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.
Cutting the footings was fiddly and we only really got to grips with the angles once we made up the 4 templates which were needed to suit the different styles of construction of the wall heads. However, things really got tricky when we realised that the things over the utility room weren’t going to work out without some modifications to what we’d already built. The first of the long rafters we put in appeared to be higher than the rest of the roof. Why?
We scratched our heads for a while and couldn’t come up with an answer. Basically, the walls of the utility room were either too high or too far out and as a result, the long rafters just didn’t land on top of the wallheads. Either, we could alter the pitch of the utility room roof (not acceptable because it would look out of place) or, we could reduce the height of the utility room wall at the front of the house until things worked.
It’s always difficult to go backwards but once we got going, it only took half a day to get things back on track and once the first long rafter sailed through at the right angle, we knew we’d made the right decision. Thanks goodness we were blessed with good weather and hardly any wind as those big rafters were about at the limit of what we could manage. Getting the last one in place on Sunday afternoon was a big relief so we both agreed to take a day off in Oban to replenish the larder, get clean and relax a little bit before starting on the gable stud work and the sarking.
Meanwhile, the geese have gone to Iceland and ravens, swallows, curlews and willow warblers have appeared. The great tits and chaffinches are making a racket at the moment but nobody seems to be interested in our nesting boxes. We think we have heard a woodpecker too, unless it was John. This weekend the frog and toad(?) spawn in the ponds and ditches began to quiver and pop and we have been watching the emerging tadpoles in anticipation of a midge-free summer (dream on!).
Looks like your really cracking on! It must feel good to see the whole form of the house emerging. My Paul is coming up soon as we look to get an electric connection etc. Hopefully things will start to happen in Claonaig soon even if its only a caravan!
Dear John and Suze,
Tis I Landino, (John) your daughter Emily’s friend.
I am really pleased to see how well you are coming along with your house. Its a shame you dont have anywhere to lock up your daughters though ….
You could always feed them the tadpoles.
Although seriously, I am very proud of you for following through with your convictions.
I always have wanted to build a hobbit home, a house built into the side of a hill, also kinda like luke skywalkers gaff in the first star wars.
I know yours is nothing like that, but the principal is not dissimilar.
best of luck
John
PS emily is telling me to stop writting now