Frustrated....

So I have to admit that when we took this on, despite having watched lots of Grand Designs (back when we had a TV) and realising that things take longer and go over budget I thought it would probably run to schedule and not be too bad - I should have paid more attention to Grand Designs!

Currently I am feeling a little bit frustrated with the whole thing - whilst there is progress every week - it often feels like it was just a bit more insulation each time (which I am sure the builders would agree with!). And the windows are still a saga - after having been ordered eventually, there is now a possibility that it will be 10 weeks - which is another 8 from now, which puts us mid-september before we move in. Hopefully it won't be that long, but we have ended up in the summer, and therefore coinciding with factory fortnight (factories closing for 2 weeks) which if it happens in this factory will definately delay things.

The progress update this week (there has been some) is that all the insulation and first fix of electrics and plumbing is done upstairs and plasterboarding the whole area has begun. Also the first bit of wall insulation has begun downstairs, after long discussions of how to minimally fix the studwork to the brickwork to avoid cold bridging (builder Chris coming up with the final solution, an extra horizontal piece on the studwork which then only needs 3 or 4 attachments to the brickwork). This means that the solar boys can come back next week to put in all the pipework and the tank, and after that the heat recovery system should go in. We are getting upstairs plastered next week, and the upstairs floor delivered for it to sit for a while and acclimatise before being put in. All this is happening without windows, so we have to hope that the openings are weather tight!?

Whats left still to do: all the insulation downstairs, insulation in the roof, first fix downstairs, staircase, heat recovery system to go in, solar to be sorted, second fix everywhere and windows. Decorating and downstairs floor and any storage will be us apart from tiling in the shower which we think will be better executed around the fittings if the builders do it!
Ready for the second fix we have chosen all our sanitaryware - so hopefully the plumber is ordering the right stuff and there won't be a delay! We are in disucssion with each other about how much extra to get for the kitchen. All we have so far is the double sink unit and aluminium dresser. We have decided which induction hob we would like, and are just working out about a unit to put that in, and what we do about fridge, freezer, cooker, island, etc. We think we have decided on a unit and worktop for the hob, and will probably get that and a decent fridge and freezer before or almost as soon as we move in, and then work up to the other units and cooker once we know if we have any money left (or have earnt some more). We are negotiating about the extractor fan - Emily has done some excellent research finding really quiet, efficient, expensive hoods so we haven't quite agreed on which one yet!

I guess things are progressing - and 8 weeks from now isn't that long - its just that when we move in it will be 12 months after we bought the place, 18 months after we moved to Nottingham, and 32 months after our stuff went into storage!

The walls are going up!

Just a quickie - walls are going up both upstairs and down, which is pretty exciting!

Here's the bathroom studwork done - see that lovely curve?

No? Maybe not - so here the curve is from above!

Upstairs the phenolic foam (the pink stuff) is helping with the insulation round the kitchen windows


And we have some ceiling! (And rather crappy photos)

Clare is going to the site meeting alone on Friday this week - so the pics will be by her, usually better. Look forward to that!

back again

We're rather knackered, so here are some pics of the current progress (getting exciting, but don't mention the windows.... delay in ordering partly at this end and partly at the shop end mean ho hum in terms of completion date).
Here's Clare where the upstairs loo will be

Kitchen windows:

The upstairs ceiling insulated, airtighted and the service void being created

The rooflight all insulated

The beginnings of walls upstairs - by the future stairs, and that loo again

Proper obsessive insulation of the gaps between upstairs and down

They've drawn out our future lovely curved bathroom wall on the floor

There's a door into the shower room

The gable end will have oak cladding; hurray those horrible aerials have gone, you can see the future little square window

And finally some visitors... I survey the garden with Amy
and H+H contemplate the build


We plan to be more coherent next week with our update!

Drier and Warmer

After last weeks rain getting in, despite the weather continuing to be wet, the house is dry again, and warmer as more and more insulation goes in.
Here's a good pic of the insulation in situ before the OSB goes on - really packed in!


The solar thermal (hot water) panels are up on the roof, so in theory we'll have hotwater once we're in:
just awaiting the piping and tank.

We also now have all the window spaces sorted and we've got lintels galore, hurray the walls shouldn't fall down! Here's where the double doors out to the courtyard will go (pretty huge - should be really light!)
And the two bathroom lintels from the courtyard (the left one for the main bathroom, the right the small en-suite shower room)


And the space for the study windows complete with slightly dodgy timbers that will be cut in to sort out

The windows are all ordered (those with good memories may remember the 6-8 week lead time for them to be made, let alone arrive from Poland. Don't think we'll be in by the first week of August, do you?) with corrections to some hinge sides and which should be obscured glass (all those on the west side).

And Gil's done us drawings for a stair we LOVE - if only we can afford it once the contractors price it!

No major surprises from the site meeting this week - a bit of rotten timber around the windows shown above, an asbestos drain pipe that needs to be removed from the garage, that seemed to be all - a week without too many additional costs for the first time!

Clare and Emily looking forward to moving...........

water gets in

Well, a little bit has got into the new house, and quite a bit more into the kitchen of the rental - *properly* flooded, silt everywhere, garden a wreck, favourite cookbooks now have kitchen roll between every page in the hope of rescue... Could have been worse though. At least we don't care about the wallpaper coming off the walls or the vinyl flooring curling up!

In the lovely new house (oh how we can't wait to be in there!) there's a leak from the newly started skylights and from the openings made for the new kitchen windows (each is 170x100cm).. So nothing too worrying really.

One of the big south-facing bedroom window openings is completed on the outside, the other in progress - you can see the blue engineering bricks.

Insulating and making airtight upstairs is continuing apace. You can see the process - PILES of insulation inserted after the bitumen board and outer membrane are positioned between the rafters (and there's fancy phenolic foam insulation you can't see in the top corner) ;
the insulation piles are then boxed in with OSB Then the really posh (=expensive) airtightness membrane (I think it may actually be intelligent...) with equally posh and expensive tape

So there's still the insulated service void to go before the plasterboard...

Having a little rest before being put to work next week are the new hot water tank (green in the corner of this pic) and the flat panel solar thermal (hot water) thingies.

So we'll leave you with two images - more piles of insulation (there's still more outside) and the builders' portaloo in the courtyard

Hope you're drier than us! More after the next site meeting this Friday.

Progress, windows

So - a quick clarifying site meeting today; one of the big south windows in what will be our bedroom has been opened up (it's about 2metres tall now!)

Here's a detail (iphone, I'm afraid) We'll be re-using the lintels (there are 3 very heavy concrete ones) and replacing the bricks up the sides with blue engineering bricks, and the same (soldier style) in front of the lintel.

This pic shows how much taller the windows will be than they currently are - not quite twice as high...

(Here's the windows in the old room - before the false ceiling was removed and here's the window from the inside with no ceiling , with the floor where it will be and giving you an idea of how tall the window will seem in our room!

The inside upstairs showing the small square that will hold the southeast window and the southwest window space .

The blue is EXPENSIVE airtightness tape and the boarding it is on is a fancy one with one side tarry and one just boarding.

Gil is very impressed with the quality of the work, which is of course very encouraging. Exciting!

The scaffolding is up next week, so the remedial roof work and skylights then windows will be getting going. 

A floor at last!

All those giant insulation pads are down in the base and up the sides, and the 'powerfloated concrete' sits on top - we have a floor!

Here's a good overall image - you can see the edge looks paler, that's the side insulation, on top of which will sit the wall insulation, so we'll be inside a whole cocoon of insulation in the end, toasty as anything (that's the plan!)

Here's a detail of the edge of the floor, showing that insulation, and the damp proof membrane (aka thick plastic sheet, it seems).


Just behind the far right of the tower here, you can see the reddish form of the post that will support the glulam beam that supports the joists cut for the stairway.

And here's the garage side of the new brickwork we showed you last week; those lovely Staffordshire engineering bricks. Beautiful work!

And just a quick pick of architect and chief builder in discussion...

The site meeting this week was a big one - we realised that there's a flaw in the planning of the job, in that the windows are yet to be ordered - sensibly, the builders want to form the openings and measure accurately before giving the suppliers the final measurements; however, there is then a 6-8 week lag before they're due to arrive.
What this means is that we can't do the airtightness test* until then, by which time not just the insulation and 2 separate airtightness membranes will be in, but also the internal service void, plasterwork and 2nd fix electrics, plumbing and joinery. NOT ideal, because if the measurement isn't as good as we hope, it will be very difficult to make improvements back at the level of the membranes where the work needs to be, not only because we'll have to take OFF plasterboard and plasterwork and the insulation in the service void, but also because some of the seams will be hidden completely by more solid structures (walls etc). At this point, trying to do the proper way would mean the builders being off-site for 5 weeks, a major issue for them which would be passed on to us. Not really doable while maintaining a decent relationship, which is vital. So this is a point of accepting a potential reduction in overall standard. Unavoidable, but disappointing.

* The airtightness test involves a machine fitting the front doorway, and blowing air in to increase the pressure within the house; it measures how much it has to do to maintain that pressure, which gives a number of airchanges per hour value. This represents how 'leaky' the house is; very important in terms of Passivhaus and AECB (we're aiming to exceed silver) standards, and how warm the house will stay.

PS Clare wants me to make it clear we're BOTH doing these posts - but the photo uploading stuff is on MY laptop, not hers!

So this is Clare and Emily, signing off.....