Plumbers, Plasterers, Paper Insulation and Pendant Lights

The rendering of the outside has been held up a bit by the weather but Lee and his mate Woody were here again today. R took some nice photos of them, as follows. The pink stuff in the walls is a very strong plastic (?) mesh which stops the render from cracking. The render has to come from France and we need a few more bags, so the last bit of wall will be done next week. But Lee still has some fiddly work to do to make a 'ring' around the middle of the house. This mid-wall detail is a sthapatya veda feature which marks the place where the first floor is. Don't ask me why, but it does look nice. Ours will be plain and simple (the theme of our house) and will take Lee a day or two to install.


The likely lads





R is sorting out the battening for the last bit of house wall, brickwork for the last bit of garden wall and what needs doing before the plumber comes next week. Next Monday in fact. This is an exciting milestone with actual pipework going in. We are trying to pin down the timber frame company to come and put the insulation in too. I am drawing up the final plans for the electrician - we have asked half a dozen to give us quotes and the first two will be coming to have a look at the place this week.

Plumbers and Plasterers

The rendering of the outside has been held up a bit by th eweather but Lee and his mate Woody were here again today. R took some nice photos of them, as follows. The pink stuff in the walls is a very strong plastic (?) mesh which stops the render from cracking. The render has to come from France and we need a few more bags, so the last bit of wall will be done next week. But Lee still has some fiddly work to do to make a 'ring' around the middle of the house. This mid-wall detail is a sthapatya veda feature which marks the place where the first floor is. Don't ask me why, but it does look nice. Ours will be plain and simple (the theme of our house) and will take Lee a day or two to install.


The likely lads

Sunday morning and I'm looking out of the caravan window at the east side which is completely ready to be rendered. R has not only put Heraklith all over it, but also timbers to attach the porch roof to, when we get round to building the porch, and also a lead flashing. He was at it till about 8pm last night, with arc lights. My hero. He's away today so he had to get it all done because Lee-the-master-plasterer arrives tomorrow morning to finish off.

Putting the last bit of the jigsaw in


All done

This has been a week of contrasts. This time last week we were doing budget control, a kind of reality check: where are we at, what bills are outstanding, what's the running order of operations for the next few weeks, what can we save money on by doing it ourselves, or putting it off for a while, what has to be done immediately, what do we have to have professionals for??

Etcetera.

One week later, we have:

The plasterer finishing the outside in the next ten days (weather permitting)
The prospect of the scaffolding coming down as soon as he has finished, thus saving us money in hire costs and allowing us to see the building properly for the first time.
A plumber signed up to put our (very basic) plumbing system in. Starting in two weeks.
A front door threshold ready to be put in place. R will put the frame up and then only needs one helper for a few minutes to hang the doors, and Lee, being on site anyway, has agreed to help with this.

Oh, yes.... and the timber frame company is coming to put the insulation in.
I anticipate a photogenic event. The main part of the insulation is in the external walls but there is also some in all he internal walls and we had thought that they would charge extra to make two visits to do the internal and external walls on separate occasions. Therefore we would have had to wait until the plumbing and electrics first fix (wires and pipes behind the walls) were in and the plasterboard on the walls, which will be a few weeks yet.

This apparently is not the case and so we have booked them as soon as possible to do the external walls. I haven't seen this done but I believe it involves large noisy blowing-in machines, vast amounts of shredded newspaper and holes in the inside of the external walls. The stuff goes in like a giant grey snowstorm. It is all recycled newspaper and I am a bit worried about this. Supposing it is all the News of The World and The Sun? Will I live down the shame? I am hoping to see traces of pink, indicating the Financial Times (oh but isn't the Racing Post pink as well?) - oh, well - I will pray for the Grauniad and the Indie.

Here is a good link to Warmcel: http://www.greenspec.co.uk/html/product-pages/warmcel500.php
Click on Downloads: Product brochure and you'll see pictures of what installation will look like.

The thing about the insulation is that with that and the front door we will have a sealed, warm and cosy house. and we'll start to get a feel of whether this whole passive house business is going to work. We can get our pressure-test ordered to check on leakage, and start making dicsions about heating.

Having thoroughly Heraklithed, R can now settle down to his Wall and is approaching the interesting bits at the top. Here we recycle the garage roof (remember the garage?) into a tiling crease with brick soldiers on the top. You'll see it in the next couple of weeks, and also another very fine curve.

We are planning to move into the house before it is completely finished. Even then it won't be till March I shouldn't think. We'll finish the ground floor and then do the upstairs bit by bit after moving in. We have to work out what needs doing to satisfy:
Building Regulations
Our own needs
Maharishi Sthapatya Veda regulations

However, I am happy to be even thinking about Moving In. Must buy a new floor mop, in anticipation....

Sunday, the south side in the late afternoon sun, bare tree shadows


This is the north wall with the scaffolding poles and the underneath of the scaffolding boards on the left; and the underside of the bargeboards, at the edge of the roof at the top. The strip of stuff with hexagonal holes in it to the right is the beading which the plasterer puts up all round the wall and which gives him even depth. The plastic circles are the special gizmos for holding Heraklith on. You can see the neat edge of the ground floor window. and the underside of the first floor windowsills.

Mum and Dad - if you want to see pictures in more detail you can save as separate photos on your desktop. Put the cursor on the picture and right-click on it. Then Save To the desktop. You'll get it much bigger and easier to see!


This is the bottom of the North door. The doorsill is held up by temporary wooden shuttering. The blue stuff is the housewrap put on by the timber frame company and which is still under all the render. The black stuff is the special Visqueen which surrounds the ground floor panels and protects them from rain, and also keeps the air out of what is a vulnerable point between the ground panels and wall panels. That will all be covered up by the brick plinth between the ground and the bottom of the render. Then there are steps up to the door from the ground.

I've discovered how to get videos of a tour of the house onto the internet - via Youtube. Once they are up and running I'll put a link on this blog.

In the meantime, R is not only soldiering on with The Wall but making a wonderful curve. Admire the following!

Clive, the first living thing to move in. He was getting a bit cold in the garden and he's too big for the caravan


The house is wrapped up like a Christmas parcel.

Obviously I didn't allow Kate enough sellotape in her youth - she and J-P have done amazing work today, sealing all the cracks with high-class German tape. They each did the work of three normal people or, in the current circumstances, 6 to 10 Lizzies. Here are some pics of our Local Heroes. They have wrapped up almost all the whole of the first floor. Lots of leaping up the scaffolding tower and tucking themselves away in the apex of the roof. They have so much energy!! I, on the other hand, have been involved in the very intricate technical work of sweeping up and making a large Sunday lunch.








This picture is NOT turned on its side.

Kate spent the whole time like an owl - tucked in up among the roof timbers in a tiny triangle of space (two actually). They are at the top of the two outer bays of the house and are very important - the roof panels were a new departure for the timber frame company and they need all the help they can get to stay airtight.


J-P was leaping up towers and balancing on timbers to do the bit above where there is no first floor - lucky he's a climber.





Next time, for your delight and delectation, we have the first pictures of the completed north and south walls - and they are things of beauty! We move along.