Luckily, as it was a Monday morning they were much less boisterous than usual. Since building this house I have noticed that the best time to get tradespeople over is at the beginning of the week. Friday is the worst day to get anyone over to do any work - they are already in weekend mode, easily distracted, over excited and usually try to leave early.
By late afternoon the scaffolding was all down and despite our fears, nothing got damaged. It was very strange to see the house without scaffolding - it looked somewhat naked and smaller.
We were unable to put up the drainpipes because the scaffolding was in the way so Alan hastily rigged up some temporary 'pipes' using anything he could find to keep the rainwater from saturating the new exterior. The 'drainpipe'on the right is made up of a white plastic conduit from the electricity meter along with some empty firesocks!
The house without scaffolding for the first time.
With all the messy rendering and painting out of the way we could finally get rid of the temporary brown PVC door and get our new front door fitted. It was surprising how much of a difference it made to the overall look of the house.
Alan started work on the drainpipes fitting the top brackets. After so long with the scaffolding, going up a ladder seemed very precarious. It is much higher than it looks in this picture (eeek!)
Lining up and fitting the top brackets was particularly tricky as Alan had to spend the majority of the time with both hands off the ladder (double eeek!)
One front drainpipe almost completed.
Using a plumbline helps to get a straight vertical line (when the wind is not blowing...)
Setting out the drainpipes for the back of the house was a bit more difficult because they had to line up with the drainage pipes already in the ground, so Alan bought a laser level to help mark it out. As it wasn't a very powerful laser, the lines only showed up well when it had gone completely dark so it all had to be marked out after 11pm.
Having used the laser the night before it was much easier to fix the drainpipes in the right place.
The final drainpipe gets fitted.
Thanks to the laser, the bottom section of the drainpipe should line up perfectly with the drainage pipe in the ground...
...Hoorah! It lines up.
During the groundworks, no drainage pipes were installed at the front of the house as they would likely have been damaged by heavy vehicles/diggers whilst the initial build was taking place.
We still needed to dig a soakaway for all the rainwater so we just fitted drainage pipes temporarily.
We attached new pipework to the existing drainage that ran from the rear of the house.
The front drainpipe is attached. We need a digger to complete the drainage run.
The drainpipes are all finished but we still need to dig a soakaway for all the rainwater.
The front porch roof finally being finished.
Alan fixed the brackets for the guttering on the porch.
Hoorah! The slates are all on and our porch is finally weatherproof.
Once Alan had fitted the guttering he then attached the trim under the slates on each side of the porch. Before...
...and after.
The porch drainpipe is fitted.
Ta da! The final finished exterior of the house.
Views of the house from the east field.
Looking back at the house from the north.
To finish off, here are some cute animal pictures...
Blenny and Custard guarding the gates.
Our neighbour's ponies (get it?)
Some more of our neighbours.
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