Building new walls (part 2)

The picture shows the existing lean-to, the wall of the existing extension next door and the new rear wall up to the damp course.

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We are now in September, the brickie sometimes has his son labouring for him and they've been here for about 3 weeks. At this point, we are ready for the local council's building regulation inspectors to visit and give us permission to carry on.

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We wanted a fully opening expanse of folding-sliding doors across the back of the extension but the architect had advised that anything over 8ft would require additional strength or longer beams or something so we decided to opt for an 8ft opening with large windows either side. We also prefer the look of wood but decided to match the pvc already used throughout the house, partly because we had wooden doors in our previous two houses and wanted less hassle this time!

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Unfortunately, Wooden doors need staining/painting every year or two and, in our experience, don't generally fit properly - they stick in the summer and, worse still, are draughty in the winter. However, our initial pvc patio door investigations taught us that the stronger and better looking (lower sills, less white and more glass, etc) white "plastic" doors and windows are, in fact, powder-coated aluminium. Time to search the Internet for suppliers and quotes!