The windows and doors people came first thing and by the time I got round, about 9.00 they were well on with the door at the back. They have replaced the panel at the side of the front door that they broke when putting it in and had lots of little jobs to do. The architect was there by 9.30 and went through a check list with them.

The garage is the full depth of the house from back to front but only wide enough for one car. Additionally the access to the road is very steep and quite difficult. Therefore we decided to have 2 garage doors, one where the original doors were and a new one constructed at the back.

When I got there they had already started with the back one, as you can see from the first picture.

This was installed by lunchtime. At least, it was in position...

They installed the one at the front during the afternoon. Both doors are sectional. This means they come up in slabs rather than being rolled. They will be activated by remote controls, although as there is no electric at the moment they will be manual for the time being. They cannot be opened from outside until there is electricity and the remotes are programmed. The front of the house is beginning to take shape now...

Another hiatus, and then off they go again

So the plasterer wall bloke finished his first stage last week, and we had a meeting with the electrician to agree all the placings for plugs and switches. If we have something working from all the plugs we have asked for I think it will take down the national grid. A few pictures for you. I gave up trying to format these to look good, sorry about that. They are of the living room.

The one above is taken from the french doors with my back to the road. Click on any picture to enlarge it. The one below is of the kitchen balcony. Eagle eyes will see the stainless steel chimney pipe which will be over the barbecue. The whole of this balcony is covered by the roof. Again the eagle-eyed will see a reflection of the old bath. This has been moved around by each artisan. None wanting the job of chucking it out!

We haven't had a panorama for ages!

This is a panorama of the kitchen/diner. Bren is standing in the doorway to the hall. The far wall is kinked by the panorama process, but is actually perfectly straight. In the corner behind her is the dumb waiter and the french doors at the far end lead out onto the balcony where we will have the barbecue.

Sticking with the bathroom

It's all been bricked in now. Where yesterday you could see all the bits of the loo, now they are hidden behind the brick wall just behind Bren. The two niches will be either side of the mirror over the handbasins. They will have glass shelves and power for shaver/toothbrush charging/ hairdryer etc. I am standing in the shower.

In the second picture we have swapped places. Again there are niches for shower stuff, and there will be a tile covered "bench" on the right hand side so that foot washing is not a dodgy flamingo exercise.

Necessarily sturdy.

Yesterday's picture of Brenda with her eyes closed had her standing in our en-suite. This has today got a step nearer to being en-suite. A sturdy structure has been erected in the corner behind where Bren was standing. From this will hang the loo. The blue pipe is the overflow that will run into the basin.

A few more photos

These are some more photos of the current state of build. The first is one in which I am standing in the shower in our en-suite, perhaps the reason for Bren's closed eyes. The door is beyond the white pillar on the left.

If you imagine that she has now walked out of the bathroom and turned right and turned into our bedroom.

This shot is taken from what will be the bedroom corridor passing the walk in hangar on the left and our bathroom door on the right.

The last one for today is at the opposite corner of the house. As you come in through the front porch from the front balcony, immediately on your left will be the double doors through to the living room where Bren is standing. Across the entrance hall from the double doors is the kitchen diner, the doorway to which was beside/behind Bren when she was looking at the dumb waiter yesterday.

Rather a lot of stuff, but I'll try to be succinct.

We went round today at lunch time and most of the interior walls are now up. I'm concentrating on the Kitchen diner today but will include other rooms over the next few days. In the picture below Brennie is standing in what will be the dining area, whilst I am standing in the kitchen. All the walls have now been insulated and covered with the brick tiles.

In the following shot we have swapped positions and she is looking up at the first fix of the dumb waiter. This will be a hand- worked lift from downstairs. We collected all the parts from the supplier in Peckham just before Christmas, and with the aid of a serious roof rack and an extremely full car we got back with all the bits.

You can just see the hole in the floor that has been cut to go down to the garage, utility room etc. The supporting walls have been left with holes so that it is not finally fixed as yet, the reasons for which should become apparent as we build more. Below is a close up of the floor hole. The actual floor will be another 17cm above the current level to accommodate insulation, underfloor heating, the concrete screed and the tiles. The boards are held up by a host of acros downstairs. All the brickwork will eventually be plastered

The final picture is more of a close up of the mechanism. It is fairly awkward so we took off the winch mechanism itself. 

Keen eyes will see a line drawn down the wall beneath the kit. This is the provisional centre point of the side wall. The kit has to be very carefully centred so it won't be finally fixed until the downsatirs shaft is completed. You can see that the girders are going into an oversized hole for now.

I'm sorry

Apparently my explanation of string yesterday was only one level up from utter crap. So have a look at this picture and work it out for yourselves.

When they get going everything happens at once.

The internal doors started going in today. They go in rigged with the French equivalent of sky hooks, then the plasterer gets going with his internal wall terracotta blocks. The door people put screws into the outside of the frames in a v-shape (you can just see this on the right hand side of the door frame. The plasterer then incorporates those into his wall leaving no visible evidence of door fixings in the frame.

Another little trick is his use of string! There is a square section device jammed up against the wall on the left and another one skulking behind the door frame. Each has a piece of string from top to bottom. In order to give himself a line to work to another piece with slip-knots on either end is stretched horizontally between the vertical strings. This just gets slid up with each course - devilishly clever!
The door frame shown is from the kitchen, this side, to my lair the far side of which, when built, will be the wall to our bedroom at the far end.
Confused yet?

2012 has started at last.

The plasterer is back at last. After a break since the 15th of December to now, the man who is holding everything up is back on site. And to be fair he is really cracking on. The picture below is a panorama of Bren's studio/study/lair.
He has done most of the brickwork as you can see. There is a little bit left to do at the top of the walls where you can still see the intramural insulation.

For those of you who didn't see it before, you can get a good idea from the picture below taken after the new windows had been put in.

2012

Our hope is that we will be into the house sometime reasonably soon, but the progress is painfully slow. No-one has been on site since the 18th, and the plasterer, for whom everything waits has not been around since the 15th. He'd better be there tomorrow.