So, its open eaves then

Another week of good weather and excellent progress.

Pete Brooks (chippy) went of to Majorca last Sunday but his son, Lee spent the first part of the week finishing off the remaining roof timbers. Roy told me that Dean the brickie would return on Wednesday but when I popped to site in the early evening I was rather disappointed to see the external walls hadn't grown at all so I assumed Dean had been unable to make it. However, as I drove past the opening where the front door will be I noticed new blockwork - sure enough Dean had nearly finished the internal walls in just one day! By Thursday night the internal walls were finished, and the window sills had been laid.

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On Thursday evening Roy had arranged for Ian of Manor Roofing to meet us to discuss the roofing. "Hello Dean" says Ian - it seems they all know each other and work well together. Ian told us that he would start the tiling next Wednesday (16th) and this meant that we needed the roof structure and details to be finished, so Pete and Lee will be back Monday to do this. However, first of all Dean needed to infill between the roof timbers so on Friday he set about this. Needless to say by 4 p.m. he had finished - and lovely it looks too (second picture). Dean has also built up another 8 courses of the chimney, but needs the roofer to detail around the chimney before he can complete this.

Jan and I have spent the day staining the fascia boards and tails of the roof timbers in light oak stain, and we'll be back tomorrow to apply a second coat so that everything is ready for the chippy on Monday.

Next on Roy's list is getting the main services to site, and playing the games that companies such as EDF seem unable to avoid. Having told us that we could have a meter at the top of the drive (to save a considerable sum of money) they are now saying that the meter and the consumer unit have to be within 6 feet of each other. This means that the meter will have to be at the house so Roy has a cunning plan......

The other slight delay at the moment is with the steels that are needed for strengthening the roof. Our structural engineer has said that we need a rod that joins the main roof truss at ceiling height, and another that drops down from the ridge timber to join the lateral steel. These are being made by Malcolm and Graham at Chapel Farm about 1 mile from Brookvale but due to pressure of work they are a tad delayed. We hope to get these steels and the ones required for the bay on Monday. Needless to say, everyone knows Malcolm and Graham!

Next on the list are the windows and doors, and for this we're using another local firm A J Joinery who will make oak frames with double glazed units. Another minefield here - current insulation standards demand that the windows and doors meet a U value of less than 2. Quite how we will know this on our bespoke build, no-one seems to know. However, another cunning plan has been devised to meet the building regs.

Jan & Rog