Point North, Gloster Hill Self Build

We’ve got to the stage where it’s a bit like owning a puppy. We don’t see it getting bigger (progress) but other people think progress is rapid.

So I thought it was time to update where we are up to. it’s also only about 10 weeks until we move in.

What’s being going on ..

Boarding

Once the air test was complete and successful the boarders moved in, walls were pretty simple but the ceiling needed to be suspended on metal tracks. Lots of reasons why (which I won’t bore people with) but we needed bathrooms and bedrooms at 2.4 meters and living space at 2.6 meters.

The boarding team were excellent and our timber house quickly had a aluminium boarding system

A temporary platform had to built above the stairs to help.

Once the boards were in, the rooms started feeling smaller

Plastering

A week after the boarders started the plasterer arrived to start ‘following’. He started upstairs (which is our downstairs) and as the space was so big he brought his brother along to help.

Once the big area was completed, the plaster was on his own and completed room by room, he’s not quite finished yet but ‘Tenerife’ was booked so he’ll be back in a week!

The house is ‘wet’ running currently at 90+ % humidity so we are in every morning to open the windows to get rid of the condensation.

Our ‘solar powered’ roof light is now working as well so we can open that, although it does automatically close if it rains – which there is still lots of!

Cladding

With all the internal work going on Green Roof got working on the external cladding. Cladding has always been an issue for us as we wanted a smart contemporary finish. However, we’d been persuaded by the ‘idiot architect’ that we should ‘render’ as it would be cheaper – and this is what went into planning. But working with Green Roof we’ve done for a fibre cement board which is both cheaper and better looking.

First stage was to batten the external and then add EPDM tape behind the shadow gaps, add insect mesh (building regs) and finally fasten the boards.

The sand coloured boards are 3.2m x 2.4m so are difficult to manoeuvre especially in the rain and wind

Scaffolding is still up for another couple of weeks but we think it’s looks pretty good and a bit smaller 🙄.

Painting

From next week (18th March) the kitchen, bedroom cupboards, utility room and bathroom cabinets are being installed, so we wanted to get an initial ‘mist coat’ on to the plaster; but the plaster needed to dry first which with the damp cold weather has been a challenge . But the painters have been a few times and painted some of the dry walls and ceilings upstairs.

Other bits and bobs

We’ve also had Building Control visiting to check progress. Slight issue with fire escapes (again due to the ‘idiot architect’) but we’ve agreed a solution which provided minimal impact.

Structural Warranty inspector also visited with no problems reported.

Both inspectors don’t need to visit again until completion.

Our fibre internet connection by OpenReach is causing problems but that’s for another post!

All in all good progress and exciting times ahead.