Building a new house

Today Groundsolve were engaged to do ground investigations, excavating three 3m-deep holes to test ground conditions for building, and to establish whether a soakaway for rainwater is feasible on the site. They had contracted to have a bowser full of water supplied from Caerwys (sensible) and a JCB from Bala (not sensible). The bowser arrived on time at 8.30, but the first JCB broke down on the way and its replacement didn't arrive, and the job therefore didn't start, until 1.45. Fortunately the tractor+bowser driver had a lot of stories to tell me about Caerwys and its inhabitants, and I learnt more about Rosario's (of Groundsolve) background growing up in Sicily and gaining his advanced geology qualifications in northern Italy. Also, very kindly, we had coffee and pastries provided during the morning by Adrian and his wife (and tea by Bridget this afternoon). The advantages of having a local architect and getting on well with the vendor. (Adrian also turned up on site t...

We enjoyed Helene and Colin visiting over the weekend, bringing plans for their building application for Belstone which has to go before the National Park authorities. Colin is, of course, full of ideas and information, most specifically about renewables and clever materials, so we had a lot to talk about. We will definitely get a quotation from South West Heat Pumps for the ground source heat pump, etc, and may be able to benefit from a new type of roof panel they are developing which combines solar and PV. If we are the first in Wales to use it, we may get it at cost. We all went over to the site on Saturday and they were complimentary about our choice. Liz and I went again yesterday to meet Rob from Proarb to discuss desirable minor works on the lime tree. He thinks it's about 150 years old and expects it to live for at least as long again. He doesn't recommend reducing its height as that would produce cuts which might lead to infection. We agreed that it would be a good...

So, the usual routine - over to Gellifor about 9, get the kit out, mix the mortar, move the stones into position, fix the stones. Only complicated today by a) having to come round the corner and b) having to find new stones from the big pile as I was working on the part of the wall which hadn't previously had capping stones. I did two mixes of mortar and got to within half a dozen stones of finishing (not counting the fact that the back of the wall needs to be tidied up) but I decided I had had enough about 3 and headed for Denbigh to buy some henfood. Glad to say that before I left both Michael and Bridget (separately) expressed their delight with the job.