Outside groundwork

Outside groundwork

The outside groundwork has started in areas this week at the back and the front...

the sewer pipe for the new upstairs bathrooms has been laid across the patio at the back. We were amazed at how much hardcore was under the patio.

The pipe runs across the patio and connects in with the old main drain on the far side of the house. We will be digging this patio up again in the future when we re-do it - but for now it has been put back in place as best it can be.

At the front of the house the foundations have been dug for the garage extension. you can see the little digger in the picture. Jason dug down 1.5m and still found roots. The building inspector came to check things out and said he wanted the foundation deeper - apparently it has to be 700mm below the last root in clay... so we now have a foundation 2.5 metre deep for our tiny little extension - this is probably 3 times the depth of the foundation on the main house...

To dig down that far they needed a bigger digger! Luckily, as with everything so far, Justin knows someone with a big machine and a bigger dumper truck!

So now we need yet more concrete to fill the hole... and that came on saturday while we were out!

Week 13-15 of the build

Week 13-15 of the build

It's now the end of October and the builders have been here for almost 15 weeks. There have been lots of things going on in the last week or so.

The roof slates are now almost complete on the rear of the house.

This picture shows how it has progressed. The roofers have done a great job so far. 

All of the lead on the roof looks perfect.

The dormers have had the cedar cladding put up at last. This finishes it off really well.

We were a little bit concerned before the cladding went on because it looked like the ply wood used to form the structure of the dormers had started to go mouldy in places. 

It also looked like the ply had also started to de-laminate. Justin the builder said he hadn't seen this before and reassured me it was ok. He put an anti fungal wash on the wood to kill off any growth and then put the membrane over the wood to protect it before putting the cedar up.

Inside the first floor

the walls have continued to be built for all the rooms.

This is a view from the front door area up to the main bedroom and hallway.

and this is a view down the corridor (landing) showing how the insulation has been fitted into and onto the woodwork.

Sam has also formed the curved wall for the main en suite - clever stuff!

The flues for the fires have been built in - with a number of extra angles to accommodate the angle of the roof and the truss position.

we have also now added the little passageways between the bedrooms for the girls. This is more of a fun thing for them as i thought that otherwise we were simply wasting space in the eaves of the roof.

I have also asked the builders to add some extra space to the main bedroom by using the eave spaces in here too. We did toy with the idea of putting the bath in this space - you can just fit a 1900x900mm bath in here. however, we came to our senses and realised it was better to keep the bath in the bathroom!

This is a view of the guest ensuite. We have decreased the size of this room to allow an increase in the main bathroom. We figured that it was only a guest ensuite after all!

The walls start to go up

After 12 weeks of work the builders have started to build the walls.

They are building the walls and continuing to add insulation to the roof and walls as they go. The job of cutting and fitting the insulation goes to the young lad, Jordan. Claire thinks the others are mean to him and give him all the dirty jobs (including sweeping up)

a view of the main bedroom.

this is a view of the end bedroom - with yet more insulation.

and this is the view along the landing towards the stair well.

the girls' bathroom

the landing with more insulation and plaster board

bedroom 2

bedroom 1

the main bedroom again - looking towards the wardrobes

our bedroom with more insulation added in front of the chimney flue

a view towards the top of the stairs showing

the front wall of the main ensuite going up.

Emma thinks we are building a prison - she might yet be right!

the roofers have also started again this week - let's hope the weather stays good... 

this is the view from the outside of the main bedroom window. It makes me think we want a balcony on that room now...

So far we have stuck mainly to the plan. but now, after seeing the building develop there are things we see that we might change. We couldn't visualise everything as we designed it - even with the 3D designs. (Mind you, come to think about it we didn't get many fancy images so most of it was mental visualisation!).

The balcony idea is a prime example. We didn't know we'd have this view. This, together with the fact that we didn't want to look over the neighbour's garden meant we didn't fully consider it.

There are a few other things that we 'should' have thought of, but didn't know we needed to...

• the audio system through the house
• magic eye technology on the TV and other systems (I need to look this one up)
• digging up the screed in the kitchen area 

I'm sure there will be others so I plan to make a list of these at the end - just so we know for next time!

The First Floor Goes Down

The First Floor Goes Down...

... and the insulation starts to go in.

It's been a busy week for the builders. They decided that it was best to put the flooring down now so they could get the insulation in place and start to build the walls. Part of their reason for this was so they didn't have to do any more nailing once complete so this reduced the risk of them potentially putting a hole in one of the under floor heating pipes.

there's a lot of insulation to go in place - a mix of 150mm and 50mm celotex boards. This is being cut to fit in between the rafters. The thinner board is then nailed to the inside of the rafters to increase the insulation. (Justin thinks it will be so well insulated that we will not need the heating... I'll let you know more next year!)

the flooring meant that Claire could, for the first time, come up on the scaffold and into the house!

While the roofers were away the stove and chimney installers came in. We needed to get the flues in place now before the slates go on. This was a bit of a last minute job but they look like they have done a good job. (it was only last minute in my view - I am sure Justin had it planned - although both he and I were shocked at the price the stove installer quoted for two flues to be installed)

this is the one above the sitting room fireplace - we had to build a slight kink in it to accommodate the truss above it.

The flue comes up the original chimney in a pipe and then connects to the rigid pipe that goes up through the roof.

The builders think we have built an indoor cricket wicket!!!  At 23 metres it's 3 metres longer! and about 3 metres wider.