Early birds, these guys. On my way to meet the electrician at a lazy 7:30 am, I saw that they’d already had a delivery that was just departing down the lane.
oak cladding in morning light
More oak arrived late yesterday via Neil and his Land Rover with trailer; it’s always a pleasure to have him onsite. These pieces will cover the steels in the master bedroom, a design compromise that sits a little uncomfortably only because for the rest of the house, the wood is structural, and this isn’t. But with Neil’s skill in fabricating, and Josh, Terry and James’ skill in installing, I doubt we’ll be able to tell any difference between the cladding and the real deal at all in years to come. It looks very fresh at the moment when put up next to the stuff that’s been up for six months. Neil clearly spent ages on the comprehensive installation manual for the guys too. I’m sure they’re grateful!
instruction manualTerry’s not putting it up on the wonk, it’s the lens distorting the anglescurved beam to match detail in the hallway
Meanwhile, work carries on around the rest of the house, and it’s crowded. Plasterers, roofers and electricians have been in all week, and I’ve been interviewing fireplace experts, interior designers and joiners.
fitting plasterboard from the vaulted section
The best bit of the week was our topping out ceremony. We, well, Tim really, decided it would happen when the last ridge tile went on. Originating in Scandinavia, this is an event that usually happens on bigger projects and usually involves chasing out evil spirits with branches of evergreen plants, and blessing the building for its future occupants in some way. Rather than inviting a random druid priest around or sticking the odd sprig of fir tree up the top of the scaffolding, we tried to keep it simple.
Our solution was that we signed the final ridge tile. We got out our white pen and scribbled as a family, then got Tim, Ben, James, Terry, Josh, and Spencer to sign as well. So Spencer carefully left the last space empty for us to fit on the very front of the house. Excellent! It was a two-part event with fizz and sausage rolls on the Thursday as Clinton couldn’t be there for the actual fitting on the Friday. Everyone from the roofers to the tackers were there. Matt, Gillian’s boyfriend even joined in. Clinton said a few words of thanks, we armed Tim with the camera for some family snaps, and then we tucked right in!
Gemma setting up the buffetbuilders buffetit IS Oxshott after allthanks, guys…… from all of usunderside of the ridge tilefuture residentsGemma and fake fizz
we even had waiting service
The A-Team: Ben, Jackson, Tim, Clive, Blake, Dave, Mike, Josh, Terry, James, and Spencer
So it seemed only fitting that after all these festivities and thank-yous that we actually got the signed tile on the roof. The girls, Matt, and I spent a lovely sunny morning in Roofing School with Spencer (well, me watching them more than doing anything constructive).
up on the scaffold
Spencer prepares the area for the final tileGemma lays the tile
Can’t say that our efforts contributed anything special, but it will be lovely to think that at least we had something tangible to do with the build as we look up at the front gable forevermore. The layers of cloaking look great, and the rest of the roof is just about there. Next week will involve Spencer doing a little tidying with other, lower, ridges, which leaves the scaffolding coming down Thursday or Friday!
final tile in placecloaking closeup“How are we going to get the leaves off THAT, Mum?”can you spot the venting tiles?
The roof is almost finished. Spencer asked me if I was happy with the course of cloaking tiles that will sit between the oak gables below and the roof tiles above. He’s added a layer of Welsh slate secured underneath to prevent the roof from wobbling as the oak settles. They’ll be mortared in when they’re laid next week, and the gap between them and the roof tiles will be filled as well. The carefully installed leadwork finishes the job.
junction of tiles, slate, cloaking, and leadcloaking mockup that will go up and upleadworkclothed and unclothed
The gutters went up later in the week. They’re powder coated aluminium which will last and last with any luck. Aluminium is made in longer lengths than cast iron which is great for the long runs without dormers–easier to make, easier to coat, and easier to install. Although the guy I spoke to who was working with long sections of it up on the scaffold late on Friday said it was very very cold as a material to handle. Yes, at 2C it would be. They’ve installed around all the fiddly dormers, and the downpipes will go in when the scaffolding is down. In the meantime, they attach giant bags to where the downpipes should be, so that water still collects and stays off the face of the building until the job is complete.
dormers with burlap hats onlong runs of guttering on the east sidepieces cut to length and ready for fitting
guttering installed just in time–this is slushy snow in standstill traffic…lovely!
It’s the middle of a bitter cold spell with snow off and on all week, but none of it sticking, so it’s just disgusting outside with no snow-joy. Phil the plasterer says that they need it to be 5 degrees and rising for plaster to set. Part of their job is to physically stand there and watch it set to even out imperfections, so this is taking rather a while, more like days than hours, it being all in cold and slo-mo.
There are ten individual 2.5 m tall panes of glass in the hallway at the front of the house. If we do decide to go with the fancy automated curtains we’ve got in mind, we’ll need holes drilled and wires for power setup through them. James had the unenviable task of drilling the structural oak as close as he could to the windows given the body of the drill. So faced with this tricky job of messing around with the expensive and carefully engineered oak, he simply bought a new drill bit for the job, lined it up, and with his typical levels of cool, just got on with it. It looks bizarre to see shavings of precious structural oak now adorning the surfaces of the lower beams. I’m glad I wasn’t there to watch.
cable hole
The back of the house is looking more like a house. Terry is still up the top, round the sides, inside, outside, and up and down ladders all day long cutting bits to go just about everywhere. Meanwhile, Josh is in full voice doing the same. There is more than enough to keep both of them very busy and loads of disco tunes to keep them going.
back of the house
We welcome Nicola on board this week. She’s the garden design expert and will draw up a plan for the front and the back. This is timely because I had the good fortune to meet James the landscape gardener and Andy with the driveway materials, both to discuss what’s happening outside. So a plan is where we want to start, especially with the hard landscaping and tree-planting as there is a certain level of commitment involved in those pieces, and that will come to fruition in the coming weeks. For once we’re doing something in the important-and-NOT-urgent-box, and not in our usual space of important-and-urgent.
Meanwhile, what colour of driveway would you like? The most cost-effective range is the 6mm aggregate which requires a 16mm base rather than the 10mm aggregate which requires a 22 mm base. Less material means less labour as well as less of the stuff in the first place which equates to less money (hopefully).
10 mm is too big, 3 mm is to small, so 6 mm is just about right
Another visit to the forge to end the week to have a discussion with Tony about some very minor tweaks to the curlicues.
look closely for snowflakes falling in Betchworth
We had a good chat about his current job, how he started his career and what happened to allow him to start working in a place like this 27 years ago. I think he is enjoying working on our project as he seems to be a specialist in odd and interesting metalwork staircases. We’ll go back another time when the fire is on and he’s making our pieces.
the anvil has seen many years of actionTony and Clinton discussing the ups and downs pattern
James is preparing to fill in the brick slip panels soon. He’s given one of them a start, but the specialist epoxy mortar we chose back in Week 31 needs a special gun for application rather than a trowel, so he’s waiting on its delivery before continuing. There is leadwork to fill in beforehand anyway. Meanwhile, Clive has been cutting bricks like there’s no tomorrow.
Clive’s been cutting bricks and tiles
I hope the view through the building will always be this good. Maybe if it’s good now with bags of plaster, ladders, and light fittings hanging off the ceiling, it will be even better when it’s all tricked out with furniture when you come down to make a cup of tea in the morning.
The roof is almost completely done. The colour is great, the guys are working hard–even on a Sunday, and the leadwork is gorgeous. The guys tell me there are loads of cuts which is slowing progress at this stage. You can hear them cutting from across the train tracks into the woods as we walk up to site. Most of the cut tiles are fitted all around the fiddly dormers that were built, needed a redesign from Dave, unbuilt, rebuilt, and now leaded and tiled. Loads of effort but they really make the building.
leadwork over oak and under the tilesfiddly
Tony has been busy experimenting with the curlicues on the balusters. He works out a listed building that has always been a forge since it was built in the 1400s , and he’s working in tandem with our joinery company that I visited back in Week 24. The joinery company works in the complete opposite way with a spotless factory full to the brim with machination, lasers and CNCs. You couldn’t get a pair of trades working more differently. And they’re both getting on famously! It would be nice to think that we’ve started a symbiotic relationship in stairmaking here.
Gregory visiting the forge with meCAD drawings to scale for Tony to work with (that’s our lamp in the back all restored too)ta-da!
The stair design is super complicated with three types of balusters, intricate oak interim newel posts, and all the other bits of the stairs like treads, goings, aprons, strings and nosings. It’s an artform. One of our decisions to make was about the thickness of the upstairs flooring: 15 mm or 20 mm? This had a massive implication for the staircase which has a 10-week leadtime. 5 mm! But it has a big effect on stairs. It was a job for Ben to coordinate all these overlapping decisions in the correct order so everything arrives on time. Not inconsequential, and I’m glad I’m not doing it (I couldn’t).
So I’ve had my sharpies out to ensure that everyone knows exactly where each type of item is going. This might sound pedantic, but it’s not a simple task to create this masterpiece when its taking two manufacturers, Ben to coordinate, Tim to purchase, and James onsite to make the whole thing work. Ultimately it will be a really special part of the house.
Another Big Thing going in is the bronze double doors to the back bay. They look great now, but I know that when the glass goes in and the lead lines don’t match, I’m going to really have to work on my non-cringe attitude towards it. But, …. it’s the way it is, it’s in the drawings, and we’re leaving it. But before all that happens, we’ve got to protect the casements, so the doors are drilled and fitted, and then they’re tucked away in the garage for safekeeping until the rest of the building is watertight or at least until the wet trades are out of the building. Access will be an issue too when these go in because we don’t want the whole of everyone to be opening and closing them all day long, nor do we want to have them propped open and potentially bashed into accidentally.
There are masses of guys onsite every day now, and parking is becoming an issue down our tiny little lane. Most of the neighbours have been super patient and we’re grateful for that. It’s only temporary! James even got his shears out to cut back some of the overgrown (we haven’t lived in the house for almost two years now so no-one has been around to do this) shrubbery across the way so that cars can pass more easily.
liability?
We’ve had MANY meetings about electrics. But a single team will be onsite now to finish the first fix. In hindsight, we should have been much more proactive in wiring this house from the start. We should have got sorted with lamps, circuits, control and all permutations of data and TV sockets that are going in, right down to the smoke alarms long before we put spade to earth.
One of the questions Paul asked today was what height do you want the doorbell? Well, what height SHOULD you put a doorbell? It was all down to Clinton pointing his finger at Paul’s shoulder through an imaginary doorbell and saying, “Here.” So the guys got their drill out and put it through the building at Paul’s shoulder-height. Effective, but bonkers.
electrical pow-wowwiring for the study“Where do you want your outside lights, Madam?” “Er,…. ?”cloaks closet / IT hub
The screed for the front floor was laid on Friday to set over the weekend. The guys moved the ladder to the other side so we all avoid the area until it’s rock-solid.
screedhi-tech job this screed laying
Meanwhile the plasterers are in the bedrooms making them look like, well, rooms. They covered up the windows with masses of really thick black tape and card to protect them. This is all well and good, but the house is now completely dark. They’ve brought in masses of lights to help, and these are good because they highlight every imperfection. Clearly, there aren’t many imperfections when they’re done. They’re a totally jolly team which is amazing considering it’s totally hard and messy work. They’ll be in over the weekend (which is awesome) so that it goes off in time for Monday and all the chaos that ensues for next week.
electrical cutoutsportable lightingblackouta LOT going on this weekall packed up after plastering
It’s lovely to just walk around and see what’s changed from day to day–even down to where they put stuff. I think that we’ll be using the house in much the same way as they do; they’re putting their gear out of high traffic areas, just like we’ll be doing when we move in. I’m taking notes….
OK so maybe we won’t store off-cuts in the master bedroom…tableau of M&E and insulation in the kitchenDizzy has been onsite from the beginning and is now residing in the kitchen
Roof tiles arrived this week. Spencer and his team used the tile-escalator, or Bumpa, to haul 10,000 tiles up to the roof. That is TEN THOUSAND. A totally bonkers number.
We’re very happy with the colour. Although we didn’t use a huge mix of colours in the end, having gone for mostly Heritage, Michelmersch, they still look really mottled when they’re on, and that’s the look we were going for. The colour changes a lot in the light, and it will darken over time.
frozen tilesthey frost up on the north side of the house
Josh with saw, not enjoying puzzle-piecing the insulation
Josh, Terry and James are cutting up bits of insulation to fit in the rafters. Not a super fun task, but they’re getting on with it bravely. In fact, it’s their absolutely least favourite thing to do in the whole build because they’ve got to get all dolled up in their anti-dust gear complete with masks and as much full-length coverage as possible to avoid fibres sneaking into clothes and itching all to hell. And we’ve got tons of the stuff. Some of the long sections will have rolls of insulation, which gives a small respite, and these will be installed after the plasterboard ceilings are put up so they don’t drop down through the gaps.
Once the solid insulation is installed, they tack up large bits of fancy tin-foil to make it even cosier.
tin foil ceiling in back bedroom….… now covered in plasterboard later in the week
A small issue percolated to the surface with lining up the glazing bars on the west and north faces in the front landing first floor bay. We’re still discussing how to deal with it. But the rest of the windows are going in nicely.
We’ve got another issue with the glazing bars in the back of the house too, and this is more of a design thing. They don’t line up either. But is it a problem at all? Architects would probably recoil in horror and shout “Of course!”, but this is a one off house, right? It’s the crack in the pot in the great grand scheme of things. Making them line up would require masses of redesign from the bricks to the subframes and on to replacing windows and frames. Tim reckons that once it’s decorated and furnished we won’t notice it so much. He’s probably right. My plan is to plant the heck out of the garden so you see through the windows (obvious but important here) into awesomeness.
is it a problem?
The kitemarks were such a bugbear at the beginning of the build with the warranty company insisting that they were visible ON EVERY PANE. There are 98 panes. That was clearly not the option we wanted, and after many flurries of emails, we got them printed discretely just behind the glazing bars, just like the window company does on all their other jobs (that probably don’t use our warranty company).
the hallowed kitemark
It’s still below freezing but at least it’s sunny and as warm as it can be for the guys working on the back of the house.
The view straight through the house is still pretty special.
back to frontthrough to back
It’s still been freezing every morning, so here’s a gratuitous picture of the frosty Common.
Before Christmas we had the pleasure of meeting Nick Archer, an artist in Rye who we’re going to commission to create a work for us on this wall. He’s done amazing large scale works with colour which is his speciality, and lots of his pieces are bought by corporations with large lobbies that can fit them. We’ve fallen in love with a particular piece of his below. We’ve even moved the electrics in this room so you see the painting from the kitchen instead of a black screen of tech. The painting will bring the whole downstairs together.
future home for a Nick Archer painting …… and Nick’s “Stranded” which is similar
As a testament to the cracking-on vibe that is occurring onsite, the roofers and a window guy are onsite on Saturday. This doesn’t happen very often. Spencer and his team are enjoying a little winter sun and practicing their catching skills. I’m told they’ll even be around on Sunday to load more tiles up to the roof–no cutting or noise to annoy the neighbours, just generally getting on.
There were 20 guys onsite on Wednesday, a world record for St Anne’s!, and around 15 for the rest of days in the week. Lots of juggling with cars, gear, deliveries and tea.
action stations
there’s an X on every fifth course to show where extra nails have gone for building control
Inside is looking very different day by day with the addition of each window. We can start to set our minds to decorating this beast, and thinking of things like curtain returns and furniture.
Some of the windows died en-route to their final destination which is sad considering all the love that goes into each one. But it must go with the territory and there’s only one dead soldier so far.
The pipework to bathrooms in the first floor has been installed on the ground floor ceilings throughout, and it pops through the floor when needs be.
pipes, windows, & electricswaterworks in the study ceiling
One cool thing in the underfloor heating is the sensor setup. Tracks in the screed were avoided to install a sensor unit that fits between the pipes and connects to a programmable unit on the wall. This unit controls a zone, and there are units dotted around the house. Will be neat to use!
shower room sensor spot
Another M&E thing we’ve got is a mechanical extract that runs from a central hub to each wet area and the coats closet with all the electrics in it. This unit will raise the circulation in the house so we don’t get condensation and then mould; part of building regs and calcs on the size of the building…. (?)
There was a debate early on about how to cross the vaulted area with the MEV pipes to the shower-room on the west side of the building. At the time we talked about possible fixes such as boxing it in around the apex of the master bedroom ceiling, or adding a second extractor fan for just that bathroom, and all sorts of complicated ideas–none of which were particularly enticing. But in the end James got the guys to run the pipework over the entire ceiling between one roofline and the other. Pretty impressive!
The photo with the silver MEV pipework shows the underside of the roof having been tiled, and the right side still to finish. You can see the lovely blue sky through the Tyvek and battens on the unfinished side and more blue sky all along the ridgeline.
silver MEV pipework
The front of the house upstairs is pretty dramatic. James and the guys continue to put up extra Tyvek and insulation whenever they can to protect it. These are the most precious windows ever! And it’s great to know that they think so too.
There is still a teensy bit of floor to left screed still because the team had brought just slightly too little gear with them last weekend. They come up from the south coast to do the work and they have to do it when the site is not overrun with subcontractors. They must have been horrified to find they’d come up short. They’ll come back soon, and it will be good to be finished to cover those delicate pipes.
landing looking westlanding looking south through the master bedroom
The lone windows guy installed the side lights to the front door today. At least it’s a little warmer this morning on the north side for him. And the forecast is good going forward, so here’s hoping for a good few weeks with lots of activity!
Lots of decisions in the background. Lots of cold cold weather.
Underfloor heating upstairs, wiring for the alarm system and sorting most of the first fix electrics was the name of the game this week. The window guys had a break and returned to base for a week while we wait for the next shipment of windows.
The guys came to screed the first floor, and they couldn’t get into their shed in the morning because it was frozen shut at -8 C. They rescheduled for Saturday only to find that it was still -6 C and the pipes onsite had frozen leaving them waterless. They worked around it by running the hot water to make up their mix through the space heater. Nice. But they managed.
future toastinessNot many photos onsite this week. The kids have university interviews, with lots of travel hither and thither, some of the team are on holiday this week making for a lack of meetings, and there is a lot of stuff going on for me at work. Work gets right in the way of site visits. And all that frozen scaffolding makes for a pretty challenging time onsite.
The windows are lovely, but I feel we may have cut too many corners by not having enough openings in the master bedroom and the hallway where the tall windows are. We’ll see.
New Year, new resolve, ….. we WILL be living in this house before this year is out. Having seen the potential of this place in 1999 and bought it and moved in by Feb 2000, we’re finally going to have this noose around our necks lifted. We’ve hemmed and hawed for so long about the most cost effective way to renovate or fix or whatever, and we’ve lived in such an ambiguous state for so many years, that it’s quite incredible to think that it will ever be FINISHED. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there’s finished, Finished and FINISHED, but just to have a house that doesn’t leak and looks half way decent will be a huge improvement on previous years. After all, the kids know nothing else!
And of course, it will be way better than half way decent. You can see from the time-lapses that there is a bunch of activity onsite these days: electricians, carpenters, flooring, heating, windows….. It’s starting to really crack on.
The window guys started on 9 Jan, so all the oak subframes had to be installed beforehand.
family roomthey will eventually fade to grey
James has kept a bit of celotex on the sills to protect them once they’re in.
shocking weatherdoor frames being built and getting installed
Terry and Josh have been quietly getting on with wardrobes upstairs and kitchen framing downstairs.
kitchen studs
The window guys arrived en masse in a team of four or five depending on the day. The last time we saw this gear was up North, and it’s weird to see the frames and glass in the house at long last.
test pane
One of the guys was a specialist pointer: each of the windows has a silicone bead running around the frame between it and the oak and another between the frame and the glass. I’ll get a macro shot of the beading next week, but there is a precise technique and the finished product is gorgeous.
waiting patiently for installationmaster bedroommaster panebrave man with a hammer
master bedroom from inside
There are still loads of things to do around and about. The roof tiles should arrive this month, but since it’s a stand-alone piece outside the Critical Path, it kind of doesn’t matter when they go on. The building will look very different when it’s got its hat on.
roofline
The first floor is being covered with celotex insulation prior to the underfloor heating next week. Wednesday is screed day, and this works perfectly with the windows guys because they’re awaiting delivery of more gear from Grantham which arrives the following week, so they’ll take a little break from this job while the floor sets. All very time-dependent and complicated.
bathroom
We had a stairs meeting this week with Tony the Blacksmith and Colin and Gary from the joinery company. The goal was to sign off on the plans and get into production which is 10 – 12 weeks from sign to installation. Tony brought models of his spindles and had a great conversation with the joiners. In a total Goldilocks moment, we’ve decided to use the middle sized section of spindle. Plans were signed, and production lines confirmed, so we’re looking at end of March to see these in real life. Tony says he’s making progress with the lantern as well.
oodles of spindles
It also snowed this week.
disgusting weatherfrozen camera housingsnow on scaffold through the new windowsdoor handlesfront bay–with windows (most of them…)
Underfloor heating and concrete screed went down on the ground floor this week. There wasn’t much going on up on the roof this week, so James kindly moved the timelapse camera to a better spot.
underfloor heating set onto the Celotex it’s 3 degrees and these guys are in short sleeves loaded by wheelbarrow
lines of scaffold, oak and insulationThe guys have worked really hard to get the building closed up for Christmas. Closing up the site over the break gives us a chance to stand in the building and visualise the space so we can make good decisions about socket placement and future furniture. The goal is to make as many decisions as possible while the site is shut so we don’t hold things up come January.
We didn’t find any creatures when we came by, but I don’t think we were the first in after the concrete was laid.
critter prints in torchlighthttps://youtu.be/V8VaReaJUZU
Tim said early on not to worry and that the Christmas lights would be on. And they are! We’ve got a tree with lights–what’s the problem?! The roofing guys even built us a present out of battening to go under the tree.
Tim’s present
Despite the amended programme, this has been a big chunky cracking-on kind of week. First of all, the saga about the levels not quite matching up in the first floor between the front oak structural frame and the rest of the house came to a close. The fix was debated (for five weeks) around our architect and structural engineer, the warranty company (mostly the warranty company) and the oak structural engineer, and finally, they reached an agreement on how it was to be built. James and the guys have built and sealed shuttering around what will be a slab of concrete set in situ. The metal mesh that gives it structure arrived today, James has bound all the intersections with little bits of wire, and now all that’s left is to pour and set over the Christmas break.
pre-pour
Masses of celotex is being laid to insulate the ground floor. On Monday (Tuesday?) next week this will have a web of underfloor heating rods wound round and round, and before we break for Christmas, the screed will be poured.
each piece is cut to shape with a teensy power sawkitchen spacewipe your feet first
They’ve removed the scaffolding in the hallway and you can see from the floor right up to the rafters. Terry’s done a marvellous job making it safe with a designer hand rail.
Josh and celotexTerry’s fancy banisterBen and Keith chatting about the concrete slab
The electricians have wired up most of the upstairs, and now there is a web of grey cable run round the rafters. There has been some discussion about where the shaver sockets will go in the bathrooms, and I’m sure this is just the first of many decisions that will be made on the hoof. (We decided in cabinets in the kids’ bathrooms and on the wall above the tile in ours in case you’re wondering.) They’ve even got a sweepstakes on how many times I’ll change my mind on socket locations in the house. Five was the first guess, three was another, and even a very optimistic zero was mentioned. We’ll see. Just don’t want the whole place looking like Swiss cheese so I’m trying my best not to dither. One of the jobs on the weekend is to run round with a can of spray-paint and set the locations of sockets and switches.
Sparkys’ debate
The leadwork is starting to be installed around the window frames. The large frames in the kitchen and family room won’t be in until the new year because the floor screed needs to dry out and we don’t want to damage them.
leadwork before it’s scalloped
I usually get time to visit site in the afternoon, and since sunset starts around 2:30 in what’s now mid-December, the light is usually really good for a while. It’s obvious that the oak frame and the widows are pretty special and make this build unique, and that the quality of the workmanship is excellent. This quality issue partly accounts for why it’s gone over schedule. But sometimes I’m amazed at just how gorgeous the whole thing is, and it’s quite humbling to just sit and have a look. I’m sure the builders think I’m nuts just standing there and staring.
a glimpse of future awesomeness
James has finished the panels, and they’ll be sealed in with compriband and fixed to the frame. But they’re right in line with the sunset, so it makes the whole thing reflected a lovely pink.
The main structure is up and sorted and the building is Dry. Dry is a Big Deal. Even though there are large gaping holes where the windows will go (on 9 January), these will be boarded up over Christmas, and the rest of the structure is Dry. The guys are now finishing off the fiddly bits of the roof on the outside and putting up the frame for the ceiling on the inside.
fiddly bits and covered subframessubframes in the sitting roomone in and one not
The roof and all the subframes are attached to the concrete by these enormous brackets. Terry assures me that there will be no roof blowing off on this house. The lead will be installed in the coming weeks.
west bathroom windowswest-most bedroom
James is making up the inserts for the angled brick sections. We had a meeting with the reluctant warranty company about the design early on. They were quite rightly concerned about water ingress in the junction between all the materials sitting in the oak frame in case the structure settled. We worked then with Dave to create a multi-layered system of composite board, epoxy resin, insulation and compriband that will prevent any drips or drops from getting through. It is very complicated, and James has been pretty keen to get stuck in to building them. They look good so far!
pre-insertbrick inserts, pre-brickinserts and insulation from the inside of front gableinserts from outside
The ceiling is also complicated: the trusses go up really quickly, but then there is much time spent creating a set of noggins in between each truss to support the plasterboard ceiling that will be installed soon.
east-most bedroom: trusses & noggins, boarding & flooringceiling with loft boarding and dormer window
There are two extra guys on site this week who installed all the subframes and boarded them up. The goal is to get the building dry enough to set the underfloor heating in screed before we all disappear for Christmas. That will give the floor two weeks to set and dry.
can you spot the elf?
I think everyone is feeling buoyed up by the progress made recently. This was never going to be an easy house to build, and many of the painstaking pieces of the structure seem to be happening all at once. The guys remain cheerful onsite, they help the neighbours with heavy lifting, they’re keeping the place amazingly tidy given the freezing weather and the early nights, they joke around and it seems quite jolly. It’s got a good vibe and looks a nice place to work.
festive site
We signed off for the kitchen this week (hooray!). That will be 14 weeks. The sanitary ware has been ordered (8 weeks), the floor sourced, and the stairs being drawn up. Many more decisions to be made after our Thursday meeting–I’ve got a 14 point list of urgent items of homework for Monday, and many more pending. But we’re vaguely adhering to our modified schedule which is good. I don’t want to be the one holding up the game. A busy weekend to come….
Not many visits to site this week, but that doesn’t mean work isn’t occurring. James, Josh and Terry have been busy putting up the facias and soffits. They’ve been organising to have the flooring put up in the loft and the space is looking really good.
I’m so glad we decided to rebuild the front trusses into a more open arrangement. Although the guys have done an amazing job of making the most of the space in the other loft areas, the bit over Gillian’s room will be great for storing larger pieces and will eventually be our go-to place for suitcases and Christmas decorations.
loft space looking northloft space looking south–this is where the water tank will liveloft space looking west–through the vaulted ceiling in the master bedroomfinal touches on soffits and facias in the upstairs hallwayfinished woodwork looking eastportrait of Terryroof ventilation, facia and oak frame in master bedroom
