A lot has happened since the last posting. I've had a fortnights holiday to commence the build properly. To save some money I'm carrying out as much of the groundworks as possible (with my brother Joe's help). Here's whats happened:

First we stripped the topsoil, and ducted under the driveway for gas, water, electric - so that we don't have to dig our access up three times. Then we could stone up the road ~ 9 inches of crusher run on geotextile, should be sufficient for lorries to drive on.

Now the house proper, mark out the foundations and excavate. 1m deep minimum, 2m adjacent to the trees. We used a level to to keep the depth consistent and minimise the concrete we require.
We had a nightmare of a day for the first concrete pour. Joe had enlisted two of his friends to help with the pour, as most of it would have to be barrowed (beyond the reach of the excavator). Some of the sides of the excavation had fallen in overnight, due to the rain, and had to be dug out by hand. Of course it continued to rain, but we managed to clean out the excavation before the first load of concrete arrived. It took 2 hours to discharge the first concrete truck (6 cubic meters, about 15t), and had to cancel the second as more of the excavation had collapsed in the rain. Not a good day.
The next day we'd arranged for a lorry to collect some of the spoil from the excavations, and managed to get the lorry bogged down as he drove off the end of our stoned road! three hour delay waiting for a second lorry to tow it out. At least we shifted about 32 cubic meters of muck.

On the middle Saturday of my fortnight off, Ken (an excavator driver from work) came to re-dig the worst of the collapsed excavation, and generally tidy up the access and mound of spoil.
Monday we had a second attempt at pouring the foundations - success, and the following day set aside for accurately marking out the house on the foundations and delivery of materials (the first 1000 concrete blocks for the foundations, 0.5t cement, 16t sand).

Early hours of Wednesday I'm woken by thunder and very heavy rain, which thankfully stopped by the time the brickies arrived. First trades we've employed on site, and it's exciting to see the blocks go in.

The brickies finished all the blockwork in the sub-structure (1400 blocks) Friday. The plan for next weekend is to fit our 'beam & block' ground floor. Keep watching!