This week has seen some exciting developments already happening. We've taken delivery of gabions baskets, I have got a new 30 metre tape measure and we have had confirmation that our meeting on the 13th August has resulted in something very exciting!
Firstly my brand spanking new tape measure, this may seem trivial to some of you (most men though - and of course some women, will understand the excitement of taking delivery of new tools), but I have already put it through it's paces. I have used a full twelve meters of it to give us a real feel for sizes of the building and also the downstairs rooms! Visually when we measured the bedroom sizes it doesn't look big enough to fit a bed in, but again reaching for the tape it is surprising how much space there will be in our little house.
We have also taken delivery of some Gabion baskets. We need a retaining wall for the bottom end of the garden to enable us to level the plot a little and give us somewhere to put the excess soil from where the building will be positioned. We have already moved quite a lot of soil, but even though Dad said I should have put a retaining wall down the bottom, due to timing we didn't which means we have to dig a bit out and put it in after. After looking at several options including block, sleepers etc, Gabions proved to be the most cost effective option - and because Mum & Dad already had a significant amount of stone available to fill them with, that is what we chose. We sourced them through a company not too far away, Fine Mesh Metals, in Telford. If all goes well we are thinking about using them to retain the soil at the top end?
The final piece of news this week is pretty big!
Over the last month we have had some discussions with a TV production company about a show they are due to air later this year. These discussions lead to a planned taster tape on Tuesday 13th of August, with the cameraman due to be with us in the afternoon. Sally from True North rang us a little before he was supposed to arrive to explain that due to a technical hitch (lost car keys), Lee wasn't able to make it to us. We both felt disappointed and I think Sally sensed it. Lee was going to miss out on cakes we had bought (luckily for him, but that is another story), we'd even tidied the Caravan! However, we were keen to do something while we were both here and conducted a video interview over the web. It wasn't ideal because the signal kept dropping out and there was some noise interference, but nonetheless Sally said she would see what she could do with it! I wasn't convinced what we had done would be any good so was concerned that it didn't give us the best chance. A week passed and still no news, a few days more went by and today I decided to make the call to see what was happening? Amazingly, Sally had worked some magic and was able to make a taster tape out of what we had and was just waiting for Channel 4...
When the call came this afternoon, I was feeling a little wary about getting the news. I had convinced myself that too long had passed for anything to happen. Today though we have had confirmation that our project is going to be filmed by True North Productions for a new Channel 4 series called "Building the Dream." It's exciting news for us, ultimately meaning that we will have a unique visual document of the build - from start to finish!
We will be part of the second series (the first series is due to be aired in Autumn) and they will be following our self-build, with filming throughout the process culminating in a 1 hour programme being shown at the end of it all.
Busy weekend ahead with the digger and dumper ordered and I am sure I'll be measuring something or other!
Until next time, thanks for reading.
Tim
Firstly my brand spanking new tape measure, this may seem trivial to some of you (most men though - and of course some women, will understand the excitement of taking delivery of new tools), but I have already put it through it's paces. I have used a full twelve meters of it to give us a real feel for sizes of the building and also the downstairs rooms! Visually when we measured the bedroom sizes it doesn't look big enough to fit a bed in, but again reaching for the tape it is surprising how much space there will be in our little house.
We have also taken delivery of some Gabion baskets. We need a retaining wall for the bottom end of the garden to enable us to level the plot a little and give us somewhere to put the excess soil from where the building will be positioned. We have already moved quite a lot of soil, but even though Dad said I should have put a retaining wall down the bottom, due to timing we didn't which means we have to dig a bit out and put it in after. After looking at several options including block, sleepers etc, Gabions proved to be the most cost effective option - and because Mum & Dad already had a significant amount of stone available to fill them with, that is what we chose. We sourced them through a company not too far away, Fine Mesh Metals, in Telford. If all goes well we are thinking about using them to retain the soil at the top end?
The final piece of news this week is pretty big!
Over the last month we have had some discussions with a TV production company about a show they are due to air later this year. These discussions lead to a planned taster tape on Tuesday 13th of August, with the cameraman due to be with us in the afternoon. Sally from True North rang us a little before he was supposed to arrive to explain that due to a technical hitch (lost car keys), Lee wasn't able to make it to us. We both felt disappointed and I think Sally sensed it. Lee was going to miss out on cakes we had bought (luckily for him, but that is another story), we'd even tidied the Caravan! However, we were keen to do something while we were both here and conducted a video interview over the web. It wasn't ideal because the signal kept dropping out and there was some noise interference, but nonetheless Sally said she would see what she could do with it! I wasn't convinced what we had done would be any good so was concerned that it didn't give us the best chance. A week passed and still no news, a few days more went by and today I decided to make the call to see what was happening? Amazingly, Sally had worked some magic and was able to make a taster tape out of what we had and was just waiting for Channel 4...
When the call came this afternoon, I was feeling a little wary about getting the news. I had convinced myself that too long had passed for anything to happen. Today though we have had confirmation that our project is going to be filmed by True North Productions for a new Channel 4 series called "Building the Dream." It's exciting news for us, ultimately meaning that we will have a unique visual document of the build - from start to finish!
We will be part of the second series (the first series is due to be aired in Autumn) and they will be following our self-build, with filming throughout the process culminating in a 1 hour programme being shown at the end of it all.
Busy weekend ahead with the digger and dumper ordered and I am sure I'll be measuring something or other!
Until next time, thanks for reading.
Tim
Hello Tim, just wanted to say good luck and keep up the blogging! Gwyn and I have our fingers crossed that the build goes well. Nice one on the show and most excellent news about your new tape measure ;)
ReplyDeletePeace and love,
Rhian.
Hi Rhi, lovely to hear from you! Will keep up the blog, another installment to come shortly - digger and dumper trucks on this one! Thanks a lot, Tim
ReplyDeleteI agree with your post dear. You are right. wire containers & trio pines & heavy duty pneumatic casters.
ReplyDelete