The long one is ridiculously heavy (222kg) and is going to take some people power and careful planning to lift into place.

Padstones are vital part of construction and are designed not to be crushed like regular blockwork when subjected to the pressure of the steel and the weight above them. Here are photos of the new padstones ready for steelwork.  After with padstone Beforehand

  Time to remove the plasterboard next. 4 loads to the recycling unit so far. We revealed a joist with the original carpenters name on: Robert Presnell of 30 Cherry Orchard. Some lovely sunsets this week reminding us of the end goal:

Our lovely friend, Catherine, kindly gave us a chicken coop. After a bit of additional fox proofing we were able to rehome some hens kindly gifted from my sister, Lucy. They are a nosey bunch and enjoy working in the garden with us. They are  good at weeding although fairly indiscriminate!  

I find it nerve wracking taking measurements for expensive items such as windows and doors. This evening we needed to take the exact measurements before ordering the steelwork specified by the structural engineer. Fortunately I have a 6ft 5 partner to wriggle into small holes and measure gaps between joists.

The number one plan for heating our house during the cold winter months is to install triple glazed timber framed windows with a low U value (0.65), improve insulation and air tightness and install an MVHR system (mechanical ventilation heat recovery system) and ducting. The last of the these plans will not be straight away as we cannot afford to do all of it at once. But its important that we consider the ducting at this early stage as it is a lot harder to retrofit once the walls and ceilings are made good. In the meantime, we had hoped our oil fired boiler and radiators would see us through the first winter. But this was not to be (see earlier post). We also were considering a wood burning boiler stove for our hot water and downstairs radiators and room heating upstairs in the living area. However, after a great deal of research, this was not only costly but we felt it was overcomplicated for what we required. We are now planning a wood burning stove for upstairs heat requirements,

  We borrowed a mini digger to pull up old tree stumps and dig out the footings for the patio area. We needed to do this before we could start taking down internal walls and the chimney as we needed somewhere for the rubble to go. Jake was in his element! The garden does look a bit like armageddon has arrived. Sadly we cannot use grass seed now until Spring so we will have to live with it for Winter. 

 I now have 4 different quotes for windows. And they all give different information. It is extremely hard to know if you are comparing apples with apples or apples with pears. So I decided it was time for a spreadsheet! I listed the window companies: Kloeber, Eximia, Green Building Store and Vindor and their quotation prices. I compared them across various areas: airtightness, U-value, water tightness, acoustic rating, security rating. I had this information for some but not others so I could decide if I wanted to go back and ask this. Some quotes allowed for 2 different colours internally and externally. Initially we asked for alu-clad but this is about 20% more expensive than timber so we had to revise our expectations. It turned out one of the quotes didn't even include cills and was a similar price so we ruled that one out. All quotes initially were for supply only. But after consideration, we realised that fitting a first floor window that weighed 650kg wasn't a simple tas

The structural engineers calculations and plans from Gawn Associates have arrived so now we can start to work out what we need for the dormer extension. We counted the tiles on the roof at present and how many we will need on the new roof and we think we will have enough and some left over. Jake is getting some advice from his old boss, Carlton West, on the materials. We have ordered the steels from Keith Collier Engineering so we hope to get a price and lead time soon. Lockdown II started today so this may affect supply chains.   

  Whilst waiting for the structural engineer's plans, we decided we could start to knock down some cupboards upstairs.