Building a new house

Well, to be more exact (as we knew the container would fit in the space assigned) would we be able to crane the container from the lorry to its resting place, given that we knew that there was very little leeway underneath both a major branch of our TPO lime tree and the telephone cable installed to the front of the house from the telegraph pole across the road. This container is twenty feet long, eight feet wide and eight feet high. Steph arrived to help (and, it turned out, to talk to the lorry/crane driver in Welsh). The latter looked very dubious indeed about the job, but was relatively easily persuaded to give it a go. In the event, unsurprisingly, he turned out to be a master operator of the HIAB crane fitted behind the cab of the lorry. Admittedly, a short section of dead branch did part company with the tree, and the lifting chains had to be released from the jib and subsequently reattached to allow it to pass behind the telephone cable, but the whole job took only about twenty...

The second half of this week has been dedicated to finishing the blockwork for the walls at the front of the property, completing the laying and grouting of the granite cobbles, and, today, the laying and compacting of another fifteen tons of crushed stone to form the foundation for the final gravel surface, which will be reinforced by plastic 'crates' (of which more in a later post).  Stef and Graham enjoyed a spell of good weather and finished the block and sett work, also removing the majority of the stone and earth spoil which had accumulated. Today Lee and his assistant arrived after the delivery by Lelo of the crushed stone, bringing a drive-on roller. They worked throughout the day to remove the remaining spoil and level and compact the foundation surface for the front driveway and parking area. across the entrance: foundations for stone walls and the tarmac path which will have a resin bonded finish we will have an outside bed to plant - all the concrete blocks will be ...

A few more days' work, and we have the block foundations for what will be the stone walls at the front boundary. The design has changed slightly because of the difficulties of digging a foundation near to our enormous lime tree, so the planting bed which will be outside the main wall will now be rectangular rather than triangular - not a significant problem, as we shall still have easy access onto the strip of land behind the beech hedge where the storage container and greenhouse will go. We are now awaiting the delivery of the container and the completion of the gravel surface with the reinforcement grids which will protect the roots of the lime. one of the easier concrete deliveries reverse the wagon - fill the trench just need to get the speed right a quick wash-out job done meanwhile, more painstaking pointing of the setts the outer wall's inner skin advances skip to the construction of the inner wall foundation, showing the size of the exterior planting bed the outer stone...

There has been nothing to report since well before Christmas, mainly as a result of miserable weather in December and early January which made outside work impossible. We had a delivery of hardcore and machinery in early December which made us think that work might be starting on preparing the parking area and front boundary, but then the snow and ice set in, and temperatures have remained low until this week. However, three days ago we welcomed the return of Pat, Stef and Graham and have seen further cobbling and substantial earth-moving done in preparation for a concrete delivery tomorrow to create the foundation for our front wall. This has involved the removal of the original boundary hedge and its underlying rough stone wall, and has produced far more spoil than anyone expected. Early morning activity (they start before 8) spied from upstairs While this looks like a paddling pool at this stage, in fact it's an extension of the parking area into the front part of the strip of l...

It's a big day today - the second anniversary of the pouring of the foundations: concrete-pouring day in November 2020 as seen from our neighbours' garden We never wanted to pressurise our builder about the timetable for the build, impatient as we might have been, because we assumed that only bad things could result from such pressure. In his gentle way, he told us to expect the build to take about two years, a year for the construction and a year for the inside. In the event we were very pleased to be able to move in in June of this year, only eighteen months after the start of the build, although many things remained to be done. In recent weeks the pressure from the private building control company has increased, as only a limited amount of time is allowed to complete outstanding items after their 'final' inspection. That deadline was set as tomorrow. Yesterday Pat arrived to complete items relating to window safety, including fitting stops on a couple of upstairs win...

We have two small flat (well slightly sloping) roofs - over the front porch and the dining area. These were designed as green roofs, and having investigated the possibilities, Elizabeth ordered an installation which provides irrigation/drainage, a growing medium and 'mats' of pre-grown sedums, with pebble surrounds. These were very efficiently fitted yesterday, since when it has rained continuously, freeing us of watering responsibilities. The idea is that, once established, the sedums (there are many different varieties in the mix) will grow a few inches, bear insect-attracting flowers, and need little or no maintenance. Some rainfall every few weeks should be enough to keep them happy. the base layer has an eggbox-like structure with capillary matting ..... ..... on top of which go a couple of inches of growing medium ..... ..... and the sedum matting and pebbles (here above the dining area at the back of the house) this is the small area over the front porch ..... ..... cove...