Buildlogue #16 – One Small Step For [A] Man

Wednesday 16 July 2014, Construction Day number 20. Neil Armstrong may well have mumbled in 1969 during that life-changing sentence “That’s one small step for a man…”, but we don’t care:

(Above): Today, our builder John’s team took another small step for [a] man by placing and fixing into position the first wall of the Strawberry Lane extension at Chartwell. Unlike Armstrong’s bone-dry lunar atmospheric environment, our man Mark was standing toe-deep in icy mud, spits and spats of drizzle running down his neck.

Let’s back a few steps and look at the pictures of how we arrived here.

(Above): Yesterday Tuesday, a Chrighton delivery truck arrived from Prenail Systems with the skeleton of the extension. Clearly spray-painted on the plastic covering one could read the words “Andrews 90124”

(Above): Like the previous deliveries, the driver needed no mean skill to be above to get inside the property to offload the pre-manufactured timber frames, which are destined to become the walls of our extension.

(Above): Builder John in attendance to ensure that the goods are correct and safely unloaded for his men to start work tomorrow.

(Above): The show over, Benny and Sophie conduct a lengthy quality investigation. Ten minutes later, the plastic duly “christened”, they gave the go-ahead that the materials may be used.

(Above): This morning, the men started preparing each of the walls in turn, and then discussing, over a famous New Zealand pie and cup of hot coffee as to how the jigsaw puzzle pieces would best fit together. Then, the first wall chosen – part of the outer (eastern) wall of the dressing room and bathroom.

(Above): Out front, the frames were tweaked and sorted.

(Above): Part of the consignment note from Prenail Systems. The blue lines represent bits that are not included, being part of the existing building (at left) and five windows. The red lines refer to doorways.

(Above): Wall sections 1, 2 and 3 erected and being fixed into place.

(Above): Mark & Co attending to the accuracy of fit at a corner joining two outer walls.

(Above): Slowly the structure starts taking shape, with the bedroom, dressing room and bathroom almost complete.

(Above): Builder John takes a break to check on the arrival of another delivery. This time, the pre-manufactured roof trusses. It was quite a job to lift these very long Meccano-like shapes over the tall trees and to the required storage place on the lawn.

(Above): Offloaded -  The five roof trusses and small parts, bearing our name, like a huge battleship docked at a Glasgow shipyard.

(Above) : Back on site, Builder John oversees the careful fitting of a jigsaw part to join the extension to the existing house. Another small step for [a] man?

(Above): Because the final internal wall can only be fitted to the house with the roof sheet removed, the structure was left like this Wednesday night. The last wall can naturally only be positioned once the roof has been removed and the trusses are in position… I an predict that it will be quite a tough job to lift these giants manually from the ground atop these walls.