Week Thirty-seven

Week beginning 13th February 2023.

By the end of last week we had finished the insulation on the house and had to prepare for our visitors. Our son Eddie was coming with our grandchildren Niven and Caitlin and we wanted our plot to be a little better organised. We moved some of the timber onto the scaffolding in anticipation of doing the batons for the larch cladding and the rest of our timber we moved from a horrible muddy area to the car turning area which is much drier. This proved a good move when our delivery of tile batons arrived and fitted nicely into the space with the timber we already had.

We also finished making the attic in the shed safer by making a hinged gate to block off the area to the left of the central post.

It’s Sunday morning and we all had a lovely evening when we all arrived back here. Now we are going to get on with some work because they have all said they want to help and we wouldn’t turn down an offer like that.

The next big task is to wrap the house in its waterproof breather membrane. The membrane allows moisture from the inside out but keeps the rain water out.

Andrew has advised us that the best way is to try and wrap all the way round in one continious horizontal layer then do the same further up the wall until you get to the top.

The first layer is going well and having Eddie on hand is making it much easier than when it was just the two of us wrapping the mega-shed.

The second level isn’t so easy so we are cutting full length sheets for the north and south elevations and overlapping them around the corners to keep the watertightness.

While all this is going on Niven and Caitlin are helping by painting the mega-shed batons black. This is so they can’t be seen through the pencil gaps in the larch cladding. We’ll have to do the same on the house.

With the three of us on the job we are making great progress wrapping and taping around the windows and doors and before too long we have finished up to the mid floor.

Niven and Caitlin have been very patient but now they want to go for a walk so we are heading out while Eddie has some time to himself.

We are walking to a track nearby that will take us up to a high point with a cross that was installed by Craig Lodge. Niven and caitlin aren’t sure if they can make it but are willing to give it a go, especially after being fortified with Quavers and chocolate mini-eggs.

We’re half way up and Caitlin has decided she wants to follow a steep path so Molly volunteers Pete to go with her. It’s a steep climb and Pete is feeling it in his legs as he hasn’t had much chance to go walking since starting the build. Caitlin on the other hand seems to be having no problem with the steep ascent.

At the top they can see Molly and Niven ahead and a bit below them so they are setting a course to meet them further on.

We’re all together again for the last wee stretch and are finding Stations of the Cross along the way.

We’ve made it and the view down over to Loch Awe is amazing.

It’s steep down hill but we’re having fun with a role play game. Niven is the narrator and Caitlin and pete are characters in the story. It is certainly helping distract us from our tiredness.

We’ve had a great day and now it’s dinner time. I think we’ll play some more games after dinner and then it’ll be early to bed.

It’s Monday morning and after a good sleep we are going to finish wrapping the house before lunch because we are heading to Oban this afternoon and staying for dinner at Bar Rio, our favourite pizza place.

It’s early and Eddie, Niven and Caitlin are leaving to go back to Edinburgh. It has been a real treat for us to have them here even though it has been very short, it has been sweet.

With the family gone we are cracking on with the next task which is to fix the batons that will support the larch cladding. We are fitting one baton on each corner to get started and with that done we can tape up the ends of the double trusses to cut down on air leaks into the house.

It’s almost 5pm and we have batoned most of the north and south elevations so we’re calling it a day. Eddie took our car to get back to Edinburgh and we need some supplies so we are going to walk to the shop and hopefully catch it before it closes.

Just got back from the shop and it was closed, we should have checked its opening times and then we’d have known it closes at 5pm. Dohhhhh!!!!!

We are getting on with the batoning today, the forecast isn’t great but you never know how the weather will turn out in Argyll.

The weather has been very kind to us, it has hardly rained at all during the day today and when the family was here it also stayed dry.

Just back from the shop and we caught it before it closed so we have the supplies we need. Happy days!

We’re off to make a start on planting our hawthorn hedge before dinner, we don’t expect to get all 100 plants in but it’ll be a start.

It’s been great having our family come and stay and help. Zadjil was a revelation, we never thought he was into diy but it turns out he really likes the problem solving aspect of it. Eddie was great too and a joy to work with and we are so pleased that Niven and Caitlin were also able to help. It’s all these kinds of things that help to make a house into a home.