A self build house project diary
by Oliver Cannell

Here come the windows

Today was a landmark day in the build, as the windows are now on-site.

Today was one of the big days in whole build. Countless times on these self-build TV programmes, it's the windows and glazing that cause huge delays and stress, and often push the original budget to breaking point or beyond.

Thankfully, Howarth Windows have come up trumps with these (so far) and have managed to deliver them to site earlier than originally expected. And they didn't cost the earth!

Wood is good

Timber windows have always been my preference, for various reasons, and Howarth's were able to provide a good quality product at an affordable price. Their sales rep was very helpful indeed, and their staff head office (up near Hull) sent through two lots of colour samples for us to look at.

Choosing the colour / finish for the windows was really hard - light stain to give a more traditional Scandanavian feel, or a dark slate grey to emulate the sleek modern look of today's contemporary aluminium window systems. We opted for the slate grey in the end, I must say they look very smart. I'm looking forward to seeing them go in.

Taking delivery

As they arrived pre-glazed, some of them were immensely heavy. It took 4 people to shift the french window units from the lorry, down into the house... negotiating a gap in the garden wall, the sloping garden and the scaffolding in the process. Thankfully no damage  was sustained along the way.

With them all leaning up against the 'kitchen' wall inside the house, it doesn't look anywhere near enough windows and doors for the whole house. This order doesn't include the front door though, which we shall be sourcing separately, and to be honest although there aren't actually many windows in the house, the ones we do have are quite large. Plus there will be some Velux roof windows going into the bedrooms, bathroom and the kitchen, so those will lighten the place up a lot.

Next entry: Final structural roof elements and visual details (Monday 24th November 2014)

Previous entry: Connecting to the outside world - water, gas and electricity (Wednesday 12th November 2014)

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