Today the digger finished removing topsoil from the driveway, and cleared the site topsoil. The stones also started to arrive, course stones for the bottom of the drive. The drive is so steep that the lorrys were getting stuck going back out again, the course stones were acting like bearings below the wheels. A layer of smaller stones will be spread tomorrow to bind it all together. See more here

Today the dust arrived to coat the drive, and as the digger levelled it the driveway started to look better [pics] . It also meant that lorries could get out now without needing a tow.

Once the driveway was completed the work started marking out the foundations with lime. [pics]

The final foundations were dug today, and at 11am the concrete lorry arrived. The foundations are all poured and setting. Due to the slope of the site the contractor used three steps in the foundations. The next stage is to mark out the lines for the bricklayer. [pics]

After building control made us move the fireplace in the lounge into the corner we were concerned about how it would look. However visiting Lamonts in Coleraine we found a simple stove based fireplace which looked like just what we were looking for. [pics]

Having left the foundations to dry for several days the builders arrived today to start the footings. They started with the front and back walls, shouldnt be too long until we see a sub-floor! [pics]

After hearing about our planning permission being passed on Tuesday 1st July we have finally received stamped copies back from building control and the planning office.

The planning office plans arrived with us last Friday (5th) and building control had requested a couple of changes on the plans. The architect updated them, and re-submitted - more detail on some of the specification, and also move the fireplace in the lounge into the corner [more]. Thankfully these have now been approved, and we can now go to the bank for some money! [more].

We are waiting for the digger to come back - it is currently working on another site.

We went to the Building Scociety today to sort out the mortgage. Not very exciting, its all in the pipeline. Hopefully the digger will be here Tuesday to fill in some earth for the subfloor.

Some more filling has arrived, see some pics here.

After a week of almost no activity the digger is back on site and filling up the inside and outside of the house. The filling is then covered in a layer of stones, and pounded down. The steel mesh is then laid out on 3" bricks, ready for the concrete to be poured on top. The concrete is supposed to arrive 8:30 am tomorrow, and the slab should be finished by tomorrow evening. The brickies are due back on Monday to start the main brickwork of the house. [more].

At last the subfloor is completed, the concrete arrived at 8:30 today, and by the afternoon the floor was poured and smooth. The digger then packed lots of rotten rock around the house to allow lorries in. This also gives a greater sense of where the finished ground level is going to be (and also how much filling we still need at the back)

To see pictures of the progression from foundation level to subfloor click [here]

So much filling came last week that the tractors/lorries couldn't get in to tip over the edge, so they had to tip on the stones. The digger came back today to level it out, so now there is about twice as far covered out at the back. [more]

We had the garage priced up to sub-floor level, so that we could decide if we wanted to go ahead with it. We decided to go ahead, now we will be able to add filling to the finished level.

The foundations were dug, and poured today [more]