Full steam ahead

It’s been all go these last couple of weeks and very busy on site so not much time to blog. It’s also validated absolutely our decision that one of us had to give up work and be here and available 24/7 to handle the stream of questions and follow up actions to make sure we get the build we want and not someone else’s best guess.

Roof first. After the beam was finally put in place the rafters went on in a day. The infilling, roof felt and batons took longer and are now ready and waiting for tiles. As these are hand made clay they’ve been a special order and won’t be ready until later this week.

One big challenge is our current gas supply isn’t sufficient to service the new extension at the same time as maintain heating and hot water in the old house. It took me a day of talking to gas distributers and our supplier, British Gas, to find the right person to arrange an upgrade for our current metre. I’m now waiting for a site visit and no doubt a quote for an additional cost.

As the work speeds up so the money rushes out of the door. I spent a day with my spreadsheets making sure I’d captured every element and although we’re likely to go a bit above our original budget it doesn’t look like we’ll be far out which isn’t bad.

While work continues outside on the extension I’m also getting on with finishing the hall in time for Christmas. We’ve ordered the curtains from Cool and Classic, a small independent curtain shop in Bedford who found just the material we were looking for. We’re getting our curtain rails made by a local blacksmith so they can fit alongside our awkward beams and misshapen walls. It also feels right as part of our sitting room was the village smithy 100 years ago.

In other news the village event to commemorate the WWI armistice went very well with over 250 visitors on the Saturday to the exhibition in the church and a packed remembrance service the next day. We included the story of my grandfather who fought at Arras and the recently discovered story of M’s great uncle who worked in supplies during the war. My contribution – tying on many knitted poppies to the camouflage netting that hung down the side of the church tower.