At last!

The wait is finally over. At least I hope so. There was movement up on the top of my land this morning and when I went to investigate I found that there were three men from the builder already busy getting themselves organised.

I recognised one of the two workmen who’d arrived in a company truck who I think has been on site for every day of the build so far, but I didn’t know the other two. One of those had turned up in a car and he turned out to be Didier, the recently employed new manager who I’d been told about and who would be taking over the management of the contract.

After we’d introduced ourselves he told me that the older gentleman who’d been running the build so far had left the company and I suspect that that was one of the reasons for the delay that has occurred since the summer. While Didier busied himself with paperwork and stuff the two workmen got down to readying themselves to start work by taking accurate level measurements around the house’s periphery and getting materials ready to use.

Their first task today was to lay down a level layer of mortar all around the boundary of the walls on which to place the first course of blocks. Their work today was critical because any error would cause serious future problems if the first course, on which all of the rest of the walls would be constructed, wasn’t totally level, seated squarely and with segments of exactly the correct length.

They’d finished this first phase of their work by lunchtime and here are some shots that I took of the results while they were away.

The mortar layer was bedded down onto the green polymer that was applied at the end of August and which will act as a damp proof course to prevent ingress of moisture into the floor of the house. My guess is that the top of the mortar will correspond to the interior floor level which will be made up at a later stage by pouring another screed of fine concrete over the top of the existing one to create the desired final load-bearing floor thickness.

The next phase of today’s job was to lay the first course of blockwork, which as mentioned above had to be extremely accurate. They therefore took great care doing so and were very concerned to keep taking measurements at every stage to ensure that the final results were in perfect accord with my plans and with the demands of future phases of the building work.

Luckily although the day started cold it stayed dry and warmed up even though a chilly north wind began to develop a bit later on. Nevertheless, they finished before it began to get too cold and while there was still plenty of light and here are some shots of their handiwork that I took after they’d cleared up and left at the end of the afternoon.

So at last there’s some more progress. When I asked him, Didier said that they will be continuing now with the build ‘sans arrêt’ (without stopping) and if the weather stays reasonably settled the basic sealed, weather-proof structure should be up by Christmas. I’ve mentioned previously how quickly things happen with a build like mine once they get stuck in but even so I’ll be pleasantly surprised if they do actually achieve that. Didier laughed when I said that I’ll have to buy a Christmas tree for the living room of the new house.

But more seriously, I asked whether there was a chance that they’d complete the build by the twelve month target date of 8th March 2023. He said that once again it would depend on factors like the weather and materials availability, of which there are still shortages, but he said he was confident that they’d be working on finishing the interior after the holidays in the new year. And that to me was really good news 🙂