Prospect House glazing nearing completion

Although the Mill has been very much the focus of this site blog over the summer, we have had a number of other projects on site, some on which I am going to post a few progress pictures of over the next few days because they are nearing completion, and are looking really lovely. In an ideal world I'd have time to blog about more of our projects, but we are still hugely busy, so its just a few snaps for now.

We have been working on Prospect House with our clients Peter and Jane for several years now, refurbishing much of the house, including the loft, fist floor bedrooms and bathrooms, front reception and finally a new dining kitchen extension, which has been designed from structural glass, and clad with a mix of oak and zinc roofing. Peter and Jane have ordered a fantastic Bulthup stainless steel kitchen and are having bespoke joinery storage units made by local craftsman Naill Paton, both of which are not far off being ready for installation.

The photos show progress shots of the glass being installed finally this week, together with one of the original graphics, and as you can see it is shaping up nicely. I'm looking forward to our first celebration supper with the client already!

Finally the rain has let up for a day this weekend which allowed us to undertake a timely visit with the client to the mill, to look at progress, and quality, and to look at a move in date, which we are hopeful is likely to be around the 7/8th November.

Personally I am delighted with many of the finished details at the mill, which is full of interesting shapes, colours, textures and patterns, some of which I have taken a few pictures of at today's visit. I am most pleased with the silver grey we have chosen for the windows, doors, guttering, external light fittings and downpipes. It was a bit of a leap of faith by the client, but one that has paid off very well. The stonework of the original building is such a beautiful array of colours it needed very little in terms of other colours introduced to the exterior, and with the warmth of the cladding, the cooler silver grey (RAL 9023) has complimented the granite well.

Internally, we are almost complete. the oak flooring has been laid, all the bathrooms tiled, and most of the kitchen installed. The kitchen worktops were templated this weekend, and should be installed in just under a fortnight, at which point we can get the client ready to move in. The glass balustrades are in production for the staircase, and the special order red quartz bathroom floor tiles are on their way from Italy, so I am hopeful that within the fortnight, we will have all the remaining items delivered, and the project will be complete.

I find the angles and shapes made as you move around the building very pleasing. With their deep reveals, the windows give each room distinct clipped views of the world outside, and again, due to the way the exterior is being landscaped, these are full of interesting shapes, colours and textures.

Most of the lighting is operational now, and now that the floor is down in the lounge, the wood burning stove can be installed, which should happen later this week.

With the deluge of rain in the past week, the mill lade water flow has increased significantly, so much so that even though the wheel is unbalanced by only having three of the 12 bucket segments clad with Thermowood, it has been going round fairly constantly, which has been very pleasing to see. Matt intends to return next weekend to finish the cladding, and balance the wheel, plus fit a manual lock on it, so it can be stopped if needs be. The needle bearings are working so well, I am actually slightly concerned that we may need to do something to slow it down a bit when the water flow is very high - something none of believed would be an issue considering the weight of the wheel - it just goes to show the power of water! The wheel was a bit of an experiment by the construction team, as there are no local companies making them anymore, and despite one of two minor snags to be remedies, it works!

The Wheel is in!

Back from a miserable day out on site - the weather is terrible here, and landscaping at the mill has had to come to a halt - much of Kemnay is flooded, but helpfully, the mill lade is coping very well with the 100mm of rain we have had in the last 24 hrs!

Other than landscaping the mill is now very near completion, the painters are in, the wood floor is almost completely laid, carpets are on order, the kitchen worktops are being templated on Saturday, the glass balustrades for the stair are ordered, and the clients furniture is on its way! At present, depending on the weather, I anticipate the mill being largely complete by the end of the month, which is excellent news for the client, and a great relief for the contractor team. The newly fabricated mill wheel was installed at the weekend, and it works - which is very satisfying, given it was a bit of an experiment as no one is making them any more. so many congrats to Gregor and Matt for their efforts.

We have decided to clad the interior of the wheel drum and the paddles, partly as galvanising them slightly bent some of the paddles, partly because we felt the overall look was just a bit too industrial looking. We have opted to use Thermowood for the linings to match the rest of the scheme, and several sample panels have been done, and they are looking great. the wheel runs very smoothly, and is light enough you can actually stop it by hand.

The interior should be ready for deep clean by the end of next week, so fingers crossed we should be able to set a move in date very shortly.

Little Maldron Mill nearing completion

Construction continues full steam ahead this month, despite the changing weather. Externally, Gregor is pressing ahead with the landscaping, including the construction of the rear rockery area, which has consumed most of the large granite boulders we had on site, and he has carefully riddled the site excavations to take out the useable stone, which this week we have crushed on site to produce hardcore for the driveway. In total this has produced over 600 tones of type 2 sub base, from material that most likely would have had to be carted off site and tipped to landfill. The crusher was on site only for a day, and in that time, Gregor managed to double crush the rock to get it to the required size we were after. We have about 60 tons of spoil that will need to be removed off site, which is a very considerable improvement over the 600+tons we would have had to remove, and also means we do not have to import material to the site to finish the driveway. Everyone was entranced watching the crusher at work - it is a very impressive bit of kit, hugely noisy, but extremely effective.

The last three weeks have seen the mill take a giant leap towards completion, which is scheduled for the end of this month, culminating with this installation of the main body of the staircase steelwork, which will now be templated for the glass balustrades this week. The yellow treads that you can see are temporary coverings to protect the stair, these will be replaced with oak very shortly. We are particlualry pleased with the overall look of the steelwork, and thanks go to Matt and his team of lads for the quality of the workmanship and the installation, which all went without a hitch.

The joiners are doing a lovely job of installing the gloss red kitchen, which is looking appropriately bold and the general finishings, including making up a number of awkward sized/shaped doors, tiling the bathrooms, and getting ready to fit the oak floors, the timber for which should be delivered to site this week.

The Office building is now completely clad with timber, all beautifully countersunk and pelleted, so that the fixings are virtually invisible, and the effect is stunning. The office has had a lick of paint, and the mill building itself is almost ready for painting.

The Mill lade is complete, and we are now awaiting delivery of the mill wheel, which is in at the powder coaters, and should be on site early next week for fitting.

The boiler has been fired up and the underfloor heating is working nicely, with the floor now dry enough in the mill to commence fitting the oak covering. The stair treads will complement this by being constructed from solid oak, and fitted with LED lights.

One issue that has presented itself this week was the failure of the solar panel flashings during a spell of extremely windy weather last weekend. This wind tore the lower flashing clean off, and following careful inspection we have decided that the flashings are simply not fit for purpose, so they will be removed and we are having new lead flashings procured. I am in the process of taking this up with the manufacturer, Worcester, as this is a new produced they have recently launched, and clearly further development work needs ot be done at thier end, as the flashings do not appear to have an adequate fixing detail to cope with a blustery day on Deeside!