Open to the elements

If anyone asks me if I've got any top tips for self builders I'd have to say:

1) Find the right builder
2) Find the right builder
and 3) Find the right builder.

I say this as 4 months into the contract with Dave in charge of the build, we are still feeling like we are in the honeymoon period, (he may have other opinions to this of course, probably along the lines of not working for control freaks!) and for Kate and I at least it has been absolutely great to have a couple of my lads from work Mark and Dave working more or less continuously for us around other commitments.

On Grand Designs this week the builders were moaning that 'Having a client living on site just added to the cost and time' I certainly hope this isn't the case, in fact we've found that tackling any problems as they happen is more easily dealt with if you are around to be kept in the loop.


As you can see from the images the main progress recently has been the removal of the roof. Mark started to take ours down last week, and this week everybody has been on it with the whole thing including steelwork being finished for the weekend.
Final phase, both roofs off, our steels down, and the lads working on Paul and Cathy's steelwork.
Other news this week is that despite the huge roof area we have, I have decided not to have a rainwater harvesting system. this does seem a shame, and its one of the renewables I really wanted to have, but the payback time is really not as cost effective as I would have liked. Although we've discounted it for loos and washing machine, I will probably mackle up a kit for the garden/car washing using some second hand liquid bulk tanks and a decent pump.

After many conversations in the last week with our planning officer having checked the harborough planning portal today I see our planning application has been approved:
http://pa.harborough.gov.uk/PublicAccess/tdc/DcApplication/application_detailview.aspx?caseno=JV7HLGHW0DL00
clearly good news seeings as we have already gone ahead with most of the openings. We've been really lucky on the planning front, we've had a very switched on planning officer who has worked well to bridge the gap between us wanting a house that works, and the districts need for a 'barn' to be preserved.

To much excitement from Beth, these are the start of her 'Pigeon Windows' which the planners have let us have as a copy of the original ones high up in Paul and Cathy's barn. In a genuine moment of parallel development Dave and I both had the inspiration for copying Church windows on the inside, and a quick call to our ever helpful building inspector resulted in a 'Yes, no problems with that idea'.
After a completely plagiaristic looking at both other barns, and no end of well converted houses in Norfolk we've been trying to decide on a colour for all the timber work for the barns. In a genuine blind viewing, both Cathy and Paul, and Kate and I picked the same colour, the second from left if you are interested, French Grey from Farrow and Ball.

Forward March

Since the last blog and the arrival and erection of the scaffold there is now an official countdown of twelve weeks to get the roof up. Although that sounds a long time this means we have to get the whole front facade of Cathy and Paul's built, the old roof off, (and asbestos disposed of) the steel frame cut out and removed, all the brickwork/block work up to party wall height, then the roof trusses can be measured, a two week factory production of the trusses. All this before the roofers can slate the roof.

We also had a serious let down in the fact that the roofer I had wanted to slate the roof has clearly decided he doesn't need the job. Like all things in life this was fate yet again working for us, as one of my lads whilst talking to a client of mine mentioned we'd been let down and I was worried about booking a replacement. No sooner was that client on the phone suggesting I ring one of his roofing suppliers who had some fabulous reclaimed Welsh slate and who's son was a roofing contractor. We couldn't afford the Welsh slate we knew, as the slate alone would cost us £15,000 (between us) let alone the felt, battens and ridge tiles, but we certainly were interested in getting the roofer over. Troy turned up on Saturday, we talked some numbers and he then showed me some samples of the slate. This was clearly mean, it was like cooking bacon in front of vegetarians. They were so appealing I even took a photo to email Dad, even though I knew it was a non-starter. Troy didn't help either, when I told him we wanted to use Spanish slate he ummed and ahhed and politely told me how disappointed I'd be every night when I came home.

I sent him off with a plan to work out a price. To all our amazement, and as a partial result of the simple nature of the roof, and the enormous economies of scale involved with the roof size Troy and father Tony came back with a quite superb price for both fitting and materials. Although we are spending more than we had expected to pay for Spanish, its really only marginal, and in fact the only two Spanish samples we really liked were actually more expensive. I've really been worrying about the roof, and I suddenly feel happier about it than I ever have. Paul and I are off tomorrow to the yard to pick out the crates we want before anyone else can.



Looking back from Paul and Cathy's front to the now cleaner yard.


Looking North East across the valley from Paul and Cathy's corner. This will be their view!

Looking in from Paul and Cathy's front, through the whole barn.

With the impending roof construction I've also realised that the large glazed areas of both ours and Cathy and Paul's barns are something I have given very little thought to from a constructional point of view. I'd vaguely imagined we could do something on a grander scale but a similar vein to the glass roof Dave made for us at the old house, clearly times (and the building regs) have moved on. For this item I'm afraid its a 'watch this space'.

The slates that we never thought we'd be able to have.

Although we're having the enormous satisfaction of seeing so much large scale construction going on week by week its the absolute pleasure of the detail that's doing it for me, particularly these fantastic openings that Mick has made to look like were done originally, and the new brickwork that Dave has laid to Paul and Cathy's frontage.