A Post About A Post

Today was the first day of our two weeks off building the frame. As you'll see from the photos the contractors are still on site finishing the drainage and block work around the perimeter of the slabs. We can work along side them so it won't hold us back, progress will just be a bit slower over the first few days.

We went over to pick up the steel post on Saturday that will support the beam over the garage doors, and with the help of the contractors, managed to stand it today. Quite relieved that a digger and sling were available as well as a couple of men to help out as not sure how we would have done it otherwise. The post was about 130 kilos and I don't count as manpower for anything over about 30 kilos at the moment!

We have cut all the studs for the garage and about a quarter of the studs for the house. We will be standing the house studs tomorrow as the block work is still to be laid around the garage.

Flat Packed House

A busy weekend this weekend. We had all the timber delivered for the frame on the house (photos below). It actually didn't look that much on the back of the lorry, but after I had moved and stacked all 6 tonne of it, I can safely say that there is merit on not getting carried away on first impressions.





We also had the first injury of the timber frame stage; Dad dropped a lintel on his ankle.



We managed to get all but a few lintels chopped to size and planed to the correct thickness. We will start on cutting the studs and noggins for the walls next weekend as we need to take a measurement from the base of the brickwork that the groundworkers have yet to do.

We visited site on our way home and took some photos, including one of our new BT pole. The slab is now down and the footprint of the house looks really small, and the garage looks huge in comparison. I'm told it is because it is currently in the middle of a huge plot (but won't it always be?!) and when the frame is up it will look bigger and when the garden is sorted and there aren't piles of soil everywhere it will look better. I'm not very good at imagining things where Darran finds that easy so I'm sure he's right.






A week tomorrow we will be on our own plot, building our own house!

Stud Alert!

Darran went up to site today to fix some steel threaded rod studs into the supporting cross beams in the garage foundations to fix our vertical beam on to which will be holding up the garage door lintels.



They were really tricky to fit as the drill bits had trouble getting through the steel. To quote Head of Construction himself "they were a pain in the a*rse".

Not Too Big For a Told Off

We had some good news on Friday; our architects had arranged a meeting with the Head of Planning at the Council to discuss a certain planning officer's decisions with regard to the choice and use of materials on quite a few of their projects. Our house is one of these projects that has this particularly troublesome officer overseeing the approval of materials. As our architect put it "the Head of the Planning Department is the only person who can tell off this officer". Woman after my own heart!

As we mentioned here this officer had refused the use of man made slates and aluminium guttering. We were frustrated at this decision, not only because of the cost issue, but that there didn't seem any rationale for it as aesthetically it matches the surrounding properties and the dratted house at the front which, it seems, the world revolves around. Our architects were equally frustrated. When they discussed this with the Head of Planning, he agreed that there was no reason at all why man made slates and aluminium guttering weren't appropriate materials to use.

We now wait and see what happens next as this particular officer won't want to lose face in the planning department.

House Built By Blackberry From Orange

I wasn’t a fan of the Blackberry at all. They always seemed a bit all singing all dancing for me, all I need is a phone that I can call and text on, and maybe take a photo. I also hate the fact that 90% of those who own a Blackberry have it constantly attached to the end of their arm, almost like one hand has morphed into the latest model.

Anyway, Darran persuaded me that I might like one when I came to upgrade my phone last year, and after checking out the buttons (they have to be right) and how big they were, I thought I’d give it a go.

Before I go on I would like to point out I am not one of the 90% mentioned above. But…..

My Berry has been worth double its weight in gold. The facility to receive and send emails on it has been so helpful with the project so far. The architect and I exchange emails daily, we can respond to quotes from suppliers as they come in, and Buildstore can say ‘yes’ on the emails too! We are sure that things have happened a lot more quickly and smoothly as we are able to respond quickly, otherwise we would have to wait until we got home in the evenings, and then we’ve lost a working day. In some cases this doesn’t matter, but at other times it’s helpful to respond to keep the momentum going if certain professional friends seem to be on a roll!

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!

Buildstore Said Yes!

We finally got the OK from Buildstore yesterday morning that the letter the Council has eventually produced would be good enough for our Stage 1 drawdown. This is just as well as we have to pay our foundation contractors half the overall contract value in two weeks.

We’re in the money! Well, strictly speaking, we’re in the money for about two weeks!

We have had such a battle trying to get the right documentation together. Buildstore will only accept either full Building Regulations approval, a Building Warrant or a Notice to Commence Works. We’re currently going through building regs and a Building Warrant is something that you only get in Scotland, so this left us the Notice to Commence Works option.

So our architect wrote to the Council notifying them that work will start in 48 hours. We sent this off to Buildstore together with documentation on other matters so they could see the Council were aware of our build and what was happening.

Buildstore came back to say this wasn’t acceptable as they needed something from the Council stating the work could commence on site, understandable when you think about it. Then the fun started! Our Council don’t just write letters like that, they only write if they’re not happy about something, if everything is going as it should they’re happy just to let it carry on. We tried several other ways but Buildstore were still wanting this particular wording, it could appear in any letter, but had to state that work could commence on site.

Almost at our wits end, our architect contacted the Environmental Officer at the Council who had been out to inspect trial holes and had verbally stated that work could proceed and the foundations could continue, hence effectively signing off the pre-commencement condition (why our architect didn’t do this anyway still remains a mystery). We were confident (well, one of us was!) this would fulfil what Buildstore needed. And we were right.

Two weeks later, a few sleepless nights and a few big important count-ups of our loose change just in case, we got it and Buildstore said yes!

Phew.

During a conversation with Buildstore today they explained that the lender will now instruct an inspection of all stages prior to the next stage release being draw down. This inspection literally means someone just turning up and checking the foundations are actually there, and then the frame is up etc. They don’t interfere with anything further and will not stop a release unless you’ve been naughty and there is no evidence on site that you have built what you’ve said you’ve built. This is because some self-builders were asking a dodgy architect to sign their Certification of Work forms to say stages had been completed when they hadn’t, and then running off with the money.

I’m telling you this because I think it is very sad, and something else hard working legitimate people have to endure for the sake of the plebs of this world.

We’re looking forward to shedding blood, sweat and tears for our house (only blood to go already by the way!) and having the satisfaction and the scabs to look back on.