future simple passive

WOW!  Our kitchen continues to draw attention, featuring on thekitchn.com (for more of my posts see A sustainable kitchen, kitchen progression, kitchen installation, kitchen reveal).  It's the moveable island that is the star of the show today.  






Once Sam, from Sustainable Kitchens, and I had the initial design and layout sorted out, I was able to start thinking about the details of 'what and where'.  I imagined using the kitchen and where I would ideally like to store things and how I would use the space.  

The island quickly got identified as the 'prep' area.  So all mixing bowls, sieves, weighing scales, measuring jugs, lemon juicer, etc. would be stored here.  Sam pointed out that we would be able to have storage on both sides of the island. I had been very keen on the idea of a breakfast cupboard, where all breakfast foodstuffs, cereals & jams/marmite/honey could be stored conveniently close to the dining table (mornings are busy enough!).  This meant that I could use the other cupboard for vegetable storage.  I wanted it to be dark but also ventilated so Sam suggested cutting vents into the doors- the design of these was left until as late as possible so that we could relate it to other design choices in the rest of the house. 

The island still in the workshop waiting for the stainless steel wrapping.

We looked at baskets and got a little sidetracked by metal/wire industrial style trays, but in the end I really liked Sam's idea of just making the slatted drawers from ply like the rest of the carcass of the kitchen.  This was the first time Sustainable Kitchens had been asked to make this feature and they made two drawers with dividers to give me 4 different areas.  This has been really was useful esp in the autumn/winter when we have squash, celeriac, beetroot, jerusalem artichokes and so on.

I'm soooo sorry for the blog cascade.  Why the sudden flood of information?  A deadline of course.  For those that don't yet know- we are going to be on TV tomorrow, or today if this gets sent out in the morning.

Building the dream, More4, 9pm.

Nobody told me my feet were going to be in the shot...elegant crocs!

For a long time we looked liked this...





Next came the gravel...(the horrid paving slabs were begged and borrowed to satisfy Building Control rules and get signed off.)






And the entrance pathway was laid...slate tiles

Two of our garden boundaries were in a terrible state. Our site had been left untouched for a number of years and the plants had taken over to create a Cotswold jungle along the edges! Not only that, our hilltop position meant that the ground fell away steeply in both directions.  With the landslips of the previous winter (read more here), and potential water run-offs, it was vital that we stablised the ground and protected our lower-sited neighbours.  Gabions were the obvious solution and Ali, our friendly local groundworker was back on site to get them sorted. 

Clearing the jungle

Clear and level

• they are constructed of locally sourced materials minimising transport emissions and costs
• they have a lower environmental cost than concrete and other construction materials
• they are permeable to water and don't allow a build up of hydrostatic pressure behind them
• the baskets are flexible and the structure can adapt flexibly to forces occurring as a result of soil movements occurring after the construction of the gabion wall
• winter freeze and thaw conditions have minimal impact to the structure
• they can be easily colonised by plants leading to a 'green wall' and very naturalistic aesthetic
• the stone can be reused if a repair is needed unlike a normal concrete solution

The central gully is to allow extra planting space above.

Topsoil spread and levelled with the rest of the 'garden'.

The gabions were the reason our finances became so tight at the end of the project.  We had verbal agreement from our lender of further funds, so we went ahead with the work.  Our lender later changed their mind, and so money allocated to other work had to be re-distributed.  It was very challenging at the time, but when we look back we had no choice, this work had to be done.  They were a huge unforeseen cost of about £30K in total.  The shortfall of funds has meant that the house hasn't yet been completely finished. Things will come gradually now over the next few years - it's teaching me patience!

Everyone is delighted with the gabions.  There have been a lot of gabions appearing in this area recently and I have to say ours are definitely the best looking - Ali knows how to make a nice, neat gabion.  Retrospective planning permission was granted with no issues at all (we had had someone call planning enforcement...!). Just a shame I don't get to see them.

To finish the stairs there were a number of elements.  We wanted a glazing balustrade at the top of the stairs, to span the width of the stair return.  Obviously we wanted as clean and simple a look as possible, ideally floating and frameless.  Charlie forwarded me a gorgeous photo example but it came with a £1000 price tag!  No chance, all the money had gone!  But Charlie regrouped and came up tops when he found local firm Aluminox.  Steve of Aluminox recommended his side-fixing frameless channel system.  









As a handrail is a Building Control requirement I quickly had to come up with a design.  

The sliding doors were made in the workshop, like the majority of the birch ply joinery and then transported assembled to site (see Internal joinery)







They are very big and very heavy.

The slates were on, the scaffolding gone, we were on to the timber cladding.  

Looking at the random width layout

 Andrew begins the fixing using the more pricey stainless steel screws and cups, necessary as cedar sap corrodes anything else.







 Beautiful!  Over the next couple of years the cedar will silver.  The planks are 50mm thick, really solid and I'm told will outlive me.