27 Joists, fireplaces, floorboards and parapets

Floor joists being installed.  The ones nearest are actually for the first floor bedrooms, the further joists are the roof joists to the single storey living room and snug.

Looking down through the bedroom floor joists

The silver sheet that has been placed between the beams and floor joists is the breather membrane. This will then be taped to another sheet to cover the ground floor walls, and above to cover first floor walls - this is continued all around the building to make it airtight.  

All the webs in the steel are filled with insulation before either the external timber boards or the breather membrane are fitted.  Insulation and air tightness are the most important aspects for saving energy costs.

These are the packs of mineral wool that will be fitted around the walls where ever there are spaces

Aligning the fireplace with the chimney
Setting it up was quite demanding and it appeared to fall on my shoulders.
.  Dimensions were very precise: 961mm, and 423mm and similarly precise angles. Any old position was unlikely to work. I had to find a way of using a fine line which concrete doesn't exactly encourage.

In order to achieve these fine lines and precise measurements I first laid tape
on which I could draw on with a fine biro. 

Once I was sufficiently confident that it was all in line allowed the master to cut the first block.
The brickie comes in a week to build the curving chimney over the fire place.
 We must wait and see if it comes out through the roof in the right place - and then some weeks later if the fire draws correctly.

The roof boards over the living room in the foreground.  In the distance the bedroom floor joists, soon to be covered with floor boards.

In the foreground the roof parapet to the living room roof.

The roof joists to Max's studio being installed.
The space between the steel beam and the blockwork is where the high level windows go to give a floating appearance to the field and wild flower meadow that will come up over the roof to this point in the foreground.

Looking from the house into the studio area.
We are installing a roof light which you can see cut into the roof beams.
This is in the corridor area on the approach to the studio.
The bathroom and utility room will be off to the right.

Quite a lot of progress has been made in the last week, and the start of this week.

We have decided to go with an air source heat pump for our central heating and hot water and will place the order tomorrow.
I also expect to do the final calculations for the external hard wood cladding tomorrow so that I can order the timber tomorrow as we need delivery in about 4 weeks to keep on schedule.

No days wasted due to weather.  
The scaffolding, sheeting and roof structure have proved their worth already.