Week Thirty-three

Week beginning 16th January 2023

Having been away in Edinburgh for various appointments we came back on Saturday afternoon and on Sunday decided to work to make up for lost time.

It was difficult and slow work because for the next course we had to measure carefully and cut the insulation around the ends of the trusses without leaving big gaps. Any gaps would need to be filled with soft insulation or expanding foam.

It took almost the day to do that but we still have time to cover the west gable wall in tarpaulin, in preparation for insulating it.

It’s Monday morning and we need to finish the very top of the wall making sure it is well insulated right up where the roof insulation meets the wall insulation.

The height and position of the scaffolding is making it very tricky to work and we need to lie on the boards to be able to reach up into the trusses to pack the insulation. This has to be done properly or the whole project could be compromised, any gaps would allow heat to escape.

It’s taken a lot longer than we anticipated to do this last bit of the wall but we still have time to do some foaming around the windows and to prepare the west gable for insulating.

With that done we are making a few adjustments to the tarpaulins to protect the wall from getting wet ready for tomorrow.

It’s a fine morning and we can get straight into fitting the first bales of wood fibre insulation into the wall frame. Unless there is a window or door in the frame or where two frames meet, the verticle studs are centred at 600mm apart. The insulation is 575mm wide so it fits perfectly between the studs and we can fit the first six bales without any cutting. We’re onto the second course of these six gaps and only need to trim a bit off the length to fit.

Now we are onto filling the remaining gaps around the window and where the frames meet and end. All these bales will need to be cut to size so it’ll take a bit longer than the first six.

It’s lunchtime and we have the ground floor level of the west gable insulated between the studs, a good morning’s work.

We have just started eating a nice bowl of home made Ramen soup and to our dismay it’s started snowing. We are crossing our fingers that it won’t last like it did last time because we have a funeral to go to tomorrow and we really don’t want to miss that.

Thank goodness it’s stopped snowing and the sun has come out so the snow should melt and not cause us any more problems like it did before Christmas.

We are up on the scaffolding working on the gable. This involves cutting angles to fit the insulation but we are getting quite good at this now and we are getting the bales to fit snuggly into the gaps.

It’s mid afternoon and Molly’s sister, Ishbel, has arrived so she can come with us to the funeral tomorrow. She is getting stuck in right away and this speeds things up.

It’s getting dark but we’ve managed to get right to the top of the gable with the insulation, a good result for us. Now it’s time to tidy up and refit the tarpaulins so that the Steicoflex, which can’t get wet, is protected from the elements.

Ishbel has brought us a delicious home-made curry for dinner which we are enjoying with a glass of red wine. Happy days!

It’s Wednesday morning and today we are going to Phylis Crawford’s funeral. Auntie Phylis is Molly and Ishbel’s aunt and she is very dear to everyone who has known her. We are all very sad at her parting but she lived a full and happy life and was a warm and generous person. When our kids were young we often brought them to Braleckan, the holiday house that Phylis ran near her farm at Brenchoille. We had such lovely times there and spent hours with her round her kitchen table at the farm eating and chatting and laughing.