Finally planning permission has been granted, and we are ready to start. [view plans]

This caught us a little by surprise as we expected to hear in the middle of August, but the planner said that because outline permission had been granted on the site, and there were no extraordinary features in our house, full approval was really just a rubber stamp.

We thought that there would be a delay at this stage because there is no council meeting in July, but the planner said that in "non contentious" applications it didnt need to go before the council.

We borrowed a digger to test the ground. I hoped that the hill in front of the house would be good enough to use for filling around the back

 

It became clear that we needed a bigger digger to move the rock, but at least it would make excellent filling. [pics]

NIE Consultant phoned for initial visit, turned up around 11 am, and took measurements. We are going to need 2 poles, one in the field across the road, and the other in the corner of our site.

The one on our site will hold the transformer, and there will be an underground cable laid from it to the house.

See diagram

Our caravan had been bought in January in preperation for living on the site during the build. We had placed it in the farmyard in order to carry out repairs etc, and now it had to be taken to the site.

A long day, about 12 hours in total to move the caravan about 400 yards!! Read the full story here

We had decided to try to punch a hole through below the road, so that we would not have to open and repair the surface. The mobile punching unit is simply an air compressor attached to a steel "bullet" which is 3" wide and about 3' long. It is shaped just like a big bullet, with the pipe attached to the rear. This has a hammer action cylinder inside it, which drives it through the ground. To reverse the motion you simply twist the pipe.

We tried to get across from one side, but kept hitting rock, so we tried it from the other side. This time it just took off into the ground, but it stopped about half way across the road. After about 10 minutes stationary it took off again until it got to about 3' from the other side, and it stopped. And it stayed stopped. We eventually gave up, it hit a stone which was too big to break. We put the conduit through as far as it would go and left it there, hoping we could find it with a digger, and only have to dig part way across the road.

In came the petrol cutter and the JCB to open the road. And very quickly the digger had opened the road and found the other end of the conduit pipe. This was a delicate operation - we had to be careful not to go near the storm water pipe, or the mains water pipe. Thankfully they are all still in tact.

We installed the water pipe, ready for connection, and also pulled through a second pipe to use for spring water if required. While the digger was there we buryed the BT cable which had to be fed up to the nearest pole. [pics]

The Water Service were supposed to connect up the water today, but they didn't come. I called first thing the next morning and they said they would be out later that day. So i waited...

Sure enough just before lunchtime a water van arrived, but they had no intention of installing our connection - they thought we just wanted information about where the water main was. I told them we had arranged to be connected today, and the plumber was coming, so he made a phonecall, and connected it up. Now we have water! [pics]