Site meeting

It's been remarkable how few organised site meetings we've had on this job. Most of the discussions with Pat or his sub-contractors have taken place when we've called by to see how things were going, and we've had very few examples of changing plans as we've gone, which has kept things simpler for everyone and presumably saved costs. However, this morning we needed a decision about the siting of the air source heat pump and how to connect it to the internal systems. Promptly at 8.30 as arranged I joined Pat and Keith (who had driven up from Whitchurch) and we established that the main unit will sit outside the kitchen wall, not taking up space in the walkway from the side door to the back garage/workshop door. It will go on a simple pea gravel base which will act as a soakaway for condensation. The insulated water and electrical connections will go a short distance underground before surfacing to penetrate the utility room wall. Inside there will be an integrated water tank (so no separate buffer tank is needed) and pipes will connect to both downstairs and upstairs underfloor heating manifolds, and to the domestic hot water system.

Keith is planning to come up again on Monday to meet Pat's plumber and Rob, the electrician, to finalise routing details and insert the tails through the wall. At the same time we'll be asking Rob to modify the cabling he has put in for the broadband system, as yesterday I met Hamish of Vale Wisp (at Rob's recommendation) and we decided to go with a networked system for the house fed by line-of-sight from one of Hamish's transmitters. We will have a hardwired network around the house which should ensure a seamless 100-200 mps service, notwithstanding the 'tin sub-floor' created by the trays which hold the upstairs underfloor heating pipes. We also need to ask Rob to add a lighting circuit in the kitchen as, in other news, we have accepted a design and quotation for out kitchen cabinets and island, having seen a couple of different designers on Wednesday. We had thought we might not enjoy that process (would it be like two dentist's visits in a day?) but in fact it was bearable and we weren't subjected to any hard selling. Perhaps the fact that we had sent our own plans in advance of our visits helped. We had made it clear that we are buying our worktops and appliances separately. A conversation yesterday with our excellent joiner, Ian, who was working on the canopy supports, established that he will be happy to build our larder unit from scratch, getting us round one of the difficulties which both kitchen designers had come up against.  So, it seems to have been an achieving week, and this afternoon we are off to choose wall tiles for our bathrooms.

very pleased with Pat's choice of chunky, sapele-wood posts for the side canopy (the ground level will be just below the bottom of the timber)

scaffolding is in place for the erection of the garage roof trusses

this is the main front gable, where the broadband aerial will be located

window openings have been framed ready for plastering

by the end of the day, the erection of the garage trusses had completed the last geometric element of the house










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