Almost Done

The outside is almost done.  We still have a few things to be completed inside and yet again, we are waiting for the joiners to grace us with their presence to finish off the skirting and architrave in the hall and cloakroom.  When that is done. we can have the rest of the downstairs carpets fitted.  Here are a few photos of the outside.

We had break from the building site last week.  We had intended to take our boat out for 3 weeks, but it became clear that we couldn't spare 3 weeks, so 3 weeks became 2.  That also became something of a challenge, so 2 weeks finally became 10 days.  We had time to take 'Charlie Mo' down to Oxford and then, for a change, go up the Thames to the head of navigation near Lechlade.  Although we didn't have a lot of rain, we did have a lot of wind and with the Thames being so open, this did mean that occasionally we would have to seek shelter at one of the few mooring sites.  Fortunately most of these sites tend to be near at least one hostelry.  We even moored at the end of a pub garden for two nights in Lechlade!

Broken promises

It's been an erratic week in terms of the house build, with some days having large complement of trades on site, but with one day where only the site manager turned up (and even he went home in disgust)!  It seems that the construction industry is built (sorry for the pun) upon broken promises and unreliability.  Having said that, the 'things to do' list to complete the build is getting shorter.  Even if we do think of things to add to it occasionally, many more things have been crossed off as completed.

The garden is complete.  It 'just' needs a lawn and plants adding to it.  In true builder's fashion, the promised lawn contractor didn't turn up this week either!  Much of the builders rubbish has now been removed.  This was necessary as most of it was on the area designated as driveway and the builders wanted to get on with laying that.  The two unused palettes of bricks were meant to be collected by the supplier (no refund for them, but they would take them back free-of-charge) some weeks ago but they kept on failing to collect them.  They were told that they had until last week to remove them, or they would go with the rubbish to landfill.  A grab-lorry was booked by the builders and yesterday it took the rubbish and the bricks away.  This seems like a real waste, but it is apparently very common in the building industry.  It was inevitable that today, the brick supplier turned up to take the palettes of bricks away.  He didn't stay long!

With the rubbish and bricks removed, or at least relocated elsewhere on the site, the builders set about grading the driveway and putting the foundation stone on it.  We are informed that the official name of this foundation stone is 'MOT type 1'.  This will be covered with decorative gravel hopefully some time next week.  We originally wanted a resin-bonded porous drive, but were advised that we need to wait 12 months to allow the ground to settle first.  In order to avoid the potential for water from the road running into our driveway, we are building a 'hump' out of granite sets.  These will be set into concrete early next week and in order to let the concrete set hard, we won't be able to drive over it for another week.  Fortunately, our long-suffering neighbour is happy to let us leave our car in her large parking area.

Pile of 'MOT-1'

Spread out and compacted

Almost ready for the gravel on top

The paving around the house is now complete and has all been grouted.  It still needs an acid clean to tidy up the edges of the slabs but we are really pleased with it.  For all the problems we have with unreliability and organisation, our builders are capable of doing a good job.

We're not sure if it is a good or bad omen but we had a visit from a pair of swans this week.  It is the first time that we have seen an avian black swan (as opposed to a pub or film!).

Unusual wildlife

Our electrician has not been here as much as we'd like this week, but he has finished the wiring in the garage as well as a lot of smaller jobs in the house.  One of these smaller jobs was to wire up the hot water return pump.  We have never had one of these before and we are really surprised at what a difference it makes.  Our house is fitted with a sort of ring main for hot water.  This small pump continuously pushes hot water around the system which means that when you turn any hot tap on, you get hot water almost instantly and don't have to wait for the hot water to reach you down a long, cold pipe.  So for the cost of running a low power pump, we are saving quite a lot of water.  Whilst on the subject of plumbing, although we have had a toilet in our cloakroom since me moved it, it was finally connected today.

The area around the front door has also progressed this week.  Our feature larch pole has been installed and all the larch cladding in the ceiling completed.  All that is needed now is the fascia boarding and guttering.

Porch area: Work in progress

Almost complete

The wrong door

The saga of 'front door-gate' continues:
It turns out that the German manufacturer received the correct dimensions, but built the door incorrectly, and this was not spotted before the door left the factory.  After many, many phone-calls and emails, the manufacturer has admitted liability and has agreed that they do not want the incorrect door returned to them and we are free to use it as a temporary door until the correct door is delivered.
Monday morning dawned and with some trepidation, the barricades in the hallway were removed.  It turned out that the door would just fit in the hole, but clearly without the adjacent side panel.  So the door was fitted and it was noticed that it is hinged on the wrong side, and is also not the correct design.  It is the right colour though so that's alright then!
By the end of the morning, we had a new front door fitted and working.  Without the glazed panel, it is still dark in the hallway, but no darker than when the hole was barricaded.  We are thinking of starting a sweepstake covering the delivery date of the new door, but we expect it to be between 2 and 3 months.

Barricades removed and view of the building site

Door in-situ

Not quite what we wanted, but it works

With a sealed entrance, it meant that the ventilation system could be turned on and 'balanced' to make sure that all the rooms receive the correct amount of air flow.  It was not possible to do this, when we had a leaky hallway.  The 'Renewables' people turned up yesterday and set the system up, so we now have proper ventilation in the house, where heat in the stale air leaving the house is used to warm the incoming fresh air.  This is not so important now, but clearly is a benefit in winter.  The 'Renewables' people also finished connecting up the heating system and now that we have (basic) access to the internet, it is all controllable by our mobiles phones.  This means that we have one less remote control per room to operate!  One feature we have not yet tried is when it detects that both our phones have left an area of a set number of miles away from the house, the heating will be turned down, returning to normal when it detects one of the phones approaching within a set number of miles.

Outside the house, work has continued on the garden area and the paving around the house.  With regard to the garden, it just remains to finish distributing the top soil, and then it will all be up to us to get a lawn laid and to plant other green things in the surrounding beds.  The paving is nearly all laid, but still needs to be grouted.

Paving and 'lawn' area

Paving, 'lawn' and willow