Northamptonshire

During the last week we have moved to Irthlingborough, the town where Jacky was born, grew up, and has family going back hundreds of years.
Thanks to Dale at Ace Removals, and Barry & Dean for making it go smoothly, and to Nice Baps in Caddington for the sandwiches.

From here, it is a 15 minute drive to Denford so we can manage the build.
We have estimates for the groundworks, and hope to be breaking ground within a month ( but see previous posts for the reliability of timelines!). The frame is now on order.

Today we went over to Fotheringhay (this is a picture of its church, by the banks of the Nene) not to pay homage to its famous guest ( or prisoner) but to ask Barry at the Forge to install a woodburning stove for us and to get all the technical detail that we need for Building Regulations.
We also visited its pub and found the food and hospitality excellent.

Technical meeting

No photo for this post - although there have been many opportunities, I never remember to take any!

I write surrounded by packing boxes. We are getting ready for the move - probably next week. Lovely Xmas gifts and old treasures are packed away for fear of being spoiled or lost, for how long? Several months at least. When they see the light of day it will be in our new house.

We are moving a lot up to my dad's old house, where we can stay rent-free during the build. We are lucky compared to most self-builders, and there are family and friends nearby as well.

Today we had a 6 hour+ technical meeting with Steve, our project manager & Claire, our designer at Potton. Lots of technical detail to be finalised before the frame is built.
Tiny sample:
Weight of the thermal store cylinder
Holes in the steel beam to allow for heat recovery ventilation
u-values of all doors & windows

It is easy to get bogged down in this, but last week's trip to the site reminded us. Standing down by the brook, looking at the catkins and first shoots of the snowdrops, we realised that this time next year, it will be our home.

And PS: I now have a hard-hat. That's a missed photo-op!

Christmases past

I picked this at random, from one of the 27 Christmases we have spent in this house. This one, our 28th, will be the last. Who knows what next Christmas will be like? We really hope that our house will be built, and we will be settled in it. But given all the delays we have experienced so far, we are not certain!
Last Sunday we held an open house, to say goodbye to our friends in Caddington. It was a very good day, with people dropping in as they found time, and we were able to chat with everyone. This has been a lovely place for us as a family.

Our planning conditions are not yet discharged ( although they should have been, last week). However, we are a tiny step forward, as the foundations are now designed, and have been approved by Anglian Water (whose permission we needed because of a sewer that passes through the site).

A very happy Christmas to all of you who are reading this, we hope that you will be able to come to the house-warming sometime in 2011!

This photo was taken in May, Jacky's father Derick, with his 7 grandchildren. As those of you who have read our early blogs know, he used to be a builder in East Northants. We discussed buying the plot and designing the house with him. Sadly he died on October 21st, before he could see out house built or enjoy having us living nearer.
He throroughly enjoyed 3 family celebrations this year: the two weddings, and a barbecue held for his 85th birthday.
We held his funeral reception at Stanwick Lakes so we could look over the countryside he had loved his whole life.

soon it will be goodbye

Looks like our house is sold, and in the New Year we shall say goodbye to a house we have loved for 27 years and a village we have loved for 33.
The table will come to Denford with us - we hope there will be many more gatherings around it - old friends & new.
We hope we'll look after the new garden rather better ( but this picture was taken after poor rainfall!)
We are also hoping that this scheme - an ambition of ours for 30+ years, and which we have been planning for the last 5 - succeeds.
Tomorrow we are off to the Grand Designs show - first time we have been to one, and it will be interesting to compare to the Homebuilding & Renovating shows of which we are 5 year veterans!

Slowly we move on...

This is Duncan & Katie, who were married on August 29th, and begin a new life together. We too are thinking of our new life together. After a very slow period during the summer, planning conditions are about to be discharged, and we have sent samples of our buff bricks, red decorative bricks and dark red roof tiles for approval.
We have chosen Solar Partner, from Newport Pagnell to provide the photovoltaic cells. We had planned to insert the panels into the roof, so saving on roof tiles. However, the way the flashing works meant that we could have only inserted 6 panels. If we have an "on roof" installation, like most retro-fits, we can have 12 panels. It seemed best to double our output, so that's what we shall do.
We went for an "experience day" at Miele headquarters in Abingdon, to help us choose new ovens & hob. We had a very interesting day, which was recommended by Peter Bews. His family firm have provided a lot of our appliances over the years. We thought that Northamptonshire would be too far for them to continue to look after us, but it is just within their area. We're thinking about a steam oven, so if any of you have any experience of them, please let us know, because we don't know anyone who has one.
Keith has been designing the kitchen layout, and we think we'll have a central island. he will build that higher than the other work surfaces, then both of us will be able to work at the correct height!
John Ciccone from Palladio Design in Woburn Abbey has been liaising with Potton, and helping us order the correct windows.
We are very grateful for his advice, and to our neighbour Leslie for putting us in contact and negotiating a very good price; also Jacky's ex-colleague Cathy, who let us try out her windows so that we knew what we were getting!
One of our next tasks is to source a wood-burning stove. We hope to look at them at the Grand Designs Exhibition at the NEC on the 8th October

slowly we're getting there!

Not that our house - wonderful as it will be - will look like this! This is another timber frame building - The Globe Theatre, taken when we did the "Heaven & Hell" tour.

Since our last post we have received planning permission for the new design.
We have made a number of decisions, although all of them have yet to be implemented - we have to wait until the planning conditions are discharged, which we are now doing.

Our bricks will be "buff" - the colour echoing the local stone. There will be a small amount of decorative brickwork - the quoins & a side waistband in red brick. The clay tiles on the roof will be a dark red, we're still deciding exactly which one.
We don't have to worry about fitting in to the local design - one of our neighbours' homes is red brick, the other pink render, and we are opposite an old stone cottage.

We have chosen our under-floor heating: Nu-Heat who impressed us at the house building shows. They will also install 2 solar thermal collectors on the South East (facing the High St) roof. These will provide some of our hot water.
We are hoping to cover the South West roof with photovoltaic cells, but we have yet to choose a provider. There will also be a couple of sunpipes that bring daylight down to the landing.

Our main heating will be a wood burning stove that we have yet to select, and the heat will be circulated by a mechanical heat recovery pump. We've ordered one from Villavent, and they will also install a central vacuuming system.

We've also been sorting out insurance & warranties and learning a lot as we go.

Still no firm date for breaking ground - but our own house is now on the market.
Last weekend at Duncan's & Katie's wedding, there were so many guests who had known each other, and Duncan & Katie, since early childhood. We are so glad to have brought our children up here, and loved our family home - but now, time to move on.