A look inside

A couple of views of the inside show that there has been plenty going on in there as well. The workshop is now separated from the rest of the building not just by a timber partition, but with a full height wall of blockwork.

That will give enough isolation to allow safe storage of paints, fuel and suchlike. The area above the ceiling beams here will be floored, lighted and fitted with a hatch and access ladder. I can envisage a nice wee den up there.

This picture gives a sense of how high the bedroom ceiling will be. The beams are so far above the floor that, even at 6' 4'' tall, I can't jump quite high enough to touch them.

The verandah

The flat roof section that covers the front part of the bedroom, the hallway and the outside walkway has begun to take shape today. This morning there was nothing. By lunchtime the beams were all in place. By the end of the day the sarking boards and membrane were there too.

This part of the roof will be finished with lead. Quite a lot of it. That needs to be in place before the main roof is slated.

This outside section of the building was envisaged simply as a convenient route from the house to the workshop in a downpour. Now that we see it taking shape, it has real potential as a verandah on which to while away an evening with a good chair and a glass of something. Angela has a fancy for slinging a hammock between two of the supporting pillars.

By the way, the three cheap looking planks propping it up are indeed cheap planks. They will be replaced by some substantial laminated larch pillars, bolted into steel footings buried in concrete. I'm told they will be more than a match for a good Skye hurricane...

Blue

Today the roof turned blue, the roof windows became invisible again from the outside, the top of the gable was built and more blockwork appeared - including the internal wall between the bedroom and the workshop. Perhaps the most noticeable thing tonight is that being inside the building now feels like being properly indoors.

It suddenly struck me this morning that the roof windows in the bedroom are going to be a long way above human reach, whether to open and close the windows or to open and close the blinds. So - a quick rethink and a change of plan to include remote controlled and electrically operated windows and blinds.
Very James Bond - "Closhe the blindsh pleash, Mish Moneypenny"...

The result of this late change may be a bit of a delay. The basic windows have already arrived in Portree. They will have to be returned and the remote control versions sourced to replace them. The slating was due to begin soon, but that will probably have to wait a while now. Still, I'm sure there's plenty more to get on with.

The mystery of what's under the tarpaulin remains - though Sorbie may be close. Our insulation is going to be mostly rigid sheets, but the specification does include some nice woolly duvet in the roof. (But none of the itchy nasty stuff!)

Looking at what we have tonight, it's hard to believe that it looked like this just one week ago. I'm amazed at the amount of progress in just five working days.

Half a roof - and a new window

We have been out all day today and arrived home to more good progress. The roof timbers that went up yesterday have been cut and framed to form the spaces for the Velux roof windows and the sarking boards are fitted on one side of the building. The hole for the window in the en-suite has appeared above the first stage of external blockwork.

Intriguingly, we noticed that there is something hidden underneath a tarpaulin in the workshop. I wonder what it is?

The Flitch Beam

We are learning about building. We know what a Flitch Beam is. In fact, we have one of our very own now. It is a big beam made of a sandwich of wood and steel plate, bolted together with great big bolts. In this case it supports the section of roof above the bedroom, where there is no wall below it.

The Flitch Beam in situ

With the beam constructed and in place, most of the rest of the roof timbers are up. Other than the covered walkway - yet to be started - we can now see for the first time the extent of the building. 

Just before close of play, a lorry delivered a pile of sand, a big cement mixer and some blocks...

All wrapped up

Today was wet, and one of the worst days for midges I have ever known. The two joiners worked right through it. They were wearing the full anti-midge gear though, wandering around the site in hoods, brandishing big staple guns and looking a lot like baddies from Dr Who.

They have wrapped the timber frames beautifully in silver-coloured insulating breather membrane - the first stage of what will be a pretty energy-efficient construction.

And, as you can see, the beginnings of the roof are in place.

All of a sudden

So far there has been a lot of work put into the foundations and floor without too much to show for it. Today's work has produced a somewhat more spectacular result.

Back door and bedroom window

Bedroom window and workshop door

Looking out the workshop window

Angela in our bedroom window

The bedroom

It's looking big again...

Polishing concrete

Completed just before one o'clock this morning with the help of floodlights and some interesting looking bits of kit. Very smooth result:


Will we get builders today, or will they be tucked up in their beds? We'll let you know!

Scoop and Dizzy join the crew

Scoop was the first to arrive this morning - very impressive:

He was here to move the concrete around instead of running wheel barrows over the underfloor electric heating cables being laid in the en-suite:

and the bedroom:

Dizzy arrived later with the concrete to cover the cabling:

This will be "polished"later on today to leave a smooth finish.

They're back.....

After a three week absence, the builders reappeared at 9.30 this morning. At close of business today, the place looked like this:


So, all day to cover the foundations with a tarpaulin? Not quite! Beneath that green exterior lurks a damp proof membrane, insulation and the electric underfloor heating mats for the bedroom and en-suite. Tomorrow Dizzy is back to cover all of the above in another layer of concrete.

Apparently the frames have been built off site, and they may start putting those up next week. The windows are on order, but won't be here for another six weeks. Nice to see things happening again though.

Rumours

There is still nothing at all happening here, but we have heard a couple of second or third hand bits of information:

- The next stage of work involves the electricians laying the underfloor heating mats to be embedded in the layer of screed above the damp proof membrane. They are waiting for delivery of the matting.

- The framing for the wall panels and the roof timbers is being done off-site at the moment.

I know not whether either of these rumours is accurate, but the optimist in me says that at least our extension may be being built. It's just that we can't see it yet!

Curing concrete

"It takes around three weeks for poured concrete to reach 90% of its final strength."

This is just a quick post to let you know that the lack of updates here is not because we've forgotten. It's because there has been nothing to report.
We are approaching two weeks of inaction on the site here. I have no idea how much longer the builders will leave it before risking a footstep on the concrete base, but I think it will soon be verging on the excessive. Meanwhile, we've been having fun choosing our flooring, wall tiles, bathroom furniture etc.
It seems there's no rush to place orders for any of it though...

Time Capsule

While the builders are waiting for the concrete to cure, there is no progress to report on the build itself. But we have started working on a ‘time capsule’ to be hidden in the structure. The idea is that whatever we hide will be found when the building is demolished, and that it will be of interest to whoever finds it. Who knows when that might happen – in 50 years perhaps, or 100 years, or more?...

The capsule itself will be a locked and sealed cashbox. Each member of the family is producing stuff to put in it. The list of contents so far is:

• A selection of photographs of our house, inside and out
• A history of the ownership and uses of the house as far back as we can trace it
• A photograph of the family
• Daisy’s school timetable
• Pictures and information about Libby’s favourite bands and TV programmes
• Pictures of Daisy’s favourite fashion clothes
• A till receipt, and commentary, for our weekly shopping at the Co-op
• A brief family tree
• The front page of our local paper
• “The World This Week” page from The Economist newspaper
• The URL for this blog (will Google still exist in 2110?)
• A set of the coins of UK currency

 

As much as possible of this will be put onto a USB memory stick as well as on paper. (With a note to explain what it is!) I expect that even a century from now someone will figure out how to get the data off it.

So, here’s a challenge. Which reader of this blog can make the best suggestion for something else we could add to our capsule? Hit the ‘Comment’ button and let us know your ideas!

Concrete - and insulation

Dizzy the concrete truck arrived early this morning, on a dull and very wet day. The concrete was poured into wheelbarrows and thence dispersed around the foundations in a layer over the hardcore. It didn't take long, but it looked like hard work.

The most interesting bit to us was the inclusion of vertical sheets of Kingspan insulation around all the external parts of the slab. Living in a house that's about 160 years old, we don't see much in the way of energy-efficient construction. This extension is going to be very different indeed, with state-of-the-art insulation throughout. We're looking forward to cosy winters...

Getting more technical

Work resumed this morning with the laying of the first stage of floor construction, a good depth of compacted hard core. Underneath that, there is a duct for the new electricity supply (the black pipe) and an assortment of drain pipes, a vent pipe and a rodding pipe.

We noticed when we got home tonight, after figuring out what all these pipes were for, that something interesting had happened while we were out. If you look at the right hand side of the last picture you can make out a pickaxe with a large stone beside it. That stone was part of the foundation of our house. It has been removed in order to tie in the breeze-block of the extension which now runs into the hole in the gable. I'm glad we weren't around to witness that little manoeuvre!

The next stage of the floor is a layer of concrete - so we may be seeing Dizzy again on Monday.

Now you see them...

...now you don't. Was it something I said? Were the chocolate biscuits not up to scratch? Where have our builders gone?

The phoenix

Arising from the "ashes", today brought the first signs of new walls:


Now all the rooms look really small - another optical illusion we hope!

Dizzy the concrete mixer

It was a pretty slow start to the week. The builders finally arrived around 9.30, off loaded a few blocks, shuffled them around, disappeared again (repeat several times). However, at 4.30, this shows up:


Great excitement, lots of noise and slushy grey stuff - very Bob the Builder. Within 40 minutes the trenches looked like this:


I think its a very good thing we decided to pen the chooks in - I can just imagine them sporting little concrete booties.

Trenches

A scary amount of earth has been dug out and the ground flattened. The trenches appeared today and clearly show the outline of the rooms to come:


It all suddenly looks a lot bigger than it did on paper!

Well - no workmen over the weekend, so we can have a lie in. The concrete for the foundations arrives Monday morning.

The biggest alarm clock in the world

If you ever have trouble waking in the morning, I can thoroughly recommend the timely intervention of a pneumatic drill and a digger simultaneously attacking the foundations of your house. When you're not quite expecting it, and not quite awake, it does grab your attention.

By the end of today things looked very different again. The gate, gatepost and fence at the entrance to the house have gone. Our lovingly tended (not really) vegetable beds are buried under excavated topsoil. Our compost bins have been relocated away from all the action. The rest of the 'Link' is no more. The concrete floors and old foundations have disappeared - straight from the ground onto the back of a lorry and gone.

The digger is excavating levels measured by laser, which is more comforting than the usual bit of old string and a wooden peg. I'm actually astonished by how much has happened over the last few days. It's impressive, and just a wee bit scary.

Not sure what, if anything, is planned for tomorrow. A slightly longer lie-in would be welcome though...

Not much left now

A slower day today, but good progress nonetheless. The scaffolding has gone, the back door is weatherproofed (proofed against Skye weather, I hope!), the foundations of the old building have been broken up and the timber framed 'Link' has begun to come down. It seems it was very well built when we had it done five years ago. It's taking a bit of effort to remove it.

Everything is quite well controlled and the site is tidier than might be expected at this stage - so we are pretty happy at the moment.

There is talk of a digger arriving tomorrow. What fun!

...and they're off

After a week of absolute quiet, we were beginning to settle into believing that the whole project existed only in our imagination. This morning, just as we were setting off to climb Sgurr Mhairi, people arrived in vans and lorries. We left them to it and enjoyed our day in the hills. Returning home late this afternoon, we noticed that things had moved forward a bit.

We have never before seen that wall of our house. It's interesting to discover the marks of a much older extension, clearly visible as the unrendered and unpainted part of the gable. (The line a couple of feet higher is the roofline of the bit that's just been demolished.)

I think we have now passed the point of no return.

Day 2

Nothing. Niente. Nada. Rien...
The weather here is rather wild this week. Perhaps it's not surprising that they don't want to start dismantling sheets of corrugated iron in a gale. I wouldn't fancy it myself!

Day 1 - Monday 5th July 2010

There was great excitement this morning. Up early, breakfasted and waiting for the demolition team to arrive. (We thought they would be here sometime between 08:00 and 09:00).

At 10:00, with no sight or sound of them, we decided to get on with life and headed out to the shops of Portree. Back home at midday - still nothing happening. Phoned our architect. "Well", says he, "The contract says they 'can' start today, not that they 'will' start today." We should be getting used to Skye-time by now! So we decided to relax and go with the flow (or lack of it) for a few days and take stock later in the week.

And then, at the crack of half past three this afternoon, came a knock at the door. "Is this the right house for us to knock down?" I confirmed that some of it was to be knocked down and tried to explain with clarity which bits I wanted to be left standing. Expecting the noise of sledgehammers to begin at any time, I retired to sit it out at the other end of the house. All was quiet...

Anyway, and despite all of this, it seems we are to have a rather more controlled demolition than we had anticipated. By 5 o'clock the place looked like this.

I wonder if anyone will be here tomorrow morning?

Empty spaces

It's astonishing just how much stuff there is to move out of a teenage girl's bedroom.


And some might say the same of my old workshop...

Anyway, it's all done now. Just the washing machine remains to be walked up to the old school tomorrow, where it will be plumbed in for the next few months courtesy of our very generous neighbours.

And here's our first 'Spot the Difference' question. Compare this picture with the similar view in the post of June 25th.

Almost ready to start

Today we met with the builder and architect to finalise the contracts and discuss how the project will be managed. At long last, and only just in time, the planning office has issued the building warrant. So all is set for a start to be made next Monday (5th July).
We are feeling excited and apprehensive about it all. Stage one will be the demolition, giving some good photo opportunities I'm sure. Between now and then we have a little more work to do to complete the emptying of the old building.
And if the satellite dish doesn't get relocated PDQ it will be demolished along with everything else next week. Mind you, a few weeks without TV wouldn't be too bad...

Before we begin...

This is the 'before' state - three views of the corrugated iron extension that was on the house when we bought it five years ago. The big black doors open to a basic storage/workshop area. The other half is used as a bedroom.

By the time this project is finished, things will look quite different.

We have been planning this project with our architect for about a year - going through all sorts of fun stuff like planning consents and building warrant applications (We are still waiting for a building warrant to be issued...) Now we have selected our builder and we are hoping to see work start early in July.

The final product should be a rather more solid extension than this one, to include a bedroom, a shower room, a utility room and a workshop. The work is scheduled to take about 20 weeks, so we ought to be finished before the end of the year. We'll see...

However fast or slow the progress, I'll be updating this blog pretty frequently once things get going.