I suppose you could call this the first part of the timber frame: This is the wallplate going into position. The slab has now set. A visual inspection on Sunday afternoon reveals no cracks, yay. So we trimmed the dpm around the outer walls, laid the dpc (thicker reinforced plastic membrane) and placed the first piece of the wallplate in position. And then began the fiasco of drilling the holes for the fixings! It became fairly obvious within about 45 seconds of drilling that the 550W drill we'd borrowed from my parents just wasnt man enough - so we went and bought a suitably manly one - a 1250W 'Titan' hammer drill, with the same SDS Plus chuck system as the bit I'd bought earlier. Clearing the debris from the holes is the main problem now, going in through the holes in the bricks doesnt work as all the dust from the blockwork collects in the lowest brick and we cant get it out - it then falls into the fixing when we tap it into place - and then you cant screw the bar into it because it's full of dust! The holes in the walls that are just blockwork seem to work, as 99% of the dust comes out of the top of the hole.

Anyway, we managed to get 6 holes drilled & fixed. In one entire day. Which I guess shows how much of a struggle it is!

Yesterday I helped my brother with his garden, Friday he will be coming to Cheltenham to repay the favour, and we can start on the timber frame proper!