Rain again

Today was our first full day not blockworking for can't remember how long. We are both exhausted and need to recharge batteries. The forecast was poor so I went to Campbeltown in the truck and sorted out a timber order, bought some more blocks, though we could have done with another 32 to fill the load and managed to get 5 x 6m lengths of 110mm pipe for underground foul drainage for under the floor slab. Not what was intended as I forgot my bankers card and would have bought 100m of wavy curly pipe for more land drainage but we don't have a trade account at that dealership. Also picked up DPM and 5l of tanking paint for sunspace back wall.

All in all a relatively relaxing day and unstressful, but not as fruitful as hoped. Need to try to relax and recover from the strains of blockworking on arthritic knees and hips. We have about 200 blocks to finish but a huge amount of checking and tweaking the levelling so it'll take more than the 3 or 4 days we'd expect even with the corners.

Dreamed about laying the floors and just could not work out the logistics of getting so much concrete into place ... but then it came to me today while I was driving to Tarbert to do my Ecoday contribution on thermal imaging and insulation - we'll hire a powered barrow which takes half a cube at a time...we'll lay strips of concrete at finished floor level across each pod to tamp up to and then tip the pan mixer into the barrow power it to where we want it and off we go...

let there be light

At last we have mains electricity on site. Finally connected up this afternoon.

Wired in the two circuits and flicked the switch.

Now got kettle and hot coffee instead of flasks every day.

Anyappliance.co.uk

After threatening legal action, reporting to HMRC as they're trading with two VAT registrations, reporting to VISA and on the 30th day WE GOT OUR MONEY BACK !

Under no circumstances can we recommend doing any business with this company.

If anyone is having problems with them make a comment and we'll post their home address and dates of birth...

blockheads

The weather is improving and we can work till six p.m. now.

Both Jayne and I are huge fans of Ian Dury ....hence the title. We have now finished all the 150º corners on both roundhouses and levelled up where the founds are stepped on both south and north sides of the building.

A moment's frustration on Monday was that panel twelve appeared to be 12mm too small on setting out. Now our kit is being made with +4mm as the tolerance so -12mm is just not good enough. Next day we reset and remeasured and we were actually on +2mm so all was well. Each panel needs to be within 4mm and it shall be so. We have now finished all but the corners for the sunspace and the founds for that are set out ready for concreting. The weather is very good for blockwork so we are making good progress - about 20% blocked up but with the hard bits done - the 150º corners and stepped sections are all within a few mm. I like each block to be within 1-2mm but as Ian our friend says, you're building a wall not just laying one block and we are well within all the levels of accuracy we need. Bit obsessive maybe but we want it to be accurate and right - for our own pride as well as ease of the kit going up. This has now been ordered and paid for and we need to finish the blockwork by the end of March at the latest giving us 7 weeks for 62 cubic metres of concrete for the floors. We reckon we can do 60-70 blocks a day including setting out corners now the hard bits are done so that is ten days work - though the day jobs are pretty time demanding and have to be done too.

We have 150 blocks to do this week to keep up with our timetable.

Stepped foundations and 150º corners !

The house is emerging from the ground, slowly but surely and it is very excting to see the geometry. We decided on this form from Newgrange in Ireland and were also inspired by Bronze Age roundhouses so it has been great to see Neil Oliver's series on the Prehistory of Britain.

We are firmly in the New Stone Age and real blockheads - at least until we are at finished floor level anyway.

dodgy dealers

We have been fortunate in sourcing most of our requirements for the house and have received some fantastically good service. But you still have to watch out even with apparently honest dealers. We bought and paid for two fitted ovens for the large roundhouse from a discount appliance dealer on the internet just before the VAT increase in early January. No ovens have been delivered, and there have been some very dubious engaged tones and voicemail messages from the company concerned and excuses made so we cancelled the order. We were even promised our money back by email but guess what... nothing has yet appeared in our account. Being suspicious I checked the postal address and found it was a letterbox address. The company registration number on our invoice was apparently for a different company at a different location as was the VAT registration number. Strangely, the VAT number on the website is different from the invoice but is an address with the people we have been dealing with showing up as resident. You can actually check where anybody in the UK lives online anywhere, and for free. You can also check VAT registrations for free online - to whom they belong and at what address. We have been having long discussions with Consumer Direct - the government helpline and finally convinced them that the company is almost certainly trading fraudulently. So it will be dealt with by Trading Standards. There are several reviews by other customers having the same problems as us online now. We think we'll probably lose the money (transaction on a debit card) but there is still hope. We will publicise the names of the people concerned, their companies, and their home address in due course. Watch this space.