Yellow Balau

These planks of wood, the lower ones 16 feet long, have been sawn from two great baulks of timber that were way beams on the Settle-Carlisle railway. Way beams are hardwood sleepers used at places of high stress such as points. You can still see the marks where rail chairs have been bolted to them. We intend to use this wood for the treads and risers of staircases and for two window sills.

The long planks are identified as tropical hardwood Yellow Balau. The darker ones have still to be identified.

What is for certain, these pieces of wood will be beautiful when fitted - as well as being historically appropriate.

They were cut from the baulks this week and are seen here stacked for drying at Wonder of Wood's yard at Stainforth.

We have a water supply

Within an hour of Bobby the dog's vigil (see previous posting) two men arrived to connect us to the water mains. It took them next to no time.













This is the house end of things - a stop tap cum water meter. .  .




















. . . and this is the water main connection - cleverly tapped into the live main without spilling a drop.



















Within a couple of hours the trench was back-filled and the taps in the water tower were functioning. Why was it that we had to borrow water from a neighbour in order to supply our building site and were able to complete the building works in the time it has taken to connect to the water mains? Only the sewer to connect - tomorrow.

No water at the water tower

Day two of frustration on the water front. Yorkshire Water just didn't turn up yesterday to connect us to the water main, diligently laid bare for them by Whitelocks. If the system spent less time on risk assessments and method statements and more on doing the doing we might one day get a water supply. Here we see smoke rising from a manhole like something from a pavement scene in New York
The smoke was Whitelock's man cutting in to the sewer - which belongs to United Utilities, not Yorkshire Water. Did somebody with a sense of humour come up with the name United Utilities?

Bobby inspects the unconnected water main and is not pleased. The No Water sign was a lucky find inside the water tower which somehow fits the situation.

From inside the roadworks Bobby keeps watch for Yorkshire Water's arrival.

Roadworks at long last

Peter Bullock the waller works on the retaining wall by the station drive under the watchful scrutiny of site supervisor Bobby.

This is a very welcome sight - road works in The Sidings in preparation for the connection of a water supply tomorrow. It has taken us more than six months to get to this stage. Whose daft idea was it to privatise the utilities? Note the rather optimistic distance sign saying 200 yards.

Soon corrected using gaffer tape. There was debate about making it 200mm instead.

Aaaaah.

Heating engineer Chris doing clever stuff with pipes. The gas boiler is installed and if all goes well we could have heating by Friday.

Meanwhile life goes on on the Settle-Carlisle Railway. Coach drivers have coped with our roadworks with great understanding.

Ladder for sale

This is the top bit of what was an exceptionally long and strong ladder belonging to Kilburn and Johnson - until one of Whitelock's Tonka toys drove over it. So far there has only been passing interest so the price has been raised to £6 from £5 in an attempt to push it into a higher sector of the market.

The slope to the side door is looking great. Those flagstones were salvaged from the floor of the tower and are 4 inches thick.

A bank of light switches - deliberately industrial in style. There is a similar array on each floor. We may need coaching on what does what.

Electric Ollie has done a super job on complicated wiring. He turns camera shy whilst fitting an 'up and down' light to an inside corridor. These stainless steel lights are designed for exterior use but look the part indoors too.

Visible progress on several fronts

Gav and Peter with the north retaining wall. Great stuff. Just wait until you see this finished.

Meanwhile Les Brewer has been taming the embankment.

And Jordan the tiler has most of the bathroom walls and floors tiled.

Chris Arstrong, Unimog and digger have been clearing the site and excavating the area where the main entrance onto the station drive will be. The flat area in front of the pile of stones is where the garages will be. There seem to be several layers of stone and tarmac already there so we may not need to lay such a substantial base for the outbuilding as we had anticipated.

Finally, we are gradually lighting the place up as the second fix electrics are installed. This is what was previously the exterior dentition stones just below the tank - now a well lit feature of the kitchen ceiling. It was builders Richard and Carl's idea to build the ceiling in such a way that these were not covered in by the ceiling. Electrician Jonathan Mounsey then suggested illuminating them with LEDs. What a pleasing result.

We're getting there

This is the view from the main entrance balcony towards the station drive. The site has been cleared of the aftermath of building works. The area shown will, subject to planning permission, be occupied by a three bay garage. The pile of stones to the left are all that remain of a huge stone pile after the retaining walls had been faced. At the far side of the digger is the stock of stone slabs that had been removed from the tank house floor for re-use. . .

. . . and here is the start of their re-use, on the slope leading up the the side door. The square stones are setts reclaimed locally.

This shows a stone channel leading to the surface water drain. The channel is being constructed from stones reclaimed from the one time stables inside the tower.

The stone setts and the surface water grate - original to the tower and still in fine condition. The care being taken with this otherwise mundane aspect of the build is hugely impressive. These guys know what is right and they j.f.d.i.