21st May 2007

Car fits on drive.!!!!!

The drive is in!!!! No more mud !!!

It all looks rather fanastic as the granite finish blocks complement the building. Andy St. Pierre and his team worked all last week laying these blocks. Baz (the excavator driver) had spent some years laying paving blocks, lots of them, before he realised there was another life where he could sit in a cosy cab and shift soil with a hydraulic bucket . These years of experience proved invaluable as the workmanship is really excellent. The gabions have been increased in height too !!!!

"How many Huf visitors have you had?" came the words someone on the road on Saturday...

(I was sweating over a barrow of slate)

The enquiry came from a couple of ladies who just wanted to express their approval.(About the House , not me)

Both South African and the elder must have been 80 if she was a day!

"Great" she said, "Just great" "Its so nice to see something different here in England. I come here to visit once a year and there are hedges everywhere and twee houses behind them"

I guess this is true....we tend to favour our privacy by ensuring we live behind a wall or a hedge .

Anyway we agreed they should come back in a couple of weeks to inspect the inside, and there must have been a dozen visits by now, by total strangers who genuinely love the design and the setting.....its just a pity not many of them live nearby!!!!!

16th May....Andy and Baz return !!!!!

Now that the six weeks of glorious sunshine is over, our friendly Groundworks contractor has returned to site. Previously the ground had dried to the consistency of 30 newton concrete and it would have been ideal for moving the terrain. But no, rain came back and we return to the slurry we have had since Xmas.

We decided to leave the final movement of soil till later and concentrate on the drive. Afterall, this is what concerns the neighbours and, to be fair, we have had a building site at the top of the road since the Germans left.

The brick wall at the rear has been completed and we now are ready for a driveway. We are using La Linia ( from Marshalls ) blocks with a granite finish and I've bought some slate from Marshalls for the patio and paths around the house. It measures around 130 metres squared so we can get a few coaches on it when it's finished.

Inside the house is liveable...well I think so although other members of the family think not.......there's only two more members , apart from methat is and one of those is the dog who has not expressed any opinion, so that leaves my better half!!! All the Kitchen works, all the blinds completed, the wardrobes are being completed by Nick (with the football injury) who has done a stirling job. Despite the construction of all this cupboard space I feel we still will make no dent in the number of boxes which surround my TR6 in the garage. Its going to be there for the summer, nestled between boxes containing 'ormanents for lounge' and endless boxes containing Vanessa's (my daughter living in France) fluffy toys. And we still have to recover stored items from Peter's garage down the road....Mesage for all you potential Huf Owners.....sell or give away everything you have ever owned BEFORE moving in....you will not want it!!!!

Another piece of advice, ...complete the ground works BEFORE moving in....the mud outside is the main problem and whilst I always remove my boots, the dog has no such sense and has caused much chaos.!!

We had a Landscape Architect come for a chat the other day.......She was really good (if expensive) and will do the plans for the hardscape and planting. I have a certain reluctance in these affairs since I think I can always do the same for nil cost, but I guess we might see if she can provide some advice. She asked what sort of sculpture we would like in the garden....well a Henry Moore or a Hepworth perhaps???, Pam saved the day by suggesting a nice piece of natural (and cheap) rock or large piece of drift wood .....Its nice to see the natural form of nature don't you think?? So its down to Eastbourne to wait for the tide to come in or hack out a large piece of limestone from some local escarpment......I'll have to measure the boot of my car to see what I can fit in!!!

This is my 51st Blog on this site !!!

In an effort to keep up with Ric (my fellow blogger in Switzerland, see link) , I have gathered together all the back of fag packets I've used to calculate how much this pad has cost me.

Unfortunately my laptop with the crucial excel sheet is in one of those 125 boxes down there in the garage...and I really can't face that.

These are rounded figures and are indicative of the numbers you will encounter on a similar build in the uk.

The house has a footprint of 109 sq.m over three floors and is finished with the normal HUF finishes, but with extra tiling, electrics,solar panel,fly screens (thanks Pam) but does NOT include any internal furniture like cupboards/wardrobes/lighting/kitchen/utility etc which are not in the HUF price.

Prices have been calculated as British Pounds

Land 0.1 hectares, purchased without planning 240,000

Purchase costs eg stamp duty /solicitors etc 6,000

Planning/surveys/soils investigation/ insurances 8,000

Preparation of site eg clearance/earthworks/

soil replacement 32,000

Services 4,000

Huf (basic price) 365,000

Huf additional to basic 30,000

Internal fit out by others

Kitchen (installation by me) 17,000

Wardrobes 3,000

Lighting 1,000

Stage II externals eg drive/drainage/walls (est) 15,000

Stage III externals (est) landscape with paving/

planting/lawn etc 15,000

So, there we are a little over £730,000 for a 327 sq m Huf, including the land. Not really that far away from the Ric's costs even though we are probably 1200 miles away, and he's halfway up a mountain and covered in snow half the year!!!

I still have the external work to complete (as my wife keeps on telling me) so these may creep a little. This all works out at around £1460/sq m for the build, excluding land, but everything else thrown in.......You could almost certainly build for less, (we could have done without the expensive LED lighting in the kitchen specified by my dear wife) but if you have the right site, the experience has to be worth it.....and we're only on this earth once...so why not???

Its been some time since my last entry!!!!

Apologies to all.....I've been busy!!!!

We've been waiting for the dry weather........and...when it arrives everybody wants earthworks done pronto!!!

Andy and Baz came last week with a very big excavator......and whilst we not contemplating rerouting the A22, it seemed like a good idea to hire a meaty machine to push around the soil rather than spend a month doin it with a small one.

The gabions went in last week to support the 3 metre sheer face adjacent to the retaining wall and we also completed the foundations for the brick wall at the rear. I say 'we', but that's not strictly true....I watched and the others did their bit.

I was still trying to convince my other half that it had been a good idea to move in before the outside works were complete. Advice to anybody doing what I have done.....DON'T . It has to be completed driveway and grass in the garden next time.

I have been completing wardrobes in conjunction with our carpenter Nick, whose bad knee has recovered sufficiently for him to do the wardrobes with my very capable assistance. I've been itching to use this Dewalt drill for ages...and boy have I used it.

The trees have come down in the eastern boundary and now we get a blast of sunlight in the morning. The driveway is scheduled for next week so here's hoping the good weather stays for a few crucial days.

Ric ( our Swiss blogger) has done a financial breakdown..very interesting...and I will do the same when I can put that drill down for a second. Our costs are in the same ball park but as you would expect we pay a premium for shipping to the UK and the occasional use of English trades....eg. a plumber charged me £221 for 3 hours work the other day......£75/hour seems like the going rate.