It's Sunday and it's pouring down. The photos above are more from the Groundbreaking.

So time to do the blog even though nothing very exciting has happened - on the site anyway. There are a lot of small, unexciting, but essential, things happening behind the scenes, but nothing very photogenic, if you know what I mean.

For example, last Friday....................

Call two new roofers, the previous four letters I sent out to get quotes having only yielded one solid quote. Two calls to roofers who can't do the job.
Also call two new scaffolding hire places - it has to be ones which not only hire the gubbins but also erects it for you.
The timber frame company has to specify the exact size of the scaffolding and the height of the platforms.
R is still sorting out the staircase which is his current bete noir. Planning Control wants a bigger door at the bottom of the staircase so a wheelchair can get it. We think PC is wrong and study the Building Regs for half an hour to find out.
Call the timber frame company several times to find out how they have put together the first floor where it meets the walls, so we can check it out for insulation, airtightness and thermal bridging.
Call our local friendly Jewsons to get exact costs for the plinth blocks.
Also to Build Center for comparison of costs.
An email coming in from the last of the bricklayers, leads to: A Decision!
Call Justin to give him the good news that we want him to roll up with his trowel as soon as possible.
Another call to the timber frame company to make sure that their drawings are on the way for us to check for accuracy.
An enormous lorry full of concrete arrives to fill the trench for the footings for our new garden wall. R works like stink to level the concrete, then collapses in well-deserved torpor with Sudoku.
I design the kitchen and photograph it to send to my mum for her expert checking.
The most likely plasterer rings to say he had got the sample of the eco-plaster we might want to use but needs a sample of the board it is to be rendered onto.
Source a bit of board and arrange to go and collect it from Stowmarket.
Call JR to find exact size of vastu fence and distance from the house walls.
Start list for timber companies of all timber required for house, to get best value.

................ all essential but not exactly front-page stuff.

JR came round to survey the foundation trenches and he and R spent hours putting four masonry nails into the concrete to show the exact corners of the building. These have to be very precise for Sthapatya Veda reasons.

Next post - more on the principles of Maharishi Sthapatya Veda.

A picture of Chris-the-groundworker sweeping the living room

May 6th and the foundations went in last week. We can see where the house is now - very exciting - I have been walking around the spaces pretending the house is up and only going through the 'doorways'! Very sad.

The installation of the foundations was not without incident. We dug trenches which were then filled with poured concrete from a mixer lorry. The trenches were very deep (because of all the trees around which can affect the stability of the foundations) and in some places we had collapses. The soil is mostly clay which holds up well, but in places there are patches of sand which caved in, sometimes bringing the clay above them down too. Then all the collapsed stuff had to be cleared out of the trench, and of course we needed to pour in more concrete. Plus water came in at the bottom and that had to be pumped out. If the groundworkers saw a collapse coming in time they would shore up the sides with plywood or with metal shutters.

So we had a digger and a dumper truck all week, with concrete lorries coming at regular intervals. Also an enormous amount of excavated soil to be shifted, so lorries coming to shift that too. Turns out we have very deep good-quality topsoil, some of which has now gone to Rendlesham, and others to people closer by. I could not bear for the topsoil just to go to landfill - it is brown gold! We have quite a heap still left for our own garden _when_ we get around to making it.

I have spent a lot of the week going through all the window sizes and positions with a fine-toothed comb. The thing about windows and doors is that their design has twice the effect of other elements: they affect both inside and outside. Anyway I feel quite pleased with it now and we think that the planners will pass the changes, so the new drawings are going off to the timber frame manufacturers.

Anyway here are some variations on a hole-in-the-ground. Not in particular order. Hopefully you can see how deep it goes. Also hopefully this might be the last blog dealing with demolishing things and digging up the ground. From now on we can only go up....