WE'RE IN!

26th of May was our moving date. We had the help of our [old] neighbour Dave, sister Jules and a very efficient Polish man and his Van. It was a boiling hot weekend so sweaty work but fortunately we got almost everything across in two goes.

It's been 3 weeks now and we have set up a couple of the bedrooms, Nick's office and the main living area ... everything else is still in need of unpacking and arranging but all in good time :-) Last weekend was spent laying 200m2 of turf - our strategy for simple weed free gardening this year. We can tinker around with flower beds etc in the months and years to come.

And, the verdict so far:

The heating system is taking a little getting used to, we already managed to lock ourselves out of the hot water controls by putting it into holiday mode accidentally and we've decided we'll get the extra hot water loop hooked up (it was installed but not connected) - hot water will be constantly moved around the loop so it is quickly available at all the taps. At the moment we are having to run the taps in the kitchen and main bathroom for some time before the hot water comes through. 

If I could go back in time I'd order slightly bigger shower enclosures and maybe have a planting bed between the greenhouse and the path and if I had a magic wand i'd move shops a bit closer and the A14 further away but ...

The spaces feel great, the light is just fantastic and all the natural finishes look and smell fab (shame we have to mess up the clean lines with all our clobber but we're not really the minimalist sorts).

Being able to open up the folding doors to the greenhouse, the sliding doors from the main living area and the back door out to the patio is amazing and really blurs the inside/outside divide. Temperature-wise on the scorching hot days when we first moved in, while the house didn't feel exactly cool we opened up the rooflights and a few of the downstairs windows and the air moved through the house very nicely keeping everything feeling comfortable. Since then we've had a lot of dull and rainy days, some even rather cool and the house has stayed warm into the evenings and we've been able to throw open the windows during the days.

The oven and hob are very good to use although I still need to buy a couple of new pans for induction cooking. The larder is working well and I have plenty of space in the kitchen for everything except all my herbs - i'm still thinking about that one. Our old dining room table works very well as a kitchen table and we just need to fit a shelf above it for the microwave. The yellow kitchen got a last minute re-paint and is now a more mustardy, rather than lemon yellow.

Still loving the hall and landing with our gorgeous wall, and all the beautiful views from the house, and the feeling of privacy with all the mature trees and hedges.

... I can safely say WE LOVE IT.

Lucky you can't smell the newly dredged pond! The back garden looks great with turf down with the 2 fruit trees provide the perfect place for a hammock and some good shade. 

Bewley lives in the field just over the road. Chris who owns him is on holiday this week so I took him out for a hack today. I really did feel transported back to my teenage years in so many ways - weird!

Fabulous family, right on our doorstep. Mum, Lawrence, Rachel, Iris and Jasper with Nick this afternoon. 

Welcome message change

New welcome message:

Welcome friends and family. It took us nearly 5 years, but here we are ... with a whole new house! This blog records the journey of the build which began in August 2011 and finished (for the most part) in May 2012.

I may pop the odd post on here over the summer, there is still a garage to build at some point, but as you may have noticed I've somewhat run out of steam!! Hopefully see you all round. Love, Kate and Nick x

Replacing:

Welcome friends and family! We've been planning our new house at Girton for the best part of 4 years and we're finally onto the build. The end is in sight and we're looking forwards to seeing you all in the summer for a BIG PARTY. In the meanwhile I'm managing about a post a week here with pictures and descriptions of progress. My spelling is bad - I apologise now.

Old post finally published.

Written on May 18th:

Nick and I are on site today for the first time this week. The landscaping is looking good with the paths around the house finished - the driveway is taking shape and the patio at the back of the house is just waiting for us to supply some more paving slabs. 

The levels around the front of the house have been a bit tricky to sort out because we have to be careful to keep the finished level well below the wood structure. Not a problem at the rear where the ground falls away from the house but here, at the front the level is higher.

Nick sorting out a light shade I bought from a antique shop last year - it has a sprung pulley thing so you can lower the light. The table has been donated to us from my grandfather - it was the table in his office at Trinity college, we can either have it as a small round table as it is here or extend it with a central section to seat 10! Behind Nick on the left you can see the new induction hob in it's box and on the right the huge fridge. Nearly there. 

All our pictures are at the house and I have been putting them around the place trying to decide where they will go. Good fun!

The sand goes down for the driveway. It's a great shape - I love the island with the pear tree in it.

Posh Pics

Nick and I visited site today to meet Ian before he heads off on holiday next week. We had a quick look through his final bill to check costs for the extra bits we've added on along the way - extras will add about 5% to the bill. Not too bad we thought and it means we've spent about half our contingency fund here and the other half went on re-building the rammed earth wall (roughly speaking). So we're more or less on budget.

Nick drew up a snagging list at the weekend - basically checking all the rooms and interior for any bits that need anything doing, gaps for caulking (filling) mostly, a couple of doors adjusting and that kind of thing. He and Ian talked it through as well.

Tom and Graham were setting our clay brick paths, working through the drizzle. We looked at concrete bricks which would have been quite a bit cheaper but Rigeons had a good deal on the clay bricks and they have the advantage over concrete in that they hold their colour, where the concrete will eventually fade to grey.

Our architects have commissioned a photographer to come and take lots of nice pictures of the house so they can use them for their promotional material. We'll get copies too so great news for us. Tim Rawl is the appointed man, he made his first visit to the house on Monday afternoon. His focus for the day was the stairs, earth wall and hallway and said he would visit again on a couple more occasions as the year goes on to get more pictures of the exterior once the landscaping is complete and settled. I managed to get the upstairs hoovered and the cobbles sealed just in time. Here's a few of his pics:

Mud and Landscaping

It's been raining for weeks but fortunately the slippy clay mud has been replaced by a layer of compressed hardcore which makes getting round on site a lot easier and cleaner. It's possible to imagine the final drive and paths now - they're going to look great.

The house has been shut up all week with just a few electrical bits to fit, but Ian is waiting on us - we have an outside light on order that still hasn't come and luckily Nick tried the hob out last week and discovered I've bought the wrong one so that needs changing too!! The electric ceramic hobs look just the same as the induction hobs and the model numbers are all very similar. Not much of an excuse really as I managed to ignore a confirmation e-mail clearly saying electric ceramic hob. but hey.

Nick is trying to sort out our buildings warranty with a company called Buildzone which involves a survey and giving them lots of information about the structure/finishes etc. I have been mostly working although I was on site yesterday - I bought another hob, a fridge and spent the afternoon scrubbing floors!!

The balcony rail is pretty much finished and the greenhouse floor now looks lovely and clean and the cobbles have had another going over with the brick acid so they are ready to seal/oil.

Stairs and landing looking all finished and nice. 

Project cam time lapse videos and extra pics ...

Nick got the time lapse pictures working and has posted on you tube:

Movie 01 - Slab.
Aug 30 - Sept 11, 3 hr intervals. 0:27 mins.
Piles already in: clay board laid, steel work assembled, shuttering assembled, slab poured.

Movie 02 - Rammed earth wall mark 1.
Sep 14 - Sep 27. 3 hr then 1 hr intervals. 1:48 mins.
Glass foam base fitted, shuttering assembled, ramming, scaffolding assembled, more shuttering, more ramming, shuttering comes off, wall falls down, earth cleared.

Movie 03 - Rammed earth wall mark 2, SIPs construction.
Oct 14 - Nov 5, 1 hr then 30 min intervals. 3:04 mins.
REW2 shuttering & scaffolding in place, ramming of 1st 2.7 metres, scaffolding for SIPs assembled, REW2 pt 1 shuttering removed, ground floor SIPs and 1st storey floor and gable ends assembled, REW2 pt 2 shuttering and ramming.

Movie 04 - Cladding.
Jan 9 - Feb 9, 30 min intervals. 2:41 mins.
Breather membranes, battening, slate roof and western red cedar boards.

These are just some extra pics as it's been a couple of weeks since the last post.

April showers

Today (and most of this week) has been april showers and very claggy clay on site as Ian gets going on the landscaping.

Hardcore arrives for the driveway and paths around the house. Steve is sealing the windows ... in the rain, up a ladder. Yucky.

Paul constructing the balcony railing - made from Iroko wood it will match the juliet balcony on the right. The shutters on the SW facing bedroom windows have been fitted and look really good.

Green tiles have been added to the yellow kitchen, the hallway floor is done and you can see the shingles in the draught lobby in the background. Nearly there!

These are the jute carpets going in the bedroom. It's a natural fibre therefore recyclable, biodegradable etc and is quite soft under foot. I'm slightly underwhelmed by the beige colour (seemed nicer in small sample, looks flatter - the colour that is - than I thought it would in a larger area) but I think they'll go well with the theme of the house - natural browns against the white walls. Our stuff is going to add a lot of colour. We have sisal carpet for the landing, a coarser fibre - hardwearing and a slightly richer colour. Can't wait to see it all in place.

And finally here, the bathrooms are complete. Showers and fancy mirrors in. We got rather attached to the idea of demisting mirrors following a hotel stay recently and found these ones online encorporating LED lights too. Not sure they match the reclaimed sinks but we're not overly bothered about everything matching (as you've probably noticed).