Strawbale House

This blog is intended to chart our progress through the self-build process, from half-hearted plot-hunting through to completion of the build. The twist is that we're building the house from timber and straw (hence the blog title).

Click on the image at the end of each post to see that day's photos.

Monday 13 August 2007

August 13th - Battening down the hatches

A letter from Building Control arrived, a copy of which is reproduced below. It looks as though building work may be suspended for a while, pending the issuing of a building warrant for the superstructure. I visited the site yesterday after a night of wind and rain, and found the first floor awash and some of the plasterboard a bit wet. Today Mal and Melvin spent the day framing up the window appertures to allow us to weatherproof the building and prevent degradation while the formalities are sorted out.
The hiatus will give us an chance to make a start on the landscaping and possibly the repairs to the roof of the stone barn and the moving of the office/shed from Whitton, where it has sat unused since the end of January.
I emailed Doug Crew at Building Control explaining my misunderstanding of the workings of a phased warrant and inviting him to inspect what we have done so far.
I discovered to my considerable dismay that the flashings I've been sent for the waterfall window are the wrong ones, and that the correct setup is going to set me back something like £900, which, added to the £1700-odd cost of the velux units themselves make for an extremely pricey feature! I hope it's worth it in the end.

Click on the image below to enlarge.

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