Week Forty-two.

Week beginning 20th March 2023.

Since we didn’t post a ‘part two’ to our blog last week here’s a wee catch-up of what happened between then and now.

On Thursday morning Kathleen helped Molly cut out some templates of the shower trays we had bought ages ago to help Des the plumber work out if they’ll fit. Ross and Kathleen also helped us lift our old broken-down fridge/freezer onto our car ready to take to the recycling centre in Oban. Then they were off home and we went off to Oban. It was so great to have their help and company last week and many hands do indeed make light work. Thans Ross and Kathleen.

On Friday morning we had a site meeting with Andrew to calrify a few things to do with scheduling and the progress of the build. After that he taught us how to fit the sills and window and door reveals.

A lot of the work of fitting a window sill is preparation. You have to make sure the sill is correctly cut to the width of the window, it has a drip detail cut underneath the leading edge and that it will slope at about 5º.

Andrew cut chanels in the battens for the sill to rest in and Pete cut the drip detail. Then Andrew cut the insulation back to create an angle.

The next stage involved taping extra membrane over the trimmed insulation then adding a more precisely fitted damp proof course for under the sill. We carefully taped everthing to prevent water ingress.

We presented the sill a few times, making adjustments before finally checking its level and fixing it in place.

The next stage was to cut and fit the top reveal board. We had to drill pilot holes to prevent the larch splitting when screwing or nailing in place. At the back of the top board we fixed Compriband expanding sealing tape to make an impermeable join. The board was presented a few times to work out how we could fit it true and square before finally fixing it in place.

Finally came the two side reveal boards which had to be cut round the aluminium drip sill detail that came with the windows, and to fit with the slope of the larch sill. To help make a good fit Andrew created a template with a spare bit of larch. Using a small piece of wood to offset he traced the shape onto the larch then cut it out. After checking for accuracy we were able to use this on our full sized pieces of larch.

Again we presented our cut-out side reveals before drilling pilot holes, fixing on Compriband and finally fitting and fixing in place making sure they were level and true.

It was a lot to learn and remember but I’m sure we’ll manage to fit the sills and reveals on all the rest of the twelve windows and doors ourselves. Fingers crossed.

On Friday night our great friends Nicky and Graham arrived on the coach from Edinburgh. This was their first visit and we were very excited that they’d come. We had a lovely boozy time catching-up on Friday night.

It was pouring with rain on Saturday but rather than sit in the caravan all day we took them to Kilmartin Glen to see the Neolithic standing stones and cists. We all got a right soaking during our visit to this very impressive place but we didn’t mind too much.

Sunday was a much nicer day and becauser it looked like it was going to stay dry we decided to go for a decent sized walk. Molly found a nice route up to a wee lochan that we had approached from the Dalmally side previously. The walk up through Allt Broighleachan pinewood, a Caledoinian Forest Reserve, is beautiful but you need good lungs and glutes because it’s almost all up hill and a bit steep in parts. The Walkhighlands route ends at the reserve but if you keep following the track you end up at Lochan Coire Thoraidh, giving you a great viewpoint.

It’s Monday morning and we need to be getting on with it. We have a lot to do, especially if the corrugated roof arrives this week – we need to cut out two apertures for our roof lights and fit the windows, fit the soffits and fascias on the shed’s gables, we need to get on with the taping and we need to start fitting all the sills and reveals.

It’s dry just now so we are going to have a go at the gable soffits and fascias. First we need to build the scaffolding platform up another level.

Arghhhhh! It’s started raining just as we finish erecting the scaffolding but before we can fix a soffit or fascia. It’s indoors for some taping then.

Molly is checking all the taping that has been done last week to make sure it is firmly stuck while Pete is making a start on the high bits of trusses over the open plan space. To do this he is working on top of our other scaffolding platform and sometimes has to climb onto the rafters if the platform doesn’t fit below.

The taping here is quite precise on the side where the pasterboard will be fixed so we are folding the tape carefully before attaching. As usual the preparation takes as long or longer than the fixing itself.

The rain has stopped so we are preparing one of our windows ready for fitting the sill and reveals. We are carefully measuring, cutting and taping but it’s getting dark so we have to stop, anyway it’s almost 7pm already.

It’s dry this morning so we are cutting the sill ready to fit it. After presenting it a few times we have realised that we need to undo some of yesterday’s taping and cut back the insulation to allow the sill to sit properly.

We’ve finally got it sitting nicely and it’s laterally level and at the correctish slope so we can fix it in place.

That’s the rain again so it’s more taping for us.

We made good progress on the taping yesterday so we only have a few high bits to do on the south roof trusses, we should be able to move onto the north trusses before too long.

We are both high up on the rafters taping and we are really eating into the task. We are both nervous about this high level work but it does mean we are very attentive when working here.

We have decided to stop doing the high level taping for the day as it is quite exhausting climbing up and holding on tight, and it’s quite warm up there. We only have three sections left to do and the rest of the taping is much lower down and easier to do. At this rate we’ll have all the taping done before too long.

Because it’s dry again we are going to fit the top reveal board and work on the side reveals for a while before calling it a day.

For the most part the last few days have been great and we loved having Ross and Kathleen then Nicky and Graham with us. The important thing for us now is not to get too overwhelmed by all the work we have still to do to get our house finished, even though the task list is growing fast.