2nd stage reached

That's second stage reached, wind and watertight. No front window/door though as we need to get things in and out so that will be a while.

update

The house doesn't look much different since the last photo although a lot of work has been going on.
All the veluxes are in, the membrane is on and now the soffits and fascias are going up. The front is done and the back is nearly there, the dormers have to be completed too.
Once that is done we leave the house to dry out while we wait for the next inspection as 'wind and watertight' for the second stage of the mortgage.
We have a lot of planning to do for the next stages and we will need to get quotes for the electrical work and the blockwork. We also need to order the slate for the roof. The plan being that the blockwork and slates get done while the weather is reasonable.
Inbetween all this Iain has a job to do and is away for 4 days again at the beginning of May and we have a wedding to attend.

Foundations and soffits

After the membrane was put on the back of the roof Iain had to go away to a couple of meetings and while he was away he left me with the task of painting the soffits & fascias. We decided on a colour with preservation primer to be put on first. I put 2 coats of primer on the soffits (with a 3 hour gap between coats), then the next day went to sand them down but they were still wet (supposed to dry in 16 to 24 hours)
Anyway they were still wet when Iain got home, we think the temperature was too cold (below 10 C).

We had 2 friends coming to visit for a week (staying in the village) and they said they would help, so it was decided that the most difficult task we had for just 2 of us was the concrete foundation.
Concrete cannot be poured if the temperature/weather is under 4C, we made the decision with this in mind to go ahead and put the kit up with just hardcore foundations and we would do the concrete when the weather improved.
When Dave & Jill arrived we said we would like to do the concreting if that was okay and they agreed (none of us knew what we were letting ourselves in for).
Sunday was spent clearing the house out, all the soffits (now dry), fascias, tools, various planks of wood was all put upstairs.
Monday we started with the utility room, which gave us an idea of the scale of the job (not really, but we were kinda hopeful).
Tuesday we started the kitchen/dining room and realised how long it was going to take (already guessed at 10 hours) Iain went and borrowed the neighbours cement mixer, so we now had 2 cement mixers, it took 88 loads of concrete to do the room and we started at about 11am, took a break waiting for the rest of the cement to arrive and finished at 7pm.
Wednesday we had a day off and went into Inverness for lunch, shopping and tea.
Thursday we did the study and bathroom (all one room at the moment) which took 84 loads and not as long timewise. Then Iain, Dave and Jill prepared the living room for the ready mix which was coming on Friday morning, while I cooked tea. Each room had to have sand laid, wacked, damp proof membrane then rebar.
Friday the ready mix arrived and as it couldn't be put directly in the room from the concrete wagon, Iain had to transport it load by load in the digger bucket while the 3 of us tried to spread it across the room. 3.7 cube of concrete in 55 minutes!!!

Amazingly Dave and Jill are still our friends and our house now has concrete foundations :-)

Pictures

Back of the house with the company colours on the roof :-)
The soffits and fascias have to be painted before they can go up, although they are on the porch already.

Front of house. We are not putting the door in until we've been in and out with everything that needs a wide space. The velux windows have to be put in yet, and the green mat to go on.

windows

As the weather has been blowing a hoolie Iain and Paul decided to start putting windows in. We also have a back door and when the weather improves a picture of the back may be taken! In the meantime I can take pictures from the path of the front.

Snow again!!

Well I hoped that the next blog would be that the sarking was completed but the weather has halted Iain and Paul yet again. We've had strong winds and yesterday we had snow, today it's windy and snowing.
The sarking on the roof is nearly to the top on both sides so a good weather day should see it finished then the membrane can go on.

The wire going in on the side of the porch is the electric cable, there is now electric in the house.

progress

Both dormers are up the sarking has been started, velux window spacing is nearly complete. So roof well on it's way to being finished.
Slates will come later, probably a lot later.

Dormer

The rafters are up, the gable ends are both on and now our first dormer window frame is up. Iain and Paul have been working all the time they can spare to complete the roof. Iain has been taking time out to do his day job and Paul has a boat to build.

As you can see it now looks like a house. There is another dormer to go up and then the insulation and sarking so it will look like the porch roof does.

Of course there is a lot more to do but it's looking good!

roof

Beginning of the roof

Now the trusses are up on the roof, Iain and Paul can begin fixing them into place.

In this picture you can see we have internal walls.

winds

Not much has been happening because we have been away for a few days. Iain has been working on the digger, not with the digger. The starter (the bit the key goes in) has given up so we have a new one on order.
He hasn't been able to work on the roof as the winds have been too strong. Last night part of the gable end came part way down, so Iain and Paul have been up and removed it properly and the nails.
One of the large packs of insulation came out of the croft and hit the caravan so Iain had to go take that to the barn. We have a spare portaloo in case they can't get here to empty ours, and it blew over in the wind.
The caravan is fine and so are we.
Hopefully tomorrow will be fine so the roof building can proceed as scheduled. Sam is due to come down with his telescopic forklift and our scaffold tower arrived yesterday so fingers crossed the weather will be okay.

Porch roof

One gable end is up now, with internal walls and support beams a lot of progress has been made.

The porch roof is progressing well.

Ground floor is up!

So after 1 full day and 2 mornings we have the ground floor panels all up after some jiggling and shimming.
It was probably a little easier than I expected as all the panels are numbered and it is just a case of lifting them into position, levelling them and nailing them down.
However, some of the panels are extremely heavy and without the JCB to lift with we would have needed a crane.
We found today we are missing a part, the lintel across the large windows at the front but a quick phone call to the suppliers and this will be delivered Tuesday along with the missing Velux windows.
One or two bits of information are missing from the drawings but again, always solved by a quick phone call.  maybe it is our inexperience but the questions are always answered quickly and politely...so far:)

Tomorrow we start on the roof!

Progress

We have spent the last 4 days, leveling and filling the foundations with hardcore then compacting it all.
Today Paul came down to help Iain and David start putting the kit up.

It was at first light that they started.

Also still very muddy!

Some of the panels are heavy.

Not sure what they are going to do with it now!!

The first panels are up.

More Progress. Now to nail it all together.

The Unloading

Arrival of the second truck, which had the insulation on.

The orange box in the foreground is a chimney.

All unloaded.

The croft is now full of insulation!

Arrival of the kit

arrival of the roof trusses

The Kit

Our timber frame house kit arrives Friday 14th January. Our neighbour Paul is taking a couple of days off work to help. One of our other neighbours, Sam (he's a blacksmith) has a telescopic forklift 4 wheel drive vehicle and is going to offload the kit. I will be out with the camera so pictures will follow.

Mild weather

We had a brilliant Christmas and New Year in Scarborough, it was good to see family and friends.
Now the work has started again. Iain had dug a trench before we went and put a drainage pipe in but couldn't fill it in as the soil had frozen. He's filling it in now as the weather is very mild today, he's trying to get the water to drain away from the entrance to the site so that the kit can be delivered. The kit is being delivered this month!!!