Can't Quite Reach

During all the turmoil and letter issues this week with Buildstore and the Council, we still managed to have a laugh.

The Building Control Officer at the Council mentioned to our architect that all residential properties should really be within 45m from a fire service hydrant at any one point within the boundary of the plot. We were nearer the 52m mark. Building Control suggested that we put a piece of hose in the ground at the boundary that the fire service could use to connect to the hydrant or as an extension to their hose, and that would then be long enough to reach any point on the plot should they need it.

I know I’m always worrying if I’ve left the gas on, but this seemed a bit extreme!

The good news is the Fire Service has now been consulted and the Chief Fire Officer has confirmed there isn’t a problem and they can access the property without the need for additional hose or hydrant.

The funniest part of all this is we are probably only about 60m from the actual fire station itself!

Perspiration And Percolation

We went up to the plot again today to install a builders standpipe and tap fitment on the end of our water pipe. Darran did this with apparent ease, although we did have water on site today in the form of perspiration (and rain at times)! The trench for the water pipe had to be 750mm deep which once you got through the top 4 inches or so was easy (or looked easy, I was only the one holding the tape at the required length to measure the depth of the trench and giving encouragement!).

And then it rained.

We (Darran!) then had to dig two holes to carry out percolation testing. The results will tell us how good the drainage capability is of the ground and will determine whether we can just have a soak away or will have to discharge rain water etc. in to the mains drainage system. Mum and Dad have kindly agreed to fill our holes with water and stand and watch how may seconds it takes the water to drain away!

Our tenders are due back on Monday for the foundations and ground works. We will hopefully be able to meet with the architect and project manager next week to decide on the preferred contractor and make the instruction for work to commence.

Keep Out!

On Saturday we collected some site security fencing and put it up along the open boundary to the plot, after asking the people we bought the plot from to clear their rubbish, cement mixer, sand and some polystyrene off. Cheeky! They were all ready to have another bonfire as well so were a bit miffed I think!

Collecting the fence put the pick-up to work for the first time and it was perfect. It fitted up the access way without any problems. Getting out was a little more tricky, but I'm sure when Darran's had a bit more practice it will be a piece of cake!

In other news, it would appear that the project manager hasn't sent the foundation tender documents to the two people we requested so Darran needs to ring again tomorrow. The water board will also be getting a call as we think they have quoted a connection to the wrong property, and also asked us to install a connection pipe when there is one already in the ground.

It was nice to be actually doing something on our plot, even if it was only putting up fence panels!

Mr & Mrs D. C. Macdonald, The Plot, Shropshire!

I called our mortgage lender this morning as we hadn't received the correspondence from them that we were supposed to receive shortly after completion.

We hadn't received it as our correspondence had been sent to the plot!

I was a bit bemused by this as before completion we had to verify our full name and contact details for all future correspondence, which we did as our current address in Oxfordshire. For some reason, they thought we had sold that one, and our new house name was The Plot!

When we're there on Saturday we could find all our post neatly piled in the bottom of the trench along with the service ducting!

Here it is!

So here it is. Photos of our (almost) 1/4 acre of the world.

The first three photos were taken in May 2008. The plot was still a forgotten garden.




































The photo below shows the access way to the plot from the main road.



















The following three photos were taken today, 7th March 2009. Some of the trees have been cleared so the true shape and size of the plot is starting to materialise.

So Why This One....?

So what's behind the name of the blog you're probably thinking? And why this particular plot?

Well, the plot was once the garden of a very old, listed building, a landmark house in a market town in Shropshire. The house had stood empty for many years and was auctioned off for renovation. The building firm who bought the property have been converting the house and out-buildings into four apartments. The garden was sold as a plot with planning permission for a bungalow.

We were familiar with the town driving through it every time we visited Katie's parents. When Darran first said he had found a plot in the middle of the town with planning permission for a bungalow, Katie's immediate reaction wasn't favourable! We had been focussing our attention on somewhere closer to the welsh borders with more land (so Katie can grow vegetables, rear pigs and keep chickens) and with no immediate neighbours. This plot has a modest garden and is surrounded by other houses (no pigs or chickens allowed!), and is as close as you can probably get to the centre of a busy market town.

So why this one? We went to see it and had a 'this is it' moment. We were both surprised at how much we liked it, and even though it didn't resemble what we thought we wanted in the slightest, it is perfect for us. Apparently this often happens to self-builders, what you think you want isn't actually what's right for you in the end! The bungalow design is very modern and light, we have made some changes to the interior and have now got planning permission to extend the garage to a double.

This building project, relocation and life change is something that we are both very excited about.