What a thrilling experience to see the LED screens light up in our house, knowing that electricity has finally made its way into the veins of the building. It’s a wow moment and I will never take for granted the work that’s involved to make that flick of a switch happen. Just 18 months ago, we were standing in a field filled with rocks, ferns and briars. But now I can walk outside in the dusk and look back at our home with light in the windows, soon to be filled with our lives.
We started our electrical second fix about six weeks ago, this involved our electrician Oliver Mullen, led by James to install the sockets, switches, fire alarms, isolators, fuse box, meter box, wire-up the heating system, manifolds and plantroom. We installed the spot lights and a couple of sample wall lights and pendants, but the majority of decorative lights will be installed closer to move-in date, the electrician but a safety box on the exposed wires.
The ESB have been good to deal with, we were connected two weeks after our cert was issued by our electrician. It was such a relief that there were no hitches in the final moments, as I’ve heard horror stories of long delays.
We’ve had the heat on for a couple of weeks to dry out the concrete floor before polishing, they felt pretty dry already with the heat from the solar gain, but we were recommended to put on the heating on in case any cracks emerge. I’ve also been keeping a vigilant eye on the ESB meter, but the consumption hasn’t been too bad, given that we’ve had it on constantly and been opening the windows to allow any moisture out of the building. After a few days the house seemed to be maintaining the heat well and the unit was turning on intermittently to top up the heat. We have 7 heating zones with separate stats, and they were generally consistent at 21-22 degrees.
Next on the build agenda is polishing the concrete floor, tiling the bathrooms, installing sliding doors, skirting, kitchen, plumbing second fix and blinds, wardrobes. There are many things that will be done after we move in, but that’s ok, the more work we can do ourselves the better.
