Week 11

Before the Oak frame can be raised the scaffolding needs to be erected around the Oak frame so Monday is taken up making sure that the site can accommodate the crane and for the scaffolders to do their job.

The team from Carpenter Oak arrive on Tuesday ready to raise the Oak frame.

Week 12

The erector team, SIPs and crane driver arrive but the crane driver goes away again so no work until a revised site date can be arranged.

Week 14

Work is scheduled to continue next week.

Week 15 - Wednesday

Work continues!

The SIPs team arrive and by the end of the week (sunday) we have a ground floor

Week 16 - Wednesday

More SIPs are installed and at the end of the week we have a nearly completed house despite storm Barbara and the christmas deadline.

Week 17 - Christmas

Time to pause and catch up with our families.

Week 18

A new year and the SIPs team are back on site to finish all the remaining jobs and tidy up the site. After two days we have a completed shell and the team set off for their next job.

Week 19

Our roofer arrives and gets to work straight away.

Week 20

The work on the roof continues.

We have also been looking at where we need to put the electrical switches and sockets. Although we had a vague plan to start with being able to walk through the rooms has helped with the placement of these items so we now have a very good idea of what we want.

Week 21

The work on the roof continues.

I have been getting on making the internal studding for a ceiling over the hall so that we can run the mechanical ventilation and heat recovery system ducts from the utility room to the upstairs rooms.

Week 22

The work on the roof continues.

The timber cladding was delivered on Wednesday and stacked in the Oak frame.

Week 23-24

The roof on the main house is completed apart from the ridge tiles on the front dormer and work starts on the oak frame roof.

Part of the end wall of the main house is clad.

The materials and equipment for the mechanical ventilation and heat recovery system is delivered. Two pallets stacked to about the same height as me are delivered to the site. These are unpacked, checked and stacked ready for being fitted.

Week 25

The rest of the end wall of the main house is clad.

The ridge tiles for the roof of the main house are fitted and the work on the oak frame roof is continued.

The soffits for the roof are cut and have to be painted. 31 sheets of plywood 2.4 metres long and between 240 and 500mm wide have to be painted on both sides with a primer and top coat. Each coat has to be allowed to dry for 24 hours before they can be painted again so this is not a quick job. Jayne has been helping out by doing most of the painting while I do the sanding and stacking. By the time all 31 sheets had been done we had a good system going and it didn't take too long.

Week 26-27

After a good couple of weeks work the roof is completed and only 6 slates left over.

All the rooflights have been installed and the roof is now watertight.

The fascias and bargeboards have been painted and most are now fitted ready for the roofer to fit the gutters. There are a couple of places where the scaffold is tight against the roof so fitting the fascias and guttering will not be possible until the scaffold comes down.

Week 28-30

Our roofer managed to get the guttering installed where it was not impeded by the scaffolding.

The weather has been atrocious and other events have meant that work on site has almost stopped with only a few minor jobs being done. I hope to get back on track soon.

Week 31-34

It's been difficult to get back on site for any significant time so we've concentrated on getting as much organised as possible.

This means ordering the windows and doors so we've been measuring and re-measuring all the opening sizes to make sure that all the structural opening sizes we specified have been created. With only a couple of minor discrepancies all the openings are correct so we can order the doors and windows. I've also been experimenting with some alternative flashing options. It is vital that I get this correct so that the house is watertight. The final decision is that we need decent metal flashing that will keep its shape so I've been getting quotes for these from various suppliers.

Week 35-38

I'm able to spend a bit more time on site so things are getting back on track.

The windows and doors have been delivered and stored inside the house to protect them.

Most of the woodwork is pre-painted but there are still jobs to do such as making the front door frame, fitting and painting/staining the doors. All the openings then have to be measured so that the double glazed units can be ordered. These jobs will have to wait until the weather worsens and it's difficult to work outside.

The flashing arrives so now the cladding of the East wall can start!

We did have a little trouble with some squatters who were very determined to make their home in the house. Just before I went home one night I discovered a pair of swallows flying around the oak frame.

I quickly chased them out and tried to block up the openings with some packing straps.

The next morning I arrived to find that they had decided to use the upstairs. After chasing them out I fixed some building wrap to block the window.

Jayne had managed to get some garden netting that we fixed over all the other openings to try and stop them getting in.

Over then next few days I found a swallow in the house several times and had to chase them out. Sometimes opening the velux window would be enough to encourage the swallow to leave but one bird was very reluctant to go and I would chase it around the upstairs until it left. I still don't know how it managed to get in.

Lots of adjustments to the netting and we've not had any birds in the house for several days but one bird sits on the scaffolding and sings most days.

Week 39-42

The scaffolding is taken down and we can now get a good idea of how the house will look.

Finally, the rest of the facias, barge boards and soffits are fitted!

Time for a tidy up. A skip was arranged and delivered to site. Jayne and I filled it up with as much of the rubbish that had accumulated since the start of the build as we could.

This meant that the builder could have access to the site to lay the blockwork and retaining walls for the garage and workshop. Despite some very wet weather this was completed.

I've been busy starting to prepare the doors ready for fitting into the frames. This means cutting the doors to size, making rebates for the locks and hinges and making the frame for the front door. We've also been measuring up the windows for the glass so that we can get quotes organised once we make up our minds as to what we want!

Week 43-46

Another session of cladding! This is at the back of the house where there are no windows so we don't have to worry about the weather getting in.

And yet more woodwork for me sorting out the doors and door frames. Trimming the doors, fitting locks and hinges,assembling the front door frame and lots of painting and varnishing. They are now ready for fitting.

The builders have been back to lay some of the stone at the bottom of the walls that will allow me to get on with the rest of the cladding.

Week 47-51

Still cladding! This time at the front of the house and now that the scaffold has gone I'm left with a scaffold tower and a ladder to fit it!

I've also been fitting some more windows and the doors to the back of the house. Until we get the glass the openings have been sealed using polythene sheeting to keep the weather out.

We have been getting quotes for the glass but there is a whole new world of technical details to understand. One concern we have is how much the large glass front to the oak frame will heat up the house. The draft SAP report highlights that there is a risk of overheating in summer so we are looking at solar control glass for the south facing windows.

We have had the electricians on site for the last week. They have been busy installing the cables and back boxes for the switches and sockets so there have been lots of questions about where they need to be.

Week 52-57

Still cladding! As well as the Larch cladding I've now started to fit the cement fibre boards ready for the render to be applied.

We have been to another supplier for the glass and placed an order with them. The glass arrived a few weeks later and I've started to fit it between other jobs. We now have 3 windows glazed.

All the window frames apart from one have now been fitted plus the front door.

The builders are expected to be back on site in the next couple of weeks to get the foundations for the porch laid and to get the drainage installed.

Week 58-64

Still cladding! All the cement fibre boards have been fitted and are ready for the render to be applied.

More windows have been fitted.

The electricians and plumbers have been on site doing the first fix. There have been lots of questions about the location of all the switches, lights, sockets, toilets, basins, showers, sinks so that the cables and pipes are in the correct place.

The builder has been back on site installing some of the underground drainage and inspection chambers.

Week 65-68

Still cladding! The renderers arrived back on site and all the render boards now have had a cement base coat which is left to dry out over christmas.

While the renderers were busy with the outside I've been busy cladding the side of the Oak frame and started to do some work on the inside, fitting some of the underfloor heating and the upstairs shower trays.

Looking forward to a nice break over christmas.

Week 64-68

Still cladding! The last few boards at the side of the Oak frame have been fitted and the cladding has been completed at the back. There are now 3 areas left to finish:-

- The area above the door at the back can't be completed until I have installed the ducting for the mechanical ventilation system and the air source heat pump.

- The area to the left of the front of the house can't be done before the roof to the porch is fitted

- The front side of the Oak frame cant be done before the french doors are fitted.

We have managed to fit some more double glazed units into the window frames so the house is getting more secure and weather tight.

The big decision we made this month was to move home!

The people who we rented our home from were keen to get us out and the tenants in the cottage in front of the new house moved out and the owners offered the lease to us.

Despite the upset this would cause we decided to move as it would be much easier to keep an eye on the site and to be able to come and go at any time to get on with the work.

There was only one problem and this was the lack of any storage space for gardening, garage and workshop tools, equipment and materials.

The solution was to change the build schedule to erect the workshop and garage to store these items in.

This meant getting out the plans, calculating the materials and fittings needed and ordering them. By the end of the month we had a largish pile of long pieces of wood and a good supply of screws and nails!

Week 69-72

Making the workshop and garage.

The workshop was the first part to build as we could move everything that was stored in the garage and sun room at our old home into the new workshop.

The first job was for me to build the wall frames and the builder came for a day to help me put these up.

A delivery arrived with a large bundle of roof trusses and our builder was here with a telehandler to unload these. All was done slowly and carefully as over a ton of 6 meter wide trusses swinging around on a canvas sling on a slope is not to be takes lightly. All the trusses were safely unloaded and stood up against the garage wall.

The first 11 trusses were then fitted.

A van was rented and after several trips over a couple of days we had moved into our new home.

All work on site came to a halt as the "beast from the East" arrived and deposited large quantities of snow.

Week 77-81

The "beast from the East" turned into storm Emma and it was still difficult to get on site and impossible to do any work but once the weather abated the work started again.

The walls and roof of the workshop were clad and the builders came back to lay the concrete floor.

Doors to the front and side were made and fitted and a wooden floor fitted.

A van was hired and the rest of our belongings were moved. We managed to reverse right up to the workshop and unload straight off the van.

Week 82-85

Still cladding! The renderers came back for a couple of days once the weather picked up and the final coat of the render applied.

This meant that we were then able to fit the remaining double glazed units in the main house windows.

We also had a delivery of some Oak for the glazing of the Oak frame and the front porch. This was stacked up out of the way.

The garage walls were made and erected and the builder came and helped to install the trusses.

The next job is to clad the walls and roof so that the builders can come back and lay the garage floor.

Week 86-90

The main job this month was to get the workshop and garage finished as far as possible.

The timber floor in the workshop was finished and some of the insulation was installed in the walls. I now have a workshop that I can work in! For the garage this meant finishing the walls, laying the garage floor and erecting the front elevation.

Although there are no doors yet it does mean that I can store some materials under cover in the garage.

Week 91-94

I've now started to work on the house again!

The locks were fitted in the rear doors and the double glazed units installed. It's very satisfying to lock and unlock a door to your new home even though there is still a huge opening at the front of the oak frame.

Work has progressed on the underfloor heating, the spreader plates have been fitted to most of the upstairs and I've fixed the manifolds to the utility room wall ready for the heating pipes and laying the cables from the thermostats for each room back to the utility room.

The walls of the utility room have had plasterboard installed and had been painted before the manifolds were installed. I'm quite pleased with my first efforts of plastering but I don't fancy doing the whole house.

The big push now is to get the house wind and weather tight which means finishing off the Oak frame.

Week 95-98

The good weather continues and the Oak frame is sandblasted so we now need to get the house wind and watertight by fitting the french doors and the last of the glazing units.

We had ordered another skip this month and managed to fill it with most of the rubbish lying around the site. It took a couple of days but the site is looking a lot better now.

Both the plumbers and the electrician have been on site and been making good progress on getting the first fixes completed.

I've been keeping out the way and getting the workshop ready so that the mains electric cable can be laid from the meter in the garden to the workshop and from there into the house.

Week 99-104

The last of the glazing is fitted to the Oak frame. The whole house is now quieter without the plastic flapping about.

Work starts in earnest to get the inside of the house ready for the floor screed to go down.

All the spreader plates have now been fitted and all the heating pipes for the upper rooms installed.

The electrician came and we installed the mains supply cable and the plumbers came and finished the first fix.

We spent a couple weeks tidying up the inside, sweeping up and starting the process of sealing the damp proof course (DPC) and damp proof membrane (DPM) before the insulation and floor screed can be laid.

Week 105-108

The plasterer has been booked for the second week in October so the pressure is now on to get the house ready for him to start.

The screeder was booked for the last week in the month to give me a couple of weeks to allow the screed to cure. That leaves me a couple of weeks to get the rest of house ready installing the rest of the mechanical ventilation system.

Week 109-112

The screeding team turn up as scheduled!

After a day the screed has cured sufficiently for me to walk on so I'm busy trying to get my jobs done before the plasterer arrives.

Week 113-117

Another month of plastering.

The plasterer has taken a break from us for several days to do some work for one of his regular customers so that gives me some time to get on preparing the next rooms.

Week 118-121

More plastering.

During the month the hallway, cloakroom and WC in the main house has been boarded and plastered.

Looking forward to a break over Christmas ready to start afresh in the new year.

Week 122-126

More plastering - or not

Back after Christmas my job is to get the Oak frame ready for the plasterer to start work again.

Due to personal reasons our plasterer is unable to start work when planned. This takes the pressure off me a bit but I still need to get my jobs done.

Week 127-130

More internal work

No plasterer but the Oak frame is ready when he does return and we've got the first coat of paint on in the hallway and the temporary stairs are back in place.

Week 131-134

A general tidy up and more internal work

We have heard from our plasterer and he is expecting to return after Easter to finish off.

We take the opportunity to get another skip to get rid of a lot of the rubbish we have accumulated, mainly offcuts of plasterboard. This takes a couple of days but does give us a bit more space inside.

Time to get the first coat of paint on three of the four bedrooms and the upstairs hallway and to get the shower former installed in the annnex bathroom.

The electrician also came back for several days and we managed to get the mains supply connected up. This was routed to the house via the workshop. A couple of temporary supply sockets were installed in the workshop and the ring main to the hall was made live giving us 4 double sockets in the house. This means no more trailing extension leads from the mains box in the garden.

We also had a delivery of slate tiles for the bathroom floors. It was a bit of a struggle to unload but between the delivery driver and me we managed to get the pallet unloaded onto a flattish part of the drive and he was able to go to his next drop. The tiles were carried up to the site, inspected, washed and taken inside ready for laying.

Week 135-139

The priority this month was to get ready for the heating engineer to install the Air Source Heat Pump. As well as getting some outside work done making a plinth for the external unit to sit on and drainage for when the unit defrosts the floor of the utility room had to be tiled ready for the internal units.

I've also been talking to the builders about getting the soakaway installed. They are currently working in the village at another property and will shortly need to dig a trench for a new gas supply. They will be using a medium sized excavator that they are hoping to use on our site once they have finished the trench.

Week 140-144

The digger was delivered, the builder arrived and between us the soakaway installed.

I received a delivery of wood so that I could make the ducting for the air source heat pump (ASHP) pipes and cables to go from the utility room to the outside position for the ASHP.

During the month I also managed to get the oak porch frame installed round the front door.

Week 145-148

We now have a deadline - our landlady came early on in the month and told us that they wanted to move back into the cottage. We agreed a date of 1st September to move out.

I contacted the electrician and plumbers to come in August to do their second fixing and let the heating engineer know our timescale to get the Air Source Heat Pump installed and working.

I contacted our phone and broadband provider and agreed a date of 19th August to transfer the service which should give Openreach sufficient time to install the phone line to the new house. An engineers appointment confirmation from Openreach to connect us was received a few days later.

Our plasterer contacted us to say that he would be coming back in the middle of the month to finish off the plastering of the Oak frame.

My next job was to get on with the ducting for the air source heat pump.

The Oak frame was cleared ready for the plasterer to return and the whole area plasterboarded.

One thing that we would need was some internal doors. We had been looking for some time and come up with a supplier but we did want to go and have a look at them before we placed the order. An appointment was made for a Saturday and we had a trip to the showroom and placed the order with an provisional delivery date of early September.

Week 149-153

The plastering of the Oak frame was completed and a lot of painting in the rest of the house done.

We had been looking at electrical fittings for some time and decided on a style we liked. Now was the time to count up what we needed and get them all ordered ready for the electrician to install.

We also started to move some of the materials (lights, kitchen and bathroom sinks, taps etc) we had already purchased during the build into the new house.

At the end of the month I was getting worried that we hadn't heard from Openreach about installing our phone line to the house so rang our provider. They contacted Openreach who said that everything was arranged for installation on 19th August.

Week 154-157

The pressure month!

Lots of internal work to get the annex ready for moving in.

Then comes the task of moving all our things. During the month we move a lot of the smaller boxes using a trolley and sack truck leaving the larger furniture items to the end of the month when we hired a van.

On the 19th the engineer from Openreach arrives to connect the phone line. Where do I connect the phone cable???? After a conversation about the expected telegraph pole he phones the office, appologises most profusely and goes.

This is the start of several rounds of me phoning our provider, they then contact Openreach, Openreach have a meeting and update their system, our provider gets a notification and then rings me.

At the end of the month we also have a couple of deliveries of the air source heat pump (ASHP) and associated items. Everything was carried inside except the main external unit ready for the installation.

The heating engineer arrived and the various bits and pieces installed. However we are still waiting for the refrigerant pipes to be installed so no heating but we would have hot water using the immersion heater.

Week 158-161

Week 162-166

Week 167-170

Some more work in our bathroom. The walls were painted and a mirror and electric radiator fitted. Still a lot of work to do but we are getting there.

With the first frosts of the year being forecast the heating engineer turned up to comission the air source heat pump.

The first task was to fill the refrigerant pipes with gas before the unit could be switched on. This is a specialist job and an air conditioning engineer turned up to do this.

The underfloor heating pipes had been unused for several months so they were flushed out and an inhibitor fluid added and the pipes bled to make sure that there was no air in the system.

The heating was switched on and checked.

It would take up to 24 hours for the underfloor heating to warm up the house. I went round to each of the room thermostats to set the temperature and we waited to see what happens.

The rooms felt a bit warm so the temperature was reduced a little.

Up to this point we had had no heating and the house was surprisingly warm most of the time. To top up the heat we had a small electric fan heater which we used a handful of times and did the job.

With the heating now finished I could get on and complete the last bit of mechanical ventilation ducting and switch the system on. This also meant finishing the external cladding at the back of the house. We now have heating and ventilation running 24 hours a day. The ventilation system detects when a shower is used and boosts the flow rate to get rid of the steam.

The next job is to lay the stone floor in the hallway so that we can fit the doors to the annex.

Week 171-174

More internal work - tiling the hall, making the stand for the toilet basin, fitting the utility room cabinet and Oak worktop ready for the plumbers to connect.

Some more work on the porch making and fitting a couple of trusses.

Looking forward to a break at Christmas!

Week 175-179

A new year!

The time has come to tackle the internal doors.

The front porch has now had sarking board fitted and is ready for the roofer to return and finish off.

I've also been looking at sourcing the Western Red Cedar shingles for the garage and workshop roof. This would be easy apart from the fact that the side of the roof near the boundary has to be fireproofed.

It turns out that the only firm in the UK that did this treatment stopped offering the service late last year. There are 2 alternatives, DIY or import treated shingles from Canada. The area required to be treated is vast (50 sqM) and I've only found 2 products in the UK, one of which is no longer imported. Luckily I have found a firm that will import from Canada the downside is that it could take 12 weeks.

Week 180-183

Another 3 Oak doors and linings for the annex and downstairs toilet have been sanded, oiled and fitted so things are feeling much more homely.

Now to start working on the upstairs again.

The bathroom at the front was painted and tanking for the shower started.

Week 184-188

Work continued on laying the slate floor tiles for the front bathroom.

Bearing in mind that we would need to start laying the engineered oak flooring within the next couple of months and the worsening COVID-19 situation we measured the amount we needed and ordered it to make sure that we would not be held up. We were not the only ones with this thought and the suppliers were getting lots of calls. 36 boxes of flooring and 2 large rolls of underlay were ordered.

Space was made ready for the flooring which was delivered a couple of days later on a pallet. The pallet was unloaded and the flooring moved inside and stacked up ready for use.

Back to tiling the bathroom walls.

Week 189-192

Finished tiling the front bathroom, now time to do it all again in the back bathroom.

Week 193-196

Week 197-201

Week 202-205

Week 206-209

Week 210-214

The door linings were prepared for the 3 bedrooms and installed.

The door architraves for all the remaining doors have been sanded and oiled ready for fitting and some skirting boards have been fitted in one bedroom.

Week 215-218

More doors, architraves and skirting to fit, sand and oil.

All the door linings, architraves, stop beads and skirting have been screwed into place. A hole had to be drilled so the the screw head would sit below the surface of the wood and oak plugs have been cut and glued into these holes to hide the fittings. Once the glue had dried the plug is trimmed flush, sanded and oiled to blend in with the wood.

Week 219-222

Still fitting doors!

We have been talking to some groundworkers to sort out the outside. Our designer had produced a plan of the outside as part of the planning application but the reality of the site meant that this would be a rough guide rather than an exact design.

The first job they did was to get rid of the rubbish that had accumulated on the site and to get some rough levels established.

I started work on the workshop roof, replacing the old roofing fabric and screwing in the battens, while the groundworkers got on with getting the new gabions installed.

Week 223-227

The weather is quite good so I'm back on the workshop roof fitting more battens and the cedar shingles. One side of the roof is nearly completed before the weather turns.

Back inside working on the doors, floors and skirting upstairs.

A very strange Christmas this year! No visits or visitors but a nice rest.

Week 228-231

Another new year.

Boxes are moved around upstairs so that I can lay the floor in the master bedroom.

The groundworkers return for a couple of days and I manage to get outside to start work on the other half of the workshop roof.

Week 232-235

I'm now fed up!!

The beautiful solid oak doors have started to fail!

It appears that the glue used to fix the central panels has failed and the panels are starting to peel away from the doors.

After providing photos of the problems the company agreed to replace the damaged doors but they wanted the original doors returning.

We had 13 doors and I had fitted 7 of them. 6 of the doors had failed so I set to to replace the failed doors with some of the unused ones.

I managed to replace the doors to our bedroom and the annex and remove the others faulty doors before they were collected.

The remaining doors from the original delivery were prepared and fitted to check that they were OK.

Week 236-240

I'm now even more fed up!!

4 more doors have started to fail!

Another 4 replacement doors were sent but I still had to prepare and fit them.

The weather improved a bit so I did the rest of the workshop roof. It's very theraputic hitting nails epecially the bigger ones.

Week 241-244

The last of the original doors were installed. Fingers crossed!!!

The groundworkers returned and great progress has been made on the front.

A new wall is being built in front of the house and gabions completed at the side of the drive and the front of the site.

We now have a better idea of what the garden will look like.

Week 245-248

The groundworkers returned and finished off the wall and the final levels for the drive, patio and paths round the house.

We have decided to use slate for the outside paving so we measured up to work out how much we needed.

After searching the internet and getting some samples we found some slate paving we liked and placed our order.

The slate arrived on 7 pallets and the first job was to get them moved to the site as the delivery lorry could not get up the drive. Luckily one of our neighbours was having some work done and their contractors had a telehandler. After asking very nicely they agreed to move the slate for us when it was delivered.

The slate had to be inspected, cleaned, sealed and moved. In total it was 100 square meters and was very heavy and took a very long time as it had to dry before the sealant was applied which also had to dry before it was re-packed.

While the groundworkers were here I was busy building the cabinets for the front bathroom.

Week 249-252

The last of the slate paving was washed, sealed and moved.

The bathroom cabinets were painted and fitted and the basin and toilet plumbed in.

Week 253-257

Some more work was done on the external boarding on the glazed end of the Oak frame.

The next big job is to fit the staircase.

The design was finalised and the oak ordered along with enough to make the window boards.

Week 257-261

A big van was hired and the Oak was collected.

The Oak for the stairs was set aside, 13 boards between 2 and 3 meters in length.
The Oak for the window boards was then sorted so the prettiest side was on top.
Now we had to decide which window board would come from each Oak board.

For each window the board was fitted with an apron to hide the join with the wall and small filler pieces fitted at each end.

They were then sanded and oiled before fitting.

Week 262-266

More window boards to make and fit. Our roofer returned to slate the front porch. This meant that I could start the last bit of the cladding on the house.

There was also a bit of gardening to do. Some conifers were planted next to one of the dry stone walls and had grown quite large. One night there were some strong winds that moved one of the conifers to such an extent that it pushed over part of the wall. The conifers were cut down to prevent any further damage. Several other parts of the wall also need attention before we get the drive laid so I need to find a dry stone waller.

Week 267-270

The final bit of cladding was finished. The roofer returnd and the final bit of guttering was fitted to the house and some of the downpipes were then fitted.

Week 271-275

External lighting was chosen and the ducting and cables were installed to the garden side of the driveway. This meant that a trench had to be dug across the drive to get power to the garden. We also suffered when storm Arwen struck. We had 3 power cuts over the 3 days for a total of 36 hours. This also caused loss of mains water for part of the time. The house got a little bit chilly after the longest power cut (27 hours) but not too bad considering the weather. We had a large bottle of water for emergencies but no means of getting a hot drink. Lighting was by candle. When the power returned we made sure that we had a flask of hot water. We now have a gas picnic stove and a lantern that runs off my power tool batteries for any future cuts!

Week 276-279

The ducting to the garden was completed and the trench filled in.

Week 280-283

Time to start the stairs!

The first job was to sort out the boards.

There will be 2 separate flights of stairs with a half landing between them.

The stringers (the long pieces at each side of the stairs) were identified and checked to make sure that they would be long enough.

The treads (the bits you walk on between the stringers) needed to be the correct depth to comply with building regulations. The problem is that trees are a natural product and do not grow to the size you need to get the correct length and width.

The solution is to join an additional strip to make the correct depth.

It took quite a long time to choose the boards for the treads and the aditional strips. These were then planed straight and true before they are glued together.

Week 284-287

Week 288-292

The next job is to make the balustrade and handrail.

Week 293-296

Time to remove the temporary stairs and get the hall ready for the real ones!

The first job was to lay the remainder of the hall floor that was underneath the temporary stairs.

The hall ceiling and walls were painted and the window frames given a final coat.

A new hall light was installed using some glass globes we used to have in lincoln.

The upper stair stringer was held in place to check the level of the half landing, so far so good.

Week 297-301

The hall has been decorated and all the pieces of the stairs shaped and cut.

Time to glue them together and install them.