Week Eighteen – Part Two

We’re up and about but not going outside because it’s pouring again – ‘the rain in Spain falls mainly in Argyll’.

This, in many ways, has been one of our most challenging weeks. What with trying to work snd stay dry not being an easy combination. The issue of not getting wet is quite important when you live in a caravan and don’t really have space to dry your clothes. Living in a caravan can be quite damp at the best of times but when it’s raining and you are bringing extra dampness inside it can become a real potential health issue. So we are trying to be careful and sensible when it comes to working in the rain.

The rain has stopped so we are outside working, Molly is finishing off the last two sections of sheeting inside the shed roof and Pete is digging out some of the waste pipes in the concrete floor of the house and the thresholds of the French windows and main entrance so the rain water can drain away.

Now that Pete has done this we can sweep out a lot of the water that has filled the house, it will come back but it’s nice to get it cleared, even if it is only for a short while.

It’s fairly dry in the shed, apart from the drips coming through the bigger gaps in the roofs OSB, so we are fitting the ‘dwangs’ Des asked for. He’s going to need them to screw the cistern and sink to. We are not sure where ‘dwangs’comes from but they are bits of additional wood attached to the timber frames that will be strong enough to attach things to.

It’s dinner time and we have been stuck inside since 4.30 because of heavy downpours. We still managed to get about eight hours work done despite the weather so we are fairly satisfied with our days work. We’ve been lucky because up until now the heavy winds have passed us by.

It’s Friday again already, these weeks are flying by.

The forecast is for light showers and a gentle breeze. The gales never arrived so we missed a bullet there. Our plan is to take advantage of the dry spell and put the tarpaulin back on the shed roof so we can start flooring the mezanine next week.

It wasn’t too hard to cover most of the roof with the tarpaulin and it seems Pete is getting used to working at height because he says he’s not as nervous about it now. Still, we have to take care and avoid uncalculated risks or complacency. Anyway, we have decided to cover the rest of the roof with the plastic that the house kit came in which we kept.

With the shed roof covered we can carry on working in the shed next week no matter how heavy the downpours.

We have taken measurements of the areas where our staircases are to go and are trying out designs on stairbox.com. This is a great facility because we can enter our measurements and the algorithm calculate the goings (depth) and risings (height) of our steps and calculates how many we will need. As long as you are accurate and take into account the floor finish on the upper floor it should all work out.

We are sending Andrew our measurements and screenshots of what we entered in the stairbox.com design page for him to check.

It’s a late lunch for us and we have decided to call it a day as the heavy showers keep coming and we need to do a clothes wash anyway, so we are off to Oban. We have plenty to get on with on Monday but at least we’ll be dry.