Progress Report

I have been very remiss at blogging for which I can only apologise. It is getting increasingly difficult to take photos, or even to see progress, now that it is dark by 5 pm. Also, the area that is currently being worked is covered by tarpaulins, making it less visible still.

The final set of joists were quickly installed, a temporary floor put down, and blockwork commenced on the final storey. This will take us up into the gable ends and the roof area. You can just about see this in the below photo, which also shows how the scaffold ramp has simply been modified from a down-slope to an up-slope.

From the rear, the building now seems very tall :

We had a slight hiccup that had to be resolved yesterday. Back when the builders first started, you may remember that we had a few debates over the width of the chimney breast in the basement. In the end it was substantially increased over how it appeared in the plans. Only now, having reached two storeys above, have we experienced the knock-on effect of this. In the top floor we have specified a small window either side of the chimney breast. Each was planned to sit in the middle of the alcove. However, with the wider chimney breast continued up from the basement this has pushed one of the windows too close to the front wall of the room. This effectively means that the partition wall to build an en-suite bathroom (should we choose to do it) butts up to the wall smack in the middle of the window ! We have had to move the window closer to the chimney on one side, in order to resolve this. The other option was to dispense with it altogether. However, from the outside, this elevation looks quite stark - a huge wall of stone, and we think it needs these windows to break it up visually.

The builders were not concerned. They had only set it out on the inner skin and it was a five minute job with the disc cutter. In fact it helps because there is now more clearance between the detailing (label) at the top of the window and the roof-line.