What a stud...

and I'm not talking about myself or big Tone!

With the help of big Tone (well most of it to be honest), we've managed to get the stud walling in on the ground floor now as well - so we now have some bedrooms, hallway and a shower room shell downstairs along with two bedrooms and a bathrooms upstairs. It's really starting to feel like a house now!

We've built the downstairs stud walls on stilts to support them until we've decided on what we are doing with the flooring. The plan is to run some flowing screed under the walls and finish at the bottom of the stud, but we are undecided on the floor coverings yet.

Building the stud walling has highlighted a problem with one of the external walls being a little bit out of upright. with timber you can often get issues with alignment, but it is just a little more than we would like so we want to deal with it now so it won't cause any longer-term issues with the finishing. We're not entirely sure of the best way of resolving it, but we are on the case of sorting it out.

Over the last week or so MGL building have been back on-site to finish off all the external brickwork on the house. We think it really looks good now and when we have the painted weatherboard on the exterior it really will compliment the oak.

The stud walling means we are now ready for the plumber to come next week. We've also got another bit of filming scheduled for "Building the Dream," but this time not on site - we're going to look around a finished self-build house to help give us some inspiration and ideas for finishing ours!

So back to another weekend of insulation, first fix carpentry and some painting more boards for Fliss, along with a visit to Burton Court wedding fair and then next week a nose around someone elses house, Neil Littleworth is coming to start first fix plumbing and Gareth at GRM Electrical is coming over for a site meeting so we can get ready for first fix electrics to take place!

The roof is coming...

After week 2 of the frame work, we were up to the wall plates, with scaffolding erected around the house and the internal bird cage - now the roof carpentry has started!

Scaffolding up, ready for the roof works to start.

There have been a few small complications with the frame, but this has been resolved and it was all fixed together ready for the roof. One the benefits of using a local company is that we didn't have to wait very long for it to be resolved and it didn't cause a delay to the project..

Last week felt quite a stressful week with lots to organise and arrange, but piece by piece it is getting closer to our finished home. I've learnt a lot this last week while discussing various facets of the building works, materials and more. Fortunately I have a lot of people to talk through most areas of the build and finishing. Utilising expertise from trades qualified and skilled in what they do is a key part of the building process, but I feel you shouldn't lose sight of the fact that at the end of it, it is our project and it will culminate in our dream home being developed.

After a bit of a mix up with the arrangement of the scaffolding supplier, I chose to arrange my own supplier. There were a few factors that influenced this, firstly they came highly recommended by several people I know and trust. Secondly they were competitively priced and finally I have had a relationship with them as a customer and have always found them straightforward to deal with. After being put back by a day, Boyd Scaffolding arrived on Thursday as agreed. They talked me through what they were going to do on site; and the scaffolding was up in 2 days. I wasn't on site while it went up, but they kept me up to date with information on progress and any queries they had.

Raised scaffolding at the gable ends

At the end of last week it was great to get up on the scaffolding to have a look at what the upstairs space might be like and of course the views we will get once the caravan moves! The kids were up this weekend and they hadn't seen it since it was just a base. A lot has happened in two weeks and they were quite excited by it all. 

Internal bird cage scaffolding inside the house.

Attic trusses being unloaded #ruraltrafficjamcaused

The roof carpentry has started this week, along with a spot of filming tomorrow.

Thanks for reading, Tim