28th May 2010 - Roof works have begun!

Roof works have begun - the joists for the "attic floor" are mostly nogged* and they have begun fitting the CaberDek which will provide a solid platform to work on as the main roof timbers are erected next week.

* Yes, I checked, there is a verb "to nog" in the OED.

22nd May 2010 - Plate level

And here we are at last, up to plate level. The timbers for the roof have been delivered, so here come's the roof soon!

15th May 2010 - Second lift of the scaffolding

The scaffolders were back on Thursday this week, doing the 2nd lift. That means the scaffold boards are now approx in line with the bedroom windows, plus there is scaffolding across the top of the garage.

Abuv is zee piktur off ze hauz.

Blow, is zee piktur of ze skavolding ovver ze garaj, zo ewe kan zee howw big zee playrum iz.

The brickies then had to move all the bricks & blocks from the ground up to this 2nd lift and have set-up ready to start laying again on Monday. Tony says it took them all day to move the large amount of matérial and make those neat little piles of bricks. They have the JCB/forklift to lift up to the deck since hod-carrying up ladders is frowned upon in this day and age. Even by Lithuanians...

7th May 2010 - Going up

The walls are being built up and up. We're well on the way to seeing the shapes of the bedrooms, and especially the playroom above the garage which seems like it will be an awesome space. The guys have been doing plenty of blockwork and now the 2nd load of bricks have arrived the outer skin is going round nicely too.

The fork-lift is on-site - please may I have my own JCB for Christmas? Quick quiz: what does JCB stand for?

Here's what she looks like at the moment:

And here's one showing how her balcony is coming along:

27th April 2010 - Steels, stumps, lintels & joists

It's coming along nicely, isn't it. The tree stumps finally went today - the photo shows about 1/4 of the stumps that have been lingering on site for 2 months now, and now they are away :-)

The lintels are all fitted in place now, and the steels & joists are all on site and going in this week.

Scott is back too, finishing the back garden too - soakaways are being dug, the back garden water system has been set in, and the new top soil is due this week too, ready for seeding shortly.

Meanwhile, the brickies continue to build onwards and upwards.

21st April - This is what she looks like from the rear

And here is a snap of her rear.

16th April 2010 - Almost ready for the scaffolding

Here we are - 16th April - still on time and on target - kudos to Tony, Adrian and the subbies and Gregg (and me) and the weather gods for keeping everything tickety-boo. The walls are constructed almost up to first lift. Scaffolding should be coming early next week, the steels, joists, lintels etc. are on order, and I think the groundworkers are coming back next week with truck loads of top soil & grass seed to finish off the back gardens. I like saying gardens (plural) - it gives the feeling of the size - croquet court zone, orchard zone, lawn zone. Talking of which, the plum trees that my mum gave me 2 houses ago which have now been transplanted twice in their 10 year lives are now in blossom (see photo) which is great news. If they give us fruit this year, that's great, although just the fact that they are still with us and blossomming (how many Ms???) is more than I hoped for.

It's looking big again - oo-er Mrs.

Plum blossom in the spring-time - the start of a Japanese garden perhaps....

9th April 2010 - Bricks, bricks, bricks

Hoo-ra and up she rises, even if it's not earlie in the morning.

The brickies started on the Tuesday after Easter, and the walls are now rising around us. Most of the window formers are in, and basically you can really begin to see what it's going to look like now. The colours are nice - Capital Brown Multi goes nicely with the Parham Red.

31st March 2010 - Foundations complete!

And now the foundations are essentially complete. The B&B for the garage floor has been concreted in - the 1st photo shows the "pour" in action. The B&B of the main house floor is lightly screed-ed in - in a few months it'll be finished with UFH of course.

The 2nd photo also shows the retaining wall for the patio at the rear that is now in progress, plus the current state of the rear garden which needs further titivation once the rain goes away.

Now it also seems that Tony is wearing MY yellow hard hat. Doesn't he know that all my kids have nits?

23rd March 2010 - Beam & block floor almost complete

The wife has been bothered recently by some Jehovah witnesses. Luckily, they are buried in the concrete now, so they she ain't gonna be bovvered no more.

The B&B floor is mostly laid now. The rooms are beginning to look bigger now. I must look up the law of paralax and find out why things look bigger or smaller than they really are.

And the building society is just about to dish out some sponduliks at last.

Sponduliks, spondulics, spondulix, spondoolies
from sparán tuilteach, sparáin tuillteach (overflowing purse, overflowing money bags), money, small coins

17th March - Almost up to the DPC

The blockwork up to the DPC is now done on 2 sides, and the internal layout is taking shape. Everyone says "it always looks small at this point".

The first few courses of bricks have been laid at the rear in Capital Brown Multi with the Parham Red forming the quoins. I hope you think it's nice - too late now to change your mind when you have 10000 bricks on site!


And the B&B floor has been delivered too - here is an arty photo. The sharp eyed amongst you will notice that these are 120 T-Beams with 3x 5mm wires. Got it?

10th March - Foundations

Someone seems to have dug some trenches in my garden -1m deep into that lovely Cretaceous Upper Chalk. I checked for Micraster, terebratulids and byrozoans, but to no avail - only found some flinty lumps. Now, how else do I tell if it's Danian or Maastrichtian?

And then - the trench diggers seem to have filled it all up with C20 grade concrete. I guess we better get a house built on top of it now then, don't you think?

1st week in March 2010

The demolition guys have gone, and we now have a nicely fenced site and some luxurious cabins. Good old EdF networks + their friends at EON still haven't finished the electricity connection, so there's no tea for anyone on-site yet...

19th Feb 2010 - Demolition

19th February - the last of the house was demolished by the demolition guys from Biggin Hill. They did a pretty good & tidy job - lost a couple of branches from one of the trees, but apart from that I was pretty happy.


It was also half-term week, so watching the demolition was fun for all the family!

... and here it is half-way down...... and some video.

What is should look like by mid October 2010

... and here is what it should look like by the time it's finished. We have a JCT contract with a nice builder, so by mid October 2010 is should be lovely. The contract has a penalty clause after 5th November, so hopefully that's the absolute latest date for completion. Let's see...