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.

The Windows

Finally months after our initial enquiry, the windows are nearly ready to ship.  The story of how we came across this company was quite interesting.  We had a couple of quotes from local companies that had been recommended to us, and one was Custom Precision Joinery in Mold. 

Seperate to this we had also seen a recent barn conversion that we liked the windows.  They were a casement style, but had a nice profile to them, with a 'mullion' that gave the windows a different style, I enquired about who the manufacturer was, and it turns out to be Custom Precision Joinery, who we had a quote from.

CPJ re-worked our quote to design in the mullion, and we decided to go for hardwood, as the uplift over softwood was only around 15% in cost.  We also got them to prime the wood and apply one top coat.

Here are the windows all stacked up ready to be finished

The arched window below is actually around 2m high, and forms the large window in the hallway landing on the first floor

This is one of the obscure glass bathroom windows

I hope this was a good idea!  All the windows are spray painted, hopefully leaving us to just finish with a final coat on site.

The 'arch' for the main hallway window had to be hand made

Here you can see one of the front house windows being finished 

We have been very pleased with CPJ, they have kept us in touch all the way through, and made all the small adjustments we needed, such as the kitchen windows opening from the bottom rather than the side.

Roof now covered ready for tiles

The final roof covering is now on, and the roofer was just completing the last of the battens, ready to get the tiles laid.  Finally the House is covered from the top, and we are waiting for the delivery of the Windows and Doors, so the house can be made secure.

The Roofer reckons around 3 weeks to complete the Slate Tiles, they all have to individually checked and sorted into different thickness's ready to be put up.

Here is a shot from the front, where you can see the finshed roof.

Its hard to believe that there are 5200 slate tiles here, we eventually chose a slate called Carmen Ultra from Spain, it has a nice grain and thickness.  We saw them on another house and they look really nice.

This is inside the master bedroom, looking up you can see the roof is now completely covered.

Roof on and floor sections complete

The pictures are a little out of order here - this is the side view of the house.  Planning wouldnt allow us too much in teh way of windows, so there is a side entrance and window, then two smaller windows on the first floor which have to be obscure glass.

This is the living area, the hole in the wall is the fireplace, and we have opted for some wide casement style windows on the front of the house, you can see the where the windows will eventually go.

This is the view from the front - the roof is complete, the floors are now in, and the roofer is finishing the cover and battening so we can hopefully have a dry house, or at least from the top down.  The mild weather the last couple of weeks has been really great, and allowed us to crack on after all the snow that was slowing things down.

Here you can see the storage area at the top of the house.  We opted for creating a room rather than rafters and loft, the pile of wood in the front of the photo is the frame for the staircase, which will go in once the floor is complete.

and the back view, the rear windows have taken shape, and with the roof now battened the project seems to be moving on fairly quickly.  

This is the inside just showing the rear living/kitchen area, the entrance to the left is going to be double doors and windows, the hole in the wall to the right is a second fireplace, and in the middle a further window.

Inside the Timber Frame

Here you can see inside the rear of the building.  The whole back area is open plan, supported by a number of large RSJ's to take the weight.  The white timber is the Fascias being primed to put in place later in the week.

Roof and Joists in place

The frame got a little wet, as we were dodging showers, but not too bad.  You can see one of the very large glu lam beams at the top of the picture.  There are two of these supporting the roof, and they are extremely large and heavy!

Here you can see the crane lifting the roof trusses in place.  The crane was only on site for one day, and everything slotted into place as designed (Thankyou Neatwood Homes!)

Here Rob and Dave guide in place the roof trusses.

The font of the frame is starting to come together, and below is the large picture window that we have designed, that looks out over the front of the house.  It is around 2m high, so we hope it looks as good finished as it did on paper

Here you can see the internal timber frame, this is the area to the back of the house, with the staircase hold rail in the front of the picture

Finally the second floor is in place, and you can start to see things coming together... Neil (next door) is also starting on his build.

The next stage happens very quickly, up go the walls...

Very very muddy, but slowly getting there.  To prepare the site for this, tons of stone was laid around the house, so the crane and vehicles can get on and off OK, but the rest of the site is mud. Out of interest we removed around 20 wagons worth of soil to get the plot level and dig out the foundations.

This the view from the rear - and in a matter of days the frame really starts to take shape - the ground floor is complete, and the first floor panels are put in place.

You can see the rear windows taking shape.

The floor is also being built up, very quickly the complex wood structure inside is taking shape, and there are people swarming all over the structure, everyone concentrating on a particular part. It surprised us how quick this was done.

You can see the odd metal beam to support the large open space we have

Here you can see the inside starting to take shape

and the first floor panels slotting in from the front view