Maddie & Richard's money pit
It really feels like we are motoring along now. The first joists have gone in for the first floor. And our first steels are now in place. Only another 10 or so to go.
And you can just start to see the size of the bifold doors that will be in the lounge overlooking the garden – if you try really hard that is – between the sets of the bricks on the left and the right…
And the same at the front, where you can begin to get an idea of how the house will look:
This one is a bit special – its aimed at one special person and one person only. The only person I know who gets excited by brick patterns and saves pictures of them on her computer. You know who you are!
So just for you – the front of the extension.
Oooooooohhh – Flemish bond….
And a close up. No, can’t see it myself, but each to their own…
Just steady progress at the moment. The first three steels have arrived. There are a lot more to come, as we will ultimately be demolishing pretty much the entire original side wall and something needs to stop the house falling down…
And the walls are up to about 8 feet now.
Last weekend, we took Maddie to Silverstone for a track day that Charlotte and Becky bought her for Christmas. She’d had to postpone it while her hand recovered from surgery, and after she got over an initial bought of claustrophobia in the tiny cockpit (not sure I’d have had the guts to get back in), she was out and speeding round the Silverstone short circuit. Maddie was buzzing when she got out – and can’t wait to go again.
Get the feeling that Jasper and Bailey would prefer us just to stop now that we have created a cat playground…
Been a bit busy for Maddie and I at work this week, so sorry for not posting any updates, but we have a few heading your way over the weekend.
This has been the first week where really visible progress has taken place. So the front door frame is in place, the final beams for the flooring arrived, as did the insulation and the thermoblocks all ready for the walls to start rocketing up.
Which they did:
We’ve even got the first indication of our kitchen/dining window appearing…
We have brickwork!!! We are waiting for the final few beams to finish off the flooring so the guys have started on the first few courses of bricks.
With plenty more where they came from at Alex’s yard…
We’ve also finished the drains and new watermain (rivetting I know, but kinda important)
But most exciting of all – our new sign has arrived. As you can see from the main picture of the front of the buildings, there is a sign between the two houses
and we wanted to mirror that for the new extension, to go above the front door. Originally we had thought to match it exactly, but then we decided that we wanted to reflect the original but also recognise that this is a new build. So with the help, support and amazing customer service of Angharad and her team at the Stonesign company, our new sign arrived by courier today. And we love it.
A massive thank you to Angharad andÂ
So, still waiting for the extension to start to rise from the floor. But we always knew that the groundworks would take time to complete and next week should see the block and beam flooring finish and the walls begin to appear. And it’s not like there isn’t any brick work…
Told you there were bricks…
And we are having interesting thoughts about landscaping the front garden…
We have just added a new page to the site. It’s called Design Ideas and you can get to it through the menu at the top of the site, or by clicking here.
We’ll post images and thoughts there about the sorts of finishes and designs we are thinking about for when we have the shell complete. It seems like there is a never-ending series of decisions to make about pretty much everything. But it’s actually loads of fun making those decisions. On the Design Ideas page, you’ll be able to see some of our options and thought processes and offer any thoughts you might have about any preferences.
So a mammoth effort on the block and beam flooring over the last couple of days (including excavating the remaining earth between the newly set foundations).
And the beams are ready for more blocks to go down tomorrow (and the drains are slowly being hidden!)
