Quick update before I go away for a week.
My mum died a few days ago and I have to go back to Yorkshire for the funeral, so I shall be missing for a while.
The pipes went in for the geothermal.
The white blobs are carrier bags full of sand to keep the pipes in position while they are covered over.

The hole through the wall for this piping was a challenge. It had to be almost 1 metre below ground level. Except that it had to be below outside ground level and the outside is almost a metre below internal floor level. Me and Phil had to excavate this rather deep hole and then break through 75cm granite wall. It was fun !!
The distribution manifolds were attached to the top of the pipes.

Work has now started on filling the hole in.
The ground levels are being altered at the same time as it makes sense to do this while the big machinery is on site. It will make the garden easier to deal with if it is level with gentle slopes rather than steep banking

The hole for the geothermal piping is now completed
There were snags along the way as always, including a burst hydraulic pipe on the digger and a break in the drain taking the water from the well under the garden to the burn. The well was running faster than I have ever seen it run, so the amount of water cascading into the hole was spactacular. The picture doesn't do it full justice because there is no scale or movement to it.
The broken pipe has finally been uncovered and the water is now piped through modern plastic pipe.
The house has squatters before we have even finished it.
There is a swallows nest in the bedroom block just above one of the windows. They must have started building the moment the roof was completed there.
Can you imagine their excitment as they tried to decide which of the new trusses to use, and admired the home improvements that we had done for them

The roof is complete !!

It was quite difficult getting the last of the ridge tiles because modern ones are totally different to the traditional old ones that are on. Most builder's merchants only stock the new type. I managed to find second hand ones at a reclamation yard in Kinellar.

The Polish workers set off back home on Sunday morning. They have quite a drive ahead of them as they were catching a ferry from Dover. They would then presumably have to drive across the continent from Dunkirk to Poznan in Poland.

Excavations were started for the huge hole in the garden. I can now hire out my lawn to film makers for WWII films.



The spoil heaps are hugeThe hole itself is going to be quite impressive when its finished. I shall have to throw someone down there to give a sense of scale.
Phil became a very happy man when Tony let him have drive of the digger.


Phil above Tony below


We have also discovered that the ground level outside the kitchen is considerably lower than we had thought.

This means that the hole inside the kitchen where the pipes will come in has to be correspondingly lower