22nd August - More plastering

Here is another plastering photo - this one is of the kitchen. They have been putting up plaster board and hardwalling all week, and there is still loads of it to do! After one week, they still have more hardwall to do on the ground floor, and haven't started wet work upstairs at all yet. Not complaining - they seem to be doing a nice job, straight & flat as required - it just takes a while...

22nd August - Patio

The patio at the back is being laid. We have gone for Bradstone "Autumn Green" sandstone slabs, and they look very nice. No fossils have turned up in them yet - rumour is that all these sandstones come from India, but I don't have any geological information other than that. Let me know if you want to do some palynology or micropaleo for these please...

18th August 2010 - Plastering!

The plastering has begun. This is a huge milestone - suddenly all the rooms are really becoming visible for the shapes and sizes that they really are. Plasterer seems to be doing a good job - nice and flat, so far, so good - although he is a Brummie...

And the groundworkers have almost finished their contribution to the extension, have built some of the steps in the garden and are preparing to lay the patio slabs (Bradstone Autumn Green).

12th August 2010 - The extension has started

Did I mention the extension? Well, it may seem curious to add an extension before the house is even finished, but that's what we are doing! The wife really, really, really wanted to add a large lounge to the south side of the house.

The remit was:

• make the room as large as possible (it's 8m x 5m)
• give it a wow factor - so it's going to have a vaulted ceiling and a large apex picture window at the rear
• make it look not-too-much like an extension

so that is what we are doing! Theoretically, this is still within the budget (we just spent the continguency)...

We applied for planning permission on 2nd June, got it granted on 26th July and Scott started digging foundations on 2nd August. The plan is to get it completed in the same timeframe as the main house - i.e. not to add any extra time onto the overall schedule.

This photo shows the foundation trenches, just after the concrete pour.

12th August 2010 - Plaster board tackers

The tackers have started putting up the plasterboards for the ceilings. This is another big leap forward in seeing what the final rooms will look like. Up until now we've been looking at joists, noggins, pipes & wires - now we see a nice flat ceiling. This photo is of the hall.

11th August 2010 - Fan-fold doors & back door

The funky, modern 5-way fan-fold door has now been fitted - it leads from the kitchen onto the patio. It's the in thing these days.

Also the back door has been fitted - the wife wanted a green one, and I agree (better than boring old white) - although it's not quite as dark green as this photo indicates! We don't think the back door will be used much anyway, what with the door in from the garage, and the fan-fold doors already mentioned!

5th August 2010 - Insulation & getting ready to close up

We've had a few days hiatus with practically no-one working on site for 3 days, which was curiously dull and disappointing.


Now it's all back at full speed again. A huge mound of Celotex insulation has been delivered and is now being fitted into the roof spaces.




The ultra-expensive fire-proof cabling has also been run for the fire alarm system (to BS5839, L2 in the unlikely case that you're interested...)