You might know it. School holidays and the weather has been much wetter. We have managed to finish the cladding on the north wall and have got the base coats of render on. What a difference! It really looks like a house.
Coming back from Tai Chi Caledonia was as exciting as expected. Still on a high, I found that John had just about got all the floors down, Merry Mick had finished the utility roof and architect Chris had been for a visit without throwing up his hands in horror. He pronounced the house ‘gloriously ramshackle’ referring (we think!) to the patches of polythene and tarpaulin over the windows.
Another month. My the weeks are passing! Everything seems to marking time but Mick has started slating and the first instalment of larch cladding has finally arrived. It is going on the wall very nicely. The diffutherm order, the insulated wall panels that will be rendered, turned up late and incomplete but we should be able to get cracking on that once the cladding is up.
Bless me friends for I have sinned. It has been a month since my last entry. That’s because we’ve been busy! Read the rest of this entry »
John’s target was to finish sarking the roof before our visitors arrived for the Gigha walk. As usual, he was disappointed!
After a spell of pretty good weather, sunny if cold but a bit windy at times, we finally completed the ladder studs in the gables and formed the necessary window openings. Nice to be making progress but as ever, things were a bit slower than we would have liked. We seem to specialise in slow and steady and getting there in the end. Read the rest of this entry »
The past fortnight has been a bit of a slog. Working at height is slow but once you’ve worked out the best routines for getting the job done, all you have to do to finish it, is keep plugging away. Well, that’s my take on putting in the rafters and now that they are in, it will be good to try something different for a while.
It just sort of crept up on us. There we were, nervously checking the 3 hourly weather forecast every day and working out the next tiny step forward when all of a sudden we were putting up the final beam.
Ecobuild was fantastic - bigger than ever and two days just wasn’t enough. We spoke to lots of window people who all had different ideas on how to give us great windows. Now we have to find out the cost.
We also enjoyed the ‘cultcha’ at Les Mis and the Tate and the overnight train was brilliant, but, since our return, things have been a bit of a struggle.
It got so cold and wet and windy that we ran away for 2 weeks to Madeira. After our d.and v. bugs at New Year we were both a bit low so we opted for a couple of weeks with some warmth and an inside toilet. Lovely walking and gardens saw us both inspired when we returned. Read the rest of this entry »
