Outside in

The gentleman came this morning to test my house to ensure that it meets the environmental standards that were claimed for it in my ‘permis de construire’ (building permit), in particular those relating to insulation, heat loss and draught exclusion. To do that he blocked up all of the air vents and sealed the front door with an airtight cover incorporating a machine with a large fan connected to a lap top computer.

The house was then pressurised and measurements taken to assess how much air was escaping taking heat with it and also the potential for cold draughts entering the house from outside. The result was astounding – astonishingly good in fact – but not surprising in a way given how warm the house always is. The internal air temperature never drops below 23 degrees C with a setting of 24 degrees on the wall thermostat and it’s especially noticeable as the days become cooler when you re-enter from outside.

However, he was kind enough to take me round afterwards to show me where there were a couple of gaps which are allowing cold draughts to come in from outside. These will be simple for me to fill with silicone etc while I’m doing my decorative work and will increase the thermal performance of the house even more by preventing any cold air whatsoever entering the house. It goes without saying that I’m absolutely delighted!

On the subject of outside in, I recently reorganised the house since installing the wardrobe and storage space in bedroom one to make everything more tidy and get more space back. As part of the process a large space was vacated in the dining area where I originally placed my inflatable bed which will eventually be taken by the dining room table and chairs that are still currently in storage.

The space is plenty large enough to take the large outdoor table that I moved up onto the terrace area a few weeks ago together with six of its eight chairs, the last two remaining outside next to the small round table that I also moved up from outside the caravan. Sure enough, the table and chairs fit in the space beautifully and with the addition of a smart new tablecloth don’t look out of place at all.

Brilliant! For the first time in several months I’ll now be able to entertain friends and visitors. The official hand-over of the house keys is scheduled to take place any time now so who knows, maybe the first occasion will be a small house-warming party 😉