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Blogs

Druim nan Darach

Bathroom/Ensuite/Outside work 2

In the last few months work on the house was on hold because of the COVID 19 pandemic. With the rules starting to be relaxed we have now been able to make some progress.   A few months ago I posted on BH about being a bit concerned about the bath being a tight fit as it’s 1800mm and the distance between the wall was 1802mm. Not sure how the plumber got it in but happy that it fills the space.     The bath is made from Carronite so it should feel more rigid when sho
Canalside Bungalow Renovation

Happy Anniversary

Today was our four year wedding anniversary. It was also Day 1 of the builders starting promptly at 730am and as we got the day off work we decided to leave them to it and escape.   Since the cancelled Ideal Home show and home associated birthday plans in March I've been online adding things to my ever growing Pinterest board and my particular obsession has been a bath and although we had done some browsing before lockdown I hadn't seen anything that really caught my eye.   
West Sussex Forever Home

Now the fun/hard work begins

<drum roll>.....we have our planning application approval! yay!!   I was really expecting a long drawn out process but pretty much a month after we hired our planning consultant we got our approval.    I'm pretty gobsmacked to be honest but we're over the moon. can't believe it all happened so quickly.   I had discussions with the planning consultant about what we were willing to compromise on and what we weren't. we also determined what we could potentially b
South coast ICF build

Twiddling our thumbs

With the lock down continuing it’s been hard to keep our enthusiasm levels up without the required supplies to continue any major projects. It’s been a case of “what can we do today” picking off tasks.   The gas boiler needed to be plumbed in, nice easy job as screwfix and toolstation were operating click and collect. Good to get a job ticked off.   Our electrics had got to pretty much second fix stage, so we ordered an 12 way RCBO consumer unit, sockets and isolator switches
Self Building two in North Wiltshire

Lots of STUFF - Good, Bad & Ugly

It has been 3 weeks since the last Blog post and in some ways it feel an eternity and in others it seems only yesterday since Plot 1 TF was done - which is where we left the story. So lots and lots has happened since then so this entry will cover 'lots of stuff' in one go. Our main aim is to get both shell buildings up and then get them wind and watertight as soon as possible. The heavy rain we had just after Plot 1 was finished showed that the MBC OSB roof is not in any way watertight as
Canalside Bungalow Renovation

What are you doing with this?

One question my dad asked me on Saturday.   He only came up to get rid of a tree stump in the garden that's been there since Storm Doris blew down our Silver Birch. Job done, we thought whilst he had the digger he could tackle 7 other stumps in a large overgrown border near our drive.   He then asked the question he would now probably regret and was met with a response of "we will probably extend the drive at some point".   He looked at my like he did when I'd told
Timber Portal Frame - but stick built

above ground ringbeam . Underground Drainage and shuttering.

So finally managed to update the blog. Seems like nothing happened , but a bit of progress still.   Now just have to get this monstrosity past Building Control . Challenging task but I will manage. As always. I can tell I will not become a Groundworker in this life . Or the next.   http://tintabernacle.blogspot.com/2020/05/rc-beam-or-ringbeam-preparation.html     Here are some entertaining pics from this : Above ground shuttering takes a bit of timbe
God is in the Details

Slightly Mad Lockdown Projects

Buildhub member @NSS is doing a cycle marathon in his bedroom (OK, that's an exaggeration; it's in his shed ... maybe) to raise some money for a favoured cause during lockdown.   I have my own slightly mad cycling project, amongst several others.   I tried to get a local forum going a few years ago, which went exactly nowhere. So I’m trying again with an FB group whilst there are about 5x as many cyclists around ... many going up and down my lane. In adjacent areas great thin
Self Building two in North Wiltshire

Timber Frame PLOT 1

An auspicious crane day as a Red Kite flies in front of our crane as it is installing the Timber Frame for Plot 1 ?   Its been a while as life has been really hectic and keeping up with things on site have meant little time for the blog. This one is exciting and the video shows the MBC Timber Frame for Plot 1 (our son Joe's house) from start to finish. We have cut this to be chronological and cut out the days MBC were not on site so the build looks continuous.   The build seq
West Sussex Forever Home

Planning woes

Why is it so hard to get planning approval? Such a simple thing is mired in bureaucracy, pettiness (at least perceived), personal interpretations of the planning policy (e.g. the definition of disproportionate to the existing building) and, in some cases, pure incompetence!   One such example was from Southern Water who said they couldn't approve the proposal with a sewage treatment plant and we had to apply for connection to an existing sewage system. err....the nearest sewer is about
Back on the self-build waggon...

MVHR!!

Sad I know, but really excited for my bargain MVHR unit to turn up today. Given it a quick test, and all is OK, will be a while before I get everything else sorted out, but hoping to have it all installed before the winter comes this year.     Don't think it was too bad for £420, and I had £25 in vouchers to use from Nectar points!   Its getting installed in a cupboard in the new dining room, and then all the pipe work and manifolds will be in the loft space of the
God is in the Details

Understanding Corona Virus / COVID-19 - Gresham Lectures

These are two Gresham lectures by the Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer.   Gresham Lectures are free lectures in London, funded by a legacy from Sir Thomas Gresham (1519-1579).   The first was on the centenary of the Spanish Flu epidemic, looking at the history of pandemics.     The second is on COVID-19 Coronavirus.    
West Sussex Forever Home

We hired an architect and he drew plans

Once we'd exchanged on the bungalow we knew that completion would happen and so we didn't waste any time in interviewing and hiring an architect. We got 3 different architects to come round to see us (it was supposed to be 4 but the 4th didn't seem to be interested as after I phoned and left a message with details as to what we wanted I got a voicemail back saying he'd received a message about an extension or something rather than the complete demolition and self-build we're doing! it goes witho
West Sussex Forever Home

The journey so far...

A long time ago (about 15 years) in a county not so far away I met and married my wife. Soon after we had a couple of kids and started thinking about our future.    When I was a teenager my parents moved us abroad and built their own house and I think that sowed the seed for me as it seems that I've always wanted to build my own house and would sit down and watch Grand Designs back in the day and be drawn to the idea of it all.   So about 10 years ago we decided that we wante
South coast ICF build

Fenced in and painting

Following on from the plastering work we did a quick stock take. Our plan was to be back on our narrow boat for the summer but with the current problems that was out of the question. We didn’t have materials to start flooring or fit bathrooms or kitchen and there was little hope of getting them. After a bit of head scratching and phoning around we found we could get fencing material and paint. We also had a few other jobs on the list that we could tackle, commissioning the water harvesting syste
Self Building two in North Wiltshire

Beam and Block

Its been a few weeks since the last post but for us its not been a quiet time - we hear from friends who now watch daytime TV at a very leisurely pace - if only!!!! As we are at a point where we have a few days breathing space this is the first of several posts to catch up with ourselves.   After the scaffold went up round the outside of the build in preparation for the timber frame the next step was to lay the concrete floors as a 'lid' to the basement and sub floor and a ceiling to t
Druim nan Darach

Utility/Bathroom/Outside work

It’s coming up to a couple of months since I last posted.   With the upstairs now a contractor-free zone, we soon had many Ikea flat pack kits to construct for the kids bedrooms.         Our joiner fitted the utility worktop and units in February and we have since been applying oil to both this and the kitchen worktops.             The last bit we needed done to be able to get the house hab
God is in the Details

Orchestra at Home for Lockdown: Examples and Tutorial

I posted this video of a "Distributed Bolero" by the l'Orchestre national de France to the COVID Thread, and it seems to be worth posting here, especially as there is an established method of making these videos.     Here's one from a couple of years ago:       And here is a short tutorial (2 minutes):   And a longer tutorial - 40 minutes:     And a place where you can find a template for Garag
Self Building two in North Wiltshire

Scaffold & Frogs

As per the last post - we live in interesting times and its not getting any easier! The only real upside is that the weather has improved finally. We had the scaffolders in last week and they have built round three sides to roof level and it looks HUGE as it surrounds both houses in one continuous run. It doesn't look it but it is in fact the houses will have the same  roof height as the old bungalow (fractionally lower in fact)  - we did suggest to the planners that since we have 2 and 3 story

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