July, August, September and to mid October - Outside

The Front

At the front we finally got the drive levelled - not level level but with the proper slope on it, compacted with a layer of granite dust to bind it together and a top layer of finer gravel. We have a new path and a new section of garden wall built to form a planting area.

 A sunny morning in early October.

The first leaves are turning now. I don't know how we'll separate the them from gravel when they all come down. Maybe we just hope the leaves blow somewhere else...

Paul did a grand job - forming the corner and adding a curved wall to the existing boundary wall using stone from our excavations. The path is made from old flags, we didn't have anything regular enough on site.  The heap of grey gravel is the "granite dust".

The top layer of gravel in the photos below is called "Yorkshire Gold" It sounded an expensive, saw-you-coming sort of fools gold.  Sure enough I find out soon after that 10mmm "river gravel" it one third of the cost and only a bit less gold. It's going to be river gravel for the back and sides.

Here's the finished wall and path. Once we have some plants growing it will look even better.

A stone bench appeared one day. made from the left-overs...... thanks Paul!

We're planning to clad the sloped retaining wall with horizontal bands of timber - similar to the back of the house,  (see below) and to grow a couple of pear trees against it. They're waiting at the back of the house.

We now have some steps up the side, and the bike shed is under the "landing". We used a steel beam across the front. It was ordered too short for the house and had been lying about for many months. Too heavy to move very far.

The laths lying on the steps are waiting to go up the back for the cladding.

The Back

October's most exciting development - the polystyrene blocks at the back of the house finally start to get their timber cladding. It exceeds my expectations. 

 The main purpose of the black fabric is to stop the light coloured polystyrene glinting though the cladding. The cladding will shrink and expand with the weather so there are small expansion gaps between the slats. We're already airtight and waterproofed.

 Once the uprights are screwed on,  the windows are "framed" and the first horizontal strip nailed on.  (The screws are biting into the nylon webbing which runs in bands every 400mm inside the ICF blocks)

The wood should fade to a silver grey fairly quickly. It looks good with the stone.  We've used a variety of widths and depths of basic sawn and treated wood.

It's an economical cladding - at least in the short term. Less durable than larch but since it doesn't touch the ground and is well ventilated it should last. As its not lapped or toungue and groove individual elements could be replace.

Maybe I should put some lengths out to weather for future repairs....

 There's soon quite a workshop set up on the back patio.

The black scuff marks on the door are from police crime investigation - they hoped to get some foot prints following an attempted break in.

There's a double row of stone slips to go at the bottom of the wall. They were already in place but not pointed up. Some dropped off when we started nailing. They're being put back with "the right stuff". 

The air vent at the top of the door is the inlet for the MVHR drawing in fresh air for the ventilation system. It passes over a hear exchange which is warmed by the outgoing air. The outlet is around the corner on a different wall.

Back in September Max and his Dad had a good session cutting the woodpile down to size (that's stove size chunks).

I finally finished the green roof.  It's still nice and green and  has grown quite a bit since I planted it.

I also extended the stove pipe to its correct height (having previously forgotten to allow for the thickness of the roof!) . It has to be 600mm above the ridge - not counting the cowl.

More stone was dotted (ok, heaved) around the back and patio side of the house in September.  These slabs have been stacked away from the tree roots during the build. The patio will be brought up to level with the addition of more gravel. I'm not a fan of crazy paving (though I expect its about due a come-back) and I really hope that isn't the look we end up with. I think with a few low-growing plants and very minimal amounts of concrete, just near the doors and it will look fine.

The stone garden walls which were completed just over a year ago have already weathered well.