Getting hands-on with the build

We have been sleeping on site in our ‘Ebay caravan’ since the kit arrived, which has been an adventure.

We’ve been able to keep an eye on the work and it’s easy to fall out of bed and on to site for a 7am start.

However, we’ll be glad to see the back of it once everything is complete. Barry and I have been joking about the various ways in which we can bid it farewell – Jeremy Clarkson has given us some inspiration!

One of the key jobs we have had to get done in the past few weeks is to paint all the beading – by hand may I add – on every one of the windows ready for the glazier.

So as soon as the windows were in, we meticulously removed every piece of beading and painted all 1,200 of them, ready to put back once the window panes go in and the frames have been painted.

This will save a lot of problems, time and effort later on, according to the glazier. I really hope he’s right as it was painstaking work and utterly tiresome – as soon as we had finished one lot, there was always another.

We’ve been kept busy all day, everyday. Evenings are spent searching the internet looking at materials we might need and days are spent organising the various materials and trades.

In the middle of all that we have made the odd visit to garden centres or auction houses to snap up last minute bargains. It’s one of the ways we hope to save money. We have picked up mature plants and shrubs for a fraction of their normal cost; much better than buying at full price at the end of the build!

Not surprisingly the garden is now full of plants. We have planted all our borders with trees and climbers to provide us with some privacy and the rest are in pots waiting for the house to finish.

We took a garden design layout with us to the planners, as they insisted on a certain amount of greenery and planting. Judging by the ever-mounting pots outside, I doubt there will be any trouble meeting their requirements!