Got the lamp back this week with its two new panes. Even bought it some new bulbs on amazon. I toyed with the idea of polishing it up back to its original copper, and you can see a little test piece where I gave it a go under the sign-hanging bit int he photos where it looks more brown. But Stephen says just to clean the dirt off it and polish it with beeswax. So that’s what we’ll do. Now just to fit it when the electrical guys are ready, or better yet, just ask them to install it before they forget.
The electrical control gear arrived, but there was a bit of an information gap of how to wire it up. It looks very nice and should be a little bit like plug-and-play since the hard part was planning the system and choosing which circuits would be set up to be controlled before the first fix. The easy bit is fitting the units, but the hard bit might be programming. It will be all installed nicely in the cupboard and will be finished once all the lights are on, the units are commissioned by the manufacturer, and the wires tidied away.
control circuitrycontrol central: it will squeeze in there somewhere
Smoke alarms were fitted with blue bag covers while the decorating continues.
safety first
And other rooms are starting to be fitted with their arrays of LEDs dangling from the ceilings.
kitchendrawing roomfamily room
We’ve got some really fancy lights in the floor and skirting, and these are going in carefully and gingerly so they don’t mess up Mike’s paintwork, Rich’s tiling, or Josh’s joinery.
under the stairs, ready for cutting outskirting lightsfloor lights in the front bayheating manifold all wired in too
Terry and Josh installed the new less fussy oak cladding in the master bedroom. Neil had dropped off some whoppers of replacement beams the week previously–they were so big that it was impossible to lift, much less finesse into place. So Neil kindly took them back to deepest Sussex to shave a bunch of weight off and make them more manageable, but with still leaving enough meat for the beams to join in the middle and cover the steel along the ridge-line. Even without the extra weight it was a job and a half to fit these large beams, up on the tower, in the middle of May, while the heating is being tested. Terry and Josh get all the fun jobs.
heavy workpropped up with a bit of timberfinished beamsshavings from making the mortice and tenon joints
Bathrooms are coming on and the tiling looks great. The tilers have a bunch of criteria they use to line up the tiles. Mostly they like to centre on specific things like fittings and windows. But sometimes decisions have to be made to un-align tiles; one of these was maintaining a non-cut edge around the shower trays on both wall and floor tiles. This is to ensure a good seal around anywhere water might sneak in. If you don’t cut these edges, the porcelain finish remains intact and it reduces the possibility of water getting inside the actual tile. This is good. But sometimes the resulting wall tiles that are aligned with windows then don’t line up with the joins in the floor. This may be perceived as a little un-good. But I’d much rather have structural integrity be the focus, and we’ve chosen a colour for the grout so the lines kinda disappear anyway. I’m sure that when we see the finished product with all the furniture and vanity units in, it will be amazing.
girls’ bathroombath to be fittedboys’ bathroom
Some other nice bits percolated through this week.
bright morning light in newly-painted kitchenJames’ personal favourite brand of loft laddersfloor protection being lifted while underfloor heating is ramping up in test phase
The priority is to get the inside of the building all completely finished, cleaned and sorted. But tiny jobs outside can be attended to in between.
brick slips installed–just need mortar
Next week is a big outdoor week with the return of the grounds guys with the lovely big noisy machinery again.
Without going into too much drama about tempers flaring, lines of communication being tested, inspections on the edge and deadlines looming, …, despite all this, it’s all mostly going to plan. This week’s post will be mostly pictorial as I’m struggling to write anything at all coherent in the rush to finish this project. Loose ends include all electricals as we haven’t seen a blub a-flickerin’ yet, the entire fireplace concept, some of the big wood pieces from Neil, the sanitaryware, tiling and the drive. On the positive side, the Moldovian chippies Adrian and Vadim are generally fantastic and are busy getting on with doorframe, skirting and ironmongery. Terry and Josh finished the stairs too–I don’t think they’ll be in a hurry to fit any more capping in the hand and floor rails, but Josh remains undeterred, even when faced with a chisel in his hand and a trip to Epsom hospital. Didn’t stop him smiling when he returned to site to finish the day’s work.
The cornice company arrived early in the week and transformed some of the rooms.
awesome coving, but, oops, poor decision on light placementdoes this work around the units?drawing room looking more formal
Finishing touches around the staircase are being decided with things like skirting beading, window/stair boards, and capping under the newels. James is great at making use of extra pieces to create some of the finishing touches. And it’s only when you see these things installed that you can get a feel for what the finished product looks like. Most things have been fantastic, and some require small tweaks, like the window board used on to top the plasterwork in the front bay. We’ve decided that the trim should have a profile more like the stairs, so this bit of boarding will be replaced, but it was excellent to have the flexibility and chance to check out the profile and have the option. This exercise prompted some deep thinking about what exactly we’re trying to do in the space.
is it a window board or a stair board?
Likewise with the trim between the structural oak and the floorboards. Initially, I wasn’t keen to have so many different kinds of oak hanging around, so I didn’t want the trim in at all when we started the finishes. And James’ advice was not to have too many different trims or the whole thing looks cluttered. But now I feel that if each piece does what it’s expected, then it follows the ethos of honest materials in the house, and it should be ok to have a little bit of trim that matches around the house, and it will blend in better in time. We opted for the little bead around the structural oak in the photo. The floors remain protected, and the windows will have a layer of dust on until the final sparkle-clean, so it’s hard to tell what the final finish will be anyway!
beading on the floorunder-newel
Vadim and Adrian have been boxing in pipework and building wardrobes around them. We’ve decided on a semi-complicated painting scheme with the interiors being darker shades of each room’s trim.
Gemma’s wardrobeGillian’s wardrobedouble checking the spec on ironmongery
Looking forward to snagging the kitchen next week. We’ll discuss a few trimming bits, and do a double check on things like the work-surface edge.
discussion piece: is this pencil or bevel?
The bathrooms are looking good, but we’re finding a few things that could have been better designed. Like,…. the door slamming into the unit when entering the bathroom. We’ll have to install a rubber baby buggy bumper on the back side of the door along with advice to tell the boys to be jolly careful without entering their bathroom with too much energy (shouldn’t be a problem, they’re a bit slow int he mornings). Much consultation with Allison in the States and friends in the UK to generate a survey of vanity unit heights in an attempt to get ours right. We’ve decided 900 to top of unit is a good height–a little higher than most, so it won’t be our family keeping the local chiropractors in business.
boys’ bathroom
In a dull moment, the guys found time to remove the plinth they’d lovingly installed before we changed our minds. Our MO seems to be build it, then remove it….
plinthless fire
…. just like the piers!
looks better now
Clinton never really liked the piers in the front; they were only put there to carry the rainwater downpipes into the ground in a clean swoop. So, taking advice from the architect and structural engineer who both said that they weren’t critical to the structure, we decided to take the bold (= expensive) move to remove them. This leaves an obvious problem for the bricklayers who now need to come back and make these areas pretty again. But the overhang looks much less fussy now, and we’re happy with it. At least we were until a giant gaping crack appeared around the first floor cavity trays.
omg
On further advice, we adopted a suck-it-and-see approach, and the whole thing looks pretty stable despite the crack. It hasn’t shifted since it first appeared, so should be ok. After all, there is an enormous great big steel holding up this side of the house, and the roof is all complete as one separate structure spread across the whole building. It SHOULD be ok. At least it is when I close my eyes. And a little mortar in the joint before we move in and all will be well. Right?
Lee, Jamie, Djokovich, and the groundwork gang were back to lay the paving for the patio. Their work was hampered by the water board inspector who deemed it fit to ask the guys to dig the main supply to the house a little deeper. This was an enormous pain which required un-building of the garage and some of the edging stones the guys had laid last week. The inspector didn’t stop there, took a deeper look at some of the work and started going off on other trench work depths, like the supply into the taps in the garden. He even had a go at some of the pipework internally, which never happens apparently. Usually the inspector has a cursory look around near where the water enters the building and leaves the M&E team to get on with things downstream. The groundwork guys have done hundreds of jobs like this without fuss, and the plumbing team was livid by the time the inspector finally passed it all, and all the trenchwork could be filled in. They’d none of them ever seen anything like it. Clearly this house has been jinxed from the start. The guy earned a few choice nicknames around site, and luckily for him some of the spare pieces of wood lying around didn’t get airborne.
high water table in the mains trenchon the positive side, slabs are looking good
We’re even venturing into town to look at furniture and light fittings. Mostly these experiences highlight that fact that neither of us like shopping very much, nor do we like going into town unless it’s work related. We’re much more country-bumpkins these days. Either we’re super boring (likely), or we just dread the time it takes to travel around aimlessly looking at one low-profile uncomfortable sofa after another. I think Clinton was definitely going to lose the plot entirely if he got close to one more Edison bulb singeing his retinas. The best way forward is to continue on our current course of clicking our way through doing most of the furnishings.
It’s official: we’ve Given Notice on our rental house. This event sparked a flurry of activity in the household. Given that we’ve moved out of the old house in the first place (after 15 years of living there–there should be a law that people are forced to move every five years in an effort to decouple themselves from years of rubbish that “is perfect for car-booting” or “I’ll save for the grandkids” (grandkids?? OMG what am I thinking?)), then to the first rental for 7 months and now to this one for what will have been the last year and half by the time we move again, there is no way on god’s green earth that I will cart around (and pay to be moved) old hosepipes, used bunk beds, boxes of duplo and out-dated TVs a fourth time. This just will not happen. The only thing for it was to get the kids on board and take everything out of the garage for a well-needed sort out.
the boys are not quite on board
I have to admit that by later afternoon when we decided to ebay the barbie dolls one at a time, I kind of lost the plot.
The biggest event this week was the stairs. After Clive and Mike thoroughly Osmo-ed all the individual parts, they handed over to Josh, Terry, and James to gingerly squeeze them into the hallway. There were a few headaches along the way such as design of the last newell in the SW corner. It fits so that the corner of the wall is in the middle of the newell making it appear to kind of wrap around the wall. I’m not sure where the communication gap lay, because it never even hit my radar until I saw Colin onsite, but the post was delivered as if it were flush with the wall thereby leaving an exposed unfinished edge into the hallway. When the guys rang Colin at the joinery company around midday to ask what to do, I kid you not, Colin hopped in his car, zoomed up to site straight from their base in ANDOVER! and sorted the problem immediately. I cannot believe he dropped everything so fast and made the solution happen. Terry says the new newell will be here early next week. This jaw-dropping effort, coupled with the effort made to give Tony the blacksmith scale drawings and meeting with him at his forge, have made the job a complete pleasure. Colin–you’re a rock star!
the same awesome company made the stairs and doorfront room workshopforlorn stairs with added newellunderbelly will be covered with plasterboard
How much do you think a solid oak staircase weighs? Clearly less than four guys can lift on a random afternoon in April.
that looks healthy and safe to me
More bits were added as the week went on. You can see the long aprons that cover up the first floor buildup being installed at the end of the week on the time-lapse. Handrails, newells, starting steps, nosings, stringers…. stairs are a very esoteric thing when you consider all the measured parts. The guys have labelled each with a Sharpie on the edges to help so that they get installed correctly and to limit the chance of some going walkies. The fancy secondary newells are due onsite soon, and Tony will be back to fit the balusters around the middle of May.
Taking any chance to visit the forge again and see how Tony was getting on with the balusters, I was off like a shot on Tuesday to approve paint. All the parts are finished, and they’re ready for powder coating. I still have reservations about powder coating in principle, because it’s not the natural metal finish we were originally after. But solid bronze balusters would completely break the budget and steel would rust, so neither were ever a real option. With bronze, we would never have had the pleasure meeting Tony and learning about metalwork. The colour he’s chosen is a kind of off-black with tiny flecks in, and it’s more of a satin finish than a gloss. I’m sure it will be amazing.
finished balusterworking platform
It does feel like the space has shrunk in some ways, but since stairs give the house a backbone, it feels in other ways like they’ve always been there. Shame to see Terry’s temporary banister taken down!
Clive and Mike have been painting things and they are concentrating on bedrooms. I haven’t gone into too much detail of how we ultimately chose these colours, but we found that it’s much easier to knock out what you don’t like than it is to choose what you do like. All the rooms are Marble White with trim in one of the darker shades on the Dulux Trade range. No Farrow & Ball here–they want £195 just to have a conversation, so we’re DIY-ing again like the lights. Mike calls each room by its shade: Mineral Haze, Quartz Flint (or whatever it is, clearly not enough headspace devoted to decoration, note to self, perhaps saving that £195 was a mistake…..), and I call them by the kid who will live there: Gemma, Gareth etc. They’ve pretty much finished Gemma’s bedroom and it will be great to see the others come to life as they work their way around the house.
pre-paint…… and now the Potters Clay room (sorry, Gems)another room pre-paint
When choosing the skirting last year, we had a devil of a time working out which profile to use in the bedrooms. We wanted to save a bit of cash and make a decorative statement by using painted skirting, but we couldn’t find a profile we liked. After much costing and quoting (sorry, Tim!), we threw our hands in the air and found a company to make the same lambs-tongue profile as downstairs but in softwood. More expensive than off-the-shelf, but less than solid oak. It’s great to see them in, and amazing to see them painted at long last. I just hope it doesn’t look too twee or artificial in paint. The window subframes and the cills remain oak, and of course, the flooring is oak, so it should be a good balance in theory.
Mike loves Osmo
Other random bits of the week include finishing off the hallways with skirting and architrave.
And the WC buildup on the back plinth magicked itself into completion. The drawing is actually with Dave, but James figured it was a simple amendment to make the cill and the top of the buildout be the same level, so he predicted where the additional boarding would go, and just built it. Looks fine to me.
and he kindly left the pipes exposed for the plumber
The tilers have been beavering away in the upstairs bathrooms. This meant choosing the final position for the lights and mirrors so they can drill the electrics through the tiles. And of course, we have no idea what these mirrors or lights are yet, and less of an idea of committing to their location. Awesome planning on our parts as usual. Not. So double-quick to the internet and my graphics package to sketch out what was required. I think I’ve got it under control, but buying these things is pretty complicated as well because as this was our first foray into Fancy Stuff For The House and not just lumber and bricks, I wasn’t quite sure how the purchasing stream worked. As an exercise, it was good to get these things solid and communicated well to all parts of the team so everyone knows what to expect. In fact this whole buying thing sat alongside a review and future purchase of the electrical fittings which was interesting and time-consuming, but also rewarding because it’s forced me to know exactly what light goes where right down to the temperature colour and flange finish. This is a convoluted way of saying that although the tiling looks great, the work going on behind the scenes has been hectic.
I met Kevin onsite on Monday, and the guys have been putting up tiles steadily all week. By Friday they’d almost finished two bathrooms. By next week, it might just be most of the way there.
lucky boys’ bathroomboys’ nichesa “bold” colour in the master ensuite, says Richaccommodating my light fitting design in the master ensuite
Artur finished off fitting the kitchen and utility and left us this week, and handed over to Jason the marble guy who spent an afternoon templating the worktops. It will take about a week at least before they’re installed. We discussed in massive detail locations for the cuts for the hob and downdraft extractor, and it all hinged around fitting the ducting that runs from the extract, through its remote motor and out to the wall. The ducting quotes we got through originally were quite high, so I naturally tried sourcing it myself. Firstly understanding the function of each component and then finding a guy who would take the project (and my naivety) on board were interesting enough, but when it came to actually looking at the space onsite and taking responsibility for the spot where the colossal 200 mm diameter hole that’s going to be cut out of the brickwork for this part of the kitchen installation will be, I completely lost my nerve and quickly came to realise I was totally out of my depth. So I promptly handed this part back to Claire at the kitchen company. She was entirely professional and diplomatic, I would have been seething at some dippy client putting my project back a week, but it is now rather a hot potato as timing is an issue; the motor and its ducting are dropped in before the worktop is installed, so unless the gear arrives double quick, it might indeed hold up this part of the supply chain. Full marks for enthusiasm on my part, nil for effectiveness.
utility looking oututility looking indot marks the spotvirgin brickwork where a 200 mm dia ducting hole will live
The roofers came back to relocate the club tiles and the whole tile hanging face is almost there. There are six rows above the club tiles and six rows below, but it still seems a little low, so I think they’ll be back.
And I haven’t taken a photo of the front door for a while, so just to remember what it looks like, here’s an image out of the winter shadow an in the sun now that spring is here.
Other parts of the exterior of the building are coming along too. The nice weather helps to make the site look good, and the guys are doing a great job of keeping everything tidy. And when they’re in the middle of a job, most of the bits and pieces are kept together and out of other trades’ ways. It’s amusing to see little empires of woodwork, electrical bits, decorating, and piping in different rooms.
artsy wheelbarrowselectrical detritus in the front porchpanels are coming on
The roofers finished the scalloping on the back windows. They’ve only got the garage flat roof and the club tiles to go.
sunny scalloping on the back of the house
The garage door arrived–hooray! The installers were super jolly and put the thing up in a day. There was a massive design moment at the beginning of the project when we had to decide if to make the door high and bespoke as it is, or to make it a standard size with a brick soldier course on top. The higher door keeps the top in line with the tops of the windows along the face, but it was the expensive option, and I hope that you agree that it makes sense to spend the extra cash on the extra height.
door arrivaldoor installed
The plumbing team has been quietly getting on with the boiler and fittings all without any fuss whatsoever. It’s funny to come to site, say good morning to Sid who’s mostly been doing this final bit, and for him to get right down to business with a fast-paced “Now, where do you want this exterior tap?” These guys don’t hang around! But you can see that the services are all ready to go in a happy configuration of geometry.
boiler arrangementtap located on the garage wall
The Sparks have been working hard on the trunking while the other trades are busy in other rooms. They’d rather be cutting out holes for LED down-lights, but this needs doing as well, so now the cables are set in trunking within the coats cupboard. How we finish this area is up for grabs as it’s not plastered. But trunking and plaster don’t usually mix and the whole wall will be painted to seal in the dust, then boxed in to finish it off.
trunking
The kitchen arrived at the appointed hour without fanfare; just a couple of guys who quietly discovered that there was no trolley packed in with the kitchen units. The only solution was to carry each unit by hand, so Artur simply slung them on his back and carried them in. It turned out that he was in charge of fitting the units and most of the appliances as well in the coming week.
that’s the kitchen in therebit of rubble doesn’t get in the waybefore the kitchen arrivesthe contents of the truck land in the kitchen spaceappliances and more kitchen units
Eventually Artur fitted the whole thing single-handedly. I’ve never had a kitchen this nice and it’s a real luxury. Or hopefully it will be if we made the right decisions. I said to Dave onsite this week that when asked if I was excited about all this recent action that a very large part of me doesn’t want to look at it while it’s being installed in case I change my mind or don’t like some part of the design. But the other part of me is jumping up and down inside and really excited about running the family from this little area.
Some bits like the humungous drawers make it feel really usable and very real. I recall Auntie Eileen saying she really hoped that I’d make a good go of the kitchen when we finally got round to doing the house. That was a very kind thought and I hope she would approve of this incarnation.
magic drawersthree days of work and it’s almost all in — amazing
We knew that the overhang on the peninsula was going to be tight with regard to the big dining table in the room, but it’s only now that the units are in that we can line up a mock table to get a feel for the size. One of the things yet to do is site the pendant and LED spots over it. This isn’t easy and requires a fair degree of commitment on table location. We haven’t quite decided where the lights should be, but one thing is for sure: the overhang and the table together don’t provide enough space to get around comfortably, so the overhang will have to go. That means my two bar stools will go too.
burlap mock table
Part of the ironmongery order arrived last week and was installed while we were away. It’s nice to go around and be surprised by the existence of doors. Sometimes it’s the boundaries that make the space feel like well-defined areas. One nice touch was a set of parliament hinges on the family room doubles.
that’a nice hinge
The shower trays went in while we were away too. We wanted the master ensuite tray to be 100 mm bigger than the well was built for, and this was always going to be a problem with the underfloor heating. The idea was to chip out enough of the concrete floor to accommodate the tray while avoiding puncturing the heating tubing set in the concrete. This was a tricky job that James wasn’t too keen on doing. I wouldn’t be keen on it either; I recall the words “catastrophic” and “potential” and “failure” being used in discussions about this bit. But it was done, and done very well as usual, and the trays are all in sitting in their seals of silicon.
shower tray
The decorators started with the Marble White in the bedrooms, and the skirting went in.
white on white in Bed 05
The stairs arrived as well.
newellsbottom treadsCNC’d area to fit treads…… and the bit that fits into it
Lots of decisions behind the scenes, and we’re not keeping up with the pace. The pressure is on and everyone can see the horizon now!
Ben had the drone out and it’s great to finally see the roof in its glory. Here’s a visual progress report from the get go.
6 May 2016
And these….
Tony had the fire on early in the week, so he kindly invited Ben and me to have a look at making balusters. Each of these is completely hand made by drawing out the bar to a point, then curling it very carefully to match the test piece precisely. Incredible work and much labour involved. Tony has Dave in to do the hammering and finishing, and anyone with eyes can see that their years of working together on projects like this make it seem so easy, but in fact it’s a lot of unspoken expertise involved to make each baluster. There are a lucky-13 curlicues that are framed by straight ones going either up or down. Should be amazing to see when it’s done.
The joinery company making the stairs have been brilliant in supplying Tony with scale drawings of each piece. Colin has travelled from Andover to Betchworth (more than once!) to deliver the drawings and talk about the work with Tony so that the joined up staircase between the two completely disparate trades are installed seamlessly at the end of April. Can’t wait!
Tony and Dave working to draw the bar into a pointchecking the curve by eyebending viceforest of balustersa proper working forgesorry, can’t stop taking photos of these
Meanwhile onsite, the wood floor arrived. Usually, they hoist the planks up box by box, but the ceilings are a little high for that here, so they were hoisted up two planks at a time–it took a while.
First the guys prime the floor, then they lay a layer of latex which acts as a barrier between the concrete floor and the wood. They mix this bucket by bucket onsite. Then a really thin membrane of foam is cut to shape, and finally the floor is put on top.
the wood arrived, hooray!primer coatlatex milkmixing gearpouring latex on a primed section of floorspreading around by handGillian’s room with the finished floor
The services are being installed gradually. We’re waiting on the water board to come and inspect its trench, so although James doesn’t like leaving it open for health-and-safety, it has to be left until they drop round. The boiler should arrive soon; the flooring guys need it so some heat can get into the floor to dry it out. So we were very pleased to see the gas company arrive and install the meter in the hedgehog box around the side of the house. After the drama of last week’s engineer unable to install, this took a grand total of 10 minutes and the guy was off. And the three-phase upgrade for the electrics will be in the middle of April.
not a hedgehogready for electrics
The Sparks are in cutting holes in the ceiling. There is so much to this electricity piece, and we haven’t even chosen any fancy fittings yet. Here’s a challenge for you: next time you’re in a place with small LED ceiling lights, go ahead and have a look at the geometry of their placement. The glossy mags always say to hire a light designer because you yourself as a layperson could never hope to achieve a good effect: what you’re lighting, how you’re lighting, when you’re lighting, controls….. The Sparks want things in grids, as do the architects. We’ve opted for a DIY approach to tweaking Dave’s placements just a little in order to centralise some of the fittings around architectural features like doorways and cupboards. I’m no expert at this, and I hope that I will remember fondly this m.o. when I’m not too upset at the finished product but instead, basking in the glow of the thousands of pounds saved that I didn’t pay to the lighting designer. (Fingers crossed, obvs.)
The guys use their laser sights and chalk lines to get the rows straight. This doesn’t please the decorators who then have to wash off the chalk because the dye runs into the paint, especially if the paint is white. Like on a ceiling. Where the lights are. Duh.
takes a day to set outand another couple to drill
The non-herringbone panels on the side of the house are coming together. I had a total 4 am brain-fade about the side panels which are not at 90 degrees, but rather are offset and parallel to each other. I texted James about it suspecting they’d have to rip off the half-laid panel, but he replied with a photo of the plans which clearly show the bricks in parallel. Glad someone’s on the case! And note to self: consult the plans before hitting the panic button.
brick slips
But there are still a bunch of gaps in the design. The biggest one is the fireplace, and Steve came up from deepest Sussex again to speak with Dave and me about how to accomplish what we’re after for the surround. We’ve made it enormously complicated, and probably unfeasible from an engineering point of view. We’d like a floating stone mantle–but how to fix it? Lots of head scratching, and to be honest I’m about to give in to a simpler design. This room was never designed to live in, mostly to look at, and this is disappointing as we should have thought about it more from the start. The windows are too close to the fireplace wall to put units in, and the building regulations put so many restrictions on measuring out non-combustible zones that it’s all very tiresome. We’re at that last 20% that takes 80% of the effort. But it will be beautiful, the workmanship is great, and it’s only complicated because we the clients are trying to squeeze too much in. Much better to simplify, pare back and let the features in the room breathe a bit. Watch this space.
blank wall, blank heads
Another bug-bear is the garage roof. The guys have done a brilliant job at getting the end to just kiss the fence, so the dimensions are perfect. But how to support it is another kettle of fish. The original (built, then unbuilt) brick pier was a thing of beauty, but it didn’t give us very much room to get around. So we’ve opted for an oak post on a smaller plinth instead. In the meantime, there is a slightly bendy Accro holding the roof up at the spot where Terry says holds the max load. But this still leaves us a little short on space to get around. Do we place the final post off the sweet spot either towards the building or away from it and add a stiffening bracket? Can we? Or do we suck it up and just stick a post in?
jury is out on replacement to bendy Accro
Last week’s tile-hanging design query was bottomed out, but this ended up being just a case of making sure everyone was looking at the same revision. The flare at the bottom will be great, and the roofers will fit in the tile hanging when they next have a gap in their diary. It’s a stand alone piece, and not mission critical–which is refreshing!
While the weather improves and we’re thinking about trenches, services and meters, here are some pix of the outside of the house.
roofers roofingground guys diggingback doors shiningready for downpipesmore roofers roofing… on a Saturday!
The problem with glazing bar alignment across the two planes of windows in the front bay that we had back in Week 42 has been resolved. Thank you to the Bronze company that agreed that this couldn’t be left as it was. It’s funny: now that the bars align, you kind of don’t see them any more. Good design kind of disappears.
Doors are on.
welcome…and the side door we’ll probably use more
This isn’t a standard box house, it’s very complicated. It’s also been through three sets of architects, two contractors, and lots of TLC and tweaks along the way. Like Terry designing the kick to the garage roof off the cuff with no plans. Some of the details only make themselves known when things are being fitted, so it’s helpful (not sure Tim and James think so..?) to be able to take time out and be onsite more and more as we race towards the finish line.
Case in point is the downpipes. There is one in the front labelled clearly on the drawing, and it goes right up in the corner between the vertical tiles and the huge two-storey beam. Well, having a drainpipe alongside the oak is a dippy idea as it’s front and centre and visible to god and everybody. But it wan’t not obvious until it was right there. A puzzle and much discussion: we can’t ditch the pipe because a LOT of rain will be flowing down that little section of gully. Water from the valley section and three faces of roof will be chucked down here right next to wood. But it dangling there alongside the wood and block its view was equally lacking. The solution that Spencer suggested as to add a few strategically placed special plastic vertical tiles that you can fix downpipes to on the opposite side of the gutter section, about three feet out from the gable and down the pillar to the east. That way you get your flow, and it’s away from the wood. A super plan on the first floor, but still not great on ground floor, because each downpipe is cut into the plinth at the bottom which is a gorgeous detail, and there isn’t one built in the new spot. I’m sure James will work something out……
looking up the beams and thinking about locating that downpipe
Architrave and mist coats are making the ground floor look more finished every day.
kitchen and family roomkitchen proper: the working areadrawing roomhallway looking northhallway looking southhallway looking upquirky hallway upstairschoosing colours again
khaki mist 3 or patters clay 2?
And ironmongery….? Luckily we’ve found the mecca of hinges and handles, and it’s in Fleet. We have dithered for weeks about finding a match for the bronze windows, much to the annoyance of Tim who simply wants to get the doors ON ferchrissake, but nothing was doing the job. Actually, there is a company in the States that does the job if you want to spend about £1k per doorset. Have not yet won the lottery so clearly not an option. So we’re going for black to match the balusters and to be a little non-controversial. Graham is helping us, and he’s immensely patient with our wavering and our questions.
more choice than most
With all the flooring being laid shortly, James helped us in choosing the exact locations for the ground lights in the hallway and master bedroom. These are meant to light up the oak in a subtle way, but as we’ve not chosen the fittings yet, James left a suitable gap where they’ll go and concreted in around them. He didn’t waste any time: we were there with sections of pipework in the afternoon, and before they’d packed up, the lights were were packed out.
light spot
With deadlines about colours, hinges, ironmongery, garden slabs, light fittings, driveway colours, and fireplace design passing us by, tempers are getting short. We are all working towards the same goal, even though it’s challenging to stay positive and keep all our pointy fingers from taking aim. When things like the long-awaited gas meter are put back as the installer drives away because the job was labelled for the gas board’s subcontractor as a Swap instead of an Installation (it WAS a swap, just a swap for a missing meter, remember?), it gets a little frustrating.
But then you’ll get one of those awesome spring days where everything is fresh and blue, and we’re reminded that everyone on this job is on message about quality, the finished result is gorgeous, and it doesn’t seem so bad. Good weather and more cake… that’ll fix it.
Actually, it’s a flue liner, not to be confused with the identically named but made of pumice ‘flue liner’ that was already installed with the chimney went up. All very technical, but for the past few weeks, Dave has been developing the plans to make this thing work.
These are the best laid ones of the bunch…installing the cowel at the topall set to go
Terry and Josh have made a start on the garage roof. This first requires brackets to be attached to the wall on one side and onto the brickwork on the other. They were making good headway until they got called to build a new skin to a wall in the hallway later in the week.The problem was a very small area of single skin which was going to make the place thermally inefficient and vulnerable. This issue had been brewing for a while as we’d been waiting for approval from the warranty company with this wall design and with a little pushing from Ben, they finally approved the thinnest version which is great because it allows more of the oak frame to be exposed. But it’s a problem no longer, as the thing is now built at long last, and the plasterers can get on and finish it off.
Terry’s garage roof bracketsthicker wall
Aaron’s been in to finish the first fix wiring. The wires have been capped and cased all over the house, and they’re making maps of were they are under the plaster so we don’t end up sticking nails through them when we put up artwork.
breaking a few eggs before the omelette is finished
Once Aaron was done, there was a whole gang of new plasterers that came and put the ceilings up. It’s very high tech with laser sights and grids of brackets to hold up the suspended ceiling that hides the electrics and plumbing under the concrete upstairs floor. They’ll still be about 2.8 m off the deck.
straight line gizmo
One last trip around the scaffold to check out the finished roof.
can’t resist taking another of these pixcloaking tilesa mortar snake through a hole in the slate (these just flick off)
lead dormer cheekspencil lines showing the handmade workmanship
The doors arrived at long last. It took four guys to lift them off the truck, and they came pre-assembled in their frames. James, Terry and Josh will fit them next week which will make the building will be almost air tight. This will not be a small undertaking. As you can see, we have yet to choose a doorknob in the centre. Clinton actually bought a brass casting kit a couple of years ago, and we’ve got some thoughts, but it’s got to be good. No pressure!
colossal front door (it’s upsidedown)
The plasterers are just about done upstairs and will move downstairs next week. Like the rest of the house, it’s not been straightforward: there are some fiddly bits like in the upstairs hallway and some enormous swathes like the stairs wall and the whole of our bedroom. They’ve done a great job, but they’ve got to get a wriggle on to finish downstairs before the floor goes down.
master ceilingplaster in the master bedroomhallway looking east
Most of the action this week occurred behind the scenes. Lots of planning and sorting and choosing more than cutting, sticking and building. We’ve chosen a fireplace, paid bills, decided on tiles, placed thermostats, chased electrics, considered ironmongery and built-in furniture, and we started thinking about wardrobe build-ups, kitchen pendants, sofas and curtains. I thought we were doing well with box-ticking until Tim asked for confirmation of colour choice for the paintwork. I think I need a lie-down….
Spencer is pretty much done with the roof, and now he and Jackson are on to the more decorative bits. One of these is the scalloped lead-work around the windows. There are 16 downstairs and 10 upstairs runs of this lead, all of varying length. There is nothing at all normal or even and symmetrical about this house. The lead was installed when the oak subframes were put in. It serves a very useful function in keeping the brickwork section underneath waterproof, but it’s an artisanal job to make it look pretty.
It starts with a scored out scallop.
a satisfying OCD momentJackson and his compass
Then the scallops are cut with actual scissors to make the shapes.
Spencer practicing his cutting out skills
Each cut-out is rolled up and hammered into place.
The guys wear gloves because of the chemicals in the lead. Working with this stuff all day is toxic–lead poisoning is a real thing, and the preservatives on the surface are well-yucky.
ooooo……ahhhh
We’ve opted to keep a layer of PVC on the course between the plinth and the vertical brickwork to protect the plinth from stuff dropping on it from above. All it takes is a stanley knife to remove it later on.
Plastering is the name of the game in other areas of the house. And in the few rooms where they are not working, Terry and Josh can get on with the window boards. Must say, they look lovely next to the subframes. They’re both treated with this Osmo oil which will bed in and soften in colour over time. We’re putting the stuff everywhere on all the oak except the huge structural pieces–architrave, door linings, the lot. We’ll even slap it on the oak underside of the first floor overhang outside. James hates it only slightly less than the black stain on the soffit boards.
window board
Another interesting piece is the brick inlay panels. They’re not herringbone, but everyone calls them The Herringbone Panels–even us. Actually, with my Pedant Hat on, they’re Askew. But this is alright with me! (Sorry). Clive painstakingly sliced each brick to a skinny sort of depth, and we’ve bought this fancy adhesive for them to stick them on. Like the oak cladding last week, this is not quite functional, well, not at all, but it looks awesome. They’re doing a brilliant job setting, pinning, gluing, and mortaring them into place.
There are fifteen panels to make: 5 across each apex front and back, 5 across each paired square below them, and 5 below the windows in the hallway. That’s a lot of work, and I feel somewhat guilty just writing this in all the time they’re spending making the panels, but they are taking enormous pride in how it’s turning out. They took a day off the scaffolding when storm Doris blew through, the front and some of the back are mostly done.
I don’t usually go on about it, but I take great pride in looking at other houses with this similar non-herringbone brickwork, whose designers have decided to use a different brick from the rest of the house because it can be bought in, and thinking that our guys have simply taken the time and made the effort to do a brilliant job. Anyone with eyes can see that it’s a total pain to have spent days and days cutting these really thin slices to carefully stick on the boards, which is what James and the guys have done. But the finished effect will be seamless with the brickwork in the rest of the house because it’s exactly the same brick. It’s a bespoke house that everyone onsite is on board with to make it as good as it possible can be. And THAT is the bit that’s amazing.
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.
I’m not sure where the communication gap lay, because it never even hit my radar until I saw Colin onsite, but the post was delivered as if it were flush with the wall thereby leaving an exposed unfinished edge into the hallway. When the guys rang Colin at the joinery company around midday to ask what to do, I kid you not, Colin hopped in his car, zoomed up to site straight from their base in ANDOVER! and sorted the problem immediately. I cannot believe he dropped everything so fast and made the solution happen. Terry says the new newell will be here early next week. This jaw-dropping effort, coupled with the effort made to give 
The guys wear gloves because of the chemicals in the lead. Working with this stuff all day is toxic–lead poisoning is a real thing, and the preservatives on the surface are well-yucky.
