The Roof is coming along

The roof is slowly coming along - The eaves have been painted the same colour as the windows, and we have extended them slightly so that you can look up and see the wood.   The three dormer windows now are all tiles as per this picture..

This is a side view and shows the part hip of the roof.  The planners would not allow us a full hip, and the alternative was a normal ridge roof, so we got a compromise of the part hip - It looks OK, and gives the roof some shape.  This is the view from the front, half way up on the scaffolding.

...And the side view, still half the ridge tiles to put on

And finally the rear, pretty much all the tiles ready to complete, hopefully all done and dusted by the end of the week - The weather has been great so that has helped no end.

 this is a side view - the front Apex's look great and we are really pleased with the choice of tiles - they have a 75 year guarantee, which will outlive us!

Whilst it all seems a bit slow day by day, all the little internal and external jobs are moving on. 

The insulation for the walls was delivered this week, so we have lots of different style of insulation all over the ground floor, and once the first fixes are done, then in it goes!

This is the Kingspan insulation panels for the outside facing walls

..and the plumbers have been in doing their first fix as well.  For the first time we needed accurate locations of all the sinks, taps, waste and shower units so that the piping could be run through the floors.  I was a little concerned over the holes they drill to run the pipes, but once the insulation is in place, hopefully the noise will stay to a minimum.  Here you can see the pipes to the utility room sink (hope we dont decide to move it!) and in the distance the radiator pipes.

We had not really put a lot of thought into the radiator positioning, so we have gone with the recommendations of the heating engineers, and for the most part put them under the windows.  

The size of each radiator varies, and according to the room size, as to what size or how many panels the radiator has.  Because we have underfloor heating downstairs we only have the upstairs to worry about for now.

All the Radiator pipes are run as plastic click and fit, but when they exit out of the walls, then they are copper fittings, so they look nice.

Here you can see the pipe runs through the ceiling

Slate roof starting to come together

A lot of internal work is under way - so it seems little progress is being made, but its only when you look inside you can see the amount of work required to take the house to the next stage of plaster out.

We are just sorting out the plumbing - so what goes where in preperation for the plumber who arrives shortly to start putting in the pipes, and also where all the electric sockets and switches go.  I have also decided to wire the main rooms with Cat6 cable to allow fast broadband to each room, although we have wireless routers, cables will be a much faster and more reliable way to give internet access.  I am hoping to future proof on the basis that one day all movies will come straight off the internet  - and that will require high speed connections.  

I have also decided to try and automate the music systems, so using  Logitech Duet boxes, each of the main rooms will have built in speakers and access to all the music stored on a central server.  Still got to figure all the wiring and shielding with the electrician, but fingers crossed, in theory it all looks ok!

Here you can see the slate roof being laid on the Apex, and it looks really good - I think the choice of the Del Carman Ultra slate has been a good one.  

Everything is now sealed from the elements internally, all windows are in place as are a couple of the 'conservation' velux windows, which you can see here.

Below you can see some of the 'noggins' being put in place, they are the horizontal strips of wood in the middle of the picture, and are there to support the plaster board around the many twists and turns of the structure of the eaves.

Below Rob has put in some battens to help him line up the 'edges' of wood which you can see running diagonally from left to right, used to support the plasterboard.

Windows Fitted

The windows are now being fitted. Althought it doesnt show that well, the colour is like a light cream, and the windows arrived with an undercoat and one top coat. The first fit is to secure them in the frames...

These are the kitchen windows, and they have been designed to open from the bottom out - this was suggested by the window people, as its easier to open when you have to lean across the kitchen units. A typical casement window with a side opening would mean a long set of arms, or getting on the worktop to open, so this special opening semmed to make sense.



We are really pleased with the design and style, having decided to go for slightly larger windows, in a hardwood - initial impressions (at least for us) look good!




And from the outside, although the scaffolding is everywhere



The other piece if good news was that the temporary staircase is now in place, so we can get up and down without using the ladder,

..and a final shot of the roof storage area, with all the Velux lights now in place.