Week 22 - The big roof goes on and boulders arrive ...

Hello folks,

This week we now have an entire building with a roof ... well almost!  The large extensions now have all the roofing boards on and the big bank of four velux windows are in place.  It certainly looks like our house now!  There has also been some sample pointing of the granite stones with lime mortar.  We had to check this and get this approved by the planning folks, so now that is done we will go ahead and repoint the entire building with this lime mix.  The builder has also started placing the giant granite boulders along the river bank.  We sourced these in Banchory from a Bancon site (for a very good deal!) and the plan is that these will provide protection against river bank erosion and also allow us to build up the bank a little to contour the site.  Even John Paul Sigmersson would struggle to carry these babies!  Apologies for the photos, it was really dark when I took these so focus and light is not the best.

Looking south-west from the lounge

Looking inside from the kitchen - sorry, it was dark outside!

Looking up at the full height hallway roof inside mill - four conservation velux now installed

View from the front - shows how discrete the huge extensions are from the farm road

Down at the riverside -  oh, that digger looks a bit lopsided!

East extension with roof on - the two high windows are into store and cloakroom

Doorways from glazed hall into cloakroom (left) and utility room (right)

A full view looking east - roof on!

Small sample of lime pointing

These are big boy bits of granite!

Boulders in location at river bank

Week 21 - An extension, wow!

Hello again folks,

This week has seen some real progress on the extension and ... wait for it ..... our first windows!  Roof structures went up really well considering the foul weather that has been hitting us recently - so much for summer!  We think it looks amazing now and the general shape of the structure is hopefully apparent for all to see.  The first windows that are going in are on the mill roof, with the conservation velux windows.  These are a planning requirement due to the historical nature of the building.  All the other windows are onsite now and have been painted the grey colour we picked - should look great against the granite and the wood when finished.  The extension roofs are obviously quite large and will be finished in profiled metal sheeting in case you were wondering (to keep the old building look) ... mill will be re-slated with the Scots slate we reclaimed from the old roof.  All in, one of the most visually satisfying weeks for us since we started!!  When can we move in again??? :-)

View looking east - the extension

The extension again ... we're not disappointed by the size!

The south-west corner .. these will be sliding doors opening to deck

Inside the main extension - looking from kitchen towards lounges

Photo from lower level looking up

South-West corner again ... this will be a fab opening from the dining room /  kitchen

East extension roof going on ... there will be two windows facing north

Looking towards office and store room

Looking towards utility room, cloakroom and plant room

A roof beam being secured into the main mill wall

One of the conservation velux windows now fitted

The rest of our windows on site ..... ready for fitting

Week 20 - Here come the big muckle roof beams!

Hi folks,

This week has seen arrival and fitting of the big steel beams for the main extension roof. These are big beasts! These were a change from the original design, as we had intended to use glulam beams. However due to supply issues this was changed to steel. These actually work out better as not only will this be stronger, the sizing means we can now add even more insulation and still have room in the void to install ceiling speakers. Looking good!

We also finally made a decision this week on heating! Plan is to install a biomass wood pellet boiler. This will be located in the plant room and means we will be burning wood pellets for heating and hot water, a true renewable source of energy. Just need to make a decision on where we put the external bulk store for the pellets as we will need around 5-6 tonnes per year. We have also decided to add on solar thermal (to supply summer time hot water demands) and a mechanical heat recovery system to service the main extension and mill areas. The latter will allow us to extract air from certain rooms, recover the heat from that air, and then us that to heat fresh / filtered air back into the house (free from pollen and pollutants). Pretty cool stuff.

That's all for this week!

First roof beam into position (5 in total)

Beam entering wall / granite rebuild ongoing

Bedroom window next to steel beam  (this will look into hallway)

Lintel steel beam for massive lounge window

Week 19 - Rebuilding main doorway into the Mill

Hello,

First week back for the builders and the main job for the week was to start the long awaited rebuild of the large opening that was made in the Mill's south wall for our new doorway between old and new. This is the only opening we are enlarging in the entire old structure. The plan was to build the new doorway side walls out in reclaimed "seaton" red brick. This method and material was used throughout Aberdeenshire in old granite buildings and was used a lot in the old Finzean sawmills upstream from us - it was basically a cheaper method of creating detailed framing and corners than cutting granite blocks. It looks pretty fab. The lintels above are made from chunky sections of Douglas Fir. The stonework above the opening is getting rebuilt in the original granite blocks that were recovered and set aside. Once this scope is complete, we can get cracking with putting the steel beams and roof on the extension!

Enlarged opening from old to new!