Week Sixty-one

Week beginning Monday 31st July 2023.

It’s Tuesday morning and we are back at Gar Bothan after a weekend of camping with our grandchildren, Molly’s sister Ish and her three grandchildren. We had a great time camping on cousin Mairi and Andrew’s land near Abernethy. The weather was mostly kind to us so we could spend almost all the time outdoors and the children took full advantage of being able to run around freely.

One of the highlights of the weekend was a walk in the forest, foraging raspberries and blaeberries. we managed to eat our fill and the children loved the experience.

Although it rained overnight on the first night the good weather didn’t really break until Monday morning and we had to take the tents down in the rain. but a bit of team effort meant we were very efficient and it didn’t take too long.

Thanks to Mairi and Andrew for letting us camp and looking after us so well.

We dropped NIven and Caitlin in Edinburgh and got back here late afternoon. We then went for dinner at our fellow caravan dwellers Cate and Steve, who have bought a run down farm nearby and are planning to build a new house there and rewild some of the land. We had a lovely and delicious time with them and we are looking forward to inviting them here for dinner when the house is finished.

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So Pete’s back at work this morning and Molly is off to Oban to get some supplies, including the screwgun for fixing plasterboard.

Molly got back in time for a late lunch and is now tidying up around the scaffolding in anticipation of the scaffolding being taken down at the end of the week.

There’s a bit of tidying being done in the mega-shed because Innes will come back next week to finish the electrics and needs us to finish boarding the walls where the ducting is to go. With that done she is now washing the straight stair in the house because it is covered in plaster footprints from last week.

Pete has finished his work for the day so we can now move the left-over sheets of tin from the side of the house to in front of the mega-shed where it will be out of the way.

That’s it for anoher day.

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It’s eight in the morning and Pete has left for work, he’s off to Larkhall for the day.

Molly is taking advantage and grabbing a bit of a lie in.

Molly is doing more tidying in the mega-shed so she can insulate and fix OSB to the north gable wall . Once that is done she can remove the polycarbonate windows to do some work on the timber between the sheets. In the heat, a few weeks ago, the plastic we had stapled and taped onto the timber, between the sheets, came away. It is all a bit of a mess so we are going to try a different approach. Molly is painting primer onto the timber then we will try and source some orange paint.

Steve and Cate have arrived here on their way back from the Killin Highland games. They have brought some nice cake so it’s time for a coffee break.

Pete is back and it’s time for dinner and a bit of TV.

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Another working day for Pete and Molly is doing more preparation to the timbers between the polycarbonate sheets. It’s so bright here without all the clutter blocking the windows and reminds us how light this area of the mega-shed will be once we have finished all the building work.

Now that Pete’s finished work for the day he is helping Molly fix some OSB above the polycarbonate and will then do a last check around the scaffolding ready for it’s removal tomorrow.

Molly is doing a bit of gardening around our hawthorn hedge saplings to end the day.

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It’s Friday so Pete can give his full attention to the build and we are going to do some plasterboarding because we aren’t certain that Scott and the team will be able to give us much more time.

Pete has done a bit of this kind of work before but it was about thirty years ago so we’ll have to approach it like novices. The good thing is that we have the right tools and Molly watched a bit as the team were doing their work.

Molly has contacted Simon K to find out if they will have time to come back to do more of the plasterboarding and he has committed to coming back before the end of August. Result!

Pete has contacted Tamsin to find out if Simon T is coming to take down the scaffolding today only to discover that he is really quite unwell so he won’t make it before next week.

We are taking our time getting organised and working out a plan of attack. The first wall we are going to sheet is the east mezzanine wall which is really high. We are measuring down the wall to give us a starting point to fix a row of cut sheets at the bottom, replicating what was done on the west mezzanine wall. This will allow us to fix a full sheet that can reach all the way to the low bit near the top.

The first row goes on easily but now we are working on fixing a full sheet, this involves some heavy lifting and co-ordinated team work. Our plan is going well and we are making good progress, the only hitch is that the screwgun jams every now and again because we aren’t holding it straight onto the wall when fixing. It’s a bit fiddly unjamming it and that slows us down.

To get the angle right we are presenting the sheet and drawing the cut line in situe. Cutting the boards is relatively easy – you use a sharp Stanley knife and a straight edge to score the cover paper. You don’t need to cut all the way through because the board snaps cleanly and then you cut the backing paper to release the off-cut.

Things have been going really well today and we have managed to do that huge wall very neatly so we are well chuffed. It will take us a while to tidy up the tools and clean the mess that plasterboard cutting makes but we should get finished in plenty time for dinner and a wee glass of wine, or two.

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More boarding for us today and we are going to tackle a very tricky job – the return staircase with all its different angles!

We are starting on a relatively easy bit around our French doors. We can fit a full sheet, with a cut-out, starting at the west corner and do the same on the other side. The first sheet doesn’t take long but the second one involves some challenging measuring and cutting.

Measuring and cutting has never been our strongest point so we are over the moon at how well this is going, as the second and third sheets have been quite complicated but it looks like we have cracked it.

Graham and Liz have popped by to see how we are getting on it’s nice to see them as it has been a while.

It has taken us all day but we have done one of the most complicated bits of plasterboarding in the whole house and this has given us a lot of confidence. We are especially pleased because we have raised our game on the measuring and cutting of angles side of things and that will come in handy as we work on the finishing details of the house.

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Even though it is Sunday, we have decided to work today because we feel we are on a roll with the plasterboarding . We want to finish what we started so we are going to see if we can do the rest of the return staircase and the gable on the east mezzanine. First we have to put the last few pieces on the south wall above the French doors. Compared to some of the cuts we had to do yesterday this is easy and we are getting it done in double quick time.

We are back to some weird angle cutting but we know how to approach it now and after minor adjustments we are getting the boards to fit quite nicely.

We’ve had a wee break for lunch and are now attacking the east gable and, although each board has angles and some have cut outs, it’s going well.

It’s time to stop as we are getting tired now and Molly has pulled a muscle in her back. We are very happy with our efforts over the last three days. We never expected to be able to get so much of the plasterboarding done – the east mezzanine wall, the south wall, the staircase and the gable – what a result! It has taken it’s toll though. These boards are heavy and our muscles are aching from all the lifting and we are really tired from all our efforts.

We have decided to go for a walk along the river to reset our equalibrium. It is so beautiful this evening with the blue sky and all the lush trees, it is really making us feel good. A great way to end another eventful week.