Week Thirty-eight

Week beginning 20th February 2023.

We went to Edinburgh by bus on Friday to collect our car and to see our friend Helena whom we hadn’t seen for ages who was visiting Edinburgh with Art Terry and to show her film Self Isolation Songbook. We really enjoyed the gig at Summerhall and it was a privilege to see the video and hear the band live.

We came back on Saturday having caught up with the family.

It’s Sunday and we need to get on with fixing our mistake when fitting the membrane so we are starting work on the south elevation.

We are continuing with the technique we used on the north elevation because it worked well and kept wastage to a minimum. To be extra sure we are doing it right when we cut the new bits for above and below windows and doors we are writing on the membrane.

It has taken a good bit longer to do this elevation but we are glad it’s done. Tomorrow we’ll carry on with the west elevation and if things go well we might get the east elevation done too. Also, we are expecting the delivery of our staircases from Stairbox.

The weather isn’t great today but we are going to get on with it anyway. Before we can do that we need to clear space in the house for the staircases.

We have only just tidied the house and cleared the space needed when the van arrived with our delivery. The driver is very friendly and is kindly helping us move the staircases into the house. The return staircase comes in two parts and is easy to manage and not too heavy. The west mezzanine staircase is in one piece and is long and heavy but with all three of us lifting we are managing.

The van is gone and it’s time for coffee and cake, Lidl has their Italian theme on but unfortunately no Tiramisu cake this time.

It has taken us the rest of the day to do the east elevation but luckily the angle pieces on the gable fit nicely by reversing them, so no need to cut new bits. The top section just reverses too. Happy days.

This morning is a bit of a slow start because we are waiting for Andrew to arrive and don’t really want to start fixing the east elevation.

We were expecting him around mid-morning but he has just messaged to let us know he’ll be late. Pete is using the time to refit one of the door handles that has come off and Molly is checking the hawthorns we planted last week.

Andrew has arrived just as we are finishing our lunch. We agree to fit both staircsases this afternoon and have decided to start with the straight one because it should be fairly straight forward. It’s a heavy lift so we fix a timber between the studs to rest it on, allowing us to get it up in stages.

It hasn’t taken us long to get it lifted into place and it wasn’t too strenuous. These ancient Egyptian style techniques work a treat.

We are lifting the top section of the return staircasae and Molly is on the mezzanine to help hold it steady and in position. Pete is holding the bottom of it and Andrew is fitting it into it’s newel. This has gone well, with only a little bit of cajoling.

We are fitting the return section of the stair into the newel and it is going in easily enough. Now we are fitting in the steps and the risers. It’s proving to be a bit more complicated than the instructional video suggests.

The lower part of the staircase is proving very resistant to fitting together and we are having to do a lot of coaxing because one of the dowels doesn’t want to go into it’s place easily.

It has taken ages but we have finally put it all together just as the light is fading.

Thanks for helping us with this Andrew, we’d never have managed this on our own.

It rained heavily last night but this morning is glorious, the sun is out and that makes us happy.

This is the final day of rectifying our mistake when fitting the membrane. For future reference, the code numbers are on the inside!

Our first task is to remove all the vertical battens that we had fixed over the membrane, which shouldn’t take too long.

Now we can reverse or replace the membrane just as we did on the west elevation. It’s lovely working in the sun for a change and so we are in a good mood.

That went well so we can now put the battens back and add the ones we hadn’t finished fitting when we noticed our mistake.

Some of the timber we have been supplied with is really not up to standard. The piece in the photo has a big knot hole but some of the other timbers were much worse. We probably should have done more research on which timber merchants provide the best and most consistent quality material.

Finally we have rectified our mistake. It has taken much longer than the day-and-a-half we had expected, and we did have to put up with getting a soaking on a couple of the days but today was nice and we have our staircases.