September storm

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Winds of 86 mph were recorded at The Needles on Tuesday – and the building didn’t move!

Despite the weather Pete, with the help of Chance and Luke, has finished boarding and battening the West mono roof – they are now cutting up the painted marine ply and fixing it as soffits and fascias.  However the 18 sheets that have been painted are not sufficient – I now have another 22 to do!

Paul has finished the bedroom walls on the first floor and fixed cills in place for the windows.

Joe and Will, our plumbers, have started installing the hub of their system in the plant room.  Just how many inputs can a cylinder have?

Starting to put a lid on it………

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More blocks…….
More roofing……..
Cills for the windows………
Support framework for the ceilings……..

Wood, walls and water………….

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Pete, with help from Chance, has put rafters on the garage and one of the mono roofs – they’ve just started on the ply for the first mono roof.

Paul has laid the interior blocks for the bedrooms, shower and bathroom.

I have painted half the marine ply for the soffits.

We have had materials and equipment delivered, materials and equipment picked up, measurements taken – and rain – plenty of showers…………..

Toys ‘R Us comes to Wynford

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Mon:  Joe, the plumber and Will his mate arrived for their ‘first fix’ and put in the waste pipes.  The ‘Men in Black’ team were here in force to clear up the spare bits of Lego.

Tue:  Steelers, Rich and Garf, arrived to assemble the Meccano for the roofs.  Nathan arrived with the steels and the Hiab which unfolds like a Transformer.  Good team work put the structure in place and fixed the pieces together.  We have the start of our mono-roofs.

Wed:  Steelers, Dave and Rich, were working on our roofs and supporting structures today.  When they put up the long uprights at the back of the house it became clear that they were 200mm short and the shorter supports for the mono-roofs were 600mm too long!  Pete the carpenter and his mate Chance made the flitch beam before they started on the garage roof carcase.  Paul Bath came, with Lee to help him, to start on the blockwork on the lower ground floor.  Dan and Pat from ICF were back to start smoothing the walls – looked more like ‘Ghost Busting’ to me…….

Thu:  Paul Christopher came over to agree some adjustments to the steels.  Pete and Paul continued with the carpentry and the blockwork in the pouring rain.  This is the first day of the build that ‘rain stopped play’.

Fri: Paul built up to nine courses of bricks on most of the ground floor.  Rich and Garf made the final adjustments to the steel.  Meccano complete!

An exhausting week………

Where does ‘duck tape’ come from?

On Monday Andy and Todd arrived from Service Vent to put in the ducting for our mechanical heat recovery system.   They got on well with the job and by the end of Wednesday almost all of the ducting on the two lower floors was in place.  We shall see them again when we are ready to have the VentAxia units put into place.

Did you know that duck tape was originally ‘duct tape’ – thank you Dan.

To help with the ducting and with the pipe runs for the plumbing Chris and his mate from Southern Chasing made holes in our lovely house!  I wasn’t too keen on this bit but it will make life easier for some of our fitters.

On Thursday the concrete pump arrived early and we all held our breath waiting for the concrete lorry – one came about half nine with the other promised for eleven……..by half eleven we were told it would be at least another hour.  So very despondently we left site wondering if it would happen today……..as we arrived home the phone rang – it had arrived.  The last pour for the walls took place!  Roof starts next week.

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I was threatened that if I posted this ……

Last Thursday we started chasing out holes in the structure for our services.

New residents

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Our new pond is now home to two newts – not the barely visible fry we had last summer but ones about 150mm long.  We are delighted, but in some senses not surprised as there are a myriad of tiny larvae providing plenty of fast food. Some are mayfly larvae, others not yet identified, but with a variety of swimming styles so clearly training for 2012 in the pool.

What felt like ‘progress’ last week has ground to a crawl this week…..  Some of the first floor walls were ‘poured’ on Tuesday but our success rate at getting both a concrete pump and a supply of concrete simultaneously have been low this week.  We are waiting…..not always patiently!   Pressing on with internal work where we can.