On Friday the contractor asked me for the beam for above the fireplace. We got a pitch pine beam from Danny O'Kanes on Friday morning, and Dad prepared it over the weekend, so it's now ready for installation.

The plasterers are outside today again, and have completed the front wall

The fireplace beam is now in place, and looking good. [more] The plumber called round this evening to get an idea of where we wanted all our radiators to go, so hopefully thats all sorted now. He should be back early next week for the first fix.

The plasterers finished one of the remaining two gables, and the smooth section around the bottom of the house.

The plasterers are amonst finished inside, and today they finished the last exterior wall! This means the digger can come back soon and finish off the ground works.

The last few walls have been completed inside, and the plasterers have left. [more] The electrician was here this evening to do some more of the first fix work. [more] I also got some bricks today for the fireplace in the living room. [more]

The electrician is back today, and the work is continuing. He has completed all the downstairs, lightswitches, sockets etc. He will be back on Monday to do some more.

The electrician has worked today to complete the upstairs and has all the sockets etc in there now. [more] He has also put the lamps up at the front door. [more]

The pipes and radiators for the plumbing have arrived and are all stacked in the living room. [more]

The plumber has all the radiators hung from the walls, and some of them plumbed in. [more] The stairs arrived today, and were installed by the joiners. [more] The brickie is due back soon to build up the fireplace where the stove will go, so we asked for the stove to be delivered, and it arrived today. [more]

The plumbing continued today with all the downstairs completed, and the upstairs started. The towel rail started from screwfix yesterday, I took it to the plumber to measure up for sizes.

The joiners put up the stud wall below the stairs today, so its ready for plastering now. [more]

The brickie returned today to build the red brick fireplace in the living room. It took most of the day, but looks really well. [more] The garage is not being built now, so in order to house the boiler one corner was built up. [more]

Dad got material for the stud walls today, and I gave him a hand. We got the two stud walls up, and plasterboarded the gable end wall, ready for dry-lining. One side of each stud wall has been left off to allow the electrician to put in the lightswitches. [more]

The house is now ready for the floor to be poured, all the polystyrene has been laid, and the area round the top of the stairs has been shuttered off. Hopefully all prepared for Wednesday...

The floors weren't supposed to be started until tomorrow, but the materials and workers arrived today. From about 11am until 6pm they managed to get the conservatory, sitting room, toy room, utility and living room done. [more]

Another lorry arrived today with more half dry cement, and it dumped some around the front, and most around the back. The digger then lifted it in through the escape window in the gable of the house. By the evening all the floors had been completed - thats all of upstairs, the kitchen and hall in one day!

With the digger back on site the temporary dry block house I built for the generator had to be removed, so that the earth could be levelled. This was a mucky procedure, as the ground is very wet, but the tractor got in and out without too much trouble.

The drains are all opened, and most of the pipes are in. It was my job to re-route the phone cable, and of course there were problems. First it wasn't long enough, but I overcame this by cutting the ducting, and making the route shorter. The next problem turned out to be a loose connection in the caravan, but that took a long time to find! [more]

All the drains have now been covered. The gas installer was back to join the gas pipe at the wall, it now goes into the garage. Ducts have been left for the heating pipes for the plumber to use when he comes back. [more]

The digger and dumper did a lot of tidying today, all the little piles of topsoil have been removed, the test hole in the hill is filled in, and some of the filling from beside the caravan has been taken down. We also lifted out the generator, so it's ready for sale. We had to mark out the patio at the back, as I want it left lower so we can fill up to the level rather than having to dig away. The workers hut/store was also taken away today. [more]

The digger has left, at least for now, we will need it back when the caravan goes. The house looks well, the tidyup helped a lot [pic] [more].

The electrician was back and has installed the consumer units. The kitchen is due to be started on Monday - that should make for an interesting week! [more]

The kitchen fitters arrived this morning, and have started to build the kitchen [more].

The kitchen fitting is in progress, the worktops have been fitted today, and the island is almost in place. [more]

I also got a phonecall today to say that the new suite for the living rom is ready for collection. So we will have to try to put them off for a couple of weeks.

Another day sees all the doors on the kitchen units. The fridge has been fitted and the kick-board is all in place. [more] The electrician was back tonight, he is preparing for the heat to be turned on - for that the power needs to be on, and the plumber should be back next week.