All roads (nearly) lead to Ikea

We've been through the wars planning the shack's tiny kitchen area.
As enthusiastic cooks we want it to be a hell of a lot more functional than most 'holiday home' type kitchens and as it's open-plan its needs to look fantastic too. We have done millions of sketches, so has the architect and in the end we have decided to combine off the peg units with bespoke doors made in our own cedar.

Last weekend we made not one but two attempts to reach Ikea in Warrington (why else would you go there) to see the holy grail - the acrylic 'Personlig' worksurface with moulded sink. Gosh. This is after going to the Glasgow branch where they could sell it to us but, no, they didn't have one for us to see. Adam survived by eating his own body weight in meatballs and by the promise of soft-shut drawer fittings.

So, this stuff is the Ikea version of luxury Corian and LG Hi-Macs, two gorgeous but superleague priced (even via MFI) surfaces. We did go down that path for a while, and even designed it with both MFI and a luxury kitchen shop-that-will-remain-nameless in Kendal. The former was helpful but still exorbitant (the surface was going to cost 10 times the price of the cupboards) and the latter couldnt even be arsed quoting. Ikea has a tiny range of colours in comparison and one sink size unlike other suppliers.

Anyhow, on both days last weekend we were fought back by floods on the M6 and instead went to staunch the flood threatening the shack itself, still windowless. This was done with no tools to speak of and a tiny washing up sponge.

So this afternoon we make what we hope will be our last trip to Ikea's kitchen department

New guy on the block

Guy and his team are our new builders on site, Guy having built his own house in Ulverston and having an active interest in new / eco-ish design. They've made a great job of this wood-clad 'fascia' on the front elevation, trouble is we interpreted the drawings slightly wrong and it's not quite at the level with the window anticipated.

But on the plus side it's probably something only an architect would notice :-(

Pregnant pause

This week there are many kind of invisible but important things happening on site - windows being measured, bathrooms being delivered, lighting plans being discussed. The sunny weather has meant that our builder come farmer Gareth has been on the silage more than the building!
Meanwhile Adam and I progress with the porch, which is fast becoming a work of art. The steps - though of (deliberately) rough timber (a local larch) took us 3 goes to get right - unbelievably. This had a lot to do with every bit of that lovely local timber being a slightly different profile and a lot to do with my inaccurate tape-measuring.
Now we are roofing it and doing 'noggins' which are the 'fill-in' bits between the uprights and roof beams. I'm trying to forget how much this finish reminds me of my school gym, a site of many humiliations as bad as getting the steps wrong twice.
Ultimately a lot of the porch will be clad over the sterling board, to match the house.



In the bottom picture those of you who haven't been on site can just see the rear wall of the old 1960's 'shack' - we have kept its floor and back wall as they're useful for working on and propping stuff against.

Now that's what I call an imposing entrance

Between showers

When the house gets going the blog gets quiet!
I'm not on site as much as poor Adam, whose doing this week on his own mostly having -ahem- let our main builder go home a little early.
So where are we now?
As you can see in the pix, the SIPs carcass is now covered in a grey fabric membrane (very 80's) which is part of the waterproofing, and blimey do we need it with this insane weather.
The timber porch (seen here from above) and walkway have been very demanding but are really stunning. The porch especially is a surprising and truly inspired element - with shades of our architect Sutherland Hussey's celebrated Tiree ferry shelter. It's very tall and imposing, with a door inset. Once through this you are very much in the 'compound' and you then ascend 14 shallow steps to the house - the line of the stairway apparently took donkeys years to get right in the design... You see, the ground is uneven and steep and the house is uphill - easy huh - you just build steps right?
Kind of - but to get them to run in a steady angle uphill (esp. when your engineer has set the house level too high) is not so easy. But it's been worth it - it's an amazing entrance.

One unexpected thing is the degree of 'out' of the SIPS carcass, which makes the (local larch) cladding very tricky and slow - it's an inch out in places instead of the 'tolerance' of 1cm, meaning the battening needs to be individually measured and fitted beneath. Other ongoing probs include sourcing a 360cm long window for the main room and the little matter of having no mortgage yet.

Lakeland scaffolding

Slightly last minute we found we did need scaffolding after all and it was Lakeland Scaffolding from Egremont that found the site and carried everything they needed up there. Did a great job for a very reasonable price, if you need scaffolding get these guys. www.lakelandscaffolding.co.uk

5 years and 5 days to get here....

And finally we're on site!!!!
(I think in this instance 4 exclamation marks are entirely justified)
In just 5 working days Adam and the Polish guys from SIPS carried - yes, carried - all this up a very very steep and muddy hill and put it together into a shape that closely resembles a house.