My daughter thought I needed a bit more help with the roof, so came up with this pair of critters. The double act that is Griff and Raffe. What could possibly go wrong?
They can saw the counterbattens...
They can saw the battens...
They can load the nail gun - when they aren't sleeping in the hammock
And they even tried nailing the battening - but to the scaffolding.
Milling cladding for the workshop and barn today £10 a log =6 m2 of 20mm by 125 and 100mm and sell the off cuts for £25 a bag. And need 400m2 +
VID-20200814-WA0002.mp4
At the start of lockdown in March 2020 I decided to try to see how well I could grow what are termed Microgreens.
What are microgreens? At a simple level, these are a posh version of “mustard and cress” that we all grew at school, and comprise several dozen different crops that can be grown indoors at eaten very young – usually when the cotyledons have grown, and sometimes when a few leaves have also developed. Typically these are nutritious and flavoursome, and perhaps colourful, sm
I wish this was a food related post! Nope, actually the less we can cook the better. The minute the gas goes in it turns from a 36 degree caravan to an actual steam room complete with scents of tea tree and lavender from what we have applied to our arms and legs from the critters are attacking us in here through open windows and vents.
Meanwhile our dry storage in one of the outbuildings, formerly a shop the previous owner had selling canal associated tat has mice! Discovered when l
No blog in a year and then two in one week !
Having finished and moved in, I would like to pass on my sincere thanks to my fellow forum members for their help and inspiration. Whilst the decision to follow a fabric first / passivhaus approach had been made before I discovered the forum, the information in the blogs and posts was a huge help. Some of the areas where the forum had a direct influence on my decisions included:
Inspiration - Many of the blogs
- Warranty
First all my apologies as this blog entry is about about a year late given that we moved in August 2019, but better late than never as they say !
Moving on from finishing the shell, we moved onto completing the inside. We knew from previous experience this would be the most intensive part of the build and had tried to make as many decisions up front as we could regarding bathrooms, kitchens and flooring, nevertheless there were still a lot of decisions to make.
Everythin
I have a somewhat vigorous mature Clematis and Wisteria, rambling over a frame dividing the leisure garden from the kitchen garden.
This is an exchange from during lock-down with a friend, but I would welcome any further comments before I tackle this.
These are a few "high summer" dripping wet piccies from this morning:
o
This is the type of frame that is under all that greenery; a 2m tall horse fence.
We only agreed that we would explore the possibility of building our own home in January, and now somehow seem to be well and truly on our way to seeing that happen in the coming year. Very exciting, but also quite daunting. Like most self-builders, I watch episode after episode of Grand Designs, Build the Dream etc, wondering why people fall into the same financial pitfalls almost every time, and more importantly, how we might avoid doing the same.
Having found a plot with planning
After around 18 months of planning things have finally been moving a lot faster over the last couple of weeks which is great! I'll try to summarise the interesting bits:
Type 2 vs. Type 3
Our EPS was installed on a sub-base of 150mm MOT Type 2 and 50mm sharp sand for blinding. Structurally this is absolutely fine, but there was an awful lot of and fro with the foundation designers about if permeable type 3 + grit should actually have been used as specified in the system certif
Douglas Adams, in "Life, the Universe and Everything", that Arthur Dent expressed a need for "a strong drink and a peer group".
That is what this Gardening Blog is for - my need for the same thing because my knowledge about gardening is patchy, just like my garden. Buildhub cannot supply a strong drink, but I am hoping that the peer group can help me get to grips with the garden I inherited last year. The idea has been around for a couple of months, and is now in a position start.
This is only a short update because we've been taking it easy on the house so the boss and I can get some (paid) work done. Will be the school holidays soon - so slave labour will be available!
I have ordered some plain and simple white UPVC soffits and facia from a local company so time to start measuring up and cutting the splines level. More work for the Alien and some string. The plumb line is made from a Lotus Elise crank pulley bolt! Hopefully the soffits and facia will be inst
Bit back to front this, will take some photos of first half when I’ve done this bit, at minute it’s chockablock with kingspan boards.
ive turfed all of the insulation out, binned the very old collapsed stuff, shook all the crap off the remainder, hoovered everything.
at the minute I’m just working on uncovering the rather dangerous looking electrics, but putting kingspan boards in where I can just to get them done and out the way.
this is one for the electrici
So, progress has continued and after months of walking round looking at drawings I can actually see proper rooms which is all very exciting. My necessity of carrying lip gloss everywhere has been replaced with a tape measure which is now a handbag essential! I've become almost obsessive checking sizes of rooms, window openings and that potential bathroom purchases will fit. My tape measure had that much use it finally broke!
One stand out moment was the steels for the 5.5 metre Inter
Now we have planning in place, and a design we are happy with, time to get started. We are certain we cannot employ a main contractor to do the build - at 280m2, the MC estimates are in the £400k range. We need to keep it closer to £250k.
Demolishing the existing was the first challenge. After a few calls, it soon became apparent that this would not be cheap. £10-£20k from the main demo companies. Lowest offer was £4 for a reclamation company to come in, demolish by hand and take al
There was not much in the way of progress from the last entry as we were already close to moving in.
The plumbing was completed in the last entry and connecting some final electrical fittings was done soon after.
After a decade since putting in outline planning it was time.
Our furniture delivery has taken longer than anticipated and we are living with a bean bag for the living room seating and a mattress on the floor for our bed. But we are here.
The fir
I think we are done with going up, so it's time to put a roof on the house. It's fully made from SIPS panels, approximately a foot thick so very little internal structure is needed. We had a little bit of argument on site today unfortunately between the SIPS people and scaffolders, but it was resolved and progress was made. It comes down to differing cultures and a lack of experience of the speed of this sort of build locally.
The front as seen from the driveway approach. It has beco
We have seen huge changes on site in the last couple of days. The SIPS team have worked very hard to keep things on track. I can't fault anything they have done. All the walls are in place now and we're waiting for the scaffolding to have the last lift built so the roof lift can happen, planned for early afternoon on Monday.
Craning the roof panels into the assembly area.
The small part of the L shape roof that goes over the master bedroom sitting waiting to be lift
Demolition, site clearance, reduce dig and installation of pre-insulated pipes for ASHP and potential future garden room. The pre-insulated pipe we used in the end was "REHAU RAUTHERMEX 25mm+25mm/111mm DUO PIPE".
The ground was luckily fantastic, apart from one area with some roots and a couple of soft spots left over from the demolition. So we managed to avoid the extra 800mm reduced dig that had been specified based on 2 trial holes in the old front garden. At over 200m2, that w
There have been a few delays along the way, but now the largest work package is well and truly under way. The last 24 hours has seen the house go from 300mm out of the ground to 2.7 metres.
The front door and stairwell on the left and family room doors on the right.
Unloading the second trailer load of parts. Running out of space on site now!
First floor joists going in. With another view of the stairwell window
Inside the loung
We're back at work. The SIPS team are on the Island and have satisfactory accomodation, and the first load of house is unloaded on site. But before the photos of this, there are the last stages of getting out of the ground and interfacing with the SIPS superstructure.
The site foreman early last week doing the final checks of plinth flatness. To the best of our measurement ability all is good - within 3mm in height and 5mm laterally.
First to arrive: A new toy! I us
So now the new kitchen is in, it was time to renovate the room which was the old kitchen in to the first part of the dining room (I say first part, as the second part is going to be in an extension which i'm hoping to build next year).
And then the real messy work begins
This is the house that keeps on giving! Found two redundant (but live) gas pipes buried in the plaster on the wall I knew nothing about, to go wit
