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!