October/November
2010
The Home Straight?
At the end of the previous
update, the erection of the structural steelwork for
the conservatory and external decking was already underway.
Writing this on a very
chilly November evening, it's almost impossible to believe that at the time
it was possible to work outside in just a T-shirt.
There were one or two
minor tweaks to make everything fit, but the basic structure was completed
in just one day.
The tiling operations
inside the house have been continuing. After laying, the terracotta has to
be protected with a coat
of linseed oil, then grouted, cleaned, and given a second coat of linseed.
It's all rather tedious, but fortunately
only has to be done once, and the end result should be well worth it.
Along with the floor
tiling, plasterers Mick and Buster have been hard at work, and virtually all
of the internal plastering and
external rendering is now complete. The simple lime and sand plaster we're
using is finished with a sponge rather than a float,
to deliberately give a textured finish.
Behind all the plastering
paraphernalia you can see the recycled-wine-bottle panels, made by Jackie
Harris, installed in
the kitchen wall. When the sunlight shines through the kitchen window and
illuminates them, they look very striking.
Mike's priority at the
moment is getting the basic services installed. We have a deadline for claiming
our
solar water heating grant, so getting the plumbing system in has been a priority.
Once the harvested rainwater
has been gathered and treated in the basement, it's pumped up to header tanks
on the
mezzanine level, and from here the system is a fairly conventional gravity-fed
plumbing installation.
We've reused old tanks, and are installing copper pipework where possible,
as we feel it's more recyclable than plastic.
The basic pipe runs are in place, but there's still a good deal to do, and
a lot more scrabbling about in awkward spaces.
There's a knack to bending
pipes, which it takes a little while to perfect. Getting better though....
Not exactly a break,
but a diversion for one weekend while we painted the basement ceiling. The
black Jablite
insulation panels made things very gloomy, so painting them white means we
can use less powerful,
energy-saving lighting when we're down here looking after the 'autonomous'
systems.
With the basic conservatory
and decking steel in place outside, we spent some time preparing the oak beams
which will support the glazing and complete the structure.....
....and had a brief diversion when some unexpected visitors dropped in one
afternoon.
Soon a temporary outdoor workshop had been set up, as Jim and Simon began
preparing the oak posts for fitting to the steel.
It was quite a time-consuming task which needed to be done very accurately,
to ensure the final structure is strong and stable.
This will have to carry the 12mm toughened glass which will form the conservatory
walls, and not move in the strongest of winds.
Simon made a start on the conservatory flooring.....
....while Jim coaxed the remaining oak rafters finally into place.
A little extra care taking accurate measurements is well worth the trouble
you don't want to have any cock-ups later.
Talking of which this was supposed to be our fabulous ultra-insulated,
triple-glazed Passivhaus front door.
And it would have been, but for a series of errors and misunderstandings which
meant the hinges are on the wrong side.....
Oh Dear....this is the closest we've come to a Grand Designs style disaster,
and means we're currently waiting for a
replacement to be made. The design of the entrance hall simply won't work
with this door, so it's now for sale.
It's a superb Passivhaus door at an amazing price more
details here.
On a more positive note, the outer porch door arrived from our local joiners
Dovetail, and was installed in a couple of days,
meaning we could finally dispense with our old temporary plywood door and
lock the house up properly.
Just as with the garage doors, Dovetail have done a really lovely job with
this
we can sense it'll be a pleasure every time we open this door and enter the
porch.
Please throw this piece of wood for me......
A very important operation which has been completed recently, is getting the
mains power into the house, meaning we're
no longer reliant on the temporary site mains supply. It wasn't without complications
though, as initially it proved impossible
to pull the cables through from the meter cabinet outside down to the basement.
After considerable dithering,
Mike bowed to the inevitable and removed some of the porch floor to try to
locate the problem.
Despite the rain and consequent mud outside, Graham lent an arm and located
a slightly misaligned join between
two pieces of ducting. After that, the cables were pulled through without
too much difficulty.
Of course you can't connect up circuits unless you've finished wiring them,
so a programme of intensive
socket installation followed, completing the ground floor and first floor
ring mains....
...which meant we were ready for George, our electrical überführer, to come
and wire up the consumer unit.
George and Mike met in 1978 when they began their respective careers in broadcasting
at the nearby BBC Wood Norton
training centre.
They both subsequently left the BBC and followed differing careers mainly
in television news.
Now over 30 years later, George works as a qualified electrician, while Mike
is building this house. Whoever would have
thought their paths would come together again in such a way? It's a funny
old world, and no mistake.
In line with our policy of avoiding PVC wherever possible, we're using low
smoke zero halogen cable, insulated with silicone rubber.
It has a built-in double metal foil screen, which reduces potentially harmful
stray electromagnetic radiation inside the house.
So some people would have you believe anyway.
Back in the great outdoors, with temperatures beginning to fall, Simon and
Graham began work on the external decking,
which will give us a seating area outside the conservatory, at first floor
level. For this we're using the only UK-manufactured
recycled plastic 'timber' material available. It has the advantage of being
able to withstand the British weather for years
without any additional treatment, and when it eventually begins to break down,
it can be recycled yet again.
One of our most experimental aesthetic adventures is using these Victorian
encaustic tiles on the internal staircase. It's hard
to gauge the finished overall effect from this picture, but by the next update
we hope to be able to show you them in fully finished
and grouted form, and there's every indication they're going to look terrific.
So, some 16 months after they first arrived on site, LeBrun construction returned
for the final phase of the groundworks,
which will involve replacing all the topsoil and building the foundations
for the paving, green driveway, and the
dry stone wall which will run along the front of the property.
They were also able to lend a hand to the steelworkers, who were back to install
the external balustrades.
The Lebrun digger came in very handy helping to lift the heavy steel structures
into place.
At the moment it seems odd having them there,
as previously there's been nothing to obscure the view from the first floor
windows.
But all finished, and bolted into place, they make quite a statement.
The past few weeks have been difficult, and progress has seemed slow, partly
because a number of workers have now left the site,
and because Mike is installing virtually all of the systems himself. Also
many of the jobs being completed currently are quite fiddly
and time-consuming, but the feeling is that we must try to push on as fast
as we possibly can, to try to make the house habitable.
It will be a lot easier to finish it if we can move in, as not living in it
is now proving to be very frustrating.