The good news is that the walls are going up quickly & we can walk around inside & picture the spaces much more easily now. It is all very exciting!
The bad news is that the builders are all on holiday next week & then there are plenty of bank holidays (jours fériés) coming up in the next few weeks that will eat into their working time.
The really bad news is that our architects put in yesterday’s site meeting minutes that the builders are suddenly 7 weeks in arrears & can’t catch up. Strange since only a couple of weeks ago they were all saying that things were on schedule except for the delivery of the large windows.
The really really bad news is that no one told us directly, nor has given us any explanations.
We are not happy. Neither are we naïve & we know that delays happen. It’s the lack of contact & information that is annoying us.
WALLS
Significant progress this week despite the cold & the wet. (Photos are from this w/e- cold & dry)
All the blocks previously delivered are up & another big delivery was made last Friday.
We’re now seeing where the windows are going, little things like that!! And we can now be “inside” & get some idea of scale etc.
The only glitch is with the delivery of the very big windows for the lounge, which is delayed & which could get into the July/August holidays. We really hope not.
Some more photos.
REAL PROGRESS
Well the guys are back on site & here we go.
Firstly, for those of you familiar with the Goons, thankfully it’s not them building the house.
The base is done, all the pipework into the house is there & now the walls are going up. Once the first course of beton cellulaire is laid then it should speed up even more.
I don’t think that we’ve posted a photo of the proposed house & so here it is.
It doesn’t really do it justice. I’ll find a better copy!.
HIATUS
There’s been a full 2 weeks to allow the entire concrete base of the house to dry completely. Last Friday at our weekly meeting our architects were really cheering us up with the news that the walls would start going up on Monday when the team returned. This did look a bit optimistic to us as there had been no deliveries of the materials! And so it turned out.
No-one arrived Mon/Tues & still no deliveries. After enquiries from us the builders & architects promised a start on Weds, however no-one was there again. That wouldn’t be so bad if someone contacted us but complete silence.
Onto the architects again & a firm promise for Friday with an enhanced team. They don’t seem to know why there’s been no action.
Thursday we went up at lunchtime & there’d been a delivery! A couple of workmen on site promised us a big team tomorrow-Fri. It still doesn’t look like a sufficient delivery yet either!
We have our weekly meeting tomorrow morning & maybe we’ll get to the bottom of it?
It’s the complete “radio silence” which infuriates us in the days of immediate messaging. A text/e-mail/telephone call is all that it takes. We can’t afford any slippage! Plus it’s been wonderful weather all week.
The site this afternoon shown below.
In action… pouring concrete
Here’s a video of the concrete pouring. Thanks Theo.