ummmm

We're a bit disappointed that the membrane covering the EPS has been punctured quite a lot. It looks like the surface wasn't flattened properly so to even out the height the mesh and a-frames have been manipulated a bit and have damaged the pink layer:

The membrane is supposed to protect us from the slightly high radon levels caused by the mines in the area ('Romans' and Bwlch arian) in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries...

The height of the breezeblock is where the concrete will reach and it varies a little around the slab:

And there are a few gaps to fill in - if cold air gets into the EPS and through the membrane we'll have cold feet!

bottom layer

Here's the first layer of our slab - apparently the bricks lining the retaining wall are being laid at the moment...

And here's the EPS - our 'floating' slab that should protect us from the cold coming up from the ground - though I don't know that anyone believes us at the moment!

Breeze blocks will then frame the EPS and make the boat/bowl for the concrete to fill and form our floor; we're having a polished concrete floor downstairs to make life easier with animals etc but it doesn't make things easy for the pour...

Floods...

We've had about a day and a half without rain - if you add up the bits here and there - and the ground is pretty wet. The floods in Talybont, Dolybont, Aberystwyth and the A487 cut us off for a bit but the houses, roads and caravan sites are going to take a lot longer to recover. Lots of people are looking for places to rent as insurers have told them it'll take 5-6 months to repair the houses.

This is from the road towards Cors Fochno/Borth Bog:

Debris brought down the hill onto the A487:

Trying to get to the station in Borth via Ynys Las:

The stream by our house went from dribble to torrent overnight:

Even Springwatch at Ynys hir got a soaking! So not a lot of work done for a few days - the foundation builder's office was flooded - but the site drained ok, considering it's a bowl nearly ready for filling.

No surprise no concrete then.

Weather...

This is what is happening today, tomorrow - not Saturday, a bit Sunday, and then again on Monday... we're awash! Things got so bad yesterday the guys on site rushing to get ready for us to put in the underfloor heating pipes were cursing eco builds and we've found a lot of measurements are out so some salvaging to be done. When weather permits. So, no concrete for a bit.

In contrast, here are some pics of the Sarn Sabrina walk my brother, his brother-in-law, and I did a couple of weeks ago in insane heat. 

A few miles in...

Above Clywedog...getting hot... 

At the source of the Severn, shattered but glad of the wind...

No photos of the last 8 miles or so but burnt shins and very sore feet were in evidence. And there were some rumours that 2 thirds of the group might have something on the day of the Rotary Across Wales Walk but we shall see!

More wall loving!

Couldn't resist a quick post to illustrate my affections for these walls!

Electricity cables being laid now and we have a sceptic tank -it feels a bit odd having that first but it's all good!

Walls & Gabions

This is what I actually see from the top deck of the bus when I try and take a picture at the same time - if you look reaaallllly carefully you can see a bit of yellow digger...

Aled and his guys are doing our ground works and foundations and he's also going to tender for the house build now he knows we have Mike coming in to do the air tightness and windows. So far its been great!

The area was cleared for the corner retaining wall - our last architect reckoned we didn't need the bit by the neighbour's bungalow but they feel differently!

Then I arrive and this had happened: 

Its funny how far you've come when aesthetics have nothing to do with your emotional responses - one woman's ugly grey breezeblock another's beautiful wall. I'm sure it is made of awful stuff as is the concrete to come but I can't help but be grateful that something so sturdy looking has begun our build proper - its going to be grey brick with concrete poured between them and the blockwork.

I may have had my my taste scrambled by this whole affair, however, because I do actually really like  gabions, who'd have thought it? Rob was down on site last week helping fill them out and I love the texture and contrast they'll have with the brick.

We hadn't thought through how to top them off though as the bank is rather steep - hoping to bring the angle in a bit and try to have some wild flowers like our present lane: 

The tender for the build will have its final details tweaked on Wednesday and if we hurry up we should get started in time for the great British summer ;-)

Groundworks!

Some action on site!

I know I have driven past house builds before and wondered at how long they have taken to get going but shall forever hold that thought. After our 9 month set back seeing some action is incredible and almost too fast to take in (I'm sure everyone else passing thinks its snails pace!)

We staked out the house early in May for the builder to start the ground works and foundations.

Can't quite believe that corner will host a house - in the not too distant future!

And we had our first beer sitting on the mound on the left last Friday - one of many no doubt...

I'm sure the tulips won't survive the trucks but every little counts and the hedge clearly didn't mind its move too much. We're both booked onto a willow fence making course at CAT in December as we're trying to think of creative ways to keep out the sheep that don't necessarily involve a great big bit of wood in everyone's face: Woven Hurdle fencemaking

We popped by a few days later in the pouring rain and the builder, Aled and his team had started laying out the foundations for the retaining wall...I stayed in the car!

Next post will feature the wall itself and some fine looking gabions...can't believe how excited I am by walls these days.

From the bus window...

Well, it might look no different but lots going on! This is what I see from the bus on the days I remember to sit on the right side – I think that is John finishing off the ground source pipes a few months ago.

While Rob deals with earth moving, ufh pipework, electricity junctions, warmcel measurements, sewage overflows, and service trunking this is what I have gleaned:

We’ve had another (THIRD!) percolation test because the first two weren’t recorded properly and we’ve been advised that it is plenty good enough for us to have a normal septic tank which should save us a few pounds:

The first lot of foundation quotes came in scarily high (up to £50,000!) but we think that we’ve already costed in some of the expensive bits and with changes to the increasingly important retaining wall we can bring it down and tomorrow Rob and the architect should be finalising who we’re working with. I think that some visible action needs to happen soon for this to not seem like a hamster wheel for Rob…

We're thinking of going with grey/blue brick for about half of the retaining wall, including the area that is up to 2m in height and the remaining section on the SE elevation, nearest the front door will most likely be done in gabions and the wall lowered slightly, giving us a larger sloping area for planting.

The back of the house has had some adjustments too as it appears the structural nature of the roof hadn’t exactly been sorted…the bit over the garage had to move in line with the main section which has had a knock on effect to everything else especially when we need to keep the top floor windows at the same height. So now we’re having a covered section outside the kitchen window and back door with four panes of glass on wooden frame, slightly angled:

And as you can see, the rather vital issue of the cat flat is being settled by including it in the ‘play room’ wall…

Most exciting though is that the architect (he, himself, not us asking/berating/pleading) says he is hoping to finish the drawings by 27th April. Poop poop!

Spring!

It is time for an update...as we have been busy! This appears to come as a surprise to our ex architect but thankfully things are feeling more real now.

Rob is organising a team of several specialists which is tricky but positive and we're really lucky to have so many people keen to work on our house - which has been registered for now as Cae Bach (little field). It seems like the most apt description of what we have at the moment and as we're currently in Cae Mawr...

• So, we currently have new local architects who haven't much experience of very low energy houses but are keen to work on more and they have sent out a tender for foundations and are in the process of finishing up the technical drawings.
• We have our structural engineer from Shrewsbury who is completing the foundation drawings this week and starting on plans for the load bearing walls, the roof, and the steel 'goal posts' which will support all the glazing at the back of the house.
• We have a Passiv designer, based in Herefordshire, who is detailing the structural and insulation sections and junctions for air tightness and phpp; overseeing the relationship between the heating, circulation, & insulation.
• Our local heating engineer is designing the underfloor heating powered by the ground source system
• The energy consultant (don't know where he is based - been talking on the phone so far!) is working out how the MVHR system, the solar hot water, the PV and the ground source work together to keep our house at a lovely 20 degrees!
• And finally we have an air tightness and windows specialist builder overseeing the construction too...

We've gone from a one man does it all (or actually very little) to potentially too many cooks!

We're lacking a builder of course, but hopefully not for too much longer as a few seem interested. We're off up north to visit friends tomorrow and will meet some at a project in Lancaster.

In other news...

A great community venture is attempting to reopen our village shop Cafe Clettwr

Cafe - on RightMove

so we'll be there for the open day on 21 April!  1960s photo - Llancynfelyn website

Starting over...

"We're waiting for the final drawings to be done and while this keeps being pushed back it really can't be long, can it?" Me, previous post.

haha!

Things came to a head last Monday with our design-builder and we have finally walked away. Everyone has been telling us to for a while and we clung on in the hope that all the time Rob has spent on the project wouldn't be wasted - or repeated - but the sub-contracted builder jumped ship because the deadline was too inflexible. It is true that our deadline was inflexible but only because it was agreed on 9 months ago and no contract, schedule, foundations or ordering has been done and we couldn't face having it open ended knowing what we know about getting this guy to do anything...we were hoping the sub-contracted builder would get things started so once he was gone we hit rock bottom.

Anyway, after a couple of days of walking around in a daze we are feeling increasingly better about the future. We've been trying to buy the drawings as they stand but it is looking likely that we'll have to start again and hopefully all the knowledge and people we've been in touch with this far will get us through. It feels as though there is a mountain of work to do but that we can get on with it - or finding out how to do it! - instead of sitting at home worrying about what isn't being done.

The deadline we'd given was the date that we have to move out of the rental we are in so we'll have to find a new place to rent...with 2 cats and 2 dogs...in an accommodation drought! The tenants in my little flat are moving out - congrats to David on his job in Lancaster! - so now we're contemplating living there and having a little caravan out the back for me and the pooches during the day...convoluted but flexible perhaps.

CARAVANS! I love them but not sure about Megan the lab???

I was a bit dubious about finding someone to rent it for the intervening 4 months but we dropped the rent a lot and after 3 notices in local shops, an email to my department, and a swapshop notice, and it was gone in a day! I've had people contacting me every day since too - so anyone looking for a good buy to let area, head to west Wales!

Here's a pic of us swimming with the flat in the background...at least we'll be by the sea again!

Meanwhile, if I crane my neck I can see our plot from the bus in the mornings (still dark in the evening) and my enthusiasm for it doesn't wane...