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.