No roof yet, but a jigsaw of various-sized timbers and RSJs bolted together in an almost complete frame ready for a covering. Seems like the chippie is as quick as the brickie.
Despite paying for plate height as far back as September ’23, it has taken Smart Homes six months to put a roof frame on. It’s better than the last stage, I suppose – they took 9 months from slab down to lay the bricks on the new slab, up to roof plate height.
If it’s taken them two less months to get a roof on than lay the bricks, and if I decrease the following two stages by two months each, then we can still see a 30-month build time from contract signing. And I don’t have any confidence in the following stages decreasing in length. I think they will increase, making a 3-year period more likely. I love Excel. My workmates once bought me a ‘I love Spreadsheets’ mug in the secret Santa. I still have it. It’s a statement.
In the spring of 2021, around 1,000 oak trees were chosen from roughly 200 French forests. and felled. These will become the new spire and transept roof of the fire-damaged cathedral of Notre Dame. From September 2021 to January 2022, 45 sawmills throughout France processed the trees into timbers. Gradually, each oak was stripped of its bark and cut into sections for planking. Eight oak trees of exceptional height – 20 metres – will be fashioned into timbers for the spire. The sawn wood was stored, dried, and sorted. By mid-2022, the timbers were transported to carpenters’ workshops to be trial-assembled before the final assembly, in 2023.
Above, we see the current state of our timber roof frame. Below, we see the current state of the roof frame of Notre Dame. Will we get a cover on ours within the same period? Maybe. It might be a bonus if <insert deity of your choice> would come along and set fire to our place, we could at least start again with a different builder…
We have already been issued with an Extension of Time Notification. The original contract was 400 days from when they start construction, but the EoT for “Trade Labour Shortages” was an additional 113 days. So that took us up to 513. And these are working days as well, so that excludes weekends and public holidays. They’ve used 317 days from their bank so far, leaving them a ‘credit’ of 196. Anyway, if they stick to their projections, we should get the keys on the 16th of December 2024. Like that’s gonna happen. If it does, I’ll eat my hat.
Oh my god , hopefully you will be in it for Christmas 2034 !!!
Thanks for the new deadline, Maree!
It’s about time we got a blog.
What a miserably slow process.
Hopefully they’ll pull their finger out, and you’ll be in for Christmas. What a celebration that would be.
But Steve, don’t bet that hat on it. X
Yeah I know, what was I thinking? Betting that fabulous hat on a non-certainty, I could lose it! If they do get their arses in gear and actually build it on time, I think I’ll have to buy a new hat and eat that one.
I quite like that Paul Young song. I’ve often wondered what cut of meat he took with him! Lamb chops? Rump steak? Maybe liver? I saw the Liver Birds Bertie and Bella recently so I’m leaning towards the latter meat cut. Maybe it’s a sign ☢️ of something!
I quite like that Paul Young song. I’ve often wondered what cut of meat she or he took with them! Lamb chops? Rump steak? Maybe liver? I saw the Liver Birds Bertie and Bella recently so I’m leaning towards the latter meat cut. Maybe it’s a sign ☢️ of something!
Haha the Liver Birds: “You dancin?” “You askin?” “I’m askin.” “I’m Dancin.”
You can’t really assume a butcher’s boy is an actual boy these days. It might be a “girl” or a “boy” depending on who the butcher’s “boy” identifies as on any particular day. So hence my altered comment. I think it’s more politically correct.
As if we really care. All that matters is that your roof timbers are up! Congratulations!
That hat looks delicious
Yeah it looks like this underneath: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/9RtGHCrpaw0/maxresdefault.jpg