Update - Fri Feb 19

Its been a fairly busy 2 weeks. Physically the windtight wooden structure is up and most of the slates are on the roof. Windows have been installed  but the opes are not fully sealed.  There is a photo below of an installed window with the cill sitting proud of the panelvent / breather membrane. We're battening the outside of the building in preparation for the cementation board & internally, insulation ( from the inside) should using a dense rigid fibreglass start next week.

Bad news this week was the one of the nights, some uninvited guests to the site removed most of the lead valleys from the roof. Have obviously not been found.

Big decisions this week included

• Mechanical systems ( in particular the heating system and the extent of the rainwater recovery which due to water being free in Ireland at the moment, has an infinite ROI...go figure); quote & scope agreed
• Electrical : extent of cabling, type of data cable etc..awaiting quote
• Colour of the external render - its a permanent colour so need to get it right
• Bathrooms - ordered from Germany, ETA about 3 weeks, hope this decision does not prove 'interesting'
• Wood flooring - purchased
• Landscaping - awaiting final quotes for the supply of bare rooted trees will need to be put in the ground by the end of March to catch the growing season

Progress update 7 Feb

Lots happening at the moment. Up on site the windows arrived from Germany on a truck this morning ( see photo) & are currently being installed. As with all window suppliers there is an approximately 50% payment due on order placement  - which is a leap of faith, trust me. A further approx 50% is due on delivery & checking to site; an residual then is due on installation. These are industry standard terms so not much one can do about it. The windows are triple glazed alucad from Pazen & they are PHI ( Passiv Haus Institute) certified; the wood on the inside is a painted eucalyptus (sp?) and the outside a pearlised silver, which looks grey to me! Only issue with the aluminium colour finish is that any scratches during construction will be hard to remedy / hide. So far so good though.

As regard utilities, we road (approx 150m) with services and stormwater to installed. BG & ESB have been out and we've received quotes for their utility installations ( which they do themselves). The foul, water & stormwater we do ourselves but the council does inspect to make sure  its up to standard.

Slates will be going on the house roof now shortly - delays caused by recent very high wind - photo below shows the wind tightness layer, felting & battening complete.  Pretty soon we'll be working on the inside in particular the wall /roof  insulation , airtightness layer, slab insulations & screeds. There are a number of items that can have a lead time so we're looking at these now with an eye to placing orders soon. Will probably order the bathrooms / sanitaryware from Germany due to the massive cost differences - approx 30% - dont worry this isnt going to shrink the budget , just move us up the quality scale.

At the same time we're looking at site landscaping as you can plant bareroot plant between now and the end of March & still get a growing season in this year. The alternative is to get rootballed plant / trees - these work out about 3 times more expensive.