The Big Freeze

All river traffic ground to a halt in Bristol and so did work in Devon, too but only for a day or so. The ever resourceful site foreman, Joe, thawed out the water pipes and portaloo cistern that we foolishly left full of water after a New Year's Eve visit to the site (you'd think we'd know better, wouldn't you?) and kept the men occupied with inside work. He has a 4wd pickup and ferried the workforce up and down the icy lane. The big ship above is the Thekla, formerly home to Viv Stanshall and now a music venue. This photo was taken from the terrace of our flat.

At a site meeting in mid January, we were distracted from the business in hand by the arrival on site of the new windows as well as the oak flooring. It was difficult to concentrate with this going on just outside the site hut windows. However, we accomplished a huge amount at the meeting and I learned what a "floating floor" is.

The builders seemed genuinely pleased to be installing glazed windows that actually fit the holes and by the end of the winter's afternoon, they had several of the big gable ends done. Just before the meeting started, an earnest chap from the blinds company turned up unexpectedly. He was much more experienced than the greenhorn who'd assured us that the company could fit the pleated blinds within the window reveals. They cannot. We will see what can be done when we go down next week.

This northward gable end being glazed has filled this room with a flood of sharp light, even on a January afternoon.

The steel channel which will invisbly support the glass balustrade has been fitted along the edge of the gallery. Good job Joe Ford checked the measurements as the end of the glass would have fouled the handle of the sliding door to the balcony.

Another photo I almost didn't include. Peter has had a clear vision of what the shower enclosure should look like, right from the start (in fact the whole room's been planned around two gorgeous glass bowls we bought 4 years ago) and we ordered the shower screens and tray on line, to create the finish we wanted. What we didn't appreciate (that'll teach us to read the teeny tiny print) was that the screens are designed to be fitted in a wet room. Our en suite is not a wet room and will have an oak floor. It's taken the combined ingenuity of the whole team, including Peter and me, to work out how to adapt the component parts and avoid water escaping under the floorboards. Fingers crossed.

This shows the treated timber battens on to which the oak cladding will be fixed. The dark hole is where all the services such as electricity, telephone and water pumped from the well will enter and leave the house. The ducting was put in place as the walls were built and waterproofed.

Peter standing on the vegetable terrace. looking over the olive grove. Yes, I know, it doesn't look very promising but wait and see...

One of the longest running conundrums has been how we can stop the gravel on the drive migrating to the bottom of the slope. We've researched it exhaustively and had decided on a grid network filled with gravel. Then the planning permission was checked and the answer is that we can't do anything that may affect the oak tree roots. It's back to raking the gravel back up the slope.

Taking the rough with the smooth (apologies to Dr Andrew Stanway)

Just for a moment, I was considering harnessing this to run a turbine...Sadly, it's a seasonal stream only and runs (or trickles) along at the foot of our valley. And anyway, we'll have enough renewable energy generation with the solar PV and maybe, in due course, an elegant helical wind turbine.

These are the solar thermal panels, which will heat our hot water throughout the summer months. Each panel has its own small photovoltaic panel but we haven't worked out what these are for, exactly. No doubt all will become clear.

The photovoltaic array is actually very beautiful, especially against the blue-grey slate, sleek with rain. Arranging for the cables, carrying DC current, to snake invisibly through the roof construction and down to the far side of the ground floor was quite a triumph of design and engineering. The inverter, which does what it says on the tin, will be in what we're reluctantly concluding will be the "plant room", rather than the dry-store room we'd envisaged. It will be full of machinery and clever electrical stuff as well as the hot water cylinder which is made of stainless steel because the well water is slightly acidic (as I may have mentioned, that's what makes it taste nice) and would eventually corrode a conventional cylinder.

It was quite a pivotal moment, deciding the exact orientation of the bath and where the taps will go. Who'd have thought it'd be such a science?

Hmm. I wasn't sure whether to include this picture but we hope it'll be a historical record of a classic piece of the (temporary) triumph of engineering over aesthetics. This rectangular piece of deal, bolted inelegantly to the junction of three structural timbers, came as a complete shock to us and up with it we will not put. There has to be a better way and anyway, the roof stayed up fine for 6 weeks without this and several more just like it. What felt like a desecration of the simple elegance of the structure reduced me to tears.

Phew. It's been mostly positive over the last weeks and this view of the gallery from the living room is to show not just the magical effect of painting a space but also the interesting geometric shapes that were mentioned earlier in the blog. Those of you with an eye for architectural detail will spot the very end of the ridge beam of the entrance lobby and the beam supporting it, that caused us so much angst. Actually, it's all more interesting than disastrous, thank goodness. The structure looks almost ecclesiastical, which we like very much. We're not sure why the far end of the gallery hasn't been painted yet but the plasterwork is splendid.

More positives: the stair skeleton in place. Getting it into the house was a huge job and some of the welding had to be done in situ, to keep the weight down. This massive steel structure will be plasterboarded and painted to match the walls, so all that will be visible will be the floating stair treads. Maybe it was because it wasn't finished but when we climbed the stairs for the first time, some of the treads had a most disconcerting "shiver". More work in progress.

"And just here we'd like a gentle, wildflower slope...". It seems incredible that over the next few weeks we'll be making decisions on the landscaping and what will be the best surface for the sloping entrance leading from the front gate. Any suggestions/advice welcome.

The hedges all around the boundary of the site have become completely overgrown or the trees and bushes have just rotted away, leaving sad gaps. They've probably been declining for the better part of 40 year,s with only those bounding the lane being slashed annually by machine. It'd be lovely to have the time and skill to replant and to lay these neglected hedges ourselves, however we plan to meet a local hedger at the next site meeting to discuss what should be done. The hedge-laying has to be done by the end of February, before the sap starts to rise, apparently.

This is the view of our gateway, the entrance to the site. Just one end of the eastward gable is visible, which is pretty much how it was when the old house was there. The hedge to the left of the oak tree, with the site hut visible, needs replanting. We'll use quick-set, native species. Another big decision will be what sort of gate we want.