November / December 2009 The house finally starts to go up...

5th of November - the crew arrive to start erecting the ICF walls. In theory the polysterene blocks are simply stacked up and concrete is poured into the hollow centre.

The polysterene provides the shuttering during construction and stays in place to provide a high level of insulation.

Unfortunately it's not quite as simple as that. Our walls have to hold back the hillside behind the house, and need a strong retaining element. 

Consequently there is a maze of steel bar - horizontal and vertical to assemble within the blocks. Kilometers of the stuff! It proves quite a challenge.

Some of the internal walls were built while we were waiting for the ICF blocks.

The ground floor walls are almost ready to pour..

After the first floor walls have been poured and the internal walls to the ground floor are finished the beam and block first floor is laid.

Friday 13th November is a beautiful calm and cool blue-sky day. A satisfyingly large crane appears for a few hours to lift the beams into place (though I'm told it's the second smallest crane you can get).

This will be the kitchen and the patio outside, I'm pleased to see the house and back garden starting to "match up".  That gap down the side there is 3 metres deep and 23 metres long.


It takes days and days to back-fill with free-draining gravel. It feels much safer now the gap is filled - I take the opportunity to fill the planting area with spring bulbs, hoping the scaffolding is down again before they come up.

This will be a corner of the sitting room, over the garage. It will have windows to the front and rear but none facing the neighbours. 

The stair from the ground floor will come up here, facing a pair of doors that open onto a narrow area with the stone steps up to the garden.

There will be three steps up to the sitting room on the right which is 60cm higher than the main first floor to give a better view of the garden.

The big kitchen, utility and main bedroom are also on this floor.

The ICF crew return and build the first floor walls. External scaffolding is erected.

The house so far viewed from up and down the road.

 The last working week of the year sees the first floor walls being filled with concrete as snow flakes start to flutter.