Slow progress on site

We’ve now got most of the steels in, including the ones framing the large window looking out from the kitchen, which have given the house form.

We’ve put up scaffolding around the property for the roofing and cladding to be done, although it’s so indescribably muddy there are places we can’t put too much weight on! Thankfully, it has been dry enough recently to concrete in the manholes, which were letting in water from the saturated ground around them.

Unfortunately the mud is still holding us back as all the machinery gets stuck constantly. The clay gloop in the field to the north of the house is now impassable. I lost a pair of wellies in there recently; I had to crawl out in my socks and abandon them. It was not very dignified.

My groundworking expert thinks it’s not yet practical to dig out the drainage features and pond for the final landscape design. He’s come up with a temporary ‘Plan B’, which means scraping all the gloop off and making a drainage channel to take the water run-off into the culvert in the lane.

It sounds good to me, and will give us a chance to get the final landscaping in the field done before spring. The areas to the west and south of the house, the formal garden, will have to wait until the end of the build, when we have demolished the existing house to give the machinery access, and removed the builders’ cabin.

We’re thinking about a couple of other things in advance, too. The kitchen is a bit of a muddle; we found some really cool contemporary German units for a very reasonable price, but the whole lot is turning up imminently – much too early – and we don’t quite know where to store them.

Also, I need to get the solar installer lined up to move our PV panels onto the roof of the top box and the electricity company to set up a new supply.

More immediately, there’s the substrate to order for the wildflower roof. The roofers are here next week and it should be done in record time if the weather holds and we can hoist the substrate up to them efficiently.

Frost permitting, I hope to be planting the wildflower plug plants from Habitat Aid in a couple of weeks’ time, at the same time as the windows should be coming – finally our builders will be happy and warm!