Doing the groundwork

Life on the block has been a little frustrating recently because our builder is over-committed and consequently we haven't seen much in the way of building going on for the last couple of weeks. The problem started with the bad weather at the beginning of the month which meant it was difficult to get workers and trucks up here so none of the material for building the decks or plasterboarding the house has yet arrived, and the problem was compounded for a while because the plasterers couldn't start until the cool room went in.

As you know, the cool room (complete with commercial glass doors into the dining area) is close to dearest husband's heart... well here it is, in all its glory, albeit before the aforementioned doors have gone in.





















The 'box' effectively came in pre-assembled, just requiring seals and internal fittings. Part of the studwork in the wall between the pantry and the dining area had to be removed so that the cool room could just slide in!





















After a couple of days' work the unit was pushed into position





















The door into the cool room features a manually operated bell so that if someone got stuck on the inside they can ring for help - mind you, the door doesn't lock so all they'd need to do is pull hard!





















That is pretty much the only work that has gone on inside the house unless you count a bit of tidying up of joinery and putting down the bottom runners for the sliding wardrobe doors. Outside we did get a day of rendering (viz. the planter boxes, one of which is shown above) and a day with a bobcat and driver, who tidied up the (small) pile of builders' rubbish and levelled off at the back of the house.





















This is argilite, the shale rock on this side of the hill on which the house is built. It's very beautiful: all sorts of shades of red, yellow and brown with the occasional streak of quartz or blue-grey stain.

The largest contribution to 'progress' has been our own engaging of John Lacey's earth moving company to do more ground works around the place. A couple of trucks' worth of road base has been laid in front of the house and down the slope to the studio where we're living which should make a hell of a difference to the site in the rain. I was surprised at how coarse the rocks were in the road base, but after a couple of passes with the trucks and a bobcat it has smoothed out considerably: the larger rocks have pressed into the clay sub-surface, providing a very effective anchor for the finer grit, crushed rocks and dust that make up the rest of the material. We should get a couple of years out of the new surface at least...













Pete the digger driver






Pete's almost balletic with that digger! He's currently digging terraces on the slope in front of the main house: that's going to be the site of our garden and we decided to go for broad terraces running in sweeps across and down the slope so that we have a series of flat areas to work with rather than a single slope. We want to plant some bits and have a flat lawn on some areas; digging it out ourselves would take AGES and frankly we'd like to be sitting on the grass drinking our Pimms before we're too old and decrepit to enjoy it... so we've invested (heavily!) in Pete's expertise and he's spending this weekend with us, digging out the terraces and putting HUGE granite boulders against the batters to keep the whole thing upright as it were.

You can see the back of the first terrace being carved out earlier this morning....





You get some idea of the size of the rocks with darling daughter sitting on them!









The other arrival yesterday - apart from the digger - was our brand spanking new firebox, which to me at least is an object of great excitement. We saw this firebox in a magazine and decided it was what we wanted because it is double-sided and so it sits in the middle of a wall and can heat both rooms. As our house is decoratively simple inside, this is going to be a real feature when it is eventually installed in a new wall in between the TV room and the dining area.





















Sam and Shannon drove all the way from Sydney to put it together, and will provide Warren with any telephone support he requires to install it fully.





















The great thing I love about it is that the fire glass can be either lifted (on a weighted pulley) or opened on each side of the firebox. The chimney that will be built around the firebox allows for the fire glass to slide up behind the opening, making it a very sleek construction. We haven't yet decided on an external finish around the firebox because we haven't yet got a proper idea of what it's going to look like in situ, so you could argue that it's a very expensive leap of faith! But I maintain it's going to look stunning when it's all put together.





















The flue and all the other bits and pieces for the fire are sitting inside the pantry waiting for something to happen...