 100mm thick foil faced rigid insulation board all over the ground floor which buildings control came out to check, as this is a requirement in the UK, in order to meet energy saving regulations. 

Ground floor insulated

Over the insulation board, visqueen sheeting (the black sheet you can see in the photo below) was laid to create a waterproof membrane. Hubby then spent days on his hands and knees laying the water pipes in accordance with the design provided by the underfloor heating supplier. Basically, he was creating continuous loops of pipe with no joints, that started and finished at the underfloor heating manifold. Hubby laid over half a kilometer of pipe which was pinned down into the insulation by white barbed pegs.

No underfloor heating pipes under the kitchen island

Hubby created different zones with the underfloor heating pipes so that we could pick and choose which areas of the house had the heating on at any given time. There were specific areas such as the kitchen cupboards, kitchen island and the corner where the wood burning stove would be going in the living room where he didn't lay any pipes as those spaces don't need to be heated. The pipes were then pressure tested with water to ensure there were no leaks. 

Screed being poured with laser leveled tripods

The day before the screeding mix was poured over the pipes, workmen came to place metal tripods all over the ground floor. These tripods were set up to a pre-specified level that the screed would be poured to, and they had been laser leveled to ensure that we would get an even and leveled floor throughout. The screed is a liquid mix which covers the water pipes and sets to form a solid floor that we can then lay floorboards or tiles upon.

Lorry with screed mix

Screeding day was very exciting, particular for hubby who loves all the machines and gadgets involved, and because he'd literally worked his socks off getting the floor to this point. The screed came in a large lorry which was then poured into a machine with a sieve in it to sift out all the big pieces. The liquid screed was then pumped from the machine via a large pipe, into our house's ground floor. You can see it in action in the vlog below.

Once the screed had been poured and leveled it gave the floor a glass like, reflective finish. The screed was then left to set for 48 hours before we could walk on it. As it dried, the floor lost it's shiny finish and became a lot more matte. Over the course of those two days I had a bad arthritic flare so hubby stepped in with the vlogging and shows you the finished floor in the above vlog.

The floor just after the screed was poured

I hope you enjoyed this update. I can't imagine underfloor heating is something that most of you reading this would be particularly excited about but it was exciting for us ;o).

For mini progress updates, don't forget to follow me here on Facebook. The rest of my social media links can be found to the right of this blog post, when viewing on a desktop :o).

Love Sheen xxx

From Stables To House: #1 Living In A Caravan

Good Day Everyone,

If you’ve seen this post (and I recommend you do before proceeding :o)) then you’ll know that hubby and I are currently in the middle of renovating what was once a horses stables into a house. It’s what we have been spending our time/energy/money (and everything else) on since our return from Japan, earlier this summer.

Some back ground on our building - historically, the two part building was a stables along with a gardener’s house. Together, these two properties belonged to a large estate home with its own fruit orchard and gardens. Unfortunately the large estate home was, at some point, knocked down and replaced with a small apartment block. The land has since been turned into public parks and gardens. All that remains of the original estate are the stables (which we own) with the gardener’s house (which our neighbour lives in), and another building nearby which has been converted into a house. From talking to our neighbour and some of the local residents who have lived in the area for decades, we understand that over the years the stables was used as some kind of storage building, and then a vehicle depot before being left vacant for many years.

The old stables block

The stables building we bought is near the beach, in a conservation area which means that the area, and buildings with in it, are considered worthy of preservation or enhancement because of their architectural/historical interest. What that meant for us was that we had numerous restrictions/conditions on how we could renovate the building and the materials that we could use. One such condition was that before any work could begin we needed to call out the batman to conduct a bat report. Luckily for us no bats or evidence of bats was found, otherwise no work could have begun until the bats were safely removed and rehoused, as bats are a protected species in the UK. Other conditions focussed on restoring the building to the way it would have traditionally been. We've had to replace all of the plastic guttering with traditional cast iron guttering, and all of the windows with traditional handmade wooden sash windows. The local authorities want our building to be preserved as close to its original state as possible, so we couldn’t create an opening for a front entrance. To access our property we have to go round to the back and use the entrance that the horses would have traditionally used.

Our neighbour has the upstairs, whilst we have the downstairs

As you’ll see from the Youtube video below, there is a natural divide between our building and our neighbours due to the height difference, with our stables block being the shorter building. However, our building also came with half of the ground floor space that sits under our neighbour’s bedrooms. It’s quite strange because we now own half of what looks like her downstairs space and she owns the upstairs. Our neighbour has lived here for over 30 years so we assume that this is how the buildings were originally split. Perhaps because traditionally, more of the ground floor space was used to keep the animals, with people occupying more of the upstairs sleeping space? Who knows!

When we bought the building it was very much derelict with just the roof and outer walls. The inside was dirty, rundown, damp and falling apart. On the ground floor there were two stair cases, two toilet cubicles (random!), and the space had been subdivided with some rooms bricked up and partitioned off from others, and some of the windows had been boarded/bricked up. Upstairs there was a large room, and a smaller room with a kitchenette. There was also an old garage in the garden. I have inserted photos of what the inside of the building used to look like in the above video. We bought the property with plans to turn it into a family house. We subsequently gained permission to convert the old garage into living space, on the condition that we matched the exterior to the existing building. We had a little bit more freedom to make changes at the back of the building as it is out of public view, so we were allowed to brick up one of the doors and turn it into a window.

The old garage

The old garage being renovated

We have completely changed the layout upstairs by turning the two rooms into three bedrooms (one with an ensuite) and a family bathroom. The upstairs rooms are built into the roof space with low sloping ceilings and small windows. Luckily we were able to insert skylights into a couple of the rooms as skylights are quite a subtle addition. Downstairs there is an ensuite bedroom/study, a living room and an entrance hallway in the double storey part of the building. At the single storey end (the part under next door neighbour’s bedrooms) is an open plan kitchen and dining area which lead on to the main living area (that used to be the old garage).

Dining area (to be) with kitchen area blocked of by the grey bricks to the left

Dining area with bricks removed to open up the kitchen area

The building work started on the property whilst we were in Japan but when our time came to an end there, we decided that it was an ideal opportunity to come back to the UK and live onsite, so that we could manage the project ourselves. It wasn’t easy to manage the project when we were living on the other side of the world, especially with the time difference. Putting our trust and faith into the hands of strangers doing the work was also quite difficult, especially when it involved all of our life savings and more! Plus, with it being summertime in the UK, we thought living onsite in a caravan wouldn’t be too bad.

We’ve been onsite all summer so far and whilst work has been progressing steadily, the renovation hasn’t been smooth sailing that’s for sure! As is often the case with such projects, there have been delays, unexpected costs and problems that just could not have been anticipated. Needless to say, it is costing a lot more and taking a lot longer than we expected, but with all of the structural work now complete, we are finally getting to the stage where we can actually see the progress. This has been tremendous in giving us the motivation to push on. As the temperature begins to drop, and the novelty of living in a caravan wears off, hubby and I can finally see the light at the end of this very long tunnel :o).

I hope you enjoyed this blog post and vlog of our renovation journey. I will share more as things progress over the coming weeks. Have you ever done a renovation or restoration project? What did you renovate/restore? What was your experience?

Love Sheen xxx

From Stables To House: Coming Soon

Good Day Everyone,

I thought I'd do a little update post telling you what hubby and I have been up to since leaving Japan. After a stopover in Singapore (vlog to come soon), we arrived back home to the UK in June.

Never ones for a quiet life, we jumped straight into our next adventure. This one wasn't quite as glamorous as moving to Japan, in fact it was a bit of a step back when it came to our living space... a caravan! We bought Cora the caravan (that's right we named her) the same Saturday that we landed in the UK. We picked her up on Sunday and come Monday morning hubby drove her to her new location, and that's where we currently live!

Change is always on the horizon

Hubby and I are currently in the process of turning what once used to be a horses stable into a house. This may sound a bit random, especially compared to our recent expat life in Singapore and Japan, but it's not too random for us. In all the time that hubby and I have been together we've had a tendency to jump from one adventure (and at times disaster) to another, with little time in between. I'm not sure why, but our lives never tend to remain stable, calm and routine-y for long. Change is always just around the corner. I know change is the only constant in life but we just seem to go through more change than most people we know. It just seems to be our thing!

For example, a year after I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis and realising that it was spreading quite aggressively, we decided to simplify and re-prioritise our lives.... by moving half way across the world to a country where we knew no-one, Singapore. It sounds crazy, but in reality and with hindsight, it really was one of the best decisions we've ever made #NoRegrets! I'm not yet sure I'll be saying the same about the horses stable but you kind of get the idea of how our life tends to work.

So what possessed us to buy a building in a part of the UK that we'd never been to before, miles away from friends and family? The fact that it was a beautiful blue sky sunny day on the day that we went to view it might have had something to do with it. I'm not sure the outcome of that visit would have been the same had it been typical British weather of rain and drizzle. Also, the fact that the building is less than 30 seconds from the beach, surrounded by beautiful public gardens with a little stream running in front of it may have played a part. The setting is very idyllic and I promise you, the fact that the building came with it's own teeny tiny bridge taking you over the stream had absolutely nothing to do with it- honest! Although, it does make our friends chuckle when they visit and we tell them to park their car on our bridge. OK, so the bridge, even though it's very small, is kind of cool ;o).

I'm going to be doing a series of vlogs on YouTube as well as blog posts here sharing our journey from stables to house very soon, and in the meantime, here's a little taster of what's to come.

For those of you that enjoyed the Japan vlogs/posts, don't worry I still have a few more of those to come from the end of our time there :o).

Love Sheen xxx

JVlog #24: A Typical Sunday Afternoon in Yokohama

Good Day Everyone,

I've been rather inactive on my blog lately due to struggles with my arthritis ridden body. Living with chronic pain, and the subsequent insomnia this causes, means that I don't have the physical energy to do much at all. Even eating leaves me feeling utterly exhausted at times. However, on days like today when I'm feeling a bit more able, I try to do what I can :o).

An iconic steel sculpture in Yokohama

Yokohama sights, incl. the Nippon Maru ship museum and Cosmo Clock 21 ferris wheel

In today's post I wanted to share a vlog with you showing you what a typical Sunday afternoon in Yokohama was like for us, sharing some of the local sights. Yokohama is Japan's second largest city and just a 30min train ride away from Tokyo, making it a good day trip spot. It is an old port city and it's proximity to the water gives it a more relaxed vibe compared to Tokyo. Many sights/activities/places of interest are all within easy reach of one another. It's the kind of city that you can easily explore on foot or bike. There are self rental bike stations (Bay Bike) at most tourist sights.

On this particular day we wandered through a less touristy part of Yokohama where there was a  street festival taking place. After quickly realising that we'd seen many of the acts at a previous street festival we decided to catch the subway to one of my favourite parts of Yokohama, Motomatchi, the last stop on the MinatoMirai subway line. Motomatchi and the neighbouring hills of Yamate/Bluff area are where many of the foreign traders settled when Yokohama opened itself up as a port town, after the Edo period where Japan's rulers prohibited interaction with foreign countries. 

A (very faint) snow capped Mount Fuji behind the trees in the centre

In this area there are many western style buildings, some of which have been turned into museums and coffee shops, as well as a foreigners cemetery. On a clear day you can see Mount Fuji in the distance near the cemetery's main entrance. There is a walking route which takes you along the edges of the cemetery down to the back of Motomatchi shopping street. Along the way you get a great view looking out towards the iconic Yokohama Landmark Tower and during spring there are some beautiful cherry blossom trees to admire.

Yokohama Landmark Tower and Motomachi

We wandered through the residential streets at the bottom of the cemetery so that I could show you what a typical residential area looks like along with the style of Japanese houses. With space at a premium, houses are small and don't have much in the way of gardens/outdoor space, unless in a rural location (such as what we saw in Kawaguchiko/Mount Fuji area). Even the smallest of house will have a gap between itself and the neighbouring house. You don't see terraced houses in Japan. I'm guessing this is to allow wiggle room in the event of an earthquake. To me, Japanese houses all look very different to one another. You don't see the kind of uniformity that we get in England with streets and streets of houses that all look the same. Even though most houses don't have a front garden, (or if they do it is a very small), there will always be some sort of potted plants/flowers outside the house, which I think is rather nice touch.

In the midst of the residential houses there is a large fish pond which is home to some beautiful koi carp. I remember the first time we came across this purpose built pond, it felt quite random, just tucked away amongst the houses, but then Japan is definitely home to randomness and that's what we love about it. Can you just imagine a pond like this in the back streets of England?!

From the fish pond we headed for a bite to eat, before wandering through Motomachi shopping street. This street is the closest thing I ever came across in Japan that resembled a traditional high street that we get in England. As the name suggests it is a street lined with shops (including many familiar brands like Zara and Gap) and cafes and restaurants. It is especially beautiful during Christmas time when it is decorated with festive lights. It is definitely worth exploring the side streets that come off the main shopping street as there are lots of independent shops selling anything from crockery and lace to food and witches... yep that's right witches! There is a whole shop dedicated to witches, as you'll see in the vlog above.

I hope you enjoyed this little insight into our time in Japan. If you're ever in Tokyo then I would highly recommend a day or two in Yokohama.

Love Sheen xxx

JVlog #23: Mount Fuji & Lake Kawaguchiko Day 2 Part 2 - The Wind Cave

Good Day Everyone,

I am so very sorry that it's taken me so long to conclude our Mount Fuji trip. I have been struggling so much with my arthritis riddled body this past month that I literally feel like life has passed me by. My arthritis has spread to my jaw which has been causing severe head, ear and teeth ache, as well as making it difficult to chew food. I'm also having difficulty using my right hand as the joint damage and deformity is getting worse. This has been very frustrating given that I'm right handed for everything. I have an appointment to see a rheumatologist next month and recently I've taken a few steps to try and manage my pain levels better. I'm finally starting to feel like I'm living again (rather than merely existing) and so I'm looking forward to sharing more vlogs with you all :o).

Now back to our Mount Fuji trip. After spending a wonderful morning at the Shibazakura Festival (which you can see here), we headed back to Kawaguchiko where we bought a pass for the Kawaguchiko sight seeing bus. The pass cost ¥1,200 per person and is valid for two consecutive days. Even though we were going to be using the pass for just one afternoon, it was definitely worth it because by this point my arthritic joints were starting to hurt quite a lot and the hot humid weather was starting to get to me. The sight seeing buses cover two main routes; one around Lake Kawaguchiko and the other around Lake Saiko, another one of the Fuji Five Lakes. Both routes depart from Kawaguchiko station and when we purchased the tickets we were given a route map along with bus times. It is worth noting that these sight seeing buses only run from around 9-5/6pm and some of the stops along the routes are quite remote so its important to plan your return journey. 

In the interest of giving our feet a rest we hopped onto the sigh seeing bus and decided to head quite far out past Lake Saiko so that we could enjoy the scenic views whilst keeping cool in the air conditioned bus. On the bus we met a group of young lads from Singapore who were on their way to the ice caves. Hubby and I thought that that sounded pretty cool and decided to do the same. Once off the bus we followed the signs that led us into a woodland. The woodland was absolutely beautiful with tall trees that had the most amazing root structures all over the ground. It was the kind of place that you'd expect to see in one of The Hobbit movies. 

Loved the bamboo hand rail

After a short walk, we came across a ticket counter where we asked about the ice caves. The elderly Japanese lady at the counter gestured that it was a 25min walk away through the woodland and when we looked, we realised that there was no defined path and the terrain was very uneven. Hubby and I decided to leave it, as not only were we not wearing the right kind of foot gear for that terrain, but we would also be cutting it fine when it came to catching the last sight seeing bus back to Kawaguchiko. Seeing our disappointed faces the elderly lady pointed to a poster on the wall which was for a wind cave that was just a few minutes walk away, so hubby and I bought tickets for that and headed further into the woodland. You can see the vlog of our afternoon in the video below :o).

We climbed down a flight of steps to the entrance of the wind cave. Once we came to the end of the first set of steps, we noticed that the temperature dropped all of a sudden.

Entrance to the wind cave

As we walked further into the cave we saw icicles hanging from the rocks. It wasn't long before we were shivering from the cold, and the bamboo hand rail that I was once so pleased to see was redundant because it was ice cold. There was no way I could hold onto it for more than a second or two. Not ideal given how wet, icy and slippy the ground inside the cave was.

Icicles

At various points within the cave, the head height was so low that even I had to crouch. Further inside the cave we saw collections of ice blocks and structures. Aside from the ice, there wasn't much else to see inside the cave. There certainly wasn't anything to suggest that this was specifically a wind cave. As we reached the end of the cave, we saw the same group of lads from Singapore. It transpired that they also had the same concerns that we did about the terrain and catching the last bus back.

Inside the cave

Once we made our way back out into the warmth, hubby & I were both kind of glad that we made the decision not to go to the ice caves as we definitely weren't wearing the right clothing. Poor hubby's arms were freezing as he was in just a t-shirt. After catching the last sight seeing bus back to Kawaguchiko, we caught the first of four trains to make our way back home to Yokohama. Although we came to Kawaguchiko on the coach, there were no seats available on the return coach. It was a long 3.5hrs back home. Had the weather been dry for the next day then we would probably have stayed an extra night at Kawaguchiko, but sadly rain was forecasted. Plus we had shipping boxes waiting to be packed in preparation for departure from Japan.

I hope you've enjoyed these blogs and vlogs of our trip to Mount Fuji and Lake Kawaguchiko. Aside, from the wind cave, I would definitely recommend the other three activities/sights that we did. Had we had more time then we would have liked to have gone to the Fuji-Q Highland amusement park, even though we're not thrill seekers.

I can imagine Mount Fuji and the surrounding mountain area being absolutely stunning during the autumn/fall as the maple leaves change colour. Spring would be another great time of year to visit with the cherry blossoms and that was when we originally intended on going, but unfortunately that 2-3 week period when the blossoms were in bloom, was very wet this year. Nonetheless we really enjoyed our time and would highly recommend a visit, if you're ever planning a holiday to Japan :o).

Love Sheen xxx

JVlog #22: Mount Fuji & Lake Kawaguchiko Day 2 Part 1 - The Shibazakura Festival

Good Day Everyone,

Welcome to the second day of our trip. If you missed day one then you can catch up here and here. I woke up on the second day after a not so great night's sleep. I don't think I've ever slept on such a lumpy mattress before... perhaps that explained why the rooms were so cheap lol!

Pink shibazakra with Mount Fuji in the background

As it was still early the cafes weren't open yet so we headed to a convenience store for a morning coffee. Japanese convenience stores are fantastic! They cater for so much more than just snacks and often have a small dine in section. They provide complimentary microwaves so you can buy a ready meal, heat it up and eat it there. You can also get hot drinks, toiletries, and sometimes even a shirt and tie set, just in case you've had an all nighter during the working week! How cool is that?!

Mount Fuji

We got very lucky with the weather for our second day with another blue sky morning. Mount Fuji was clearly visible although it did have a marshmallowy white cloud around it's summit. Since we had some time to spare we wondered down a few side streets to look at Japanese houses and gardens, and to admire the different views of Mount Fuji. You can see that and the rest of our day in the video below :o).

We then went back to Kawaguchiko Station to join the queue to purchase tickets for the Shibazakura Festival. Shibazakura, also know as pink moss or phlox moss are teeny tiny flowers that form a beautiful blanket/carpet of colour on the ground when in full bloom.

The festival venue was located just south of Lake Motosuko (the most western of the Fuji Five Lakes) and we purchased a ticket that included entrance to the festival as well as a return coach journey for ¥1,900 each. The coach journey took about 40mins each way and we went past both Lake Shojiko (the smallest of the Fuji Five Lakes) and Lake Motosuko (the image of which appears on the reverse side of the ¥1,000 bill) along the way. Both of these lakes looked very remote and isolated. The surrounding area wasn't particularly built up and there really wasn't much around. Now we understood why people online were recommending that Lake Kawaguchiko was the best for non-Japanese speaking tourists. Also, there isn't much in the way of bus services around the Fuji Five Lakes so you need to get about on the tour coaches or the tourist bus which runs from about 9am-5/6pm, if you don't have your own transport.

We arrived at the venue to a sea of tour coaches. Even though it was still relatively early in the morning tourists were out in force, most probably to get the best photos of the shibazakura before the festival got too busy. It looks like we all had the same idea ;o). We took a leisurely walk around the grounds admiring the shibazakura and keeping an eye for that famous spot where you have a carpet of bright pink shibazakura with Mount Fuji in the background.

The festival area was surrounded by beautiful green mountains of varying shades of green. I can imagine the mountains being particularly stunning during autumn/fall as the leaves change colour. There were also lots of different flowers in bloom that provided a pleasant contrast to the shibazakura. There was a purpose built viewing platform on the grounds that we went up to get some photos, although to get the iconic photo of the bright pink shibazakura in the foreground with Mount Fuji in the background we needed to be lying on the ground, not going up lol. Hubby did a great job of capturing that shot for me, the one that you see at the top of this blog post :o).

As well as places where we could get a light bite to eat and purchase some shibazakura themed delights, there was a little collection of market stalls to mooch around where we could buy Japanese goods including Japanese Peach Tea. The short text on the tea box is typical of the polite Japanese etiquette that we've always enjoyed, although the man looks a bit too aggressive for my liking!

I hope you enjoyed the vlog and this blog post of the second day of our trip. The final part will be coming soon.

Love Sheen xxx