Week Twenty-four

Week beginning 14th November 2022

We’ve checked the weather and it is going to be mixed so our plan is to fit the horizontal batons on the mega-shed while it’s dry. When it’s wet we’ll start making a door for the toilet. Right now it’s dry so we are getting on with the batoning.

We are expecting Iain the electrician and the scaffolding today, so we are feeling very positive about the progress we can make this week.

We are having our morning coffee and Iain arrives as promised. This is a very exciting development. After a walk around the site and a discussion about our immediate needs, Iain is getting on with providing us connections in the house, a connection for our caravan and some sockets in the garage.

It hasn’t taken Iain long to get us connected, he’s even wired up our sewage treatment tank, although it still needs a plug to connect to the mains, so we are very happy.

Iain is suggesting that we install our Tesla Powerwall on the north elevation of our house, outside our bootroom. This would make the installation easier and would free up quite a bit of space in the mega-shed. He is also suggesting that the inverter for the solar panels is installed in the bootroom rather than on the east mezzanine. This would keep all our electricals in one room and back to back with the Powerwall. We like Iain’s suggestions so we are emailing AES Solar to make sure they are in agreement with the changes.

Now that Iain has gone we are getting back to working on the batons.

It’s starting to get dark and the rain has returned so we are packing up working outside having batoned the east elevation, the north elevation and most of the west elevation.

Although it’s getting dark outside we now have light inside so we are starting to make a door for the toilet. It is a game changer having light in the mega-shed, now we don’t have to stop working around 5pm anymore.

We’ve made a good start on the door but now it’s time to stop and go and cook our dinner. We have been so excited about Iain giving us our electricity connections that the fact that the scaffolding has been delayed again didn’t cross our minds.

It’s raining this morning so we are getting back to working on the door. This is quite a challenge as we haven’t ever made a door before and Pete has only ever hung one door and that was over thirty years ago.

We have decided to go to Inveraray, to the hardwear shop, to get a plug for the sewage treatment tank, some pins to secure the extention lead cable out of the way as we run it to the east wall, and also to get milk.

It hasn’t taken long and we are back working on the batons because it’s dry now. Molly took a nice picture on our way back of the sun catching the hills as the weather cleared up a bit.

That’s it for today, we got the west elevation batoned and started on the south but had to stop because of fading light.

It’s dry but cold this morning so we are going to finish the batons on the south elevation and if the weather stays dry we’ll see if we can get the mega-shed windows off the palett that is stuck behind all that insulation.

Pete is finishing off the batoning and Molly is starting to uncover the palett with the windows and much to our delight the scaffolding lorry is reversing onto our building site. At last we are getting our scaffolding.

After a bit of a struggle, we’ve managed to free the windows from the palett and bring them down to the mega-shed. Now we can fit the brackets that will fix them to the building. The mega-shed has two small windows on the west elevation and one on the south at attic level.

Simon and Gazza have made a great start to the scaffolding and are coming back tomorrow to finish the job. Once all the scaffolding is up we can make a start on the roof of the house, weather permitting.

It’s only 3.30pm and we’ve achieved a lot but there is still time to work on the toilet door so we are starting to work on the hinges.

Pete has just spent the last half hour carefully marking up and chiselling out where the hinges are to go but has realised he has done it on the wrong face of the frame! Dohhhh!!!! Start again.

Pete says the last time he did anything like this was in woodwork class at Boroughmuir High School in 1972 or 73. The teacher must have done something right because some of the skills are still there.

With the hinges fitted it seems like a good time to stop for the day. It’s been a great few days and we are boosted by the progress and the fact that it’s not been so wet. We can go back to our caravan and turn the heating on and switch the lights on and watch our smart meter as the electricity bill mounts!