The Self Build Diary - Day 159 - Spinning Plates

Well the roof trusses went on on Tuesday on the main part of the house and i had a truly busy weekend preparing for various trades and keeping plates spinning.

I have stud worked the 2nd floor, Concreted a recess left in the flooring for the hearth and fireplace, Insulated some of the ceiling, had a good old fashioned tidy up and completed the media cabling through to the new stud walls.

So its just the gables for the builders to do now and all the stonework will be completed, the builders are now out of the house and the trusses should be felted by the end of next week.

the top floor last week, before i partitioned it off, it is remarkable that the more materials you put into a house the bigger it feels!

So we had the plasterers start to put some plaster work up on the areas of the ground floor which have been fully first fixed:-

And its a great example of pile the materials in and the room feels bigger!

The plumber and electrician are back on Thursday to complete the first fix throughout the house and then the plaster can crack on an fix plasterboard wherever he pleases, within reason!

On Saturday Dan and Adrian from www.vacpoint.com came and fitted the first fix for a built in vacuum system. This was something that we saw at the Home building and renovation show in Harrogate last year and we thought it sounded like a good but over budget indulgence. Anyway we looked at it and the first fix of a system like this is remarkably inexpensive! The guys were in and out in a day and they fitted the full first fix. We can then do the second fix in the future whenever we decide to or whenever we can afford. but the system is there and ready to use and will be a great selling point if we ever decide to go down that route in the future! As someone commented today "I don't know why they don't put the ducting in all new houses! 

Ill update you before the end of the week and then I'm going to have a well deserved week off!

Neil

The Self Build Diary - Day 153 - Stand by for a roof

Tomorrow will be a truly momentous day, and i thought i should drop a short blog post to let you know.

It was confirmed today that the provisional booking for a crane to pull the trusses into place for the roof has been confirmed and by the end of tomorrow we will have a roof structure!

Ill be back to you on Wednesday with some photos of the trusses in action!

This weekend I spent the weekend cabling the house with miles of Cat 5e and Coaxial cable that we may or may not ever use! each bedroom and reception room has been wired to a central point for 2 audio and visual and it will then be plastered over and no doubt forgotten about, but in the future if and when we decide to we will be able to use the structured network to fire all kinds of signals around easily and efficiently! I even ran some speaker wires into some of the ceilings in case we get the urge to have structured sound, and i also put wiring into the lounge for a surround sound system.

This might have been a wasted weekend and a waste of a couple of hundred quids worth of cable, but....... it may turn out to be one of the most important things we have done in the future to give us the flexibility of using the house the way that we want to.

This self building lark is tough, not only have you got to make a million decisions regarding how you want the house to be when you move in but you really have to think how you want it to work in the future too, that's tough!

so the trusses should be in on Tuesday, fixed on Wednesday and the builders will crack on with one of the gables for the rest of the week. This weekend i have a lot of jobs to do, most importantly the stud work on the 2nd floor.

The chaps at http://www.vacpoint.com/ will be coming on Saturday to install the first fix for a central vacuum system, its not something that we can afford at this point but if we get the first fix in, for the relatively low cost of the first fix, we have the option of doing the rest in the future when the cash flow returns. These systems are great, they will become more and more common in the future and are extremely convenient and great for those with allergies, its one of the few things that Mrs G has had her heart set on.

Last week was very busy on site, plumbers and electricians as well as the builders but we got 2 weeks of work done last week that we couldn't have done without the tent until the roof went on. see the updated tent counter

Off to bed now.

Neil


Tent counter

Working days tented -  79

No of days saved to weather - 45

No of days done ahead of untented schedule - 25

The Self Build Diary - Day 146 - Floor Boards and Stud Work

Firstly I'm not sure putting stud work in the title of this blog was a good idea, may i just point out to confused readers who have stumbled over this blog off a google link that stud work refers to dry lining partition walls. if that floats your boat please read on...

Well since the last blog post, things have continued at their ever rapid pace!

The builders  (Abode - http://www.abodebuilders.co.uk/) have brought the extension up to the corbels and kneelers, i didn't know either, but it is the sawn stone detail at the roof line. The main house is up to sill height in stone and the window recesses are in in block work. They have a busy week ahead to get the walls to roof line and enable the trusses to be craned in next Tuesday.

In the meantime Ive been busy messing around, after all this is a self build! Last weekend i boarded out the second floor with the help of my Dad, 100sq M and we turned this:

into this:

Please don't underestimate the sheer amount of time we spent just moving things around!

He then returned to assist me with stud work to the 1st floor, all 35 linear metres and we had very few hold ups. The builders merchant that we use mostly (James Burrell - In Ossett) recommended the speedline stud walling rather than using timber framed walling. the galvanised steel stud is easier to assemble and fit, its straighter and i think cheaper than a like for like wood alternative.

This the back of the first floor and splits it into 5 rooms, a bedroom, a dressing room, two bathrooms and a line/boiler cupboard.

So another full weekend on site, all day Saturday and Sunday, i was very pleased to receive a visit from a helper late on Sunday who wanted to inspect the size of her new bedroom.

This is my daughter Chloe, who insisted that she be bought a hard hat an goggle set so she can go and help daddy at the new house!

I thoroughly enjoyed a day off with the family today on the bank holiday! Electrician and plumber in this week first fix on the ground and first floors.

Neil