Week 20 - Internals - 13th Dec

A bit warmer at the start of this week so we've managed to get the screed down in the porch which is good as the forecast is for it to get colder again. The dryliners are also back this week which is good news as they are now quite behind schedule and with the kitchen due the 2nd week of Jan we need them to speed on.

The floor tiles have arrived and there are three crates in front of the house that need unloading into the house. Looks like my workout for the week is scheduled!!! They will look fantastic when laid I think as they have stunning colours in them and quite a few have fossils in. We've found a tiller through a local tile center, he does all of their displays so should make a good job of ours. They are quite large tiles 60cm x 60cm and we have 60 square meters of them!
The scheduling is quite tight now as we want to move in (finished or not) at the end of Jan.

The heating is coming 1st Week of Jan along with the tiller and the Kitchen follows the following week. So we have to be plastered and painted in these areas by then.

The carpenters are also in this week so we have door linings all on and external doors with locks, which we have boarded up to keep the weather out as they are not glazed yet.

Week 19 - 6th Dec - Glass

With the glass going in this week we can start to keep out the cold a little, and hopefully our floor will dry out in time for tilling in the new year. We have a friend who is a director at Evander Glazing and Locks who has done us a great deal on the glass and the guys that are fitting it are excellent and are working through the cold snap all credit to them.

The carpenter has fitted the external doors so we can also get Evander to measure up for the door glass that we need.

Interestingly (or not maybe) the external doors require 14mm glazing units rather than the standard 24mm ones. As these are less thermally efficient the rest of the house has been compensated by Potton to still achieve the required U values.

The dryliners have surcome to the flu this week and so have our bricklayers, who we had booked in this week as the temperatures are due to rise towards the end of the week which had given us a 'window' to get the external brickwork done but best laid plans.......

With luck they will be back next week and we can get moving on the internals again and also screed the porch if the temperatures hold up.

Week 18 - 29th Nov - Drainage

This week the drainage is being put in. Not the sexy bit of the build and not a nice job in the snow but the Trell boys are getting stuck into it, all credit to them.

As we are in the middle of the country side we have a septic tank, which was used for the old property that we demolished. We commissioned a local firm of experts to do the drainage design and also provide an expert opinion that the septic tank was large enough for the new house and still in good working order as building control seemed to be saying we needed to replace it for a new dwelling (Not something we wanted or needed to do). So Trell are joining the foul drainage into the existing septic tank and also routing the storm water round to a 15m squared soak away filled with Aquasole units.
The 2nd fix carpentry items have also arrived this week from Potton so have have stairs, door linings, skirting and doors....well they are all pilled up in various rooms of the house. As there is no heating we have made sure that they are off the ground and well supported on bearers to stop the wood absorbing too much moisture and warping. The doors we have varnished as best we can in the sub zero temperatures!

The day after the delivery and we now have stairs assembled and a front door on.
We made the mistake of using 15mm plasterboard on the internal walls instead of 12.5mm so the door linings that Potton sent are not big enough, opps. Luckily there were some shortages so Potton agreed to re-deliver but with slightly larger ones.