As our first floor manor house building project draws to a close, it’s time for a final update. The project so far has trundled along fairly uneventfully. We have had some moments of worry and concern about lead flashings around our old chimney, some broken roof tiles needing replacing and leaky guttering, but thankfully these issues have been dealt with promptly.
Most of the plastering is completed. My sincere apologies to whoever is allocated apartment 103; plasterers always make their job look so easy, but take it from me, it’s incredibly difficult! Thankfully I didn’t create any lasting damage and our plasterer was able to tidy up my messy attempts at plastering the kitchen wall. He has also promised to ice my Christmas cake too!
Decorating is coming along nicely; all of the apartments will be painted white, making the most of the gorgeous natural light that the first floor manor house offers. This also creates a nice, clean blank canvas for tenants to make their own home. When you visit our tenants, you quickly realise how they bring personal items and different vibrant colour schemes to transform our apartments into their own homes, so it’s always best to give people a blank canvas to start with.
We have kitchens and flooring fitted in three of our four apartments and tiling in the kitchens is almost completed. The kitchens are looking fabulous with their solid oak work surfaces and dark slate grey flooring with a hint of Orpheus dramatic sparkle. We have our ovens, hobs and washing machines on site and these will soon be fitted. Our fourth kitchen will be fitted very soon as the project comes to a close.
The bathrooms are fitted with shower cubicles and modern white bathroom suites. We asked for additional tiling in some bathrooms to try to cut down on maintenance in the longer term. Flooring is going to be quite neutral in the bathrooms with more obligatory Orpheus sparkle!
We have tried to think about saving energy throughout the whole project. We have a new energy efficient water tank with fittings for solar powered water heating systems to be installed at a later date. All lighting on the first floor will be LED, in an attempt to keep maintenance and running costs as low as possible. We have had new windows fitted which will hopefully help us to keep our heating bills a little lower. After much head scratching and tea drinking the plumber has got to grips with our complicated heating system and has ensured that we are running in a much more fuel efficient way.
The nice thing about managing projects at Orpheus is that I think we are really good at listening to what tenants want, and we try to make improvements for every refurbishment we undertake. We are all very lucky to have such wonderful facilities to live, learn and work in, so it’s important that we continually strive to keep our environment looking at its very best. I’m lucky enough to show lots of visitors around Orpheus and see and hear first-hand their reactions, and it’s always extremely positive. Of course, the other bonus of being project manager is that I get to shop legitimately during my working day! It has been a challenge to make sure we keep quality high whilst remaining within budget, but I’m really pleased with our purchases and I know our new tenants will love their new homes.
I always get a little anxious as we embark on a new project; I hope that people will like what we are doing and that, ultimately, young adults will want to live in our apartments. My concerns seem to drift away, though, as the project moves along and I can see the architect’s drawings come to life and the apartments become a reality.
As the project draws to a close, I refuse to hang up my steel top capped boots and hard hat. I’m now working with our fabulous fundraising team to raise additional funds to reinvent and refurbish other Orpheus spaces… so watch this space for the next instalment…
Kerry
