Days 18 to 22 - A busy week

After the lethargy of late summer and autumn it really is flat out on the house. At the beginning of the week the freshly boarded roof was battened and all the wall edges finished off. Then the chimney went in followed by a couple of days of tiling the roof. There was also a bit of work went on around the veranda area at the back. Finally, on Friday  UPVC windows started to be fitted and by close of play half had been fitted.

Still not at all sure about that unroofed bit at the back and what that is for.Time will no doubt tell.

Day 17 - roof gets boarded

With rain forecast over the next few days the priority for the builders on day 17 seemed to be getting the roof boarded. They worked hard on this and finally got it done about 6pm Friday evening. As well as that they laid a slim line of blocks at the base of the boarding on each side of the house (can just be seen in the photos).

Also that day the roof tiles were delivered and stacked out the front of the house, presumably in readiness for fitting them next week.

I am sure once the roof is on the next task will be to get the windows in, and maybe a door or two!

Days 15 & 16 - roof going on

Sorry but forgot to take the camera on Wednesday so here is a post for Wednesday and Thursday. As expected, all hands to the roof. Gable ends up and roof frames (or is that trusses?) fitted.

As can be seen from the last photo, the other work completed is the formation of the concrete beams for the veranda roof. Bit strange this as veranda area seems to be divided into two parts with one area (one on the right) being accessed from lounge and the other only accessible from outside. Could this be a sort of summer kitchen area?

Day 14 - full steam ahead

Seems it is all go once again as there was much activity at the site today. Most of this centred around pouring concrete both into the formwork for the lintels over the windows and into the core of the row of hollow blocks around the top of the house. This line of cast concrete around the top of the house incorporating rebar forms what they call here the "cienture" or belt which ties it all together.

This is in preparation for the placing in position of the roof frames which have now been sitting on site for a couple of sometimes very wet months. Hope they are still straight!

Day 13 - 2 months after day 12!

Well, we finally seem to be under way again after a delay of some 9 weeks. Strangely it would appear I was wrong about them waiting for pre-made windows to drop in as electric shutter mechanisms have now been set into the tops of the window apertures and shuttering for the lintels formed above them. 

The only other work done is the casting of a concrete pillar at the rear at the house to support the corner of the roof over the veranda.

Day 12 - all walls now level

Some more courses of bricks went up today but only to level out all the walls and then only to the top of all the window apertures. This further confirms to me the thought that they are waiting for the delivery of the drop in windows. The way the window apertures are finished off tends to agree with that idea too.

Other than that, nothing new to report. Be in touch again when something more happens.

Day 11 - some walls go up further, others don't

No close up pictures from site today as the owners (seen in the photos) were there looking at the build progress. As a result, all pictures were taken from chemin des Sources, the road above the site.

It seems that any wall with a window aperture has not grown whereas any wall without has gone up by about another four courses. This rather confirms my thought that they are waiting for the delivery and installation (all done at the same time) of the preformed windows and frames before the walls containing windows can be raised further. Other than that nothing more to report.

Back to my bed for me as I have had quite a busy day supervising mum moving gravel and dad doing window frames.

Day 10 (revised) - 4 more courses today

Just as expected, the brick courses are now flying up. Four more appeared today taking the outside walls up to half way up the windows. At least we can see where they are now! Not that many and quite small as is the norm here. If these holes are for the typical concrete frame and window assembly which is just dropped in before the courses go much higher, then the actual windows will be really small.

And also as I predicted, the bricks appear to be glued together. What a clever little bricodog I am.

You can also now get a feel for the layout of the house and I must say it is not very big. My guess is two bedrooms but we will see for sure when the internal walls go up.

More tomorrow night. At this rate the roof will be on next week and they will be moving in by Halloween - NOT! Let us not forget this is a French build and once the shell is up and the roof is on all progress is likely to cease for at least three months. I have no idea why but that is what usually happens!

We're off - again.

I must say that my hopes were raised when, on my walk this morning, I saw two of the building company's vehicles headed down the hill towards the site. Sure enough, when I went round there this evening, to my delight I found that the first course of bricks had gone down. Definitely a sign that work has really started again. Hopefully the next courses will go down in much quicker time.

No disappointment that only the first course had gone down as I assume that this must take some time in order that it is straight, level, square, and to the correct dimensions. Looks pretty good so far as I could see except perhaps in the straightness area, but this is France where these things tend to matter less.

Bricks have gone down on cement but I think possibly subsequent courses may be glued, although I am no expert. However, this builder did use the gluing technique on his office and his house.

Also solved was the mystery of the rectangular area at the back left of the house. This now seems to be a sort of verandah with double doors leading out to it from what is presumably the lounge. The rebar bits sticking up will be for pillars to support the roof of the verandah, or possibly the house roof will go out that far.

And as you can see me noticing, the front door is set back in a sort of porch.

Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Work begins - but just warming up

As expected, there was some work on site today - the first for 4 weeks - but not that much. In fact all they managed was to remove the wooden formwork around the concrete base.

However, given that they have been on leave for 4 weeks, I guess they are just limbering up before going full steam ahead. Well, one can but hope! More as and when it happens.

Yipee! - signs that they are back soon

So, the typical four weeks of inactivity are now over and there are hopeful signs that work will be resumed shortly. Today many palette loads of terracotta bricks were delivered to site, presumably to start building the walls.

They look like the type of brick that is usually glued together so they should go up very quickly. I saw the boss of the company there the other day so he is presumably getting ready to restart the work on site. Will keep you posted.

Yup! They are on hols.

It was, I am afraid, much as I expected. The frantic rush to get the base finished was, it seems, a case of "let's get this base finished quick before we go on our hols". As a result, don't expect any more activity until around the third week in August. So the blog will go quiet until activity starts again at which point the clock will be reset to Day 8 (these being working days).

So your local bricodog reporter is signing off until the action restarts. Until then, have fun.

Day 10 - still nothing

Very much as expected there is still no action on site whilst the concrete base is curing.  Don't really expect anything until next week - that is if they are not all on holiday.

Never mind - my dad has been busy modifying new shutters after he and I took the most humungous trailer load of crap to the dump.

As expected, no new work.

Well, I did not think there would be any work today and sure enough there was not. However, what I did see was that the newly poured concrete was now cracking (at least on the surface) all over.

Given the July/August temperatures of 28 to 30 degrees over the last few days, maybe they should have covered it. Still, what do I know as a mere dog - maybe this happens all the time.

A few words about this blog. I started it just over a week ago to keep Rob, a UK builder mate who had just been over with us on holiday, in touch with the build he saw as it started. I never expected it to do anything else. Imagine my surprise when, at the end of the first week, I find it has had 40 hits from the UK, France, Germany and Russia! And even an intelligent comment from one of its readers. The strange and bizarre world of blogging.

Better late than never

I  am beginning to enjoy my little trips to the new build to see what is new, so you can imagine my frustration on Monday, Day 7, when I found absolutely no progress despite it being a lovely day. It occurred to me that possibly the company had closed for the usual August 2 or 3 week shutdown and that would be the last activity I would see for a while. Well, yippee and triple barks, today I saw that the concrete had been poured.

Still no clues as to the purpose of that funny area back left but it has got quad rebar sticking up all around it!

Presumably no action for a few days now whilst that goes off. Good weather forecast all week so no problem there. Any ideas on the pink stuff they sprayed over the gravel?

No pour so far - maybe Monday

Well, day 6 and we were wrong about the concrete pour. It did not happen, although it looks like it might on Monday as they have now put down a black plastic membrane over the gravel and laid a grid of rebar on top of it.

Goodness knows what the big  black pipe is for!

After a torrential thunderstorm lasting over an hour last night (right in the middle of the opening ceremony) it is probably good that it has the weekend to dry out a bit.

Day 5 - gone pink!

I was looking forward to day 5 but imagine my surprise when I looked down on the site to find that, not only had good progress been made, but that it had gone pink.

This needed closer inspection. It appears that the single blocked footings had now gained a perimeter of boards and a topping of quad rebar.

The various pipes and ducts for services were all in place and the whole lot filled with gravel and then mostly sprayed pink. 

I say mostly as there appear to be some areas that have deliberately not been sprayed.

I have no idea about all this so perhaps Uncle Rob can enlighten me as to why the pink and why not everywhere.


Whatever will tomorrow bring. The concrete pour I suspect!

Story so far....

OK. Today is the fourth working day of the build. Day 1 saw the site levelled, day 2 saw the footings marked out , day 3 saw the footings dug, and (remarkably) day 4 saw the footings poured AND the first row of blocks go on. There is still that strange unexplained rectangle at the rear left of the plan which has full footings all the way round. Can't wait to see where they have got to tonight.