john's blog

Thanks to a small crane which we hired for the morning, the RSJ is in place and the french windows can be measured up to the nearest millimetre by the window manufacturers. Next step -- the first floor. We've opted for a block-and-beam system. Made of concrete, it's a really simple and quick way of constructing a floor.

In between heavy rain, the polystyrene walls continue to rise. We're now nearly at first floor level and expecting the arrival of a large RSJ which will form the lintel over the kitchen/breakfast room french window. It's a big window -- 6 metres in all - and will be formed by three two-metre sheets of glass, two of which slide into the third, framed in painted aluminium. We had a quote from a firm in Northumberland for around £10k but have found a local manufacturer, MPS Windows based in Exmouth, who'll do it for nearer £4k.

It's week one of the build and the footings have been poured. It's been raining ever since and I've spent most evenings bailing out. Finally the weather clears and the builder returns. We're not building in blockwork, but polystyrene from a company called Beco Wallform. Sorting your levels out when your first layer of bricks is floating in two inches of water in the footings isn't easy. But somehow the builder manages and we're off. The bricks -- which slot together like Meccano to leave a cavity which is to be filled with concrete -- go up quickly.