We have a building site Houston

Yes, the toilet has arrived so we must have a proper building site now, surely?

Lots of activity today - sand, cement, the aforementioned toilet, wall ties, engineering bricks, and a bright yellow cement mixer - a big one - proper job!

In order to get things moving, and as our brickie Dean isn't available for a couple of weeks yet, our project manager Roy has organised the groundwork company (Weller Constructions) to lay the lower courses of bricks up to damp proof course level, and then lay the concrete beams that form the basis of the ground floor. Once that's complete and passed by the building inspector, Dean the brickie will get to work on the facing bricks.

With the delivery of "stuff" imminent I had to get the site insured. As a condition of the insurance, any plant has to be locked away so the garage has been cleared and the cement together with the mixer are securely stored within. The cement mixer is wonderful - resplendent in a new coat of shiny coat of bright yellow paint. Its just a shame that they didn't remove all the old cement before they painted it.

Roy has also obtained quotes for the roof trusses and managed to beat my price for the facing bricks by nearly £500 and so paying for himself already. He's really very good at keeping me informed about progress as I get regular telephone calls from him. We seem to have a really excellent team of people now.

I noticed that in addition to the deliveries there's some work been done to mark out the corners of the walls. A thin layer of mortar has been laid at the corners and then lines scribed in the mortar to form right angles for each corner. This should mean that come Monday some bricks will finally be laid.

We've also put in place one other task - the trimming of unwanted and dangerous branches from the hedgerow which will be attacked by Marc Dellar and his new chainsaw on Monday. Due to the size of some of these we've asked that he leaves the bigger bits for us to use on the wood burning stove.

As a footnote, its now just over 12 months since we first agreed to buy the land. In many ways we don't seem to have made much progress in that time, but conversely, a lot seems to have happened!


Jan & Rog