Been a long time.....

4 months have gone past fairly quickly, with quite a lot done on the build to look at.
Pictures are more descriptive then I could ever write, so thankfully we've taken plenty.

Some things have changed slightly during the build, and I'll outline them below, but overall, its essentially how we envisioned the house.

First off, pipes laid for radiators. Hot water tank will have to go downstairs as the location we planned upstairs would not have been structurally sound for the size of new tanks. Because of this, the adjoined garage is instead going to be utility room/workshop, and the hot water tank is going in there. We're getting the plumber to chase the supply and extracts for the rads so we wont have pipes sticking up from the floor. Nice and tidy.

Blockwork begins!! Didn't actually take any pics of the finished floor, but it was a very smooth even finish, in fairness to the guys that poured it. Should be no problem flooring straight on to it.
We were blessed with the weather for the blockwork. Great to see how much progress the lads could make so quickly.

Steel for the sunroom goes in. Unfortunately, a small mix up was made here, and the steel was placed as if a standard cavity was being used, ie. to near the inside leaf. This was gonna cause a problem with fitting the windows in relation to DPC, at the point where the steel meets the main body of the house. We didn't spot this until it was roofed. Only solution, and it worked out quite handy, was for the blocklayers to cut a slice of blockwork off, and key in the opposite side and build it to match.
View from inside after joisting and upstairs flooring was done. Starting to get a feel for the inside layout. You can just make out the door from hallway into living room. We decided to block this up after. Gives more flexibility for furnishing, and it was a door that would have rarely been used anyway. But, with the lintel in, we always have the option to revert back.

Plans didn't quite match up to reality when it came to the porch roof's relation to the window above it. Had to reduce the height of the window, but not a huge loss as they are fairly large windows to begin with.

Unfortunately for the roofers, the weather eventually broke!

So, this is pretty much where we are at the moment. We have fascia and soffit put on, just haven't got a pic of that yet. The entire house outside and in has been scudded. All the freezing weather lately has put off any more plastering, so some slating still to finish also.

We have the majority of window frames and glass, just waiting on some last bits to fit them. Went with triple glazed PVC in golden oak. Whole window u-value of .9, so hoping they'll be efficient enough. Returned the inside leaf for windows using L blocks, so ended up with a cavity of 135mm for these. Using Xtratherm cavity closers. Straps for solar panels fitted nicely while slate was going on, going with Kingspan's evacuated tube system. Hopefully its not so long before I have something substantial to throw on here again.