Building a new house

Last week was to have been drilling week - the plan being to sink two boreholes each of 130m in depth, to suck warmth from the earth which our ground source heat pump would transfer to our underfloor heating and domestic hot water supply. Things started well, and a million pounds worth of radio-controlled drilling equipment made a dramatic entry to Gellifor and our plot. somewhat amazingly, the transporter was only in position for a little over 5 minutes even more amazingly, the rig is being controlled remotely from the little orange box on the technician's waistbelt so here we are, almost ready for action this is the business end and this is the top of the rig a small selection of the rest of the kit (borehole grout and the smaller of two compressors on site) It was the team's intention to spend day one setting up, prior to completing a borehole on each of the following days. However, in the middle of the afternoon, a significant telephone call came from head office - a last m...

After the first week we got no further photographs from Pat, but we understood that work was proceeding. Three weeks and two days after leaving, we drove from Dover to Gellifor to see the changes. To our relief, the underfloor heating manifolds were in the right places (in the utility room-to-be  downstairs and in the landing cupboard-to-be upstairs), the screed had been laid and had dried, and the roof (but not guttering) was complete, though there's no chimney pot as yet - is there to be a topping-out ceremony? Much of the studwork upstairs was complete and the size of the rooms is now clearer. Downstairs, the siting of the stud walls which will be put in can be seen from marks in the screed (places where there are no pipes to be punctured by the fixing of floorplates). We had had a great holiday in so many different ways, but it was a real pleasure to be back and see a lot of building progress. slating and ridge tiles complete, with the pointing above the barge boards done the f...

We are very fortunate to have a builder whom we trust to get on with the job in our absence, consulting us about important issues by email or phone. We had started to make plans for a trip abroad many months ago, accepting that the varying state of the pandemic and international travel rules might make it impossible. However, by 23 August we had a plan that seemed possible. A drive in the campervan to Devon, an overnight stop with Colin and Helene at their building project (close to the finishing line now), an overnight car ferry from Plymouth to Roscoff, four days in Moelan-sur-Mer in southern Brittany with Chris, Katie and family, an amble south-east across France to visit Brian and Joy in Provence for a week, and finally a trip to Riva del Garda to spend a few days with Martin and Molly from California, before a solid three days' driving to get home via Calais-Dover. It all went extremely well, and a great deal happened at our plot over this time. We had a crucial email exchange...