2010 started with a bang as the "big freeze" arrived followed by 30cm (12") of snow which seemed to linger round for so long.

January

Whilst the snow was not as severe as last year (winter 2008/9) the snow does seem to be lingering on the ground for much longer, added to which, now after a week more snow is threathened for the weekend. William started the task of slating the gable end around the half moon window, but as you can see from the shot below, snow proved just too much. We are therefore having to contend ourselves with the internal insulation work in the kitchen/dining room in preparation for the final blockwork. The Electrician and Plumber have both been on site and will be starting first fixings prior to the end of the month. Work also began on the brick fireplace in lounge - though the final design will "unfold" as we build.

February

Finally managed to complete the slating of the gable end with the half moon window, despite the snow and freezing conditions, as well as "rough cast" the lower walls by hand (to be painted cream in time). Roger the Electrician came on site to install the 1st fix electrical connections, leaving the way clear to commence plasterboarding the ceilings. During this period we noticed the sun shining through the half moon window into the lounge. You can just see about see the line of the sunlight through the dust!!! The lounge looks a little dark on the day this was taken, due to the snow blocking out the light from the two large roof lights that normally let in plenty of light into this corner of the building. The Plumbers arrived in their red vans to carry out their 1st fix work, which involved the plumbing for the various bathrooms/kitchens and the underfloor heating coils. The phot below shows the Kitchen/dining room, which measures 7M x 5M.

March

The Plumbers continued into March, completing all of the rooms (a total of 200M2) with the underfloor heating coils. The heating in the stables will be eco friendly being an Air Source Heat Pump, which is basically a fridge in reverse. Shots below show the Hall/Utility room into the lounge, taken from the back door. The centre shot shows the colonnade corridor with the underfloor coils. The right hand shot below shows Martin pointing the exterior walls with lime.

The shots below show the gable end, now rendered, and the courtyard. We will be building a stone wall around the "back door" and this will provide a small rear garden/courtyard. The main courtyard will be a real feature of the property and will be fully paved in time. It measures 11M x 6M and will have an "unloading" bay set at a slightly lower level that will accommodate a small car of up to 4M in length. (The main car parking being just 20 feet away)

Below a shot of the oak stable door, taken from inside the colonnade (through glass). This door will be the main entry point and take you straight into the kitchen/dining room. Also another shot of the courtyard taken from the lower garden. The tall chimneys to the rear belong to the main house and attached cottage. Even so, the stables will still have total privacy in the courtyard. We are intending to fit a large gate into the courtyard and some shrubs as a low level screen.

Below another milestone achieved when the "liquid" floor screed was poured. The shots show the cement screed being literally poured from the hose to the various rooms. Whilst it is a liquid, it is not quite self levelling and has to be finished off by hand. The tripods you see scattered around allow the depth of the screed to be accurately poured to the required depth and are set using a laser level. Over the entire slab area; which if you recall from the 2008 blog page was laid from wheel barrows; there was only a variation of some 25mm. Now with this final process, the floor is level to an accuracy of +/- 5mm. Of course the final final stage is to lay 200 M2 of flagstones - yet another milestone!!

Once the screed had dried (cured) it was time to get on with plastering all of the internal walls. Due to the lightweight concrete blocks (Durox) we had firstly to apply a "scratch"coat of sand/cement and then we were able to apply the lime render. Instead of a smooth finish, we decided to sponge the lime once it had started to cure, this was more in keeping with the age of the building. The lime was delivered in 10 large dumpy bags and it seemed that we would never use all of this, but surprisingly we used 8.5 tonnes in the end. This lime render took a long time to "cure" and we had to keep wetting the walls to prevent cracking. After about two weeks we were then able to paint the walls, using lime wash. This is not unlike trying to paint with milk, it is that thin and drips all over the place, but after three or four coats it began to build up a lovely finish.

The flagstones arrived on 22 pallets and had to be sorted in size so as to achieve the random patterns we were after. These were not true flagstones, but reproductions made from molds of orignals, with around 12 different designs and 10 different sizes in all. This work went on and on for some weeks, made more difficult by the number of cuts we had to make around the edges.

The kitchens arrived shortly afterwards and once all of the different components were sorted out, we started fitting these ourselves. We then started on the second fix plumbing and electrics.

Around all of this the carpenter began to fit all of the internal doors, as well as making and fitting all of the shutters to the windows.