Ground Floor walls started

The Radon barrier in, floor poured and the walls for the ground story are starting.  Had a look last night to see the progress and get a sense of the house as it sits back offset on the basement.  Also, all important, the tape measure to ensure the kitchen size is correct - 5.4m square.  The tape is correct, but without all the walls and ceiling on it's really hard to judge the size accurately.  It was the same in the basement, rooms look a lot smaller until they are finished off.  So finger are crossed really that it will work out.

Here is the back wall of the house, the radon peeking out from where the walls join the footings.  Again lots of jacks are going up to support the walls, giving me confidence that they will be straight!  This phase will only take a few days, with the detail going in around the front door - it seems to transcend the levels of basement/ground floor so getting these levels right is a task for the architect.

In the meantime, our minds switch more firmly to stone and windows.  Realistically we need to order our windows in about 3-4 weeks.  Similarly, we'll need to get in cills and stonework before they arrive, and it's proving difficult to get the stone - colour is no problem but we like the more rectangular cut rather than square or round and sourcing it is tricky.  However we've seen it around so it can be done.

On the windows the PvC or Alu-Clad is still a topic.  We've quotes from several companies that are competitive and may open up alu-clads, still would be a massive stretch.  But, if we're going with black windows PvC suffer from expansion and contraction with heat and this will cause gaps to appear, with contraction in winter.  So we may end up saving on windows and spending money yearly on heating.  With the heating specification at a stretch that isn't ideal.  We're going to look at some samples on the weekend and see where it all stands.

The offset on the basement leaves us with a natural balcony from the sitting room, which will be great in summer.  The outline of it is going up above.  Also working out nicely is the vertical services shaft.  So far, so good - the next detail to go in at this level is central vacuum and HRV duct runs!