Completion dates and life in the old house

A blanket of snow keeps progress to a minimum of Nick Mann's self build project, as the completion date slips
by Nick Mann
7th January 2013

There comes a time in life when waking up to a fresh blanket of snow isn’t the most exciting thing to ever happen in the history of the world – and I have reached that point. The end of a week’s work on the first fix at Hookgate finished in a spectacular snow storm.

It’s all we needed as we had to re-visit the estimated completion date, too, pushing it back to mid-May. Given we were originally supposed to be finishing in January you might think this is a disaster, but that was before the biblical deluge that masqueraded as summer 2012.

We have granted the builders an extension on the finishing time to help them out. With the benefit of hindsight, their original estimate for completion looked aggressive even with decent weather. We’re doing all we can to help them through what must be a difficult time for them.

We should be able to move out of the original cottage at the front of the site a month before the finish date. The last few weeks of the contract are all about knocking it down, facing some of the new house with its stone and topping the pitched roof element with its tiles.

We’re beginning to get mightily fed up with living in the old house. How can people bear to live in properties built this badly? Its south east corner is so damp that water runs down the walls. As for insulation – well – no prizes for guessing how much it has!

If you look at the lack of snow on the roof in the picture at the top of this page, you’ll be able to see just how much heat must be going straight out through the roof. I could cheerfully blow the place up…

I also need to get an asbestos survey organised as I’m sure the remaining outbuilding has some sheets which will need removing.

I suppose all of this reinforces the logic of building a new house and strengthens our resolve to get on and complete it.

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