With wet and windy weather forecast all day, the main build team had planned to work indoors: adding the second layer of loft insulation where the MVHR ductwork has been completed and finishing off the airtight taping around the edge of the plasterboard ceiling over the Workshop and Utility Room.

Outside, the rainwater tank was installed – with about a 400mm adjustment to the excavated hole when it became clear the tank’s access cover would not line up with the paved path it needs to be contained within. (That alignment was always planned but for some reason the hole was dug slightly out of position.) The adjustment meant removing the tank, making the hole wider, re-levelling the 100mm pea gravel base layer then installing the tank again. With the tank confirmed as being in the correct location it needed to be 1/3 filled (so 1,666 litres of water) to settle it into its base before commencing the back-fill of 300mm-deep layers of manually-compacted pea gravel. It took just over 2 hours to run in that much water through a hose – by which the time the heavy rain had arrived, so outside work was halted for the day.

It proved useful to have a water meter on the (to-be) ‘rainwater’ feed into the House, so that the volume of water being run into the tank from an outside tap could be measured more accurately than trying to judge 1/3-full by eye.

Despite the weather, there was further outdoor work – moving a few more lorry-loads of spoil off-site and taking delivery of more stone for the parking area.