The exterior at the back is now most done. There's a high deck surrounded by oak posts. Steel wires are just visible filling the "gaps". The patio is surfaced with Indian sandstone - I was amazed that this was signifantly cheaper than concrete slabs.

In the foreground is a large sandpit I built, filled with ca. 2 tonnes of sand. This is definately the best thing I've made for the boys, as it occupies them for hours at a time. Hidden from view is a cistern-like container which they can use to make rivers, etc.

View across the river at night. The camera doesn't take brilliant shots in the dark so this one's been enhanced, but you can get an idea of the potential goldfish bowl we live in. Not too many people pass by here at night, luckily.

Can you believe it, we've moved in! Not exactly finished yet and indeed was barely habitable in the first instance (I'm still not sure if I can legally spend-a-penny yet) but most of the basics are now in place. Ryan is very proud of his "Gigantic" house and Ben just loves a-wandering. (Cries of "No Ben, sharp")

The exterior is now (finally) done, barring a few little details. The picture on the right is from next to the neighbour's house. For most of the year this nice view of the sedum roof isobscured by leaves.
Kitchen. The granite worktops look far more impressive in reality. There's a extra granite "blob" waiting to float over the top (you can see it in one of the photos below)
Living room.
Boys' playroom. Hardly space for the proverbial swinging cat, wouldn't you say. [Prize for the first person to name the children's film on television]

Less than a week to go before we move in and things moving pretty rapidly. The builder knows that any work done after we move in will take considerably longer so he is keen to get as much done as possible by the weekend.

The cladding is finally just about finished. The small silver section to the left has been left until we agree some final details on exterior lights, etc.
A close-up of the recently finished porch. We salvaged the two "staddle stones" from the garden. They look much nicer than the (structural) concrete ones supplied with the frame - it has been suggested they may be from Blenheim Palace.

Today the house was officially renamed from "Brooklands" to "Oldhouse".

Georgina and I spent ages trying to think of a suitable name. Here are some of the ideas:

• Thorong La - the mountain pass in Nepal where I proposed
• Pigeon's Quay - to open "Pigeon's Lock" (geddit?) which is the canal lock opposite.
• The Oaks - too boring
• Gooses' Lodge - and variants

In the end, after Georgina's death, I went for the name that we'd always used with Ryan ("New House" is our rented house in Bladon). I chose "Oldhouse" rather than "Old House" partly because it reflects how Ryan says it, but also because it's ever-so-slightly more interesting. I guess I'll regret it as it will be dictated down the phone as "Oldhouseoneword" for evermore.

I was surprised how easy it was to change the name - one email to the district council did it.

Our move-in date is now set at 1^st February.

Quite a long gap since the last status report, but I'm sure you'll forgive me for that.

The builder has finally committed "on his life" to a moving us in by the end of January so I hope he'll finally focus some serious time on it. That will be a about 5 months late (50% over) which obviously I'm not happy about, but I've only recenly been able to gather the (emotional) energy to confront him forcefully.
At first glance, the external appearance still seems far from finished but this is quite misleading. The builder under-estimated the quantity of cedar cladding and this had taken quite a while to get from the supplier. The scaffolding can come down once the cladding is finished and then the porch can be completed.
Internally we're pretty much there, just a few bits of plumbing really and some painting to finish. The underfloor heating was only recently turned on and some finishes can't be applied until the house has been warm for a couple of weeks.

The biggest outstanding job is fitting the kitchen. Lots of people insist on their new kitchens being "in by Christmas" so the suppliers are flat out in the preceding weeks - the then take 2 weeks off to recover! I'm going totally OTT with granite surfaces throughout - 5 grand just for those. A considerable extra expense is that all the edges are curved so they have to be cut by hand.

The boys playroom. The near side will be filled with a glass/oak wall.

Landing. I took a gamble with black frames but I think they look good.

One of the bedrooms. Pretty much every room has exposed wooden beams like these. Cobweb heaven!

Despite appearances, we're now on the home straight. Well, sort of. The original target was for August (more specifically Ryan's birthday on the 18th) but we were never that confident about meeting that.

A major hiccup is that our landlords are trying to kick us out - not at the eviction stage yet but they are nervous about us moving out in autumn and having the place unoccupied in the winter months. This is probably not a bad thing overall as it gives us something with which to whack Mr Builder.
Ah, the roof! First the suppliers said it was too dry to dig up from the fields, now it's too wet. I'm thinking that I should be checking planetary alignments. The sedum is not critical in itself but the scaffolding needs to be up until it's on (to act as a safety barrier), and that means that neither the external stone nor cedar cladding can go on.

The joiners were way behind too, so we have only recently had window frames installed - the glass should follow soon. With luck the door frames too and that means we can get the building secure. Once that happens, the electricians and plumbers will run out of excuses....

Apart from that, things are moving slowly but surely forward. The plastering is done, and much of the flooring.

We are now trying to decide on colour schemes, which feels like a very rushed decision - despite the many months we've had to think about it, I don't think we could have realistically decided until now. We've put up about a zillion sample pots and we seem to be drawn to the "safe" option of white pretty much everywhere. In a house like this, it isn't a bad decision, just unimaginative!

At last we have the roof pretty much finished. Watertight at least, which means the plasterers can start.
The main roof is finished, except a small section to the rear which will be done once the sedum is in place. Most passers-by still think the windows are solar panels.
The sedum roof is now well under way. There are 6 layers (2 base, insulation, 2 top, sedum) which take close to 4 weeks to apply. The 2 guys find the slope tricky to deal with as they keep slipping off.
The fixed glazing is now all in, but the doors and (opening) windows aren't here yet, so are still covered with blue plastic. The difference inside is amazing.
Sometimes we need photos like this to remind us how beautiful the place is in summer.

The frame comes with floor joists for the first and second floors, but as these are designed to be visible, a whole second set of joists are laid above those (with plasterboard in-between), for all the services (electric, heating, etc.)

All the internal walls are up too, but only as "skeleton" studwork.

So now we can finally see the shape of the rooms and start the detailed planning in earnest.

Moss Sedum Roof

On a separate note, we have committed to the moss sedum roof as originally specified (from Erisco-Bauder). We found another supplier who claimed to be typically 1/2 the price but their quote came in 50% higher! They should be laying the base waterproofing layer next week, with the insulation and sedum carpet to follow.

Tiles and stone

We finally got the planners round to confirm our choice of roof tiles and external stonework. So in the very near future we should have windows, roof and walls. Hey, it might even start looking like a house.

This week's main fun is the sand-blasting of the frame, to get rid of all the crud and discolouration. This job was described on a recent Grand Designs as one of the worst jobs in the world, but Dave here seems to actually like it, mainly because he loves the wood so much and to be able to work wonders with the surface texture and grain.
The house has been made watertight for this, which is a major milestone in its own right.

We have the home straight in sight as far as the external finishes are concerned.

• The large glass "picture" windows overlooking the river have been ordered and should be fitted in 3 weeks. (Dreading next month's bill.)
• We have decided on tiles for the roof and the stone cladding. We have to await agreement from the planners, but we're not anticipating any problems (except delays!) as there are no building nearby we have to match.
• The "moss sedum" roof is more problematic as all the quotes have come-in significantly over-budget. While we try to get cheaper quotes, we have been forced to consider cheaper options such as zinc or copper.

I got a few kitchen companies in this week but one said they couldn't help as my design is too wacky. Is that a bit like having a double-glazing salesman put the phone down on you?

We are also starting to become aware of huge number of decisions that will need to be made pretty soonish. Next up is lighting, a subject neither of us know much about.

I've been pushing our builder to give us a firmer date for completion and he's still confident of meeting the original target of August. Yeah yeah! In June, he expected to be able to agree a firm date however.

Two views from further afield. Thought it was time for the old narrowboat-and-dog cliche.

The outer walls on the upper floor have been faced with plywood. Looks pretty ugly but only temporary. The structural engineers insisted on this to add extra rigidity to the frame. Soon the main roof will be covered in a temporary waterproof cover, so work can start on the internals. In particular, the frame will be sandblasted clean in a couple of weeks.
Curved roofs looking pretty nice now. The rooms below have become surprisingly dark, and we're probably over-reacting by thinking we'll need white paint everywhere.
View across loft--lots of space for a large train set. The roof here will be glazed to flood the landing with light.

Our bedroom and roof above. The views from the roof are fantastic and we've just had the wacky idea to have a "sun deck" up here. Not sure how we'd get up here (easily) but Mr Builder thinks maybe a hatch through the main roof.

We very nearly decided to get one of these ourselves but pulled out at the last minute. The feeling of space and light is fantastic and the build-quality second-to-none.

What turned us off in the end was the lack of flexibility in the design and the high cost. Ultimately I don't think there is any way would have got planning permission for this at Brooklands - we had enough difficuly with our current design which is a lot more sympathetic to the setting.

One feature we had particularly liked was their enthusiastic use of basements, which more than make up for the first-floor space lost with the chalet style roof. A basement would pretty much impossible at Brooklands.

We've seen a few Huf Hausen since and don't regret the decision at all. The "guaranteed" 12-week build time would be nice though...

Channel 4's Grand Designs web site We contacted "Grand Designs" about our house but they didn't reply. One reason might be that our architect has already been featured twice on the series, and it's pretty hard to find something new to say about oak-frame construction.