Grade II New Build With Basement

The roof has slowly appeared – all hand-made and then covered with reclaimed Welsh slate, it looks well against the thatch next door, and already has a weathered appeal about it.

Welsh slate was specified by the Planners, as the village once had a railway line (long since gone), which resulted in Welsh slate being transported in, and appearing on some of the buildings – not exactly indigenous to the area, but it does look attractive.

It seems a bit of a shame that the workmanship inside will all be covered up with the internal ceilings. The roof shape is quite intricate, and has always been regarded as providing some of the “character” you would expect of a listed building. I am particularly intrigued where the front and rear elevation roofs meet and merge:

The heritage rooflights have also been installed:

 We now also have two completed, brick chimney stacks and two flues with liners, suitable for two wood-burning stoves: a modern Morso in the basement and a traditional design for the living room. It is surprising just how much space is taken up in the centre of the house by the flues – more than had originally been planned, due to the specifications of the two stoves we chose.

 In the interim, EON has announced it is coming this week to install our new electric pole and adjust the stays in our neighbours’ gardens. Worryingly, a contractor visited site last week to check access, complete with the wrong plans, which showed the pole sited in the middle, rather than the edge of our garden – just frays the nerves a little! Once the pole is installed and the existing cable moved further away from the house, this will mean the rear roof of the house can be completed, as currently health and safety prevents the builders from working any closer to it.

Drainage is now underway, and already the varying levels of the site have thrown up an unforeseen problem. The new house is substantially lower than the existing thatched cottage, as specified by the Planners, to make sure it does not over-shadow the original listed building. Unfortunately, it now appears that the main foul drain from the original cottage runs near the surface, and will therefore pass about two feet above the terrace of the new house, once it is dug out. This will mean the re-laying of the existing drain to join into the new drain, at a far lower level.