Before we begin, here are couple of pictures of the newhouse:
This is the South/West view.
This is a blog of the building of a house.
It really is for nerds or someone building a similar house,
so if you are neither, stop reading now.
But if you want a miniblog you can look here Miniblog .
The new house was to be an eco-friendly house. Here are some of its eco-friendly aspects:
Brookside Lodge.
The entries are in reverse order, latest first, so the first is at the bottom,
but each has a "NEXT" pointer to go to the one above.
There is another blog of a self build house at
Steve Carter Build.
It is difficult to find via Google or his home page, but it is more entertaining than mine
because lots more things go wrong in an even more difficult situation.
23rd December 2006.A Postscript.
Block paving, decking, Building quantities, Building Cost.
8th November 2006.A Gate At Last and move in.
2nd November 2006. We Can Move In !
Underfloor heating problem sorted.
30th October 2006. We Got Heat, but ...
24th October 2006. We Got No Heat :-(
Ground Water Heat Pump installed but there is a problem.
21st October 2006. Garage Door and more.
Underfloor heating control circuitry and kitchen finished.
18th October 2006. Surplus Wood Gone.
16th October 2006. We Got a Bathroom and pedestrian gate..
9th October 2006. We Got a Kitchen almost, and leak fixed.
6th October 2006. We Got Water and ...
5th October 2006. Things Happening.
End of plumbing 2nd fix, entrance brickwork, and beginning of shower. (Hooray for Quickgrips.)
30th September 2006. A Week Gone By.
Plumber starts 2nd fix and bricky wrenches back.
23rd September 2006. We Got Lights.
19th September 2006. Start of kitchen and white goods delivery.
16th September 2006. Chippies Gone!.
Electrician's 2nd fix, bath and wetroom fittings delivered, utility room sink.
5th September 2006. We Got Stairs.
3rd September 2006. 9 Days Ago. Beginning of stairs and garden.
25th August 2006. Almost Two Weeks.
15th August 2006. Floor boards going down.
2nd August 2006. A Quick Update, finished emulsioning.
30th July 2006. Finished a job of treating the exterior wood.
26th July 2006. The sewer is finally finished.
23th July 2006. Slow Progress.
Telephone line, Kingspan, and electricity meter.
6th July 2006. Twelve Days Since Last Update.
Building Inspector, Stinking man holes, Sally & Karen, bee swarm, installing Kingspan, underfloor pipework upstairs.
25th June 2006. Two Deliveries. Ground Water Heat Pump and Underfloor pipework.
The plasterers are still busy.
20th June 2006. Not Much Change to see.
Except Bob Mitchell, boss of Gosforth Plasterers Ltd and an owl
16th June 2006. Much Happening. Plasterers and stinking manholes.
15th June 2006. A Significant Step Forward.
12th June 2006. Not much happened, but ...
The plasterers begin work.
7th June 2006. A long Web Page.
BT problems in Cottage. Plaster board delivery. Sound insulation.
1st June 2006. My Birthday, I'm 66.
No Internet access. Flue installed so topping out ceremony
25th May 2006 We Moved Home.
15th May 2006 It's Like That. Plumbers started first fix.
11th May 2006 No Pictures.
10th May 2006 Little Progress.
Stove installation and beginning of flue erection.
9th May 2006 Things Wrong and Dado rail.
7th May 2006 A Weekend of treating wood. Our first bit of post delivered.
4th May 2006 A Significant Day, we can lock and secure Brookside lodge.
3rd May 2006 It's Definitely PM, and windows and doors going in.
28th April 2006 We got electricity.
27th April 2006 Hectic or what.
Electricians start first fix and trench for electrity supply.
26th April 2006 A Happy Bunny.
Flowers gardening and stinking sewers.
24th April 2006 Steady Progress.
Downpipes and Back Inlet Trap Gullies.
20th April 2006 The White Stuff.
Expanded polystyrene going up and potatoes going down.
18th April 2006 Easter Weekend.
Timber frame finished and vapour check barrier being installed.
13th April 2006 Not Updated Blog Again!.
scaffolding gone
11th April 2006 Tony and John Back.
10th April 2006 Busy Day and we got water.
8th April 2006 Not Updated Blog.
scaff
6th April 2006 Busy Working installing insulation.
4th April 2006 We are Lucky.
Missing doors delivered, John and Nick to the rescue.
1st April 2006 Tony came to help with gutter installation.
31st March 2006 Roof On.
30th March 2006 Just one photograph Kimmo and Matti return to Finland.
29th March 2006 K&M's Last Day.
28th March 2006 Busy Day.
27th March 2006 John came back.
26th March 2006 Afternoon Off.
24th March 2006 Two Day's Worth.
22nd March 2006 First window today.
21st March 2006 Ready for the Roofer.
20th March 2006 Almost every day.
18th March 2006 Steady Progress Today.
17th March 2006 A rude awakening.
16th March 2006 Not much today but fan mail!
14th March 2006 Two Day's Worth.
13th March 2006 Up to bedroom ceiling.
12th March 2006 Snow was forcast.
11th March 2006 Crane Day.
9th March 2006 Going Upwards.
8th March 2006 Quite a Lot Happened.
7th March 2006 Rain Stopped Play.
6th March 2006 Up to First Floor.
5th March 2006 We had a day off.
4th March 2006 It had to happen.
3rd March 2006 Another Glorious Day.
2nd March 2006 A Cold Sunny Day.
1st March 2006 Start of Timber Frame.
28th February 2006 Second Delivery.
27th February 2006 Problem Solved.
24th February 2006 Progress.
23rd February 2006 It had to happen.
22nd February 2006 Two thirds up.
21st February 2006 Bottom Half Up.
20th February 2006 Things moving ...
16th February 2006 Nothing much to see...
11th February 2006 About the Wood.
9th February 2006 Garage rafters up today.
8th February 2006 It dawned a sunny frosty morning.
7th February 2006 Garage taller than expected.
6th February 2006 Construction begins.
3rd February 2006 At last delivery day.
16th December 2005 a momentous day.
For the 4th day in a row, blue sky, little wind, perfect weather. 15th December 2005.
Bit of a delay for delivery of diesel, but then really cracked on. 14th December 2005.
13th December 2005 They arrived at 7:30, we were still in bed!
Scrabble out of bed, shower, walk dog, Shredded Wheat, then see what they are doing.
Action after over a month of inaction. 12th December 2005.
The brick plinth for house was finished on Tuesday 8th November 2005.
On Wednesday the foundation was widened, and on Thursday the blockwork was made up to height.
Friday 4th November 2005 dawned a very wet day.
Tuesday 1st November 2005 after a rather strained and difficult time work resumed.
Friday 28th October 2005 dawned a drizzerly rain, but as Kevin senior said, "Rain at 7, bright by 11".
So they sat in their van, (inside it is a tidy person's nightmare), awaiting delivery of mortar due first thing.
It arrived about 09:45.
Thursday 27th October 2005 was a brilliant sunny warm day.
It was Wednesday 26th October 2005 before much else could be done, the blocks were delivered.
Friday 21st October 2005 it rained all day, but the concrete was ordered so had to work in it.
Kevin Hart came with Kevin(Jnr) and Gary on the 18th October but
there was no low loader to transport the digger so they left at 11:00.
They just sat in their vans doing nothing.
It was just the same with the sewer diversion people,
they sat doing nothing until plant and material were on site.
If there was a company that could get men, plant and materials
on-site at the same time they could double the work they do
and so double their income.
19th October 2005 Kevin Hart, Kevin(jnr), and Gary dug the foundation trenches.
The sewer diversion people came on Tuesday 4th October
the flow was diverted on
7th October 2005.
The first task was to make an entrance to the site.
So we engaged John Young to do the job on
24th August 2005.
We submitted a planning application on the 3rd March 2005 to North Tyneside Council
and we got planning permission to build our house on the
8th May 2005,
it came with 15 conditions that we had to satisfy.
It was not until the
3rd August 2005 that we got the go ahead to start.
Another early job was to clear the garden of trees and bushes
that were in the way.
We called in a tree surgeon who we have used
before
to cut down and shred about 20 trees and shrubs on
20th July 2005.
An early job is to move the summer house.
Nick our friendly local farmer come on the
14th June 2005 to do the job.
On 24th November 2004 we got the go ahead to divert the sewer.
It was in February 2004 that we decided to downsize
from a four bedroom/four reception dwelling
to something smaller as all our children
had 'flown the nest' and we had reached retirement age.
So we got estate agents in to value the house
and they looked at the size of the garden
and said it was so big, it could be divided
to leave a good size garden and a building plot.
We thought if someone was going to build on it,
why not us? Having retired we had need of something to do,
(well not quite, we were both busy with other things),
but why not something of a challange? Build a house.
Cannot remember how we got on to an ArticHouse
www.artichouse.fi,
but we looked at some and thought that is for us.
One at Hadstone we looked at on the
12th March 2004 was an
Artichouse EURO 172 which we thought would fit in our garden.
