Topping Off

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.

This calls for a topping off ceremony, I said, and dashed off to the internet to check the correct procedure. With half the beam up, I had to scout round for a sprig of larch, wash the glasses and find some neighbours to come and celebrate with us. You are supposed to invite the architect, engineer and everyone who has worked on the house but we only had 5 minutes so made do with neighbours Fiona and David, Andrew and Rosie and Tom and a phone call to Chris (the architect).

This all happened as a result of Emily and Richard coming for the weekend. The other part of the upstairs that has a ‘normal’ ceiling is the bathroom, so John and I built the bathroom and en suite walls up to 2.4, and put the ceiling in the bathroom to give us somewhere to stand. The rest of the bathroom wall is part of the ridge beam so that went up easily. Then Emily and Richard arrived in time for the tricky glulam beams in the cathedral ceilings. Emily had been at a Field Study week at Ardentinny and Richard took a long weekend off, doing the ferry hop and cycling through Arran.

Standing on the two end bedrooms and the bathroom, we were able to get the glulam beam across the cathedral ceiling over the staircase. Then we had to tackle the beam in other cathedral ceiling which meant building the scaffolding and the ladder joists and cradle in the west gable wall. We got it all braced and vertical and suddenly, there we were, measuring up for the final bedroom beam. Rather than 90 wide glulam beams, engineer John had said we could use 2 x 45s which was much more manageable, and also let us practice putting one of them in before the neighbours came to celebrate.

The weather had been playing games with us and we had had torrential rain for Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning but on Sunday afternoon, the skies cleared and the wind dropped and it all went off beautifully.

The sprig of tree is to symbolise that the project has proceeded well and without injury and is to appease the tree dwelling spirit of the ancestors that have been displaced. We debated whether to use rhododendron, which had definitely been displaced, or cedar, one or two of which had been displaced, or larch, which was used to build the house and so which had been considerably displaced, although not from here. We chose larch so the larch spirits will be appeased as we sprayed some champagne over the beam and sprig of larch too, making sure there was plenty left for us.

We duly signed and dated the beam before putting it up, then cleared up and enjoyed a few bottles of wine and a late night camp fire.

On Monday morning, we began the short wall which was missing above the utility room. Richard set off home in glorious weather. We drove him to the ferry and went for a walk ourselves, then came home and finished off the external wall and got everything ready to fix the wall plates along the utility room wall on Tuesday morning. But that was as far as we got because the rain and high winds drew in again. Emily went home to catch up with her studies and prepare for her exams. Thanks to them both we can be pretty chuffed with progress. The next challenge will be to fit the remaining rafters, including the long ones that go right down to the single storey utility room. Fingers crossed that they will not be too heavy for us and that they actually do reach.