After a couple of weeks of good weather the house is shooting up and we’re -even- running to plan. The brickies are pushing up the blockwork for the walls, I think we had the scaffolders in three times this week to raise the scaffolding to cope with the pace of the brickies. We’re at upper ground floor (UGF) ceiling height around most of the house so can now see how it going to look. The utility room looks a bit small but other than that we’re really pleased with the layout, and the tall (2.8m) windows and room height looks great.
The groundworkers have made good progress with the services through 3/4 of the house and are ready to lay the main garage slab.
The joiners started last week and have laid the joists and floor for most of the UGF. Roof timbers have been ordered.
As the UGF joists were placed I’ve been putting in the first fix electrics and plumber has helped with some of the drainage. The S end of the undercroft would have needed a pot-holer to crawl around so timing was great and its good to get my hands dirty.
A good amount of discussion solved the detailing of the exterior – cladding, corten, windows. Mike (the architect) suggested changing to cladding to horizontal but soon understood that was not going to fly.
Windows are virtually resolved with a couple of visits to potential suppliers to nail to final specs (eg single-slider on doors for cost, all glass laminate for security, background ventilation) and we realised paying the upfront costs by credit card allows them to purchase materials yet gives us security if it all goes horribly wrong.
More progress with kitchens, a few options of suppliers are being looked at and we have a pretty good view of the floorplans. Design ideas have moved on for kitchens e.g. as we want a elegant minimalist kitchen to flow through to the lounge we’re have no wall cupboards but placing the appliances in mid-size (1.4m high) wall units.