The Video

Here is the timelapse video (3 photographs were taken every 10 minutes).

Before you panic - it only lasts 1 minute 11 seconds before repeating itself. (we are working on refining it).

Sorry it is a bit grainy but we (that is the royal 'we'  of course, as anyone who knows the level of Vicki's IT skills will appreciate) had to make it lower quality so that it was small enough to publish.

Week 17: Thursday 27th August

 

Old LIttletonians, Barbara and David Elsmore, just happen to live in the house which backs onto Caselle and have sent us this photograph.

The windows you can see are  bedrooms 3 & 4 and also the rooflights to the dining area.

Week 17:  Wednesday 26th August

After a very wet week (Monday evening was spent mostly holding a hair dryer over 3 pairs of builders' boots to prevent them from getting Foot Rot), we are now almost water tight.

Tuesday morning (25th August)
Roof over our bedroom with roof light and dormer window at the front.

The interior of our bedroom.

  Tuesday was spent preparing the rest of the roof panels for Wednesday.

The crane is quite big for a little cul-de-sac!

Vicki went into Sainsbury's to buy a bunch of flowers and bottle of wine for each of the neighbours who have been so accommodating when they have been blocked in.  When she explained to the lady at the checkout that we were having some building work done and this was a 'thank you' to the neighbours, the checkout lady asked if we were 'the crane'.  It seems that it is visible across the town.

Wednesday was very busy with the completion of the roof on both the house and the double garage.

The final delivery - the garage for Caselle and David's workshop has arrived.

Week 16:  Saturday 22nd August

Quite a frustrating week as weather and cranes (which were too heavy for the soft ground) hampered progress.  However, extra steel plates have now been delivered for the crane to sit on so we should be back in business on Monday.

Steel plate being delivered, on which the crane can now sit without sinking.

Isn't it every little boy's dream to play in one of these?

A fine staircase, built of course by David; infinitely easier than going up and down a
ladder for the next six months.

Week 15:  Thursday 13th August

Despite horrendous weather forecasts it stayed dry in Sherborne so progress has been very good.  David has spent most of the day tidying up the site and making several trips to the local tip.  Vicki went shopping.

This part of the house has a different roof from the main house.
Our bedroom will have a vaulted ceiling as the vertical walls are not full height.
The en-suite is in the far corner of our bedroom.

Week 15:  Monday 10th August

Moving day - we rented a transit from Williams' in Otterbourne.  We are renting Caselle (the bungalow next door to the plot) and this is unfurnished; we had so much stuff that in the end we had to make two trips (sleeping in Sherborne on Monday night and David making an early start on Tuesday to get the van back to the garage for 08:00).  Vicki drove the van on one of the legs

Back to Slimming World for Vicki asap!

and we have now decided that we would like a camper van - you can see so much more of the surrounding countryside when you are in a higher seat.

Meanwhile, more progress made by Timber Homes Ltd:

• Engineered joists will make it very easy to feed the services through.
• In the background - the floor in our bedroom.

Week 15:  Tuesday 11th August

A fairly challenging day - progress was not as expected but Phil, Ben and Minty worked until 19:30 ( a 12 hour day) to try to catch up with where they were expecting to be.

After consultations with Glosford, David was unhappy with the position of the upright steel at the rear corner of the dining area and did a bit of redesigning.  On Monday, we took this to BDM in Basingstoke, a company David has done much business with over the years through Dega and who are making the steel lintels for the house.  His contact there, Trevor, very obligingly leapt to our rescue and organised the re-welding o the plate at the bottom of the steel - we are extremely grateful to everyone at BDM for doing this for us with no notice.

Week 15:  Wednesday 12th August

Vertical post for the main garage going into position

Steel beam for over the main garage door going into position

By the end of Wednesday, we had the makings of a first floor.

Week 14: Friday 7th August

• Lounge in the foreground with picture window onto the rear garden
• Along the back of the main part of the house is the open plan kitchen/diner.  The first floor will finish where the giant steel beam is, and the kitchen/diner will extend a bit beyond that.
• The beginnings of the main garage are in the background.

Week 14: Thursday 6th August

A very productive day with the three chaps from Glosford and four chaps plus the boss from Reeves on site - with David and me hovering somewhere in the background.

Here you can clearly see how the panels are made up:

• overall width 172 mm (this is one of the first to be made up to this size, previously they have been 142 mm)
• two pieces of plywood, sandwiched together with a 'solid' foam
• standing upright, on top of a sole plate
• all joints are sealed with expanding foam or adhesive as appropriate

By the end of play today we had the definite makings of a 'house'.

Here you are looking down into the lounge:

•  David is standing at the foot of what will be the stairs
• Phil is standing at the doors to the dining area
• the non-SIPs construction is the cloakroom
• the study is in the far corner
• the utility room doesn't have any walls yet.

Week 14: Wednesday 5th August

A very 'interesting' day:

• the crane arrived
• the panels for the ground floor arrived
• the neighbours were incredibly helpful and parked cars in each other's drives to accommodate the temporary road blockages
• the builders from the two companies met and worked very well together to overcome some minor challenges
• the DPC and sole plates are now in place
• some of the ground floor vertical steels and RSJs are in place
• David is wearing a blue hard hat and Vicki a pink one
• David spent most of the day in discussion with the builders
• Vicki spent most of the day sweeping the floors - a very satisfying job as it really did make the site look much nicer.



Week 14

Tuesday 4th August

Almost exactly two years to the day since we first saw the plot, the house started to arrive.



 

David began the day by laying just a few bricks to complete the groundworks

 

We are using the Kingspan TEK building System, which is being provided by Glosford, a company based in Hereford which specialises in SIPs projects.

Here we have Ben, Phil and Minty unloading the sole plates from the lorry.








Vicki spent most of the day transferring concrete blocks from one part of the site to the other so that they don't get in the way of the building process.
















This is the state of play at the end of the day - almost ready for the arrival of the panels although there are one or two things to sort out first.  

The dark strips make up the damp proof course.

These five photos are supposed to make up a panoramic view from the top of the scaffolding - not something that we will be able to see in all its glory from the house - but we are considering a periscope!