External works

bhplan_external works
Originally uploaded by Lenny & Meriel.

Whilst the house works pick up pace, we are trying to arrange for the external works to be done.

This consists of:
- Some steps down from the glazed gable which are the width of the gable and effectively a continuation of the house (although not actually connected)
- An indian fossil stone patio in front of the steps
- A paved (or perhaps gravel) area up the south side of the house to connect the front drive to the back garden
- 1 or 2 steps to connect the 2 paved areas
- The continuation of the existing flower beds at the front along the new bit of house
- 2 gate posts & gate across the drive
We'll do all the planting - we just want to get the heavy stuff done.
Rihoys have quoted for it. We have another 3 quotes coming our way. All guesses welcome!

Watch this space.

Final piece of glazing being fitted

Final piece of glazing being fitted
Originally uploaded by Lenny & Meriel.

All hands on deck. That's the plumber, the electrician, the foreman, the chippies and the window fitters. They managed to lift this unit of glass (weighing approx 135kg) up to the first floor and into place despite the gale force 5/6 winds.
Job done and a race to the ferry for the fitters.
Phewww!!! That was a pretty stressful week!

Gable with doors

Gable with doors
Originally uploaded by Lenny & Meriel.

The grand sliders are in, although the interior glazing for the ground floor is going to be fitted later because of the extensive lead times of suncool glass (something we were expecting).
So, despite losing a day when the ferry was cancelled, the ID system boys have stayed late each night and agreed to stay an extra night to get more of the glazing finished.
We are hoping that they will have managed to get the exterior frame of the upstairs part of the gable in and the best situation would be that they leave tomorrow (10:00 am) having completed the glazing of the upstairs frame. We wait with baited breath to see how far they will get tonight. With luck they will have fitted the frame and the two small side glazed units tonight, ready to try to fit in the large central pane tomorrow morning. It's going to be windy, but there are many hands on site to help, so at least it'll be a quick job if they'r ready to put it in.

Underfloor heating panels

Underfloor heating panels
Originally uploaded by Lenny & Meriel.

Panels are on site and the battening is ploughing ahead, meaning that the end of the plumbing first fix is just about in sight. There's alot of panels here on the ground floor and more being fitted upstairs. The ground floor UFH panels are effectively polystyrene sheets with pipes embedded and the upstairs panels are the same, but with chipboard instead of polystyrene, giving them a more structural contribution.

Chimney going up

Chimney going up
Originally uploaded by Lenny & Meriel.

The chimney is going up slowly but steadily. As far as we can ascertain the flue pipes that arrived a while back ar being joined in readiness to fit inside. The idea is that an elbow will come off the flue at 45 degrees to connect with the stove/ However, the flue will continue down to where the concrete plinth is (halfway down the construction in this image), so that any unwanted particles will collect at the bottom of the pipe. We'll have an access panel in the hallway to get in and clean it out every year or so.

Electrical first fix

Electrical first fix
Originally uploaded by Lenny & Meriel.

As you will see from the increased number of posts, there has been an acceleration in the progress on site. The electricians have started and almost finished the upstairs first fix. What's more they're asking all the right questions, which is very confidence inspiring.

Weather

Lifting a 2.5m squared double glazed unit up to first floor level is probably never going to be easy. Doing it in strong winds is pretty scary (I guess). That's ID systems job this evening.

They were scheduled to leave mid afternoon today - but delays due to their late arrival and some due to additional work being required on openings to meet their specification have meant they are not yet finished. Their crossing back to the UK has been changed to tomorrow at midday. This means that they will try to get the job done tonight. There were a few scary moments earlier today when we thought they'd have to leave the job unfinished. Hopeing that that has been avoided - although we still have plans c and d up our sleeves.

Hopefully there will be pictures to post later today.

Underfloor heating install begins

Underfloor heating battens
Originally uploaded by Lenny & Meriel.

The battening has been going in this week which will accommodate the underfloor heating units. Upstairs is being done at the same time as downstairs and there are clearly more hands on deck this week, so the pace has increased.

ID Systems arrive

ID Systems arrive
Originally uploaded by Lenny & Meriel.

Only a day late, which seemed miraculous after the bad weather we had on Monday - all the ferries were cancelled. Anyway our fears of having to re-book them a month in advance were put to bed when they arrived on Tuesday. We're particulary please about this because we were wholly responsible for the supply and fit of the sliding doors and upper portion of the outer skin of the gable (what a mouthful). Anyway, they're here and set to work straight away. Pictures of the frames and sliders soon - we've only seen the first frame, but it looks awesome.
The only major problem we may encounter here is that the high winds this week may stop them from installing the central glass section in the exterior upper window, but they haven't ruled out someone else putting it in in their absence.

Cara's room takes shape

Cara's room takes shape
Originally uploaded by Lenny & Meriel.

The window in the old living room has been extended down to form the apperture for the double doors into Cara's room and we can already imagine how light it's going to make it in there - no good for foot-staring teenagers who like dark corners, but there's a way to go until then.

All the windows in along the front

Windows in along the front
Originally uploaded by Lenny & Meriel.

All the windows are in place along the front and they're just the ticket. I am sure that we've made the right choice of colour now. We were trying to avoid the plastic looking finish and I was a little concerned that the joins would make them look cheap somehow, but the dark colour has sorted all that out and the style we've picked gives a really clean look. They'll be even better when we've got the rooms painted, just so they have a bright backdrop.

Upstairs living room

Upstairs living room
Originally uploaded by Lenny & Meriel.

Here's a shot of the upstairs living room as it is now.

Glazed gable should have arrived today. However - all fast ferries have been cancelled due to bad weather. They've managed to book themselves onto the first one tomorrow and the weather forecast looks OK - which means they'll arrive on site tuesday midday.

Phewww! New windows look good

Windows!
Originally uploaded by Lenny & Meriel.

Here's the first new window to go in. We're really happy with the style and colour. It makes a dramatic improvement to the house already.

Glazing update

I'm still working hard on option 1 (see below) .

It turns out that it IS possible to get the type of glass we want (Suncool 70/40 toughened) at the size we want (Thank you v much Stuart at Glassworks) - but only from 1 place in the UK - Pilkington Plyglass.
Our local glass suppliers seem unwilling to take this order - they pass the blame onto Pilkington Poole's lack of ability to satisfy the order.
I found myself on the phone to the Pilkington Plyglass sales mgr for Southern UK. He was understandably confused as to why Poole don't want to take the order and is on the phone to them right now. He believes there's no supply or transport issue with it.

Keep watching this space - I will NOT take no for an answer!

Out with the old (windows)

Old windows come out
Originally uploaded by Lenny & Meriel.

All the old windows have been taken out in preparation for the arrival of the new ones today (hopefully). Have we picked the right onees in the right colour? We'll see. It's certainly very difficult to pick details for a whole house that will all work together without first seeing them. The windows are a very good example of this and all will be revealed in the next few days.

All that aside

All that aside - the thing that concerns us most right now is that it has just been discovered that the type of glass we have chosen for part of the glazed gable (Suncool glass) is not available at the size we need in a toughened state. Choices are currently:

1. Prove that it is possible (my favourite solution). We're working pretty hard on this one right now.
2. Find an alternative design which works within size limitations but does not compromise the design. (Not sure this is possible).
3. Compromise the design (picture me now - kicking and screaming). This means either reducing the size of the window or breaking it up into smaller units. No no no.

Working on no 1 (scouring Pilkington website, multiple phone calls to Pilkington technical dept and other glazing companies) has surprisingly thrown up a few options which need some technical clarification. 2 key options being:
a. Get a specialist company to toughen the glass from Pilkingtons (there's a company in London called European Toughened 020 8961 6066 who can toughen glass of 3300 x 7000) then make up the double glazed units. Not quite as easy as it sounds because although Pilkingtons gave me their number, European Toughened cannot get the Suncool glass from them directly. We'd need to involve multiple parties.
b. Discover that it's only the inner pane which needs to be toughened because there's no access to the outside (it's out of reach and inside the building). Fingers crossed this one applies. Our structural engineer has been put on the case working out "barrier loads" so that Pilkingtons can advise accordingly.

I'm not sure that in my life I'll ever have my15 minutes of fame. I have however (perhaps more usefully) had my 15 minutes of being a glazing expert, a sanitaryware expert, a light fittings expert, an eco build expert, a water pump expert, a boiler expert, and underfloor heating expert, a Heat Recovery Ventilation expert (I've even got a certificate to prove this one!)... the list goes on. It's a shame after 2 children that my memory is shot to pieces - this knowledge might be useful again but alas... all gone in the 16th minute. Still - at least we'll have a nice house!

Strange turn of events...

It turns out that Rihoys (our builders) are watching this blog... Yes we know you're there! So now we'll be playing strange games of passing subliminal messages regarding the build and how we really feel about it...

When the building company boss shows up at a regular site meeting you know something's not right. Call me a pessimist but I just knew he wasn't showing up to say hello. That's what happened today. Why you ask... well a few things have slipped to the point where we're all rather worried. List as follows:

1. Underfloor heating: The local suppliers have delivered plans VERY late and to an insufficient level of detail for the builders to work from. We now have an emergency site meeting with them tomorrow morning to get things moving.
2. Heat Recovery Ventilation system: Having promised a 7 day turn around on delivering the necessary parts it now looking like it'll be 3 going on 4 weeks. Needless to say noone's happy at all about this - it seriously holds the build up (I belive the term is that it's "critical path").
3. Chimney: We paid extra for a fast delivery of flue parts to enable them to get on with the chimney. Parts duly arrived a week ago. Instructions were left to call our contact at Robeys if help was needed making sense of what arrived (they have been very knowledgable and helpful to us). No call was made and the excuse for lack of progress was confusion regarding the way it worked. Slap wrists.
4. Additional items (Variations): We're waiting for quotes from various items which have been requested for a while (Aluminium guttering, external works, various joinery items, pointing on existing house, bespoke front door). Slow progress which doesn't help with our financial planning.
5. Ironmongery: Late delivery of schedule - however some action does seem to be happening now after a visit from us to the firm concerned and several emails from others.
   
6. Budgets: Needless to say we've changed our mind a few times and have learned that we're not very good at doing things on the cheap. "We're only going to do this once...". We have however been keeping a close watch on this so things are OK.
   
7. Plumbing & Electrics: Earlier concerns regarding plumbing and electrics seem to be nearly sorted now from a combination of us taking control of sanitaryware procurement (which also saved some money btw) and a new electrician coming on board who has made some genuinely useful suggestions and found a way to order in the long lead time stuff in time. Hurrah!

It's mostly the case that these problems are not the direct fault of the building firm - they are mostly to do with 3rd parties (subbies). I've learned one lesson which I will remember if I ever attempt anything like this again - Stay on top of everything myself - don't be afraid to be a control freak. I might need to step on someone's toes but builders have big boots - they can handle it.

On the positive side - the house now has a water tight roof (felt & battens) and all the windows appear to be on schedule (old ones are gone and new ones arriving on site tomorrow). The glazed gable arrives on monday. We'll be wind and water tight by the end of next week. Substantial progress has been made on much of the internal carpentry.

What does all this mean? - As so many 'concerns' are regarding critical path items the new projected completion date is end July (2 months late). They have promised they'll throw everything they can at it to get it done earlier. What we care about most is that the job is done well. In the big scheme of things a couple of months is not a big deal. Where delays are not due to variations or extreme weather conditions (acts of god) there are penalty clauses which mean we'll get some financial help coping with the extended burden of additional living expenses during the delays. So that helps a bit.

Relations are still very good between the builders and ourselves (and i'm not just saying that becuase they are reading this) and we're still very excited about the house.

Oak frame

Oak frame
Originally uploaded by Lenny & Meriel.

This was delivered to site yesterday - it's an oak frame intended for the first floor of the gable on the inside skin. It looks really nice and appears to be alot thinner than we imagined - we didn't want it chunky.

Veluxes and battens from the adjoining field

Veluxes and battens from the adjoining field
Originally uploaded by Lenny & Meriel.

In General the progress is coming along ok. The veluxes have been fittd to the front of the house, the roof has had a new felt lining and the battening has almost been finished. The studwork for the eavews cupboards is coming along well and we expect to see the plumber and electrician at the site attending to the first fixes.

First fix plumbing

First fix plumbing
Originally uploaded by Lenny & Meriel.

And there's the proof, conduits joints and all.

Things are happening, honestly.

Boxing in the steel upstairs
Originally uploaded by Lenny & Meriel.

The steel beams are being prepared for cladding once the roof goes on. Also the first fix plumbing has started and is well underway, we are designing the last of the cupboards, the roof is being stripped of teh old felt and sound proofing is being added to Jonah's room.

Utility room

DSC_1260
Originally uploaded by Lenny & Meriel.

The smallest room in the house - the utility room. Also proves that we do now have stairs.