Building a new house

Liz passed by the plot today and found that the first-floor joists are now all in place. There is a gap where the staircase will be, and the shape of the double-glazed lantern over the single-floor dining area is now clear. When the blockwork continues upwards, the ends of the joists will be secured within the inner skin of blocks. The battens currently in place to space them will then be removed and (wonderfully named) noggins will be fastened between the joists to prevent them from bowing. from outside the kitchen picture window: this big space will be divided into kitchen, utility room and a front study. The three openings to the right will lead to the dining area, to the hall from the kitchen and to the hall from the study the doorway to the left will mark the division between the kitchen and the utility room in the sitting room, looking out towards the fields and hills in the hallway, leading to the sitting room in the dining area, with lantern above. Around the lantern, as over t...

The weather is not currently particularly conducive to building progress, being a mixture of heavy showers and cold temperatures, but we dropped in today to find Pat and his joiner fitting the first floor joists.  The only likely progress next week will be the addition of scaffolding, as the block-laying team are going to be on holiday. At Pat's suggestion I rang Ian at Hendrewydd Farm to ask his permission for the scaffolders to place some supporting poles over the hedge in the field, and he was ok with that. We were a little bit surprised that Adrian and the structural engineer hadn't specified the more expensive posi-joists as we know that they make the running of services through the floor much easier, and save contractors' time.  We are going down the old-fashioned route of solid timber. At least Pat hasn't had the task of measuring for posi-joists - he was chuntering again gently today about Adrian's design for 'interest' in wall-lines, which means the...

We have just enjoyed our first non-family campervan trip away since restrictions eased, visiting Damon and Renate in Taynuilt and having a couple of nights at the Camping and Caravanning Club's campsite in Glencoe. We very much enjoyed the trip, and had the bonus of a break on the way home with Paul and Gill at The Butcher's Arms in Crosby Ravensworth. We were keen to see how much progress Pat had made this week, so drove home via the plot, noting that the journey from the A55 turn-off takes just 8 minutes more than it used to when gong to CyMI. All the ground floor now has double-skinned walls, and the block internal walls and lintels are in place. A particularly valuable (given recent price increases) stack of timber joists is on site, so having a first floor isn't so far away. It's interesting to be able to see how the internal spaces work, though stud walls will eventually separate the kitchen, utility room and front study. And the garage which is going on the front...

Here are Elizabeth's photographs of today's progress, with details of the bolting of the steel window supports to their foundation pads.

In spite of a Bank Holiday and a washout day yesterday, the block laying is proceeding well, and as there are now two small cabins on site, we are assuming that the team are in for the long haul. Away from the site, I have begun to engage with the provision of telephone and broadband services. It turns out that, whoever our chosen provider, we must first engage with Openreach to be added to their address database. I spent much of yesterday completing their online form, providing planning permission references, architect's plans, and Land Registry maps. Success came late in the day, when they issued me with the reference number needed to engage their surveyor. (S)he will in due course decide whether we can have an overhead connection, or whether we must once again dig (metaphorically and literally) deep for an underground one. I've agreed with Pat that we will wait until we have an appropriate wall for an overhead connection before trying to organise a site visit and persuade th...

Pat reported on Monday that one of many current supply problems affects concrete blocks. It seems it's the distribution system which is overwhelmed at present rather than the actual manufacturing process. They are usually on 48 hours notice, but when he ordered last Thursday he was told there would be a week's delay. We were driving home from our first Devon trip for many months on Thursday, so we called at the plot in the afternoon for a catch-up and to admire the piles of blocks being laid out around the perimeter of the house-to-be. The block-laying will be complicated by the fact there are no long uninterrupted runs: Adrian has designed in doors, windows, reveals and corners aplenty. And on this build, unusually, the inner skin will be built first, as the insulation panels are attached to the cavity side of this skin, then there is a void, then the outer skin of blocks (some of which will be rendered, some timber-clad). By Friday afternoon when Liz called by, we had the beg...