Insulation, mmm, nice and warm !

Well not quite, we would need a floor first, oh, and a roof by the way, and yes, a working boiler would be nice, too...

Quite a collection !

Look at the lovely tiddly ones !
two for the corridors, one for the entrance, one for the utility room, and the two big ones for the kitchen...

Painting some skinny radiators

View from the neighbour's garden

Painting the walls

Brick wall going up...

Bricklayers in action

We'll have a wall soon !

Hulk Hogan delivering some more bricks and sand...

(Scary, from where we stand, looks like the pallet will topple over !)

Finishing off the bedroom ceiling

Yesterday I added the little vertical pieces of tongue-and-groove boarding, with a little insulation laid and taped in place by Emily.
This is complete, so we are proud to say that the wall now meets the ceiling :-)
(I just need to use a bit of wood filler to hide the nail heads that I punched down...)

Block and beam floor in progress (Yesterday)

Preparing the ground for surface water

Surface water=rainwater collected by the gutters
Needs to go down the main drain somehow...

Footings dry and strong

Not completely cured yet, concrete needs 28days to fully cure...

Notice the obligatory hand prints by Emily and myself :-)

Pouring the footings...

2.5 m^3 of concrete poured by hand...

Working round the utility pipes...

Steel down in the trench (Friday)

We made the steel cages this morning...

Take quite a few rather long bars, tie them with God know how many pieces of steel wire to countless hoops and after a bloody few hours, you've got yourselves a rigid metal cage ready to be hoisted down in the trench, to support our walls.
By the looks of it, you would have thought that our extension will be 10m high... well, not quite, just 2m, I don't know why it has to be this sturdy !!
(the old part of our cottage doesn't have any footings at all, and it's still standing, 500years later...

oh well, this is building regulations for you, over-engineering and more...

... and another skip full of mud !

and a brand new one to fill up today !

Concrete coming in...

Big hole

The guys have done a smashing job, digging around (from bottom of the picture to top):
- the new gas pipe (yellow plastic)
- the waste pipe for what ? we don't know (big greyish pipe)
- the FLIMSY water pipe (15mm copper, looks yellow on the picture)
- the old gas pipe (rusted and fairly straight)
- the big teraccota glazed waste for our toilet (brown pipe nearest the top)

Now we need to figure out what we'll do with these pipes...

Offloading the bricks (Tuesday)

Nice reclaimed orange bricks, just like Chelmsford council wants...

Tight fit...

About 20mm from the gas meter.... Careful otherwise BOOM !!

Mini-digger on site (Monday)

Little digger to breal the soil loose so it can be taken away with a wheelbarrow into the skip

Finished radiators

My gawd, even quicker to paint with this metallic paint than with the primer, about 20min per radiator per coat, instead of 6hrs with a brush...
Technology is really our friend, as ever !
(geek! says emily...)

:-(

Busy painting the radiators...

... so I can't bite my nails, pick my nose, scratch my b*lls, etc :-)
Specifications: ardenbrite no32: pewter grey

Rendering, view from the back