Latest Posts
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Week 36 – A Tale of Two Courtyards
I really did intend to do a video this week about all the things that went wrong during the build, and all the lessons learned. However, frankly, I’m not in the mood today, so instead here’s a walkthrough of our two main courtyards and a bit of tiling as a bonus. The central courtyard was…
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Week 35 – That’s a lot of windows to clean…
It’s a new year, and we’ve started with a bang, with a busy week full of landmark events. This week we finally opened up the connection between current house and the new extension. But even more exciting than that, the windows finally arrived which has paved the way for getting the electrics and interior finishes…
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Week 32 – A Snowglobe Christmas
I couldn’t get access the site today to do a final video of the year as our workmen have sensibly nailed all entrances shut to prevent break-ins (which are sadly common over Christmas on building sites). So instead here’s a lovely Christmassy image which our architect commissioned. Ahhhh. Lovely. Had I been able to access…
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Week 31 – Bonny Tilers
The floor tiles are going down! The floor has been one of the biggest decisions we’ve faced on the build. When we started out, we had our hearts set on a polished concrete floor. However all the contractors we talked to sucked their teeth and told us we were mad and porcelain floor tiles were…
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Week 30 – Inside/Outside
This week we saw a big milestone take place, with the connection being made between the current house and the extension. I wasn’t there while it was happening (hence no video) but it is so awesome that we could look from the inside of our current house, through what used to be an external wall,…
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Week 29 – Bags of rocks
Building-wise this week, there have not been a huge amount of changes. They have been busy sanding and plumbing and doing what they can to the interiors without windows being installed. Check out the video below. In other news, all the rocks arrived for the central courtyard this week. That’s going to be a Japanese…
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Week 28 – Floored
After a couple of weeks away, we are back and completely floored by the progress. Check out the video below: We have a fantastic new screed floor, beneath which is our new underfloor heating. Also while we were away, they completed all the zinc cladding, and also completed the ‘first fix’ for the bathroom, ready…
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Week 26 – The Slow Down
Work on the build is noticeably beginning to slow down as the list of tasks that can be done without windows in place grows thinner. We always knew the windows timeline would be an issue. The team likes to go like the clappers, pivoting and switching tasks based on available people, or available materials. But…
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Week 25 – Kitchen Zinc Drama
There hasn’t actually been much drama this week (which is bad news one of my followers who is holding out for some Grand Designs-esque calamities) but there has been some zinc. Lots of it in fact. Also, some plaster and (very excitingly) a green roof. Starting with the plaster, this has made the interiors feel…
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Week 24 – Trench Warfare
This week, our one remaining untouched bit of our outdoor space was finally sacrificed on the altar of progress. Our tiny slice of pristine front yard was completely obliterated by the team while they dug a trench for a water pipe. We had been waiting weeks to get this trench dug for the water pipe,…