Friday, December 22, 2006


Well I'm sitting here very smug.....I've just read Ric Capucho's blog ( see the link on this site) and it seems there has been an unfortunate delay at his end.....

It's a pity we didn't have any money on this race, but I wonder what odds I would get now on the race to handover????

Just to update Ric...the floor screed is all down and perfect. My Huf project manager came down on Thursday to check things over but didn't have a key so we couldn't get in to inspect.. we peered in the misty windows and it looked good and I saw the Guys leaving earlier in the week, so I know its all done!!!!!

Starting again on the 8th is the team to fire up the boilers ( that's providing the Gas Main people come on 2nd January and the seperate Gas Meter people come on the 3rd January. Whilst we still haven't got electricity but we have our firiendly neighbours to plug into.

So it all looks fairly straight forward now...bit of tiling...bit of insulation in the basement...throw a carpet or two down, oh and put the bathrooms in and paint it all over.so lets say...a couple of weeks ??? Well actually its handover on week 9 !!!

If the Huf performance is anything to go by, Ric's delay will be made up by those German guys working day and night....anything to get it all complete by the sheduled day....

Off to France for Noel....so au revoir to all you readers...be back on the 27th to check that my Huf Haus is still there...and Happy Christmas to Ric.....and its not so bad coming second !!!!

Thursday, December 21, 2006















As you can see this is tricky.......scanning onto blogs isn't quite my thing!!!!!
The top floor is the area of the house that we have left largely as the original Huf design. Bedrooms are located on this grid and the one in the left hand corner is normally allocated as a bathroom. We split that in two for the en-suite.
Because the bedrooms are effectively in the roof, the kneeheight is crucial.....that's the dimension between the floor and the start of the sloping roof inside the house!!! It means you can't always stand a tall vase of flowers on a table at that side of the room ( which is probably a good idea) but perhaps more importantly if you locate the bedhead next to the wall and you attempt to sit up in bed to read a good book....you probably can't without jamming the top of your head into the roof and your chin being compressed hard into your chest and damaging your ribcage....but hey thats the price of aesthetics and even the greatest architects never really worried about practicality!!!!!!

So we have three beds upstairs and two bathrooms and two sets of balconies. The gables being completely glass.



















Next floor down we have the main living area......but we've changed this a lot.....
We enlarged the kitchen, moved the cloakroom and made the guest room ( which is really my office somewhat smaller). I've forgotten quite why I agreed to that now but I suspect I will spread my belonging into one of the other rooms as well. The lounge has only one external wall that isnt glass. But all around the ground floor are external blinds which are electronically controlled and can give you privacy....if you need it.



















Downstairs further into the dungeon......or keller.....we've made lots of changes to the original design. We moved the garage from the east side to the westside, located the large guest bedroom to the east side with an ensuite and created a boot room for attending to the muddy dog first thing in the morning. In doing that we made the plant room smaller but its still all OK and everything will work well down there. We changed the orientation of the wing wall off the house. It was located at 90 degrees and just held back the soil to the very steep (30 degree)driveway. We changed all that......changed the position of the driveway (its now a gradual incline) and elected to take out a 4 metre high embankment to create an extended driveway and parking area. (we told HUf after we had agreed the changes with the planner) and they just changed their plans accordingly.

I guess most people would rely on the architect to make all changes, but seeing as I have a little experience in these things I wanted to be control of what I was commissioning. And I did the project managing...which has been interesting , rather than employ somebody.

It been good so far....despite the sleepless nights we are approaching the final months now.
The sort of problem I now have to address is where on the site can I put a TV aerial or dish??? I daren't put it on the Huf Haus otherwise I'm sure Peter Huf himself may come down in the dead of night to remove it!!!! I'll have to find a tall shrub in the garden where I can hide it....

Monday, December 18, 2006


Monday 18th December
Some Germans go back, and others fly in!!!!

Last week saw the completion of the electrical and plumbing work.
The thousands of wires were all connected up and the plumbing 'The Work of Art in 15mm copper pipe' is now hidden by thick insulation. More insulation goes in over the floors...a couple of inches worth at least, then another layer of insulation but this time housing the trailing plastic water pipes that will heat the house.

It is said that you don't have to switch the heating on much in a Huf Haus because the house is so well insulated and its air tight. I guess that will not apply to our house where Pam usually cranks up the heating to well over maximum. That leaves everyone gasping for breath except her and the pet weimaraner Lucca, who just loves soft beds and heat!.

The paving blocks arrived and are stacked neatly waiting for somebody to think about laying them. Whilst I managed to keep them clear of the sewer run that we have to dig, I was not so lucky with the dig we have to make for the BT connection. We'll have to move them all first! There was really no other place to put them!!!!

Now today another team arrived, this time to do the floor screeds. The bags of cement were delivered some weeks back by one of the very large Huf Lorries. The pile of bags stand 2 metres high and beside that is now a very large delivery of sand which arrived Friday. The sanad is a genuine British variety which was delivered by a British firm. I know this because he managed to dump it half on the site and half in the road, much to the annoyance of my neighbours (again).

However, these guys will complete the floor screeds to the three floors each 110 square metres by tomorrow evening. Then they fly back to Germany to do two more houses before breaking for the Christmas Holidays!!!!! Now is that impressive or not?

My phone calls to EDF for the electricity are so painful I really cannot bring myself to write about them. But needless to say they will not deliver anything until well into the new year. But which new year I really cannot say....and more to the point nor can they!!!

Monday, December 11, 2006

Monday 11th December 2006


I can't find it anywhere !!!

It was here last week, I know cos I saw it !!!!

This is the second time I've been grovelling around in the mud trying to find this damned pipe. It's the foul sewer that Andy's men laid around three weeks ago. There was a pole to mark the end, but, perhaps not surprisingly, its gone because we've built a house around it since then.

Admitting defeat, I leave a message with Andy to see if his men can find it !!!

There is success with the Gas however. Those regular readers will know our move in date is dependant on drying the house out and to do this we need the heating on. That in turn depends on getting a Gas supply. With me so far ???

I phoned the Gas people this morning and Caroline said we could have the supply on the 17th January.
"They have to have that notice because they have to dig up the public road" she said
I explained that it is a private road anyway ( no statutory notice needed ) and they didn't need to dig it up because there is a gas main passing up through the site about 4 metres from the house.
" It's not what it says here. It says the main is in the road." she replied " You'll have to take it up with the Gas connection people!!!"
"Have you got a plan?....with the route shown???" I asked
"Yes, and oh, yes I see what you mean"

Well, to cut a long telephone converstaion short......she finally accepted I did NOT need to dig the road up to connnect the house up ......and she said they would be there on 2nd January.
" Would I be there??"
Well, Yes I will be there, cups of tea, biscuits, bottles of whisky, anything to get this bloody gas into the house, so as not to hold up these Huf guys who are working day and night to get me in in week 9.

I'll spare you the next conversation with another company about installing a gas meter. It was painful, as was the fruitless conversation with EDF about installing the electricity.

However that is not quite so crucial, as, if our very kind neighbours Dane and Louise (They love the house ) continue to let us use their electricity from their garage, we should be OK with a temporary supply to the boiler. I said I would pick up this quarters electricity bill, because it must be nearly all mine anyway!. ....All those drills and floodlights....

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Well its been a busy week with work an' all.....the house is coming on fine.

Met Rudgier ( our Huf Project Manager) on Wednesday evening who had been to Ireland and Exeter before arriving at ours at around 6pm. Busy these Germans!!!! Afterwards he was back to Heathrow.

It was the first time inside for Pam and she started talking about the layout and how it might have been possible to change things, but somehow she never finished the conversation because I guess she realised everything was being put in place, with pipes and cables, hundreds of cables everywhere. It was too late. (well I didn't want it changed anyway)
Downstairs in the sous - sol (basement ) in the plant room all these cables came to one spectacular finish. We are not building an aircraft here I thought, but why so many cables???? I was later to discover when Colin ( the electrician) arrived that these were to be individually wired in to a fuse box which would have been fit for an aircaraft!!!! Not the minature fuse bopxes we have in the UK, this is big, very big. In the same area ( they call it the plant room) is housed a boiler the size of a brewery silo. All the plumbing to and from it is superbly executed, a veritable work of art in 15mm copper pipe.

Anyway, back upstairs we were told that the floor screeds would go in the week before Christmas and then they would switch on the heating to dry the house out.
At this point I had to break the news that neither the Gas nor the electricty services were in, nor was there any prospect of this next eyar, let alone before Christmas!!!
Rudiger calmly offered an alternative which involved driving some space heaters from Germany, and we agreed that might be necessary if the miracle of connection was not to happen.

I've had plenty of comment from the near neighbours about the state of the verge opposite. Well its not us you see.....its other vehicles that go up on the verge cos the Huf Vans ( the three of them) park outside. I will be out there this week with a fork and a few turves to keep them quiet...or perhaps I'll leave it till after Christmas. ( The reindeer might chew it up on their way round or better still, the electricity contractors might damage it further when they lay the service to the house).

Plenty of positive comment though from the passers by............its quite handy because Huf leave a bundle of brochures about the 'Huf Dream' by the front door, so I can hand them out to interested parties and presumably earn a sizeable commission on any new orders...or not.

Busy day tomorrow.....(AS),,,,,find the foul sewer connection which I've lost under a pile of mud. Finalise the order for the kitchen, and take delivery of 110 sq.metres of block paving for the driveway area. Now I haven't quite decided where it can all go yet......but it can't go on the grass verge opposite!!!!!

Tuesday, December 05, 2006



Tuesday 5th December 2006

Internals well underway!!!!!!

We have THREE HUF vans ....all the way from Germany and a lot of workmen.

As you creep round the house, there's activity in most of the rooms. Basement, ground floor and upstairs. Cables everywhere, insulation being laid, sawing of timber, arc lights and a crate of beer (untouched) I noticed in the lounge.

They had an early night last night (6pm) because they had an early start (2am) and got held up again at the French Port (strikes again).

There's been no action on the Gas or the Electricity front and I anticipate some delay in the completion because we can't fire up the central heating to dry the place out !!! BT however were really helpful and have delivered ducts and cable which is in the back of the car ready to connect my telephone.

The floor screed goes in next week then everyone goes back for Christmas for two weeks. After that there's 7 weeks of furious activity with painting, tiling,and carpeting and then its job done!!! Onto the next Huf Haus. They have a few in England, Germany and Switzerland and one very large one in Moscow.

I will have to arrange installation of the kitchen after the handover. If you choose the Huf kitchen it can be done during these internal works but we have chosen something different which means we have to wait. And, just to make life more complicated, rather than just get a kitchen firm to provide evrything, we will have cabinets from one supplier, worktops from another, appliance from another, and installation from someone else. This bit could take as long as it took to put the house up....or longer!!!!

Saturday, December 02, 2006


Saturday 2nd December 2006

Our Huf Haus Project Manager phoned to make an appointment to see us.
This fits in with the arrangements that my fellow blogger Ric and Claudia (in Switzerland ) had last week with his representative.

It is our opportunity to make any last minute changes to the electricals or other minor changes. Pam (her indoors) suggested that we changed the internal layout downstairs again.
" I don't like the position of the cloakroom off the hall" she says.
"Well, do you remember in Germany you changed that?" I whispered.
"And" she added, "what about a velux in the bathroom upstairs, I remember mentioning this to you some time ago"
Rather than try to explain that all the walls are now firmly bolted in and the roof on and the possibility of making those sorts of changes would involve the complete dismantling of the structure, I bottled out and will leave it to Herr Rudiger to explain on Wednesday.

The one big disappointment however are the velux windows in the roof upstairs. They are situated over a gallery that looks down over the dining area and originally we wanted to put in a large Huf Window. This is a large section of roof that is made entirely of glass and would give a fine view of the hills to the North. However our local planners could not agree to it and said there were to be NO roof windows on the north elevation. They finally accepted a compromise with two velux, but it is an opportunity lost.

Otherwise the house is exactly what I had hoped for, what we have to do now is to sort out the rest of the landscaping and driveway, fencing and planting ,connect the services ( still no progress on that front) connect the foul sewer, organise the kitchen and utility installation, and sort out where in the house the dog's bed is going to be.

The groundworks team, Andy St.Pierre from St. Pierre Groundworks and Baz and others had done a great job in getting the site ready for the erection team. All the backfilling completed on schedule and a walkway round the whole house at formation level so that nobody was sloshing around in the mud. It has been raining most days and the garden, apart from the area immediately next to the house is awash with mud. Volker had suggested doing this extra piece of work and he was absolutely right. You do need a firm dry working area around the house.

Friday, December 01, 2006


1st December 2006

Our German team left this morning having been working till 9pm last night. There must have been a problem because they had said they were leaving last night!!!!
Doing an inspection after I found that there were about 6 tiles missing from the roof, of no great significance..otherwise all OK and watertight.