33. Party in the Park, and a gradual exposure

It's been some time since I last posted a blog so I will try to get one off this evening however short the text so that you can see what we have been up to.  I'm afraid I have already written this blog once but somehow failed to save it so it all got lost.  I am now struggling to re-engage with the same spontaneity so I'm afraid it will be mainly photos with just a little text.  I do want to show you what we have achieved in the last few weeks - it's all getting so much more exciting. 

Sequencing the events is becoming quite critical and very dependent on each trade getting their task done as promised. 

On June 21st,  along with all the other trades on site, Western Power came for  what felt like a ‘Party in the Park’.  19 electricians and 12 vehicles (the entire unit for the area) were here.  The vehicles were queuing to get on to the site from 8:00am in order to put the cables that had been blotting our view, underground.  

There had been odd days previously in preparation for this day, but this was party day. 

It happened to be mid-summer’s day and in spite of the forecast promising rain all week, this particular day was a real summer day, all the shirts were off, bottles of fizz (no tea – the power was off!) and a general feeling of a good romp.   

Plenty of guys standing around whilst one or two were up poles or directing from below.

However many it took to get our power change over from caravan to house, and the cables underground – they’ve done it, and the result is good.  

The poles are down - So nice not to have those poles just in the line of view.  

The ground that we heaped up at the end of last year to make way for the building access has recently been covered daily in fresh poppies, each morning a new crop appears and by the afternoon they have all lost their petals.  Such a short life.  They have given us a taste of the wild flower meadow we hope to have covering the field and over the studio roof in the years to come.  Poppies often appear on heavily turned ground having laid dormant for years.  I have been able to feast on them this summer - just outside the site hut window.

The last two weeks of June was the time for tiling.  The bathrooms walls and floors, the kitchen and dining room floors and the entrance hall and corridor were all to be done.

Max prepared the bathroom walls with special backer board that is strong enough to hold the weight of the large 600mm square tiles that we have chosen.  

The plumber had also completed all the first fix and with the shower tray in place, ready 

Below, our tiler laying the Ditra Matting that prevents tiles from cracking because it allows movement underneath so that the tiles aren't put under stress.  He did an excellent job all round, planning the lay of the land first, and listening to our requirements, and using his eyes to align tiles in the best way, rather than choosing the easiest solution.  

The tiles all arrived on one lorry.  Our bathroom tiles were all carried up the ramp and stacked ready.  I was really excited, so I eagerly looked through the first batch.

Oh dear, not very happy.  I laid out more to check if there really was an issue.

What I thought I was buying  were tiles that had a horizontal vein in them and a wonderful toffee colour.  I liked the look of edibility about them despite their rather hard centre.

What I found we had, had a closer resemblance to a rotten carrot.  They had a rather blotchy look, brown rather than toffee colours, and circles of nastiness rather than nice stretches of toffee. Certainly nothing that smacked of being temptingly edible.  I just could not live with this in my bathroom.  What a thought.  The only trouble is the Sales Order had it very clearly stated that goods were non returnable.  
This was a particularly uncomfortable moment.

I plucked up enormous courage, metaphorically donned my yellow rubber gloves, braved picking up a particularly unpleasant example and made my way with a strong determination back to the shop from whence I had ordered the assignment.  

I should have arranged the tiles horizontally for the photo - but I am sure you can see what I mean about them being a disappointment - especially the one on the left.
I estimated that 40% of the tiles had this blotchiness and  the brown colouring rather than toffee flavour

As I walked in they looked at my offering with a look of slight horror and discomfort  and asked “What is this”?  

Having explained my disappointment without alluding to 'rotten carrots' (I thought I should remain properly dignifed).  What was so amazing was that they were really concerned that I should have what I liked, and they promised to fight my corner for me.  

By the end of the day, they had arranged for me to go to their warehouse to choose something suitable to replace the consignment.  I was so relieved.

This is the guest bathroom tiled and waiting for its bath and all the second fix plumbing.

Lining the house with plasterboard puts a whole new face on the interior of the house.  Suddenly it is acquiring walls and room shapes.

Then when the plasterers move in you begin to feel the volumes coming alive and what home is really going to feel like.  They make such a difference so quickly, and our team of plasterers really have made these large areas stunningly flat, straight and crisp.

And oh joy!  You remember we had issues with windows - well the frames, at last have arrived, and now all the frames are in place, so  we can now start on the external cladding.  The windows make it feel much crisper, but with all the wind that we have had we do rather long for the shelter the glass will give us.  But that is another story - we have to wait a bit longer - just another 4 weeks for the glass to arrive.  The window fabricators have to be sure that the frames fit before they dare order the glass. They never tell you this at the time.  So we have to put up with this wind (if it persists on carrying on) for a bit longer.

In go the big sliding windows.

This is just a reminder of me in the site hut, about mid-summer's day, in my puffa jacket feeling pretty cold.  The wind howling outside.

Actually Summer has arrived now and we're all enjoying it!

Cladding started on June 24th – this is a new task that we have all been looking forward to.  It will have a major impact as it will suddenly bring the house alive from the outside – though not much can be seen at the moment as it is still all hidden by the scaffolding and sheeting.  

As it is a new task, it needs a lot of planning matched by a similar quantity of care and accuracy.   It took time to get into the method and routine of fitting it all together.

By Wednesday Mark and James, had cracked it, and with Max and an apprentice also helping on the Friday they really covered a lot of ground.  The three different widths of board and random lengths with the close grain of the wood give the surface a really nice finish.  The detailing of how the wood aligns with the window frames is important, and whilst we can only get a view of one window at a time at the moment, I am really excited to get the scaffolding off to see the whole effect of the walls and windows together. 

We didn't want any of the boards to be cut around the windows, they had to be fitted so that a board exactly fitted down the side of the window.  This meant a lot of pre-calculating which boards would fit in what combination.  I equipped the boys with all the varieties of dimensions for different combinations so that they could plan in advance!  They managed very well, and it has proved possible.

The second  type of cladding we are using is a man made panel, which is supplied in boards 3 meters x 2.4 meters.  The factory will cut it to whatever size you want.  This meant that we had to plan exactly how the wall was going to be pannelled out, and then accurately take some measurements of the sizes needed so that it could be built without re-cutting on site.  My job to plan, but I gave it to others to fix the battens to which it would be fixed, and measure the dimensions accordingly.  Each panel had to have 6mm between it and the next, and the fixings had to be at a certain distance from the edge of each panel.  I was anxious!, but the order was placed, the panles arrived, and the day to start fixing also arrived.

The boys making a very smart  deal of cladding the building.

James making sure it's spot on

Here you can see the combination of the frake timber cladding with the man-made Trespa.

You can also see the aluminium mill finished coping that covers the parapet and which sits on the original aluminium angle that trims the roof line.

The Trespa is mainly on the stair wall.  There are other parts which will be done a little later.  I have just done all the planning and measurements for that and it was delivered today.  So a job for next week perhaps.  I hope it all fits as well.

A detail of the Trespa corner where boards meet, defining the accuracy of the builders!

The coping around the roof parapet - another trade working at the same time as all the others.  A beautifully crafted job making the building look very crisp.

Looking across the roof

The scaffolding is coming down as I send this blog out.  You have seen close up shots of the work on the cladding, as soon as it is all clear and free of scaffolding I will post another blog so you get full extrenal shots of the house.  It is so exciting to see it gradually being exposed. It has even been difficult for us to see what it is really like.  It won't be long now.

The gantt chart for the closing stages has been mapped out, and is added to daily.  Still quite a lot to do - mainly design work by us on the fit outs so that others can make them.  Second fixes of the plumbing and electrics all lined up as is the installation of the air source heat pump.  More ground works outside - so lots to keep us busy.

32 Fun designing the details

We are now into the stage where everything that is done will be what we see, so we are finding it more intense, more exciting, and certainly more demanding. 

The areas that we have been resolving just recently have been the junctions between walls and floors, walls and doors, and wherever one plane meets another.  For us, the junctions have got to be as clean and simple as possible, with the fewest lines.  This is quite testing, and is the reason why such things as covings, architraves, skirting boards were originally invented – they cover up all the usual mess that occurs at these very junctions.  Don’t expect any of these add on trims here!  But then you will also be the judge – will we have we managed to create the clean perpendicular, right angle, parallel lines that we crave?

I have always been keen to have a very linear feel to the house, strong horizontality in some of the features.  So we have been designing the hearth under the wood burning stove to extend it in a linear manner into the living room.  There is also the unit that divides the two levels, and this could provide a strong linear focus as well as an area where we could display some of our pieces of sculpture and ceramics.  I get very excited at how it might look, but find it very difficult to bring it to fruition through sketches.  I am not someone who finds it particularly easy to draw in perspective, or to scale in order to help others, or myself for that matter, understand what I have in my head.  Max is much better, and it's been a Godsend that he can do it.

The bathrooms we have kept quite small and purposeful, so there is not a lot that can be done to make them anything very special.  However, we do have ideas for making them practical, and I also know that I will be very fussed if the tiling lines don’t fit comfortably with the shapes that the walls, shelves and recesses make.  So quite meticulous times are spent planning exactly what should align with what.  However I know I will be quite heavily relying on our tiler to make a tidy job.   

I have spent hours on the internet looking for a towel rail that has sufficient space between the wall and the back of the rails to comfortably hang the towels.  My experience is that they are always far too close.  On the front of one of the bathroom catalogues there was a perfect answer – a towel rail with brackets at the side, mounted into a recess, so that the rail could be positioned at whatever distance from the wall you choose.  When I rang them to ask for details I was told it was just a photo montage – not a real towel rail at all.  Back to the catalogues.  Not found anything more than 85mm between wall and rail yet!

We are pretty meticulous about anything that is needed for the house.  I can't think of anything that has just 'happened' without a level of consideration.  For instance, the rainwater pipes – with the house being angular – rather than curvaceous, have been chosen as rectangular in section.  This means they can be partly recessed into the timber cladding so that they fit comfortably, are not so conspicuous, and their colour has been chosen to match the window frames and blend with the timber cladding – especially when the timber has become weathered.  Max has also designed special hoppers to take the water from the roof into the pipes.  

Part of the fun of creating one’s own house is this intense attention to detail.  In many ways one wishes one had far more imagination, but I suppose also one would need to have a limitless budget to be able to take each item to a much greater degree of refinement.  My ideal structure would be one that seamlessly moves from one perfect detail to another without really noticing that it was actually changing.   We will just dip our little toe into creating this utopia.  The main point for me is that it is fun being involved in the process of taking up the challenge.

This week we have been under pressure to prepare for the plasterer as he is due to start tomorrow (Monday 3^rd June).  However due to the windows still being a major problem we have had to delay him until later in the week.  I did finally loose my cool with the window fabricators last week after they had promised again to deliver the windows by a certain date, and yet again failed to do so.  I believe they really do mean it this time, and that delivery and installation of the critical windows will be achieved.  This means we will only be two days behind with the plastering.  It has actually taken the pressure off us slightly so we are not exactly complaining.

Some of the things that have been happening this week.

The lengths of rainwater pipes being joined and brackets fitted so that they can be attached to the building prior to the timber cladding going on

The rainwater pipes in place. The timber cladding will be  fixed to the horizontal battens.  Probably starting in the next fortnight.

Sliding door gear fitted, inset into the ceiling prior to the plastering.

The first fix plumbing getting finalised before it is all covered with special tile backer board on which the tiler will glue the stone tiles.

The shower tray in position.

The special backing boards that need to line the bathroom before the tiler can start.

Max and our joiner checking that everything is plumb and square so that the lines of the tiles on the floor will be parallel with the walls!

The wall substructure prior to the plasterboard going on.  We've added this to give plenty of meat to the walls where we want to hang pictures.

The plasterboard gradually making an appearance and making the spaces look more like rooms.

Window frames appearing also - bit by bit, but no room complete with all its windows!  This is the frustrating thing as no room is yet ready for the plasterer to come and do the ceilings.  It SHOULD all happen this week.

The kitchen ceiling and kitchen window.
The ceilings will present quite a challenge to the plasterers as they are quite large expanses and we want them perfect, of course.
Plasterers like to do a full expanse in one session, so they will have two or three plasterers working on these downstairs ceilings at the same time.
We have special trims for the bottom of the walls which are yet to be fitted.
I hope to have photos of these next week, as well as the door frame details.

More windows

The mecano set we have yet to construct to form the cladding structure for the chimney.
A joy in store.

So a lot happening - the weather has improved which is good.

We had a really good tidy up on the site again this weekend so all is looking very presentable.  Neighbours keep passing by saying they can't wait for the unveiling - they're not the only ones.  Next month we should be getting close to taking off the scaffolding and showing the world what it might look like.

31 A few jottings from Max.

Many people in the ‘industry’ say we have done extraordinarily well in getting this far so fast.  Not having done this before [a new build] I have felt that we have made many mistakes, and could do better next time – though there will be no next time for me.

What follows are some thoughts on the reasons why we might have ‘done well’. – in no particular order.

I think from the outset we understood the difficulties / challenges posed by  architects /engineers and their working drawings.  [and this is of course nothing to do with whether it is good Architecture or not]  I spent hours looking at their working drawings to understand them and then for the basic build drew my own set that we could use to build from. – something that I and a joiner could understand and very importantly, the sequence that things must happen in. This way there were fewer surprises, and materials were on site and were put together in roughly the right order.

I often feel that many builders of Modern Architecture don’t fully realise what they are taking on, and that also professionals do not have sufficient practical experience of how ‘things’ are put together.

Many of the details are quite difficult to achieve in practice [foundation design, or windows up to the ceiling so that the ceiling plaster has to be accurate or you can’t open the window, tolerances very small etc etc.].  We were fortunate that as the client, and also an architect, we were not afraid to change their details etc, so that we could get on and build and I was also confident with the detail.  If I didn’t feel happy with a detail or proposed ‘How to build it’, I changed it. 

After all, you have to pay for it and you have to live with it.

What would actually happen in say 5 years time if the cladding sagged?

We decided to be the general contractor.  No one understands the building as well as we do, and as the design is a one off, non traditional with many special details, it would have taken a long time for a General Contractor to get into it.  We did speak with two GCs early on, but time and again they, and some of our current trades’ people, thought – "this is how one usually does this detail, so we will do that detail here".  Wrong. 

This means working very closely with our team to ensure we get what we want.  Also being the GC, we save about 15 – 20% of costs – their fee for managing the work.

We have had a good team of tradespeople.  Knowledgeable and hands on.

This is partly luck and partly research.  We spent a lot of time before we started building interviewing different people, getting quotes and visiting their sites etc.  Seeing is believing.  You see firms that are lean and mean where management also go on site, and others where there is too much fat – which clients pay for.  Quotes are often 100% different.  £14k for the roof or £31k for the roof.  £15k for the steel or £36k.   Some of these relationships have been built up over 6 – 12 months starting when I did an initial budget exercise in Jan 2012 and keeping in touch with the firms.

Our ground workers have been excellent and hands on - helping us build foundations etc in a very wet December.  Knowing where to take short cuts and where not.  This concept has saved us £1000’s all down the line.

We have only had to let one trade go for poor performance.

Knowledge base.  We knew broadly what we wanted from the start, and although we have a good idea of building trades, when we started this project our skills in planning and building control were out of date.  We tried to bring ourselves up to date quickly, and before any building started.  Building Regs have, and are changing yearly, and this could mean you are caught on the back foot being bounced into doing things that you feel are not quite right, or specifying things – 'just to be on the safe side’.  Every time I hear this phrase I cringe, because what I think this means is – 'I don’t really know [even though I am supposed to] so let’s double the size or add another…. '

Not good enough!

Planning.  They say measure twice and cut once.  So think about what you have to build and organise to get it done - quickly.  My time is free, but two tradesmen have a daily cost - one needs to keep them fully occupied - and they can work fast. 

We generally planned for the ground work – but you have to live with the unknown here, so there is only so much you can plan for.  Use experts with hands on knowledge.

After we got the ground works done/steel frame up, we took Jan – Feb off and started again on March 4^th.  This 2 month break was very valuable as it allowed us to think through ALL the issues that needed to be managed in the next phase.  These planning phases enable us to be highly productive and cost effective when we are actually working on site.

We have just stopped again for two and half weeks to plan the final build phase – at the end of which the windows, roof, cladding, plastering, and kitchen will be in together with water and electric. [end of June] Then probably another pause to think about joinery. [and a rest]

Materials / logistics.  As my tradesmen are expensive I cannot afford to run out of materials [just like a supermarket having a stock out.]  In October we did a major costing exercise with 5 building material suppliers.  Our material list was fairly comprehensive and therefore worth a lot.  We got some very competitive quotes on this bulk and generally chose the cheapest firm to work with.  I am buying now at October prices and get good service as a good client.  I don’t buy every thing from the supplier, as they are generalists and our build is Code 5+ and has many specialist items, but we have a relationship that is worth while. 

I use ebay, screwfix and a host of specialist suppliers, who generally manage to deliver some obscure nut or glue from Birmingham to Bath over night.  Impressive.

Most of the building is enclosed in a sheeted scaffold box which we has proved invaluable.  For a wooden house this has allowed us to be efficient in working full days, attracting good trade people who know their work will not be interrupted, getting lower quotes from some trades – (imagiine putting a roof on in the rain, and being effective in being able to plan ahead with some certainty).

Site access has been a nightmare as delivery lorries get bigger and bigger and our access is poor. A major source of stress for me has been: - will they send the lorry they promised? – no more that 24ft, does it have a crane on? and what the driver is like?  I can’t describe the number of times I have had to block the road as we scramble to unload materials.  But the gods have been kind, and the locals tolerant.  We have also had our fair share of luck.  We were unloading a pallet [1.8tons] of 18mm chipboard and were going to put this via our Hi Mac directly onto the roof from the back of the site.  Half way down the slope the load slipped off the forks and shot down the hill.  The load went between two of our transit vans missing each by 5mm.  Mighty relief all round.

I have found that at least half my day is spent in thinking what we need next, ordering materials, unloading into the dry, and finding out what we are short of.   I have been surprised and impressed how productive many trades are, with air tools, lasers, mobile workbenches etc.  I need to keep on top of their next move. 

The other half of the day is often taken up with explaining drawings, getting their views and organising work.  This means that most hands on work that I do takes place after 4.15pm when trades knock off or at week ends.  This can make for a very long day.  This build has been an unremitting slog from Nov 5^th. Weekends are working on site / preparing for Monday trades or thinking about issues.  The site appears to be very windy – we have had an appalling winter in weather terms, but the end in sight.

We have missed some order/delivery dates, saved a lot of cash on some items [ground works, frame, some materials, but spent more on the little things [which really add up] – air tight membranes, fixings, fireplaces, etc but on balance we are currently on budget.  I thought we were to have our Grand Design moment recently – just before the adverts, when the clients are either getting a divorce, going bust, or are 5 years behind schedule.  One of our suppliers is incredibly bad at communicating with us.  It starts with delays in delivery – next week not this week, then you chase them, and they don’t call back – it goes on, and because they never ring you, one feels – after some weeks of missed deadlines, that the worst is happening.  Then someone rings you and says "we will be there tomorrow".  Huge sigh.

So if we have been productive etc, it’s down to quite a few things. 

There are many items I would change if I were doing this again, - which I’m not, but this is the content of a future jotting.

30 Back on site and feeling part of the team again.

 Coming back to the site after six weeks away was very exciting.  All the walls, rather than just being framework, were all filled with soft insulation, compressed insulation, vapour control barriers, breather membranes, and various layers of horizontal and or vertical battens inside and out to take the finished internal and external walls.  

I can't believe how much timber there is in this building

The silver is the vapour control layer which lines the inside of all the internal walls, whilst on the outside they are lined with a breather membrane

So it was beginning to look more like a solid house.  The roof has a similar format of layering. 
The photo below shows the vapour control layer prior to the insulation boards being laid.

The aluminium angle will create a trim trim at the head of the cladding. It has been fitted all around the building with neatly mitred corners.

The electricians have also been on site and have started the wiring and fitting the boxes for the power sockets.  This is where all the wires meet at one of the two Consumer Units.  Plenty more still to find their way here.

During the last week before I returned, the under floor heating pipes on the ground floor had all been laid, and the super smooth screed had been wheel-barrowed in and tamped smooth by these two super-fit gentlemen you can see in the photo.  (No-one I can recognise! – not that those that I would be able to recognise aren’t super fit – 6 packs are actually becoming visibly noticeable).

Before the screed went down Max also laid all the duct work for the ventilation for the stove and snug fireplace.

Last week (commencing 30th April) has been full of activity. 

The joiners have been fitting internal walls, the stair wall, utility and studio bathroom internal walls, and battening out the ceiling to take the plasterboard

The window fabricators, represented by Pete, visited us again at our request on Wednesday  to re-check all the dimensions.  This was essential from our point of view because too many questions were being asked and we were having to relay dimensions that we were taking.  Not good – because the fabrication then becomes too much our responsibility!  If they don’t fit we could be the ones who have to pay for the second fabrication.  I suggested to them that it would be better to measure twice, and fabricate once rather than vice versa.

The plumbers arrived on Thursday, and continued through Friday and Saturday morning fitting copper water pipes, toilet waste pipes, and everything in between.  

He comes with an air of being a slightly sceptical guy with a sideways view on a minimalist approach to things, but becomes a very amenable, dry humoured, hard working and reliable artisan who is very willing to do something different from the norm and enjoy the challenge.  A great sport – worth his weight in gold.

The electricians started on Friday. I had marked up all the switches and sockets on the plans and had written a schedule stating exactly what each set were related to and which light the switched were meant to operate.  They were also all numbered and positioned on the walls to coincide with the plans.  I hoped that they would find it helpful. 

The scaffolders came back on Friday and Bank Holiday Monday to move the scaffolding so that the window installers will be able to access the openings with enough space to move.

The architect came for a site visit on Friday to see what progress had been made and how we were doing.  He seemed impressed – or else he was too polite to say anything different.

The roofers made a start to the final layer of insulation and weather-proofing cover on Friday and will be here for a couple of weeks or so to get the roofs all finished.

The studio roof with the waterproof membrane being fitted - before rain stopped play.
However they can continue working on the other roofs as they are undercover!

The main house roof with the insulation boards fixed with the magic blue pins, awaiting the waterproof layer

On Friday the rep for the cladding we are using for the living wall area, the links between the three sections of the house, and the fascia panels visited us to advise on the material we have chosen, and how to calculate exactly what size of panels we needed.  I had prepared schematic elevations of the house showing the colourings and the distribution of the different materials to try to visualise more accurately what it would look like. The result filled me with excitement because the colourings and shapes looked so much better than just a black and white drawing.   

We then needed to calculate sheet quantities that we would require having calculated all the cut sizes, and how they would be best cut from the larger sheets.  It took me a day – only to find out that the company had a magic computer programme to do the same calculation. 

So all in all, not an empty week.

This week (commencing 6^th May) has been equally busy on site.  

The plumber has got most of his first fix sorted except for the studio – which is full of insulation panels and therefore not so accessible.  

The electricians have filled all the walls with cables – thankfully all marked as to exactly what they are supplying so that when they come to do the second fix they will know what goes where.  The joiners have pretty well completed all the internal walls as well as completing the overhang to the living room window.

We had the tiler round to discuss the final fit out to the walls and floors so that the specification is correct for all his tiling.  Also planned how the lines of grout would align.

The joiners are away now for 2 – 3 weeks whilst other trades come and do their work. 

So in the next month we will see windows installed, plasterboard being fitted, plasterwork being applied, and the external cladding being fixed. We are therefore approaching the last third of the building programme.  The first being all the groundworks and foundations - getting the building out of the ground, the second being the framework, and then the third and most exciting being the fitting out and putting all the finishing surfaces in place.  We can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  It hasn’t felt like a long haul either – but that may because I had 5 weeks of holiday with my family.  You’ll have to ask Max what he thinks.  He might have a slightly different view.

This weekend  we are very excited because we are off to see our new granddaughter.

We are going to forget everything about caravans and building sites for a couple of days and come back fully restored for the final stage.

You never know July 31^st may not be so far off the mark as our projected move in date.  Though I am still determined to have it fully finished before I actually move out of the caravan.  But at least I feel confident that we won't have another winter in it.