Newbuild4@blogspot.com

 The new house continues to grow at a pace.The carpenters are working today, fixing the first floor joists.  Last Friday the steels, of which there are many, were craned into place.  We like open plan living, which means more steel.  I must admit it is strange being an observer rather than a doer, but I’m enjoying it.  I can sit in my house browsing exciting brochures while the carpenters and bricklayers are working away in the distance.  It’s also a sign that I’m getting old 🤣. On previous builds I was the gofer - bricks, blocks, tools, tea and biscuits.  This time I make the builders a cake once a week - usually on Friday - which they seem to enjoy.  They think I’m Mary Berry.  Actually I’m Betty Crocker😂 Ted, one of our cats, is pondering his fourth move.  He was dumped as a newborn kitten in our garden in Spain, along with his 3 sisters who have all sadly passed away now.  He lived there for 2 or 3 years before embarking on th...

The yellow submarine is on the move, to its final resting place.  The weather has been very kind to us yet again and it has been full steam ahead this week.  We can see the rooms downstairs - their size and exact position.  I find it quite difficult to imagine these things from a one dimensional plan, but it all becomes clear at this stage.  I’m very excited about the kitchen - although after 55 years of marriage I’m absolutely sick to death of cooking. I’m having a bifolding window along the entire width of the back wall of the kitchen - around 4 metres.  It will give a fantastic view out to the garden.  One of the main reasons for the move is to downsize, but also to future proof the house to meet any needs we might have going forward.  So I’ll be saying goodbye to my lovely range cooker and hello to an eye level oven, alongside a combi oven/microwave.  We don’t have mains gas where we live, so there will also be an induction hob.   So next...

 So near and yet so far.  The crane has arrived on site this morning to move containers of blocks, beams and the yellow submarine into their positions.  This is the view of it from my garden - next door but one.  That’s how near it is. In spite of the changeable weather the bricklayers have progressed well.  I’ve spent quite a lot of time on building sites in my life.  My dad, his brother and my maternal grandfather were all brickies and my dad used to take me to work with him when I was little, while my mum was working. No 15 hours a week childcare in the 1950s. I used to play in the building sand.  Can you imagine that now?  I survived it though.  And Dave and I have done many building projects together throughout our married life.  The ‘gang’ working on our house are really good.  The showcase of the exterior is the brickwork, and it is excellent. So once the crane has done its job, the block and beam foundations will be put into...

  I just know you are humming ‘We all live in a Yellow Submarine’, and must wonder why we have just had one delivered.   This is actually an 8000 litre rainwater collection tank, which will shortly be buried in our back garden.  Its purpose will be to collect all the rainwater from our roof  which will then be pumped up to be used to water the garden, and to flush a toilet in the house.  I think it will soon be compulsory to install one of these in every new house. We also have some of our bricks on show, which is exciting,  They are stock bricks and are called ‘Cassandra’.  And now I know you are singing ‘ No income tax, no VAT, no money back, no guarantee’.  If you know, you know 🤣 The weather is being kind to us at the moment, but I think it may be changing later in the week.  We would like to be in the dry by Christmas and it can do what it likes after that.

 A few photos of our woodland, showing where we like to sit and contemplate, and also where the badgers  live We are going to be increasing the size of the woods to include the whole of the badger sett.  The occupants are very active - clearing out the chambers (we always leave hay out for them) and digging their communal toilets.  They are very clean creatures.  We are going to set up a camera when we move house and it will be fascinating to see them going about their nightly lives. I’ve also noticed a lot of bats flying around this year, and also large dragon flies.  I just hope the bats take note that we are building a bat box into the eaves of the house.  They really are the most lovely things and do a great job in keeping the flying insects under control. The builders are getting on.  Dodging showers a bit today.  They are building the boundary wall on the north side, which will support the fencing that exists there already.  We’ve ...

Times have changed somewhat.  The top photo is taken from a drone. Didn’t know what a drone was 11 years ago and now they are multi tasking - some tasks good and others not so.  The second photo is of the foundations concreted.  This is exciting news for me, but I don’t expect it to be for anyone else reading this. There have been times over the last 6 months especially when I have felt as if I was back in full time employment as a secretary - which was my profession decades ago.  We’ve had a long drawn out ‘conversation’ with the land registry, which we eventually won, and now I am knee deep in reports and surveys and trying to keep up with all the certification we need these days.  In years gone by for example  the only insulation we had to have was a few inches of fibreglass in the loft.  Now you are expected to live in a totally insulated box, where not a whiff of a draught or a mobile phone signal can enter.  And to protect our beloved walnut...