On Holiday! (Well - ish)

No, this isn't a real photo of where we are!

We now have two weeks off work to concentrate on finishing the bricking and have a jolly good tidy up! Please keep your fingers crossed that the weather is dry, or we could be back to our 'day jobs' by Wednesday! We also want to try and get the windows and doors stained both inside and out.

I think this is only our third or fouth stretch of holiday we have taken since we started just over a year ago so we've not done bad really have we?

If we can get the bricking done, or almost done, then we'll be on to inside work finishing the plumbing and electrics and then it's our next inspection which is pre-plasterboard.

Photos of progress will follow.

Brick By Brick

Our Eurobrick system was delivered yesterday and what fun and games that was! We joked in the morning that Darran should wear his high-vis coat in case he needed to direct traffic and we weren't wrong!

The lorry arrived at about ten to eight with half the load on, and another lorry would be arriving about two hours later with the rest. When we say 'load' we mean (in total) :-

• 18,421 brick slips in various forms
• 86 8ftx4ft backer panels
• 7 rolls of jointing tape
• 4000 black washers (part of the fixings that secure the panel to the house)
• 4000 screws
• 300 600ml sachets of adhesive
• 80 bags of lime based mortar
• 6 pointing bags
• 6 pointing bag tips
• 3 adhesive guns
• 10 adhesive gun nozzles

The first lorry had a folk lift to move the pallets from the lorry out on the road to the plot. This worked fine, but would have been much better had there not been a dim-wit on the controls who was scared to do anything other than leave them outside the garage. This didn't please us as we wanted all the brick pallets in the garage, and now we were going to have to unpack and move the bricks. He was also unloading his lorry traffic side so was blocking one lane with the lorry and one lane with the forklift when he was getting off the next pallet, hence traffic duties for Darran! I don't think you could say where we are really has a 'rush hour' but traffic was stacking up!

The second consignment arrived and this driver was much better and lifted 4 of the larger pallets into the garage left by the other delivery which meant we only had the smaller ones to move.

The backer panels went into the house as these need to be kept away from the elements as do the mortar and glue.

So now all that is left is to fix 86 backer panels and stick 18,421 bricks. If anyone out there didn't gain their Brownie/Scout badge for brick-sticking now could be your time to shine! Register your interest here!

Talking of badges, I have nearly got my Wood Staining Badge! I'm about half way round the windows and doors. They are coming up really well and the stain is adding a nice depth to them.

Today is calmer. We have been to the plot and measured for the plinth around the house which we need to erect before we can brick. We have also measured for the garage doors and have discovered the utility room wall may need to move if we want 8ft doors. Now we're thinking about the plumbing so we can either brick if it's nice weather and if not get on with the plumbing inside.

Off to the garden centre this afternoon to get some cat deterrent crystals - I know they go against the grain with me being a cat lover, but the amount of cat mess isn't funny anymore!

Close That Window And Shut That Door!

The windows and doors arrived yesterday and are all installed and sealed. They are absolutely perfect, we are so pleased with them. I am especially pleased with the front door. I love heavy, chunky front doors and ours is definitely that.

They have one coat of stain on them already as protection, but will need about another 3 coats to make them properly weather proof.

The house now looks like a proper house and has given our enthusiasm and motivation another boost. It actually now looks like something you can live in!

An update on other things; the electricity was connected on Wednesday so we now have live power on site, and we also now have guttering up which looks really nice and blends in well to the roof (hence why you can't really see it in the pictures).

The Eurobrick System is being delivered on Friday and hopefully by then we will have cleared a space to put it in!

Decision Made

I thought a 'completion' post was in order as we finally placed an order yesterday for our windows and doors. This is such a relief as it has taken us ages and ages and ages to decide on which manufacturer to go for, what we wanted and what would be best.

The lead time is 4-6 weeks which gives us ample time to get the guttering up, place the order for the bricks and to lay the floor insulation, under floor heating and screed.

Cup of tea and a sit down now I think.....

Windows On The World

Tomorrow we're going down to Somerset to meet with a window manufacturer. It has taken us a long time to decide on the windows. They are an important part of the build, more so for us as we have so many windows and doors that if we get it wrong, it could completely ruin the look of the house.

We have struggled with certain manufacturers who seem incapable of amending quotes as we mentioned here and who also aren't really supplying what we want so we would be 'making do' with what they do. The windows we are going to see tomorrow are more expensive than we budgeted for, but we think it's the right decision.

In other news, we went to a DIY store's kitchen design service last weekend which was really helpful. Helpful in so much as we don't like what we thought we wanted now we've seen it in 'virtual reality'. And we have since found we can get something far nicer a lot cheaper (i.e. exactly the same tap for £100 less!) from a certain Swedish flat-pack company! We're going to have a look at their range tomorrow on the way back from Somerset.