Our Luxton love in and a sawfinger

Meeting up with Charlie Luxton this time was an altogether less stressful experience, I'd even go so far as saying it was great fun and provided some more very useful ideas and food for thought...

After last time, when we were a few weeks away from starting our build, the suggestions Charlie made were a lot easier to digest and comprehend (and didn't make me feel angry this time!) The days filming started with a cup of tea and then followed with a walk through the house and a chat about which ideas from the first time we met we had decided to go with. We talked about how the build was progressing and the ideas we had for the stair and balcony area (which was one of the major suggestions we took forward into the building) upstairs bedroom storage and flooring.

Once we had finished filming at the house, we headed off down to the Corners for a spot of lunch and Charlie sketched of few of the ideas and suggestions he had. The main suggestions were around the stairs/balcony areas. The suggestion for the stairs half kite steps for the first 4 rises is likely to save a bit of money and will remove the need for a handrail at the bottom and gain a little bit of headroom on the stairs. We were planning on having a glass balcony, but the suggestion that we used only glass to form the barrier, without the need for a handrail is something we hadn't thought about previously and we will be looking into this some more.

We were both quite impressed with the 3d drawing of the stairs

A frameless glass balcony... could it be done?

This weeks progress has seen GRM Electrical first fix electrics moving on nicely, which should be finished next week

 Wiring for the lighting in the main living space

1st fix wiring

... but the one we really have been waiting for THE WINDOWS & DOORS ARE DUE TO BE FITTED, starting on Wednesday.

Please insert windows here!

Whilst we have been busy with the house, we've got a bit of local news today regarding the weather, we've had flooding in Kingsland and just 700 meters or so from us, the river has burst it's banks which we haven't see to this extent previously. Thankfully, we're quite a bit higher up so with the exception of potentially being cut off we won't be affected. 

The river just down the road from us

This should be a wooded field... 

The other end of the village

Finally, work this weekend has been slowed by my inability to use a saw correctly... I had been making good progress with the second coat of paint on the weatherboard (33 boards of 85), To enable us to fit them all in the house while doing so we have been stacking them with spacers to enable air to flow through the boards, allowing them to dry. I'd run out of spacers and decided to cut some more... but I managed cut a large grove into my index finger and finished the job off with a bit more lacerating on the backward stroke. So a trip to A & E and my finger was taped up and bandaged to allow it to heal, with strict instructions by the nurse to rest my finger and don't get it wet. 

"Sore Finger" with enhanced pointing ability

So to summarise it all, we have warmed to Charlie's ideas at the point of hearing them (rather than after a few days of reflection), I've learnt to ensure I concentrate on whilst I am doing jobs and I've also learnt that you can't do anything to control the weather (hopefully it won't delay the windows & doors again!)

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!

There's no point crying over spilt, erm, paint?

We've had an exciting week or so since the last blog which has seen Building control doing an inspection visit, the external roof carpentry finished, felt and batten on, tiling started and we've ordered timber for cladding and roof insulation along with three tins of paint/stain ready to go... well until "the incident"!!!

So I will start with the roof carpentry. It's amazing how much has been achieved in a relatively short amount of time with the roof works, even with some hold ups waiting for materials.

Roof trimmed out for rooflights

External roof carpentry, including attic trusses, roof light windows trimmed out, the centre hand made on site section all ready for felt and batten.

Last Friday saw the roofers come on site and in less than a day our house had felt and batten on, so we were water tight (well the roof anyway). 

Felt and batten on, ready for tiles

We were expecting the roof tiling to be started on Monday and the roofers were on site all ready to go, but there was a hold up with the tile delivery which meant this was delayed until yesterday. 

Very quickly however it has gone from this...

To this...

Tiles stacked in position around the house

Tiles on the back of the house. 

We chose the tiles quite a few weeks ago now and we are both delighted with how they look on the house! Neither Fliss or I wanted the tiles to look too red and we wanted to achieve a rustic look to compliment the way the house will look once it is finished and to blend into the local scenery.

Roof from the front after day 1 of tiling

The oak frame trimmed on the edges with slate soffits

By end of the week the roof will, if not finished, be pretty close. There is still some internal ceiling joist work to be completed, but a few holds ups with materials have delayed this a little. 

I suppose I ought to clear up (no pun intended, but Fliss did most of it if truth be known) the tin of paint incident. To set the scene, we both had a very productive Tuesday with the timber cladding ordered from local Timber Merchants Powell & Co, Kingsland, the first batch of Kingspan Insulation ordered and we (well Fliss) had finally chosen the colouring, "Chicago Grey" from the Sadolin Classic Wood Protection range to go on the timber cladding.

Naturally I was keen to "pop the top off" to have a proper look at the colour... as I did so the cat decided attack me at exactly that point, which lead to a slow motion fall of the tin only rivalled by the baywatch beach run... In my head I shouted nooooooooo and then heroically dived across the floor to rescue the last bit of paint before it left the tin, in reality I stood there like a lemon thinking "oh s**t" that's just wasted best part of £65 while Fliss calmely started to rectify the situation. It went everywhere. All over my shoes, trousers and the carpet in the caravan, but after 2 days of scrubbing with WD40 and blotting with anything that looked like it would remotely absorb, the carpet looks a lot better, and it's nothing that a big rug won't sort! 

#thankgodflissdoesn'tmoanasmuchasme