Askew

The garden is almost done. Mark and Sam have finished off the back path and porch by pointing it all together. Amazing how much of a difference closing in those lines makes. The Contractor is due to return next week and fix the drive in the back amongst other things, so there’s no point in risking putting up a fence while they’re taking up concrete etc. I need to go back there and set a line for this fence over the weekend so everyone knows where they are.

house2017.11.13 - 2 — the benches are to keep people from wander in freely

Just a bit of tamping down at the front, some hedging at the back, and voila!

The yellow pipe remains, and hopefully will disappear shortly. I’ve been in touch with Trevor the plumber again whom we’ve asked to cut it to length for the fire pit.

Screen Shot 2017-11-13 at 12.08.39 — plan

This fire pit is becoming a little like the fireplace: too long to decide on the design, and the installation is now all out of sequence. And Clinton is truly sick of talking about it with me. I had no idea the natural gas option was so dang expensive. My favourite are these cast concrete things, and they’re special because if you make them out of normal concrete, the relatively high water content within the material expands in the heat of the fire, and they tend to go bang in a catastrophic kind of way. So, really nice fire pits are made of a mix of stuff to get the water levels right down….and the price goes right up. Time to investigate options. I’ve thought about making one from the bits of leftover oak and a large bit of stone on top, so I’ve been talking to a guy in Southampton that makes the burners (one of the only UK guys to do this–they’re super popular in the States, why not here??). He’s got me to refine my design with a few important tweaks. Luckily the position of the pipe, which was a complete guess, vaguely works in the plan once we’ve populated it with a likely combination of furniture and safe distances from the raging inferno. Time to spend the cash? Don’t know, jury is still out.

Screen Shot 2017-11-13 at 16.36.31.png — fire pit idea

Trevor is due to send Sid to us back onsite anyway because there are a few plumbing hiccups occurring. You’d think that checking and re-checking before they carry out any checks at all would be the way forward after all the drama in the summer, but sadly, no. Maybe these things just pop spontaneously? Anyway, today’s issue is that the hot water is irregularly tepid sometimes which is most unpleasant after an early run in the -1 ºC. Added to the list are the already noted issues of the throne of a toilet in the master ensuite not flushing with any verve, and the heating controls in the hallway (always off = brr) and kitchen (always on = lava) don’t work at all bearing no resemblance to the temperature on the control panel.

Is this normal to have so many things go wrong, or at least, not quite right?

It’s much more fun to see changes in the landscaping side. We spent this weekend moving Stuff from the front to the back corner to get it off the drive. I’m pretty desperate to get this house looking less like a building site and more like the home we intended to build. This Stuff consists of: lovely old pieces of oak ready to be turned into something fun, lots of unused bricks of various shapes and sizes, tiles, tiles and more tiles, and the extra paving slabs shipped from deepest Yorkshire. We’re still got 9 old (“vintage” right?) railway sleepers and a bunch of aluminium downpipe offcuts out the front too. But Mark and his gang are due to finish this week, so their Stuff will disappear too.

The next job outside is the planting. Structure first. There’s a bit of box blight going around in Surrey at the moment, so I’ve been warned off planting any. Ilex crenata is a good solution, grows about the same pace and will look good, dense and verdant. It’s even called “dark green” which bodes well in an optimistic way. Trees are on the menu too and it’s getting round time to make some orders.

Back to the house, today’s list included phoning:

Steve the electrician–the lights outside are still tripping OMG, and I need yet another date for when he’s going to fit the replacement broken stuff from last week
Trevor–see above
Alyson–where is the building control certificate? trade warranties?
Peter–will he be the next CA?
Toby–has he received Clive’s fireplace drawings?
Graham–a furniture restorer for the kitchen table that is looking a little tired
Luke–when is Envirovent coming to fix the SpaceX-soundalike of our ventilation system

So a quiet day really.

First off, here are a bunch of stills of animal life onsite:

stannes00007 stannes00008 stannes00006 stannes00005 stannes00004 stannes00003 stannes00002

This week has been interesting in terms of staff changeover when lots of things are going on all at once. Welcome to Paul who is looking after the site while James is on holiday after taking over from Nic (phew).

The biggest event was the arrival of concrete plank flooring for the first floor on Thursday. Paul had his work cut out in organising minimal parking at the top of road so the crane and lorry loads of planks could make the turn, and kept his team at either end of the lane while the planks were offloaded. We’ve already had one angry neighbour on the phone concerned about access and the possibility of needing an ambulance should the need arise (?). When these things happen, it does make me wonder rather why on god’s green earth, when we’re the residents who have been here the longest of any of the 12 houses down the lane bar one, we’re investing our future in an area that is becoming increasingly less and less tolerant. Does civility have to be the price we pay to live here? I hope not, and I remain firm in trying to rise above the pettiness and try to see the good in people even when they’re struggling and perhaps at their worst. But the the guys did a fantastic job, the road wasn’t blocked, and only the bus from one of the local private schools opted not to travel the extra distance to the end of the road. So all in all, a success!

Dulux was back from the initial demolition, doing his best to fend off potential parkers from the top of lane, and he was chuffed to see how the build was coming on. Hopefully we’ll see him again soon.

But before that, the last minute adjustments to the steels were put in place on Wednesday. The last minute adjustments quickly turned into a last minute replacement of every piece, but it was finished by the end of the day. The bricks team couldn’t be onsite with this much action, so it was a good time for them to take a day doing another job and the scaffold team raised the level of the boards while the steels-crane swung over their heads.