Shelling Out...

As you can see from these recent photos the main roof is now complete along with the guttering (so many styles to chose from) and the water tables (I mentioned these little babies a few posts back).  Water tables are basically solid slabs of stone used more for decoration that anything practical but you gotta admit it really finishes off the roof over the gable and besides this is the main elevation that visitors to our new home will see as they approach up the drive - marvellous!

Under Paul and Kezza's watchful eye James measures once and cuts twice - only Joking mate they'd be absolutely knackered without you keeping them on the straight and narrow!

We were stuck yesterday in terms of progressing with the rest of the roof structure above the garage and the utility room at the rear of the house until the scaffold was removed today. We've even been able to take off hire the Bumpa that Paul brought in to assist with hoisting thousands of tiles up to the top of the scaffold (available from TAG Tool Hire).  Saved an absolute shed load of hard work and aggro as well as speeding up the whole job of roofing.  Unfortunately to James's disappointment it would not carry his weight up there as well :¬(

Paddy has also recently completed all of his studying and college training so is now the official "greenhorn" Brickie of the team.  He's getting tons of experience being involved with Derek, Paul and Kez on this build having been in it from the very start - he was first on site to create the site access!  He's also very proud of the standard of his workmanship - in fact he's so bloody proud he can't help himself posing whenever I'm snapping shots of progress for this blog!  Still good work on that roof Paddy.

Derek and Paul keep on telling me that now we're reaching water tight stage the focus rapidly shifts to finishing trades...and that's when I really start to have to shell out wads of money!

We've already had Mick the plumber in to do what is know in the trade as first-fix.  This is basically routing all of the key hot and cold water pipes for sinks, baths etc. and laying down the central heating pipework.   We have chosen a combination of underfloor heating on the ground floor and tradition radiators on the first floor all powered by a gas fired combination boiler.  I post more information on how this works out later.  We've also got James the electrician who is scheduled to do his first-fix wiring later this week.  Again I'll post more on this later along with my plans to install a home network and media system for those of a technical disposition.  I've done some research into this already and whilst it's still a fairly niche thing to do I thought I'd give it a go.  I'll let you know how I get on but already I'm thinking my aspirations will need to be pegged back due to technology compatibility constraints - still my CAT5e cabling should arrive in a few days - boys and toys and all that!

The key for me right now though is getting the house I have recently finished renovating and that I'm currently living in on the market.  I don't expect to sell it very quickly given the current economic climate however as the saying goes "You can't win it...if you're not in it!"  I'll post the brochure as soon as we get the draft from the estate agents.

On the subject of economy, depending upon who you talk to I've built a rather confusing view on whether we are genuinely working our way out of the recession or if the warnings from Robert Peston are coming home to roost and we're actually on the precipice of a double-dip?  I don't profess to be an economist having only just recently progressed from News Round to News At Ten - and even then I forget to listen.  It's all bloody doom and gloom and if I believed every bulletin I heard there really would be no point getting up in a morning.  

Still it reminded me of a story I heard someone telling the other week on the train as I made my way down to London.  There was an article in the Metro (the freebie newspaper) about whether economic stimulus had had any material effect on kick starting the economic recovery.  Like I say I'm no economist but these two couldn't even spend a penny in a public toilet...anyway as they sat opposite me at my table I couldn't help but over hear as one of them explained what economic stimulus is supposed to achieve...it went something like this...(poetic licence aside the gist of the story is as I heard it - pure British genious)

A tourist visiting Blackpool drives through the town, stops at a guest house, and lays a £50 note on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs to pick one for the night. 

As soon as he walks upstairs, the guest house owner grabs the £50 and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher takes the £50 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the fish monger.

The fish monger takes the £50 and heads off to pay his bill to his supplier, the Co-op.  The guy at the Co-op takes money and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her "services" on credit.

The prostitute rushes to the guest house and pays off her room bill with the guest house owner who then places the £50 back on the counter so the traveler will not suspect anything.

At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, picks up the £50 and leaves.

No one produced anything. No one earned anything... However, the whole town is now out of debt and now looks to the future with a lot more optimism.

I'll leave you to ponder this and work out for yourself...as the X-Files would say "The truth is out there".