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Just a few new photos of current progress. Tanking was completed and polished concrete slab finished at 2am on a Friday night a few weeks ago. Which meant standard house construction could finally begin. Things have progressed well with no major snags at this stage, up to first floor level now ready for block and beams delivery on Monday. The Steels that arrived were a fair bit more substantial than we were expecting. Lots of fiddly work at this stage but after the 1st floor is in place I'm hoping progress will really ramp up. Roof trusses are ordered for delivery on 4/12/16 so currently still on track to be some form of watertight by Christmas. Large Velfac sliding doors that are going on to the balcony won't be delivered until w/c 9/1/17 so full watertight won't be until then.

Yep.... meet Roger! A muddy building site is his new favourite place to be...

My tip for project management is to keep a diary of who's on site and what they are doing. Although I've got a security camera recording this it would have saved me lots of time if I'd kept a diary from the start. My 'diary' now is a simple text file in a Dropbox folder that me or my partner (co Project Manager) update daily consisting of just a line per day giving which contractor is onsite, how many men and what they are doing. Takes about 30 secs a day to update.

I suggested we get Hotpoint out to sort the drum bearings out but the wife's said no, she's quite happy sitting on it.....

Mike, it hasn't been. Still a stand-off. The EO has been round twice since. The first time he didn't even notice the door, the second time he spent some time looking at it -- as the workmen told me, I wasn't there. It's f***ng stupid in my view. I doubt that they'd bother with an enforcement order. If they did we'd just appeal and with the correspondence exposed to 3rd parties, it would be just far too embarrassing for them -- however, they can also refuse to sign off the build so we'd be left in a hinterland. Given that our Internorm door sits about 140mm back inside the stone skin, our current plan is to buy the cheapest Wickes external door that we can and mount it in (temporarily) front of the Internorm door opening outwards, so that from a planning perspective it looks just like the drawings. Who says that the front door must open inwards? Once it's signed off we'll remove the temporary door. Bloody ridiculous if you ask me.

You are so right, this forum has kept me going in planning all the details from the great wealth of knowledge I have gained here,I can now get on with actually doing the work. thanks everyone john

Looks great, very envious. Nah, not too late for holes in that web. 100mm Starrett and some RTD / Trefolex. Or just gas some through. SE might not like..... Roger the dog.....isn't that an offence? Seriously, if I get another dog I'm nicking the name.

That is some very tidy looking blockwork, looks good

I use Evernote on the iPhone, add daily whose on site, what's happened and add in a couple of progress pics.

I always used a daily diary when running factories, they called me Mr Pad in one place. Proved its worth many times.

Allow me to be one of the last to join the party. Well done indeed. Once the feeling of anger and or frustration has settled, I'm sure the positives of having to suffer a delay will come through - Such as the experiences and learning you would have gathered from this type of forum must have put you in a stronger position to move forward - so enjoy and keep us informed! PW.

Hans never mentioned making men redundant. Being single, I find that I can just lean against it for the desired affect.

Hmmm, thanks for the nudge. Got a site diary, but it's so full of sludge and 'notes-to-self' - your idea is so much simpler and better. Just decided that (I use Box) it would be best to use the resident BoxNote file format because I can update that from any device - even my very poorly specified phone. In other words, I don't need an editor on the machine I use to make the entry, because the editor is resident in the browser. (Needs to be HTML5 and CSS3 compliant I think) Ian

His panels I believe. It's a bit complex and something for another thread, when I've calmed down enough to write it without using a ton of expletives!

Is the fencing his or is he renting it? If it's his, then I'd have thought it's his responsibility. Even if it's on hire, as you say, he should have been cracking on with the job. Not surprised you're annoyed, either way.

Mine said that as well, shows what a low opinion they have of planners!

Tbh I really should get the towel rad so I can set these pipes in for good and gauge the finished height. I'll likely need to add additional battens too.

I feel your pain. We've just had exactly the same situation. Another two weeks lost. We are now being told that we need to wait 28 days for a decision. ........and I have had several pints of Jail Ale before writing this!! praise the lord for beer.

Embalm it in 10/40 motor oil, then you can, at your leisure, revive it with WD40. Or for a more permanent disposal, cremation. Fill coffin with gasoline and switch on.