Beneath a winter blanket we have an upstairs!

 So that there is no disruption from the weather we now have a large "blanket" covering the shell of the upstairs. It does mean, however, that the building looks twice as big which means it looks MASSIVE!!!!

 This is the view of upstairs from the front of the house. The windows on the left will be floor to ceiling and will look over the courtyard. The room at the end will be our bedroom with floor to ceiling windows either side of a full width, half height window.

 This is the view back down from our bedroom. The end bedroom will have a full window leading out onto a balcony.

This is the view from the end of the house downstairs. There will be a raised roof light all the way down the left hand side and the right hand side will be glass looking out onto the courtyard.

A guided tour round the estate

This is the view of the new build from the far side looking across towards our present house.  The upstairs space looks from huge from here - room for about six bedrooms not only the four there will be!  The wooden trusses have gone in on the whole of the downstairs so it begins to feel like a house rather than a car park.  The stone work on the roof of the downstairs on the left will be where the raised skylights will be built and the area in front of that will be the small decking area!!!!

 A view from the top of the paddock looking at the back of the downstairs living area and showing again where the skylights will go.  Stone work looking amazing here as well.

 Our bedroom taking shape - amazing the difference even the beginning of walls makes to beginning to appreciate how rooms will actually look.  You can see here how the upstairs end section floats above the ground.  Should look wonderful once there is grass growing around it all.  The upstairs will be floor to ceiling glass windows and the exterior walls will be clad in wooden vertical panels.

The only way is up!

What happens when you go on holiday for 10 days? They come along with a Meccano set and start building your house. It was a bit of a shock when we returned but the house is now looking amazing and we can start to see how the inside is going to look.

Grass roof but how do we get the sheep up here?

The concrete walls are now finished and the insulation is on the way. The garage now has a grass roof - how cool is that! The steel work is due to start Monday 15th September.

From one wall to another.

Having spent a glorious week in Northumberland visiting amongst other places Hadrian's Wall, we returned home to find the concrete wall at the back of the downstairs block is now in place and the side walls are close to being ready for pouring. The garage is now well on the way as well.

Laying the foundations

The foundations should have been laid last week but were postponed by the torrential rain. Amazing to see how organised everyone was and all the foundations laid in a day. Next stop the concrete walls!!

Steel yourself - the concrete's coming!

The shuttering has now been completed ready for the foundations to be poured. The wooden "trays" round the outside are put in to create a shelf to fit the steel onto. Next step a lot of concrete which is due to be poured tomorrow.

Wendy wants more photos!

Preparations for the foundations have continued this week. The foundations for the garage are in and work on it will start soon. Looks really good but what do we know?!!

The only way is up

Having spent weeks of seeing more and more earth being taken out and the hole getting deeper and deeper, this week has seen the start of the foundations and the start of the garage as well. Still have no idea what is going on but everyone seems to know what they are doing! Have chosen the glass and the exterior wood as well - progress!!

Quote from Bruce "Building a house is digging a hole and then filling it in!"

All systems go! Land drainage around the building and catchpits have been completed. The base is all in for the floor to be prepared with shuttering and steel. Garage footing dug out ready to be poured next week. The only way is up! (we hope!!)

The truth, the (w)hole truth and nothing but the truth

Just when you thought they couldn't dig any deeper……………………they dig a bit deeper!
You may note how close to the edge I have made Liz stand for one of the photos but can assure everyone that no wives were hurt in the making of this blog!

I told you we had natural springs!

As well as making life difficult for the bore holes for the ground source heat pump it also means there is an awful lot of water when the ground workers start digging!

Ground Source Heat Pump

We have decided that the most efficient way of heating the house will be to use a ground source heat pump. Unfortunately the plot isn't big enough to fit the pipes in horizontally and so we need 3 bore holes 80 metres deep. Why we need to dig as far as Australia I don't know but here are the machines needed to make the bore holes.
The 3 holes will provide enough hot water to service all our water needs as well as the under floor heating for the whole house.
Did I tell you we have natural springs in the field? Sorry, we have natural springs in the field. When you dig 80 metres there is a tendency to find these springs - hence all the mud!!

Enter the dragon's big brother

Baby digger was only able to scratch the surface - looks like a job for his big brother!

Enter the Dragon (small)

Evidently this is the small digger sent in to clear the topsoil off the site!

Day 1: The Beginning

Here is the paddock before all the work is started. It is hard to tell from the photo but the land slopes upwards from left to right. The intention is to level the ground so that the ground floor roof is level with the ground at the back on the right.