The first trenches, very rocky soil, have hit bedrock in places

Shuttering in the rear trench

Not the nicest of working conditions!

Plywood laid to allow wheelbarrows across the mud

The rear trench viewed from the neighbours drive

Looking across the mud

More trenches dug and more shuttering in place

Bedrock

More bedrock...

We now know where the neighbours drain runs :)

The kitchen

The dining room

The start of our house, or a recreation of WW2 trenches ?

Reversing on site didn't work - no room to turn !

Now we're in place

The first pour starts, sun shining through the cement dust

Fed up with the builder so we stuck him in the foundations.

First of six truckloads !

The concrete only flows to a certain extent, lots of raking required

A long way to go !

Ruby, the builder's dog, keeping a watchful eye on proceedings

The end of a long day, 51.2 cubic metres of concrete in position

Building up to damp proof level

Floor slab will be level with top of these footings

Footing courses being laid

Emma getting stuck in filling cavities with concrete

Foul drain runs going in

Small radon sumps with ventilation pipes

Leaving our mark...

My first attempt at block laying

Back by popular demand - more photos of Ruby !

An air supply for the living room fireplace. Apparently you are supposed to have vents from two different walls, that pass into a mixing chamber, so that's what we have done. A vertical pipe will drop through the floor into the hole.

A maze of pipework - foul drains, radon vents, and air supplies for the fireplaces.

Filling up nicely with crushed and compacted hardcore

A 2

...and now we have a floor ! Another 21 cubic metres of concrete...

The steels for the retaining wall can be clearly seen here. In photos above you may have noticed the concrete slab is deeper at the rear - this is why.

The first quoins and walling stone are laid using a lime mortar. Mortar is still wet in this photo - will dry to a lighter grey.