The external appearance of the house is transformed - almost overnight!

thanks to our two lovely lads from Yorkshire - have you ever met two such dapper dressers in the building trade?  

New caps arrived for Robbie and Lee / Charlie's Angels this week (it has been extremely cold with severe frosts).  However, these two have soldiered on to make fabulous progress with permanent good humour and energy; it is an absolute pleasure to have them on site.

Ensuite 1 and Wall

More things are beginning to be finished off:

Still awaiting window cill (in the same material as the vanity unit top), one row of splashback tiles above the vanity unit (to match those along the middle row of the shower), towel rail, glass shower side and mirror - but it is all coming together.

And here is the wall beside the Caselle driveway (the sides of the wall will be rendered to match the garage wall eventually) and the path leading from the side door of the Caselle garage down into the back garden.

Stone Cladding

Late yesterday saw the arrival of our two latest companions - Robbie and Lee had travelled all the way from God's own county, Whitby (although Robbie is originally from Howden for those of you who ever went to Pocklington); they came highly recommended from EuroBrick Cladding Systems in Bristol - the stone cladding company.

You may recall that we had to change suppliers to satisfy NHBC regulations, hence this stone is long overdue and we are very excited at the prospect of having a house which is hopefully nice to look at; we know the neighbours share our feelings!  

What you can see here is the X-Clad, external wall insulation (EWI) system which will be stone faced with 'Rough Dressed Cotswold' Bradstone slips.  When finished we believe the house will look like a normal stone house (hence the need for 'false' lintels).  It is low maintenance and comes with a 25 year product guarantee - but most importantly of course, it has the BBA certification and is fully approved by NHBC.

The insulation used in the backer panel is closed cell extruded polystyrene with a BRE Green Guide Rating of A; it is 17 mm thick, has a thermal conductivity of 0.033W/mk and can support 36 kg per sq metre.

The difference between this illustration and our walls is that our stone slips will be either 3", 6" or 9" high.  We have already decided on the arrangement of the varying sizes (to match in with the stone patterns of the neighbouring houses).  The smallest stones will fit in between the extruding bars and Robbie will simply cut out the unwanted bars with a knife to allow the larger stones to sit flat on the backer panel.

Lee and Robbie, standing in glorious sun shine (it is so bright they have to wear their 'shades')
standing proudly beside the first face.

The bricks are being arranged in a 'Random brought to course' arrangement, which matches that of our neighbour in Tinneys Lane.

And so the gas saga continues....

You couldn't make it up.

On Monday the water board arrived (most efficiently as we had contacted them to suggest that they may want to come to do their bit whilst there is a hole in road) who told us that the gas pipe hadn't been laid deeply enough and that it should be no less than 450 mm down.  You can see from the next photo that we are woefully short of that measurement at 325 mm to the top of the kerb.

We e mailed the gas board yesterday and received a reply this morning telling us that it would be OK.  So we phoned them back and spoke to someone who said that they would send their inspector along to check.

However, we had barely put the phone down from this conversation when two men appeared to fill in the hole in the road - and then before they had even finished we noticed another large lorry lurking at the bottom of the hill - yes, it is the tarmac company to finish it all off.  We are of course, still waiting for the inspector!

A fine example of British workmanship and efficiency at its best.

'Twas on a Monday morning when the gas man came to call........

Almost the entire road has been involved with this week's drama - because the gas board didn't have any idea where the mains supply is situated in the road.  They began to dig a hole in the road just outside our property and carried on ... and carried on .... and carried on - in fact until they reached the other side.  

The gas men (who couldn't have been nicer or more polite and helpful to our long-suffering neighbours - everytime someone wanted to pass by they had to stop digging and cover the trench with a ramp) returned this morning to dig deeper and finally struck 'gold'. Here we have two plumbers vans, a red van from Reeves, and two vans with trailers from the gas board all crowding in on our neighbours and their visitors.  When the chap in the blue jacket arrived to give us a quote for tarmac he just simply parked his car where it is.

Anyhow, the good news is that now the connection has been made, the trench will be filled in sometime in the next five working days and then we will be able to apply for someone to come to fit us with a metre - then we will finally be able to test the heating system.

Meanwhile, Reeves' groundworks chaps are back and things are certainly tidying up:

A fence with a retaining wall behind,
on the boundary between us and Woodview

Caselle garage is now secure with an 'up and over' door,
a side door and a window at the rear.

A retaining wall at the side of the Caselle drive,
which will eventually be rendered to match the garage wall.

The lovely Pete (who has a wicked sense of humour),
apprentice Kevin with Pete's son, Andy, waving in the background.
(They are building steps out of the rear door of the Caselle garage).

The 8th Month

The Christmas break has given David chance to get on with his own jobs, uninterrupted.  He is making great strides with the installation of the Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery system.

The MVHR unit (grey box, bottom left of photo) is now installed on a shelf in what was the airing cupboard.  The dark grey pipes (three in number) are the feeds to the two manifolds (light grey box with blue spigots) and the fresh air intake.  The fresh air exhaust is yet to be installed.

The eight blue connectors will be the exhaust and fresh air inlets to the ground floor.

Eight blue pipes will go down from here to the ground floor ceiling void (which is getting full).  Vent feeds to the first floor will be easy as they will be installed in the roof void, utilising the horizontal connectors on the manifolds.

David is also progressing his steel works, yet again supplied by BDM in Basingstoke, ready for the arrival of the stone cladding on 11th January.

A stainless steel section (painted in anthracite to match the windows) sits all the way around the outside of the house, underneath the Aquapanels but above the DPC, on which the stone cladding backing panel will sit (all will be revealed next week).  These also provide ventilation into the cavity between the Aquapanels and the SIPs.  Also note the steel ties which tie the house down and prevent the timber frame from blowing away in a storm!                                                                    

Another stainless steel fabrication from our good friends at BDM.  These steel lintels are not structural, but we thought the stone would look 'false' if there weren't any lintels - so here we are.   However, they also provide ventilation into the cavity. 

On another visit this week (but this time to celebrate the New Year, not to work) Jane signed her first noggin.