As you can see there has been some progress on site and things are looking good - not all plain sailing but as we keep telling ourselves - we are getting there. Blockwork walls are going in and we can finally get a real feel for the basement rooms and the layout. Lots of back and forth on waterproofing and insulation/ thermal break under the walls and real problems locating 100mm high Marmox blocks - these are specialist lightweight composite insulating blocks that help prevent thermal bridges and keep the house warm - we dont need many but there are few substitutes (Foamglass being the only one we found). These are made in Egypt and due to some big orders in early Jan there are none in stock in the country until mid Feb which is too late for us so we went for the 65mm thick which are not quite as good - but hopefully good enough. We will need some more for other areas later but for now these will do the job and keep the guys on site busy. The design is complex and in hindsight we should have made much more effort in simplifying the design (or persuading our professionals) much earlier on - our advice would be that if the design looks complex on paper then this is the time to question everything and try and remove the difficult or odd bits. For example we have multiple floor levels and a combination of 155 and 215 high concrete beams for the floor - if we had known how difficult this would make things we would have changed it beforehand.

Its the small details like this that make life very hectic as we finalise the exact construction and are constantly running round trying to keep the guys on site busy. We also have some steel in the basement that an MBC steel frame bolts down onto and needs to be exactly right as concrete and steel have very little wiggle room, and in the process we uncovered an error that would have impacted all the way through the build - luckily caught in time. And as it needs to be in place before the blockwork can be completed its on the critical path. So now steelwork and Beam and Block are on order, as is a crane to fit them all - not sure exactly when but it will be another big day when we get the B&B floor in. The guys are doing really well, and despite the weather, are making good progress and are cheerful - amazing what difference giving them cookies, doughnuts and fruit make when its wet and miserable.

One of those frustrating and ironic parts of the build is that you bemoan the lack of progress and everything seems to be in limbo for weeks, and then suddenly everything hits you at once. The MBC drawings are 95% done but not signed off, but we have construction starting on site on 30th March - so plenty of time to make sure the groundworks are ready and we  can sign off the drawings and get the frame into production. MBC estimate 2 weeks for Plot 1 and 3 weeks for Plot 2 - perfect. But then Internorm finally come back with some dates and they want to check the window and door apertures on site on March 31st, and start install on April 20th! Strangely there wont be any window apertures the day after MBC start, and they will still be on site on April 20th.  So now we will have to push back Internorm and juggle dates and work on site, but at least we will get the windows in pretty soon after the frame is finished which will be a great relief - we have all seen the TV programs where the windows take months to arrive - we seem to have the opposite problem! Good problem to have but .....

On the video front see  https://www.dropbox.com/sh/th9f6e3cel5dm1q/AAAfsWdAH184J75bCNUUtzVra?dl=0  for the weekly videos