Building a new house

Dan and his assistants have achieved an amazing amount this week, in spite of some unhelpful spells of rain. The excavation work started on Tuesday and continued on Wednesday, with all of the trenching except that for the garage completed. This included digging to below the level of the old septic tank chamber which was at the house end of the garage, and which necessitated a very wide and deep trench across what will be the front of the house. On Thursday morning we received this photo from our rather surprised neighbour-to-be, as a concrete pump big enough to build a skyscraper arrived at 8 o'clock. Over the course of the day, 10 deliveries of concrete went through the pump and into the trenches. Given the tightness of access to the site, the narrow roads through the village and the fact that the deliveries were stacking in order to ensure continuity of supply for the pump, it's amazing that the crew seems to have kept of all our neighbours onside.  We popped by just after lu...

I popped over to the site at lunchtime as Dan had said that he would start the trenching today. He had a midi digger and 9 ton dumper truck there and had got on well with marking out and digging the trenches for the back of the house. We understand that he and Pat don’t regard the septic tank chamber as a particular problem: their solution is to ensure that the concrete of the garage foundations goes deeper than it, then fill it in. We had a detailed response from Adrian to the discovery, which as he suggested I sent on to the structural engineer yesterday morning. I haven’t heard back but wonder if he and Pat have spoken. This evening we went over to see if the time lapse camera put in place yesterday had worked. It takes an image every 15 minutes during daylight from the back corner fence post and has indeed done the trick. We think Dan’s assistant is standing between the dining area and the sitting room. 

November is not normally regarded as the best time of the year to begin groundworks, but our development has been waiting most of this year for the consent for our sewer connection, which had to be in place before our foundations could be built. So 10 November 2020 was the date for the site preparation (removing rubbish and scraping off the topsoil) to begin. Gwyn, who was the JCB driver for the sewer job, returned and neatly scraped and scraped away. The topsoil was gathered at one side and back of the site. Gwyn even kindly replanted in the corner of the site a now leafless acer which we had all admired in its autumn finery three weeks earlier. We visited in the late afternoon. For the first time, the plot no longer looked like the former garden it had been, pond and all. The second day's work involved more grading and the lorrying away of spoil. Fortunately the ground held up (just) to the weight of the lorry.  There's still moisture in the ground after significant rain a co...

Well, it’s almost 2 years since the last report here on action at our building plot. Perhaps this story is going to be like one of those sad accounts on Houses under the Hammer where the TV cameras return after many years to discover that the developer has been thwarted and nothing has changed? 2019 disappeared on us as various potential buyers of our current property came and went without any real movement. We were very close to selling as 2019 turned into 2020, but as accounts of a mystery virus began to emerge from China, the mortgage market tightened and our sale did not materialise. At about this time our architect advised us to begin the process of applying for permission to connect our plot to the public sewer, which, apparently helpfully, is mapped as passing only 2 metres from our plot, in the adjacent field. To say that this process has been tortuous would be an understatement. With substantial payments being demanded at each stage, we have gone through applying for section 1...

Back at the plot today to do some chainsawing. Our car went in for service at Ruthin, so I followed Liz with the Land Rover and trailer and we headed to the plot to start to clear the pile of logs that has been building up since the eucalyptus and the cherries were felled to create the new entrance. The plan was for a morning's work (which with the chainsaw and the loading is enough), followed by lunch at home and an afternoon with Maddy and Grace and Toby in Penymynydd, before returning to Ruthin to collect the car. I used my rickety (need to make a new one) log holder, which when loaded means that a lot of wood-burner sized logs are produced from just 5 long chainsaw cuts. We ended up with a good number of logs which, after a little further drying in our former pigsty, should produce some seasonal warmth and good cheer. An unexpected bonus was the departure from the house opposite the plot of the Denbigh Hunt - 30 or so riders aiming to chase a scent around some of the va...

A few months ago when we met our neighbours-to-be who live opposite the plot, they gently pointed out that they were a little worried that our large lime tree had grown laterally to the point where its branches were brushing against their chimney. We promised to get something done, but warned them that, as the tree is protected by a tree preservation order, it would take some time. In the event, the process has been smooth but slow. In early August, we asked Proarb, one of the larger arboricultural firms in the area, to come and examine the tree, make their recommendations, and quote for the advised work. Their surveyor, Rob, came out to the site and suggested that a minor crown reduction to provide 3m of free space would suffice. He reckoned that the tree is 150 years old and that it will live for another 200. He counselled against any further work on the basis that every cut provides a possible route into the tree for infection. A couple of days later we had their written quotation...

So, two days on the bounce, for the first time in a long time. Michael asked yesterday whether I might be able to put some boards on the temporary fence which is in place across the entrance-to-be. I went back this morning and used the boards left over from the big fencing job to cover the higher part, providing some cover from their viewpoint of the piles of stone. Nothing can be done about the lower part of the entrance, which is subject to the 900mm sightline ruling. Just a couple of hours' work.