Here are a few pictures of the progress as of last week. The cornicing should arrive next week and then they can crack on completing the walls and move on to the flooring.
Below: a view of the foyer from the front door.
Below: A view of the staircase from the ballroom hallway.
Below: The jungle of flues and various fireplaces. This was one disappointing aspect of the build, that the fireplaces had to protrude into the rooms so much. They are 600mm deep, before the 300mm deep mantlepieces are fitted, meaning they will protrude into the rooms by 3 feet. At least the rooms are large enough to cope with this.
It was also a pain that under law each fireplace must have its own flu (so back to back fireplaces on the lower floor with back to back fires above require 4 flues coursing up through the walls, and chimney pieces wide enough to hide the flues at 400mm wide each (1.6m plus 1.8m fireplaces = 3.4m blade walls!).
Below: The staircase from the top.
Below: The lift shaft from the top.
Below: The dentils waiting to be fixed to the eaves around the outside of the manor.
Below: Detail of the frieze band onto the top of which the dentils are fixed.
