13.    Gale force winds and torrential rain – but we need to get the drains in

The rain had to come this week because Ceri has come to stay.  But at least it means we have had time to sit and enjoy her company rather than being busy on site all the time.  We have been out to Wells to check out the new Caffe Nero being installed, visited the local reclamation yard and been in to Bath for a nice meal one of the evenings.  A great treat for us to see Ceri, and enjoy some time off.

At the same time we managed to squeeze in a few jobs so Ceri got to see us in action too.

Someone sneaked this photo of the project manager doing her stuff.

Whilst others are doing theirs

Monday

The rain was meant to come today. We had considered cancelling everything until a clearer spell but in the end decided to risk it in a defiant manner, and were rewarded because in fact the weather was kind to us. We managed to get the last of the footings cut in time for the final concrete to be poured tomorrow.  In fact we decided to pour half the depth of concrete today, as this would help support the trenches if the rain became very heavy in the night.  We didn’t want them all to cave in.  We couldn’t completely fill them today because we needed the surveyor to accurately locate the positions of the remaining holding down bolts for the steel columns with his GPS station.  We have booked our surveyor to come tomorrow which was his only time available this week, so we felt we had to crack on with everything in order to keep to the schedule.  We didn’t want to fall behind at this stage.  We therefore left enough room for sufficient depth of concrete in which we could set the bolts and we were assured this would be structurally OK.

This helps to show the different levels of the building - looking a bit wet in the trenches

Some of the remaining holding down bolts that will be positioned into the footings after the trenches have been filled to the required level.
Today's concrete will help prevent all the trenches from caving in over night if it rains heavily

Tuesday

The forecast for Tuesday was atrocious but the gang and the surveyor all arrived ready to work regardless of the weather.  We had 2 loads of concrete booked, and by 1:30pm the concrete had been poured and the10 sets of bolts had been accurately positioned and set.  It didn’t go without difficulties, but everyone did their bit to overcome whatever was thrown at them.  We won through and it was an impressive performance of sheer determination to get it done.  The site is no longer looking quite as tidy as it did before but Mike, our surveyor, who seems to have incredibly high standards still felt it was better than most sites.  When he first arrived on site and was met by these two oldies in charge he thought it was all a bit of a shambles, but I’m happy to say we seem to have proved our capabilities.  He is very supportive and helpful in his own quiet way.

Tomorrow morning Max will undo the bolts, take off the square wooden template, loosen the bolts in the concrete by dissolving the polystyrene cones that surround the bolts.  There is then sufficient wiggle room for the steel fabricators to align the columns that will be stood on each of these square sets and make the perfectly aligned building.  Easy! 

Wednesday 

It rained so hard we cancelled any work.  Stefan wasn’t happy, he likes to work come what may, but it wasn’t really directed at us though I have to say it felt like it.  He'd just got out of bed the wrong side.

Thursday

I have placed a new order for the reinforcing bars (those ones I was ‘struggling over’) so that hopefully we will now have the correct amount to install in the footings and retaining walls to the studio. In the end I asked our quantity surveyor (Jerry) to provide the schedule of bars and the various bent shapes needed.  Fortunately he has the knowledge, patience, and heaps of kindness to undertake the task.  Apparently it is not the job of the architect or the structural engineer to specify the materials needed, even though they have designed the building.  I wasn’t prepared to risk doing the calculation myself as errors mean money.   If it is difficult for them – then certainly I am not taking on the gauntlet for something so complex.  I’m glad I rang around to see whose responsibility it really was.  Jerry has become my best friend.

The walls need to have reinforcing bars because they are retaining walls holding back the soil that is going to be built up around them to allow the field to continue over the roof.  This is one of the ways we are trying to ensure the house fits discreetly into the countryside.

With the footings done, today we turned our attention to the drains.  It is nice to be working from a different drawing.  The plans we had for the footings are all so stained and battered from being referred to so regularly and taken outside in the rain, and handled with muddy gloved hands. Consequently the sheets were becoming more and more difficult to use.  Fortunately we have all the drawings in pdf format on the computer so we can refer to them in detail on the screen but that means a lot of going backwards and forwards with levels and coordinates on pieces of paper.  Everything we do has a level that is critical to the overall accuracy of the building, so each one has to be regarded with the same level of importance.  Jake is always very good at ‘making sure’ and double checking everything.  He doesn’t take anything for granted and assumes nothing.  An invaluable attribute, and especially good for someone so young.  He is 18.

I noticed him reading our ‘policy document’ that’s pinned on the wall in the site office the other day so he has obviously taken to it in the right spirit. 

So far - so good.  Everyone is backing the policy.

There are three manholes on the site each with an invert level given on the drawing. (The lowest level of the manhole)  The bathrooms, kitchen and utility room each have their drains that had to be plotted and positioned with an invert level that was higher than the manholes that they ran into. 

The manhole outside the kitchen looking towards the manhole in the road.

Three runs coming into the manhole just outside the kitchen

Each of the manholes had their invert level that would be higher than the one it led into – down to the final one in the road.  We now have them all positioned and the only run of drain left to do tomorrow is from the manhole outside the kitchen down to the last manhole before it drops down to the road.  We managed to fix the pipe into the council drain and build the bank back up again so that it doesn’t all fall into the road overnight.  

We've cut out the hedge and dropped the drain down in the bank to the manhole you can just see in the road.  Now all tidily put back.  Just got to buy and plant the hedge

Our land is about 2 meters higher than the road so there was quite a lot to dig out.  Allowing all that soil to be washed down on to the road and down the hill wouldn’t make us popular with the neighbourhood.  All today’s work was done in driving rain.  Not very pleasant, but it is so rewarding having done it.  Tomorrow morning should see the main drains completed.  We just have the land drains to install around the sides of the house to take the water from the roof away to the soakaways.  But this will be done at a later stage.

Friday

Stefan and Jake completed the drains and tidied up the site which is looking very different now after all this rain.  A bit of a quagmire.  Very sticky, and life is a constant battle of taking off and putting on muddy boots and wet through jackets.  Not easy to get them dry either, though I did stick my puffer jacket in the tumble drier to feel a bit more human after a couple of hours of working in  persistent rain.  Toasty for a minute or two.

This afternoon we have a meeting with the architects.  We will report to them on what we have done so far, and we will be checking on their programme of work to see what we can sign off and what they plan to do in the next few weeks.  They should be moving to some of the internal details shortly.

Next week

We hope to see the Building Inspector here on Wednesday to check the footings to the studio retaining wall as he needs to see these reinforcing bars in place. Unfortunately our Welshman is off for the week so we will be seeing someone else.  I hope he is equally affable.  Always rather nerve-racking as they can set you back days if they decide that what you have done is not right. It will be all hands to the deck to get this work done on Monday and Tuesday.  The weather is going to be bad until Monday afternoon according to the forecast, and then the sun will shine for the middle of the week.  The South West is permanently in the news for the amount of rain we are having.  It just can’t go on for much longer.  The caravan is managing very well, but the shelves that we put under the awning went a tumble one night when the storm made everything rock..  All the tomato sauce had splatted onto the floor – it looked as though we had had a grim fight in the night.  Not us.

Fred rang this afternoon and he and his wife, feeling sorry for us, have invited us for a meal next week which is really nice of them.  They have also offered us the facility of their shower.  Could be taken up. 

Actually we are very cosy and pretty civilised here.  Surprisingly so.

12.   "Diana is struggling"- Who says?     November 12 - 19

Monday 

The rain came today which has delayed progress on the house.  Digging the footings has been put off until tomorrow.

Stefan and Jake improved the access to the site by widening the entrance a bit to give more manoeuvrability for the lorries, and they compacted the hardcore to give it more solidity.  Much better now.

Max visited the steel fabricator and discussed the template for setting out the positions for the holding down bolts for the steel columns.  He returned with 80 steel bolts and the polystyrene cones that give wiggle room for when they are set in the concrete.  We will make sure we take photos to show this stage in the process – scheduled for December 3^rd.  Our steel fabricator is pulling all stops out and is being very, very helpful.  Another example of local talent that’s good to find.

Max has since made the template for the holding down bolts which hopefully are in exactly the correct position.  All future accuracy rests on his workmanship. 

Max putting the 4 holding down bolts iinto the template he has made.
The polystyrene cones are dissolved after the concrete has set so that the bolts have a certain amount of wiggle room to insert into the steel columns.

The first seven sets of bolts
Nineteen sets in total for the nineteen steel columns

I have sawn the polystyrene cones to the required length so that sufficient screw is left proud of the concrete. 

We have ordered the reinforcement bars for the retaining wall to the studio which will arrive tomorrow.  I have a ‘Delivery Board’ in the site office on which I list all the deliveries due so that I keep track of them – there are going to be all sorts of things coming to site in the next months.

The Mercedes went to our neighbour who is a very handy mechanic to have its back end tidied up after my mishap with the wall. (What luck to find we can take our car in for a service just 100 yards away!)  That wall has since been demolished by the way – it has discovered that I can get my own back with little sympathy.  So the car will come back without its go faster spoiler which we discovered was not actually a genuine spoiler – so I can’t get it replaced.

I suppose the car is now better representing my age. Steady as we go from now on.

The rain has stopped and it’s looking brighter for tomorrow. The forecast promises three pretty good days.

So Monday was filled with lots of useful jobs which keep us nicely abreast of everything.

Tuesday

Western Power arrived on site today to position the new transformer pole at the bottom of the field.  This will eventually replace the one that is virtually in the garden.  All the cables that stretch across the land will then be laid underground.  That will be later in the year when we have dug all the trenches. 

Western Power
One digging - two watching.
Actually they were very efficient, we can't fault them

The pole is there, but it is difficult to see.

Stefan and Jake arrived early.  The sun was shining and all bode well for great work being done this morning.  It was important to complete the footings by midday as this was the time the Building Inspector was coming to inspect the work and give us the go ahead to pour the concrete.

Stony Littleton - you can see why

Gradually taking shape

Once trenches are dug it is important to get them filled with concrete because with rain they can easily fall in and create much larger trenches, meaning more concrete, more money, and budgets being eroded.  So we are on a bit of a treadmill now, dependent on things going smoothly.

The trenches for this first important inspection were completed in time for Max to also get shuttering in position.  Outside we were ready for the inspector, with plans laid out on the desks in the site office.  All looked good from our perspective – would it from his?

This is the shuttering through which the drains will run, buried in the concrete footings.

I felt an affinity with the inspector, he is a Welshman, and from our telephone conversations he sounded quite laid back and easy going.  We discovered that the architect had only sent plans, no elevations or sections so he was not really familiar with what he was going to be looking at.  Max gave him a pretty thorough run through of the project and we took him on to the site to show him the ground conditions and the footings.  He took one photo, asked a couple of further questions and gave us the go ahead for all the concreting, even those trenches that we hadn’t yet dug.  So we were very happy.  We do have the perfect ground as it is basically stone, stone and more stone. We don’t live in Stony Littleton without, by now, understanding pretty clearly the nature of the place we have chosen to live. You have to dig a long way down before you reach clay, or go to the bottom of the field where clay is much closer to the surface.

Soon after the inspector had left, three lorries all arrived at the site at the same time causing slight chaos at our junction.  The steel reinforcing bars in one, all the drainage fittings in another, and a ready mixed concrete lorry just testing the access before they come with a full lorry.  After much manoeuvring of HGVs backwards and forwards everything was sorted without too many villagers being caught in the mayhem.

The only trouble was that in our discussion with the ready mixed concrete salesman who had come with the lorry we discovered he had given our Wednesday slot to Waitrose.  Size matters.  So our schedule was given a serious knock.  Wednesday had been arranged as this was the day the surveyor could come and assist with the accurate location of the bolts into the concrete.  These people are much in demand and have few slots at short notice.  It looks as though these trenches are going to have to last over the weekend as Monday or Tuesday is the next possible date for everyone.  We are all disheartened, and a bit cross.  Rain is forecast before next Tuesday.

Stefan goes home and we go back to the caravan.

Our mobile rings – it’s Stefan.  As he walked in the door at home a concrete company happened to ring him looking for work.  Someone is definitely looking after us.  We are back on schedule for pouring concrete on Wednesday. 

Wednesday

The sun is shining brightly again.  

We have some time to dig another length of trench because the first of the four lorries isn’t due until midday.  All is ready by the time they come.  Because access is quite challenging the concrete is poured into the bucket of Stefan’s large machine and then he lowers it and trickles it gently into the trench.  We have 5 minutes per cubic metre without charge to unload.  Six cubic meters allows us just half an hour which is not long.  Stefan has it to a fine art and all the loads were within the target.  A tidy job was done. Jake directed the pouring by his grandfather, whilst holding the staff which bleeped as the right level was reached.

The surveyor went round after the concrete had been tamped down positioning exactly where the bolts were to be pressed into the concrete.

Office work first - The surveyor setting up the GPS and loading the Total Station so that the exact positions can be plotted on site.

Positioning the holding down bolts for the steel columns

Final adjustments to the bolts in the concrete to ensure precision 

Jake then pushed them in, and finally the surveyor did the final alignment between each set of bolts.  I’ve always wanted to know the process by which buildings are vertical, horizontal and everything is aligned.  It seems such an incredibly precise art for such a large task.

Four or five hours later it was all looking very good and Max and I felt a great relief that this first day of pouring concrete had gone so well.  Even our taciturn surveyor, who was very skeptical to start with, praised the tidiness of the operation.  We reckon this was praise indeed.  All is looking good.

Thursday

Today we would continue with digging the rest of the trenches so that we could pour more concrete on Friday.  The company who had come to the rescue were really obliging, had found a much better way of approaching the site rather than through the village, and would be happy and available to provide the lorries we needed.

The delivery of reinforcing bars roe the studio retaining wall had been worrying Max as there didn’t seem to be enough.  We couldn’t understand why there was so little even though we had followed the schedule that the structural engineers had sent us.

I rang them to check that we had understood their schedule.  It soon became clear that we hadn’t. They found it hugely funny.  Their schedule was just for 1 meter of wall.  It wasn’t exactly clear.  When explaining it, they said that I should be ordering a whole range of sizes, and that most people order a ‘bucketful of bars’ so that they can choose the length needed for each position. Initially I could see it was a rather silly mistake, but not really for them to mock.  I was becoming a little irritated by their manner and really wanted some helpful guidance on exactly the sizes and amounts we should be ordering, or at least some drawings from which we could calculate the amounts.  I was therefore somewhat baffled by this indeterminate quantity of a ‘bucketful’.  I became somewhat impatient with this attitude, especially when they implied it wasn’t their job to work out the order for us, so I ended the conversation before saying something I might later regret.

 

Half an hour later I was copied in to an email that they had sent to the architect.

“Diana is struggling with the reinforced steel order”. 

Not a good move.

If the structural engineers are not careful they will find that I will be ‘struggling’ considerably more with paying their bill if they continue in this manner.  This has been the first time I have felt rattled.  We got the order wrong, a silly mistake, but they handled our question badly.

Friday

With rain scheduled and the trenches dug and looking quite delicate in certain areas we have decided to half fill as many as possible today.  We can’t completely fill them as we need the surveyor with us to position the bolts, and he isn’t available until next Tuesday. 

We have had a really good week.  In fact in two weeks we have demolished the house and got the majority of the footings in.  Fantastic.

Next week we hope to get all the drains in.  All going to plan so far.

11. 5th November 2012  We start on site

Monday
The CamPlant boys arrived at 8:30 and fired up the machinery.  All day there has been the sounds of demolition and destruction.  Two machines in full power, one knocking down and the other grinding up anything that will form good hardstanding.

By midday half the house was down and by 4pm the only piece remaining was the site office, the wc and the coal bunker that now houses my tumble drier.

Max has been separating anything that can be reclaimed either as useful timber or fire wood for the future. 

The timber forms one pile, the other pile is concrete which will be reduced to rubble – then we will have a clean site for setting out the new house.  What a milestone in the calendar.  I’m not sure whether less than two years ago (Jan 2011) when we first decided this building lark was for us, we really believed it would happen.

We are houseless.  No turning back.

Things are from this point on serious.

Stephan making sure he knows exactly which direction Max wants him to go

Demolition underway

The sun decided to shine on us for our first day, after waking up to snow the day before!
Stephan was able to pick off the timbers with great accuracy.

Stephan could very delicately remove the timber

It very soon became a pile of rubble

All the blocks were crushed and ground down into suitable hardcore to provide a good standing for the lorries that will be coming to the site

Any unwanted combustible material was burnt.
Best bonfire in the village.

The site office being reduced to the minimum size needed on the site.
The last bit of wall being struck off with great delicacy. 

The site office and wc

Hardcore from the bungalow providing substantial access around the site

Congratulating each other on a job well done

Jake contemplating the view with a well deserved cuppa

All that was left the following morning

Good news about the windows.  We had a call from the window fabricators, as promised, and they are going to commence drawing up all the windows in line with the architect’s specifications and measurements. This was then followed up by a call on Thursday to say that they had had a conversation with another company who are prepared to fabricate the windows as specified and supply them through our fabricators.  We just have to wait and see that the price remains within budget.  It will be 2 or 3 weeks before we know the score.  But it looks hopeful.

Wednesday

The site is now clear, house gone, different materials sorted and dispersed, the hard stuff crushed and used as hardcore to provide a hard-standing for all the lorries coming to the site,  The glass has been removed and will be taken to the recycling plant.. Much wood has been reclaimed, metal work is to be taken for scrap and the reward shared between us and Stephan, anything combustible and without use has been burnt on a grand bonfire.

The timber we have kept is really good quality – the roof joists and beams are in excellent condition, and Max has already made shelves for the container unit so that we can store his tools and equipment securely – and he can find what he needs without having to empty the store each time. 

We have also built a wind break on the weather side of the caravan awning, so that if we have torrential rain and storms, it is less likely to take flight and fly away towards Islington. If it did, I might try and hang on tight.  No, no, not really, I like it here.

Because the site is now all clear we are in a position to create the starting level – shown on the architect’s drawings as the Excavation level and plot where the house sits on the site.  We have 4 posts which were originally positioned when I decided to reorientate the house by 9˚ if you remember.  From these points we can plot the outline accurately.

Having set the key reference points, Stephan moved in with his big machine and used his tripod leveler to beep at him to signal that he was scraping the ground at the correct level needed to create the required ‘excavation level’.

There are two excavation levels one corresponds to the entrance hall, the snug, my office, and Max’s studio, the lower level corresponds to the kitchen, dining and living room. 

From the excavation level we then dig ‘down’ for the foundations and then build ‘up’ to create the slab and finished floor level and the rest of the house.

Levels from now on are critical, so are right angles and verticals, not to forget those all important Pythagoras diagonals.  I will be watching dimensions like a hawk.

On Wednesday we received the results of the Radon test that all new buildings have to have done.  Radon is a colourless, odourless radioactive gas. It is formed by the radioactive decay of the small amounts of uranium that occur naturally in all rocks and soils.
Although not entirely necessary, we have been advised that Building Regulations require us to include a slightly thicker dpm. They would I suppose.  Health and Safety ticking all the boxes.  OK, so not a bad result, and little to complain about really.

Friday

Today the surveyor came to plot the gridlines for us.  

First lines marking out the footings

Our very serious surveyor plotting the gps coordinates that mark accurately the buildings location on the site

As he marked the lines, Max rapidly made the profile boards that are the markers you see on any building site – 2 uprights with a horizontal board across.  The surveyor positioned a nail on the top of the horizontal board to mark the grid.  A aligns with A; B with B, letters in the north south direction, numbers east west direction.  Then we stretch a line of string between the corresponding letters or numbers and we sprayed the lines so we have a grid painted on the ground of the site.  The grid lines basically indicate the centre of key walls or lines of steel columns in our case.  They also indicate the centre of the footings so that we can mark the trenches for Stephan.  Some of the trenches need to be 900mm wide, some 600mm and the steel pads 1200mm.  The trenches are of different depths so we need to mark this out for Stephan also.

A long day, but we completed the task.

Next week we will be digging the footings, meeting the building control inspector who will either give us the green light to pour the concrete, or demand a whole lot of amendments, additions, before he allows us to carry on.  All being well, the concrete will be poured Wednesday or Thursday and the surveyor will come back the same day to position the holding down bolts (exactly) for the 19 steel columns.  Actually we are unable to pour the concrete in one session as the footings are too complicated for that.   Max and I have been planning the sequence of pours this evening.  We think we can do most of it in one day, with a second pour to connect all the separate lengths early the following week.  We will have to make a number of drainage channels with special shuttering and lintels, which will need time without pressure.  Next week is going to be one of the most demanding for us.

I hope to take some photos tomorrow to show all the lines that Max and I have drawn on the site this weekend to plot the footings prior to Stephan digging them out tomorrow.
If all goes to plan you should see photos of some of the concrete footings in place by next weekend. . . . .   Weather looks pretty good. 

10.  We need all fingers crossed for this coming week please  October 30 - November 3

We have found a very good mate for Max to help him on site and this week together they took the essentials off or out of the house prior to its final demolition.  Jake is the grandson of the guy who owns all the big machinery that is on site ready-in-waiting and together they make a reliable pair.  Stephan has been moving soil and preparing the ground for building sites for years.  He knows all about cutting footings ready for pouring the concrete, so we feel that we are in very good hands.  His grandson Jake is training to become a surveyor, so he will have plenty to practice his skills on here.

The workers in appropriate head gear: Max in orange, Jake in white

All the retrieved elements – good timber joists, roof battens for marking the levels for the footings, and windows for the garden cloches are now neatly stored and covered with tarpaulins in the garden out of the way of the site works. 

Windows for cloches

Fantastic timber joist

The boiler that is that was installed for the bungalow three years ago we put on ebay as its output will be too great for the new house, has been put on ebay.  We sold it the next day to a guy who offered us a good ‘buy now’ price so he’s warm and we’re happy.

The oven that we bought temporarily when we moved here is advertised in the local journal.  One enquiry so far, no sale yet.

The bungalow is cold, wet and dangerous now.  Hard hats have to be worn if you dare to venture in.  It knows it has only a weekend left.  It looks sad.  Tears of rain fall from its remaining beams. 1958 – 2012  

In the stalls

The villagers' view.  Local traffic seems to have increased lately.

Deterioration happens quickly once the weather gets a hold of the interior 

Our bedroom looking somewhat worse for wear.

On Wednesday I worked on the architect’s drain layout alongside a catalogue of parts.  Having consulted Max and worked each junction through I made a list of manholes, risers, covers, drain runs, elbow joints, easy bends and bottle gully traps and went and made friends with one of the suppliers to check that what I was specifying were the right items for the job.  He made a few tweaks, and promised a good price.  No doubt I will check his price against other suppliers so that I’m sure of getting the best deal. I will be placing the order on Wednesday with a few extras on a sale and return basis so we aren’t caught short on site when we need an extra connector or length of pipe.

Drainage - working out the sum of parts

Thursday Max has been studying all the Structural Engineer’s drawings finding the positions where steel meets timber and noting all the different details so that he can order holes pre-drilled in the steel at the correct places so that he doesn’t have to drill them on site. 

All the different ways the steel meets timber that need to be fixed on site.
Max needs to work out where all the pre-drilled holes are to be positioned so that the fabricators do the work for him, rather than drilling the steel on site.  Not easy!

Talking of drills Max has bought himself a very smart DeWalt battery powered drill.  So as not to be out done, I have a pair of swanky DeWalt steel toe cap boots and working gloves.  It’s important to feel comfortable and à la mode on site.  Especially if one is the project manager.  My hard hat is the blue one on the rack.  I’m avoiding having ‘Boss’ painted on the front. 

I have tried to find a simple form of contract to use for all the trades people that we will be appointing.  The shortest I have found is 45 pages!  I can’t quite believe that that could be suitable, even if I had the patience to fill it all in. I don’t think it actually sets the right tone. Most of them will be doing an individual job that will last about a week, some perhaps longer, but certainly nothing that we feel warrants a legal document that everyone has to sign.  It’s not as though they are being contracted for large sums of money stretched over many weeks.   I have therefore decided to write down a set of 6 or 7 key principles which we consider to be important when they provide their particular skill and talent to build the house.  We will show them the sheet and hopefully agree with them that this is a better way to work together on such a personal project.  We want them to have pride in their work, realise that this is why we have chosen them and that we value what they can offer. We want them to feel part of the team that will be responsible for building a spectacular house.  I’m certain that it will have a more positive effect than a legal document that is more of a threat if things go wrong.  Avoiding things going wrong in the first place seems more appropriate for this project.  I meant to show thison the blog, but it's on the other computer so I can't upload it.  Another time.  Perhaps with some reaction.

Friday and Saturday we have been studying the groundworks drawings which appear to have become somewhat mind-boggling.  And we are managing this element?  Is this sensible?  We believe it is.  Next week we’ll be able to give you a firmer answer.  Just keep your fingers crossed please, we need every bit of help we can muster.

Groundworks plan

 Building on a sloping site, especially when the house is not parallel with the slope is mighty difficult to visualise three dimensionally from just a plan.  But this is exactly what we need to be able to do come Monday / Tuesday. 

So, we have broken the architect’s plan down into layers.  One drawing setting out the grid lines, another for the starting levels marked as ‘Excavation Levels’ (Exc LvL).  Another drawing for the ‘Bottom of Footings’ (BOF) another drawing for ‘Top of Footings’ (TOF), and then another drawing for the Blockwork showing where there are 2, 3, 4, or 5 courses of blockwork. (Mostly underground still!!)  By doing this we can actually see the sequence of work and how it all gradually builds up.  We are feeling more comfortable.  Just a few questions have arisen as a result of taking it all apart in this way, but once we have these answers from the architect we will feel ready to GO GO GO.

Setting up the grid lines - using good old Pythagoras

Bottom of Footings - the different levels are colour coded  

Blockwork courses - colour coded

Once Stephan has prepared the initial levels of the site, the surveyor with his total station (completely computerised theodolite) will come to locate any position of the building exactly on the site in relation to 5 or 6 datum positions we set up months ago which the architects have on all their drawings.  He will also help with the setting of the exact positions and levels for the steel columns.  I’m sure there will be more on this to tell you next week.  Will it be good news or bad?  Watch this space. . . .

This week’s work would surely entertain Kevin and his audience.

The caravan stands up to being our home and rest place at various times of the day.  We are already convinced it was the right decision.  We can be on site all the time – which is essential because there is always something that needs our attention.   Living in another place would only mean that we would have to cart everything backwards and forwards.  The evenings can now be quite long, so it is important that they can be utilised well.  Here we can always pop back to the office to get the paper we are missing.  The caravan is small but we keep it quite cosy.  Oh, and we managed to get a couple of special plugs that enable us to get the internet in the caravan through the mains electricity which means that we can even continue to work after dark and in the warm.

Sunday morning 4th November - just opened my bedroom blind and found that the ominous silence after a night of rain had turned into a silent blizzard - BIG flakes.  Do they know up there that we are meant to be starting work on site tomorrow?

Looking on the bright side - the views have a lovely sagey colour to them.
Quite happy being forced to sit and contemplate.

As we sit at our table having our meals in the caravan we look out of the window and think how similar it is to sitting in a train.  The window has the same proportions and with the identical rounded corners.  The main difference is we are not going didlle-di-da, diddle di-da. Instead, we are just sat in a permanent siding looking at the hedge!  At these moments it is quite a relief that time stands still.

If we want to feel like we really are off on holiday, I can pretend to be an air hostess closing the overhead lockers that are EasyJet look-alikes.  Quite fun dreaming.

Max enjoying breakfast in Stony Littleton siding.

Last weekend the village had its cider making day.  Lots of homemade cooking – mostly with apples in some form or another.  Most of the village was there, and Max and I did out turn at helping with the scratting, pressing or just moving apples from one position to another.  The rain came down but no-one seemed to mind.  We came away with 6 demi-johns of rather strange looking brown liquid that we hope turns into something resembling cider.  No doubt Max will nurture it to perfection.  Not my line at all, either the making or the drinking.  The apple crop this year was very poor.  Not many cider apples but lots of dessert apples which are apparently too soft for the best brew.  But we we’ll see.

The site office is bedding down nicely.  Max hopes to close up the gaps so that there aren’t any howling drafts any more.  My back has slightly suffered in this first week.  It’s feeling a bit stiff so I have resorted to wearing my puffa jacket to keep it protected.  It will get better.  We have had a visitation, not from the planning authority, nor HMRC, but from our little fury friends so that the chocolate brownies have been invaded.  Need to do something about these gaps – for a more pressing reason.  Can’t do without the brownies especially when the workers are here next week.  In preparation for the tea and coffee breaks I have set my iphone to alert me at 10:50am and 3:10pm as I am not naturally one to think ‘tea break’ as a matter of course.  But I will have to get into the routine of keeping them all happy.  On Fridays they may even get bacon butties, or special cake.  

I have been trying most of the week to get in touch with the window fabricators to make a couple of changes to the spec.  There is a new chap who has taken over from a really efficient and nice guy who unfortunately left to go back to South Africa.  My frustration has been mounting all week. 

At 4:00pm on Friday afternoon I received the phone call that everyone dreads – the company is in financial trouble – a major contractor has failed to pay them a large sum of money, which means that the aluminium frame suppliers have put a stop on their account.  So our job will not be able to go ahead until they get the money in.  We haven’t actually ordered anything from them so it is not a financial worry – just madly inconvenient and could delay other things.  I’m optimistic it will sort itself out.  Our suppliers are keen to help us resolve the problem

This is the moment for the 'Grand Design' break for adverts.  We have to give you some suspense.  Blogs aren't exciting if they don't have these 'moments'.

We should be able to give you more news on this next week.

The fabricators have suggested ways to help relieve the delay, but we have to wait to hear if it is a real possibility.  We will be working on other contingencies too.  Damnit, I really liked hese windows and we have done so much work getting exactly what we wanted.  There are other suppliers of the same windows we just need our man to help us locate them.