Week Twenty-six

Week beginning 28th November

Apolgies for not posting a part two last week so here’s a wee update.

We spent all Thursday making risers for the house roof ladders to sit on. We had to measure the difference between the height of the gables and the height of the trusses then subtract the depth of the roof ladder and make a space to fill the difference. So that they wouldn’t be too heavy to lift into place, we made each elevation in two sections. So, in total we made eight risers.

After a one night visit to Edinburgh so that Molly could go to her book group with our good friend Nicky and Pete could hang out with his good mate Graham for beer, fish ‘n’ chips and football, we returned to our caravan so we could prepare for the week ahead. On Sunday as part of our trip to Oban for the usual round of shopping and washing we went to a really good cultural event.

Another task for the weekend was to make the mega-shed attic space nice and homely because our friend from Argentina is arriving on Tuesday. We tested it out and watched ‘Young Montelbano‘, one of our favourite tv series. It was very comfortable if a little cold.

So, it’s Monday morning and the begining of our twenty-sixth week and if all goes well we can start putting the roof on this week.

We get started early because Andrew is coming to help us install the roof ladders but first we take the risers and put them in place on each of the gables.

Between the three of us we can lift the roof ladders into place, to be fair it’s mostly Andrew. Now we are checking that they are level before we fix them to the trusses and risers.

With that done Andrew shows us how to install the Steicoflex insulation between the trusses

We are trying to work out exactly where to run a timber along the bottom of the trussess so that the Steicodry can sit on it and run the boards level along the roof. It’s taking us a while to get it right but finally it’s done and Andrew has to leave. We have a task list to be dealt with before his return on Wednesday.

It’s Tuesday morning and we have Gary and Martin coming to help us this morning. It’s great ot have help with the roof necause it involves a lot of heavy lifting and the more hands the better.

We start by lifting the bales of Steicoflex we need onto the scaffolding. They are fairly heavy but Martin and Gary make short work of it.

Pete is now showing them what he learnt from Andrew yesterday so that they can get some of the insulation done ready for Andrew on Wednesday.

It’s lunchtime and we need to stop so that we can go to Edinburgh Airport to collect Cristi who is arriving on a flight from Madrid. With the guys help we have managed to make a real dent in the job of fitting the insulation.

On the way south we see this great scene of sunlit mountains with low lying cloud near Crianlarch.

We have arrived at the airport in almost perfect time after a long drive. Here she comes through the arrival gate, oh it’s great to be together again after the restrictions of the last few years and what an honour to have her come to help us build our house.

When we get back to our plot we have dinner and Pete is phoning Alistair to ask if he has the time to give us a hand with his Telehandler again. Good news, Alistair has agreed, this is going to make a huge difference to the physical effort we have to put in tomorrow.

With that done, we settle down to some wine and a catch-up.

It’s midnight and time for bed, a bit late but it was fun.

It’s Wednesday morning and we have a big team to help us – Alistair, Cristi, Gary, Martin, Ishbel, Alistair and Andrew.

Pete gets everyone on task and we get stuck in right away.

It’s lunchtime and Pete, Gary and Martin have almost finished fitting the insulation between the trusses so we might just get the Steicodry fitted today.

In spite of making such amazing progress it’s getting dark and we need to wrap up for today. Pete and Molly, with help from Cristi and Ishbel, are on the north side of the roof putting the tarpaulins back because there is rain forecast. Andrew, Gary and Martin are getting another row of the Steicodry done, even though it’s now dark.

We have worked well together today and achieved an awful lot. A huge thanks to Alistair, Alistair, Andrew, Cristi, Gary, Ishbel and Martin. We just couldn’t have done it without them and we now realise that if we had tried to do the roof on our own it would take us weeks and probably cause us to collapse in exhaustion.

Everyone has gone now and we are really tired. Molly, Cristi and Pete have just had dinner and are settling down to a wee glass of red and another good bit of chat.

More of the same tomorrow. Goodnight and thanks everyone.