One of the guys that Jam works with and his partner are building their own house (and have been living in a caravan in the grounds for 5 years while the house gets finished). Usually the only people working 'on site' are Greg and Jo, so once a month a team of people go over to help them get stuff done and this weekend I was one of those people! Some of you may remeber my previous house building e
xploits here, but I wasn't the only one James used to work as a construction chap so between us we hoped we'd be some serious use. The house stands on a largish plot of land in the village of Yatt. Originally there was a stone cottage there which Greg and Jo had intended to refurbish, intended that is until the chartered surveyor and morgage company came round & it was decided that a rebuild would be needed. Plans were drawn up & finally approved and work started taking down the old cottage. The new 5 bedroom house was built using mostly environmentally friendly or neutral materials (Jo works as an eco project manager so knows about this stuff) and the outside skelton of the house was then clad in the old weathered stones (each of which had to be repointed before being put on). Our job was to help with some of the more difficult areas of insulation in the loft (which was being insulated with sheeps wool which had to be fluffed to 10% before being used) and then putting more plasterboard up and helping with the damproof course in the bathroom (because that is not at all important in a room which has water in it all the time...). Greg and Jo were really great with showing us what needed to be done and 
answering our questions and we were well fed and watered on their sweetcorn chowder and selection of cakes (all washed down with builders tea naturally). It was really great to see the progress we made in just one day and although we were both pretty exhausted at the end of the day it was great to know that the jobs we did have helped the house to get a little nearer to completion. Despite the piles of dust we were both covered in we had lots of fun, so much in fact we are already making plans to go back in a couple of months. If you want to find out more about the build you can visit Greg and Jo's blog here.
xploits here, but I wasn't the only one James used to work as a construction chap so between us we hoped we'd be some serious use. The house stands on a largish plot of land in the village of Yatt. Originally there was a stone cottage there which Greg and Jo had intended to refurbish, intended that is until the chartered surveyor and morgage company came round & it was decided that a rebuild would be needed. Plans were drawn up & finally approved and work started taking down the old cottage. The new 5 bedroom house was built using mostly environmentally friendly or neutral materials (Jo works as an eco project manager so knows about this stuff) and the outside skelton of the house was then clad in the old weathered stones (each of which had to be repointed before being put on). Our job was to help with some of the more difficult areas of insulation in the loft (which was being insulated with sheeps wool which had to be fluffed to 10% before being used) and then putting more plasterboard up and helping with the damproof course in the bathroom (because that is not at all important in a room which has water in it all the time...). Greg and Jo were really great with showing us what needed to be done and 
answering our questions and we were well fed and watered on their sweetcorn chowder and selection of cakes (all washed down with builders tea naturally). It was really great to see the progress we made in just one day and although we were both pretty exhausted at the end of the day it was great to know that the jobs we did have helped the house to get a little nearer to completion. Despite the piles of dust we were both covered in we had lots of fun, so much in fact we are already making plans to go back in a couple of months. If you want to find out more about the build you can visit Greg and Jo's blog here. 
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