Happy Christmas

The holly tree is in the garden of my parents' house.

For all of you who have been dipping in to our blog, have a wonderful Christmas
and join us in our toast: next year, in The Bright House!

With all best wishes, Jacky & Keith

the garage

This sits in the front of the house, and will, of course, be Keith's workshop. The space between the garage and house will be roofed in and be a porch.
The garage is not timber framed. John, our bricklayer and his team have just begun work, this shows him laying the black plastic to the floor ( a bit blurry as I took this in very dim light at 3.30pm yesterday).

This was followed by insulation (no photos as I was helping lay it)
This morning, the strengthened concrete floor was poured.

The precess was similar to the screeding in the house, but as this is open to the elements (and cats) we've had to cover it with a tarpaulin.



Soon, the scaffolding can come down, we just need to get the soil pipes in place, and the chimney pressure tested; however, we wait on the holidays and the weather.

geese & balconies

The brickwork at the back of the house is finished, so Keith has been putting up the balconies. (see footnote)


The geese are coming to feed:




It is now very cold, so we go to work with a lot of layers on (I have been saving old clothes for exactly this purpose)! I am especially glad of my Falke merino socks and my Buff which is permanently round my neck for warmth, and can be pulled over my mouth & nose when sanding or handling insulation, and round my hair when needed.

We take Thermoses of home-made soup to sustain us (and mince pies)

The brickwork on the chimney began this week, and the end of external work on the house is in sight. The guttering needs finishing and soil pipes need installing.

Footnote: why are they called "Juliet" balconies? She had a very large balcony, certainly big enough to put Romeo on, not just a little railing flush with the brickwork to stop people toppling over.
The more so because Shakespeare knew his building work: Hamlet knew a hawk from a handsaw, I now know a spatula from a compound mitre saw.

plodding on

Our main task continues to be boarding: Keith cuts all the holes for lights, speakers, sockets, and puts the boards up. I check the screws, scrape the adhesive off, slap on filler and sand it down.
We both put up insulation: most people deal with the stuff a few times in their lifetime, but never forget it as it prickles and gets everywhere; so we often to be found "togged up" including barrier cream (we did get some special stuff, but I'm also using up the free samples of nappy cream that I used to get!)

The brick delivery is held up by "quality control issues" so external work is slow.

We spent the early part of the year sourcing materials for the build: some of them we bought and asked the supplier to hang on to them for us. Every so often one of them will ring us to check we are still alive, and that we haven't forgotten we own a planer thicknesser, hundreds of tiles, or ovens.

The white blob is a swan, and the darker ones the geese who fly in daily to feed.