Week Forty-one

Week beginning 13th March 2023

After visiting Pete’s mum in anticipation of Mother’s Day and doing some shopping in Edinburgh we arrived back on a miserable wet Sunday evening. This morning we discouver that we have a bit of dripping coming in where we fitted the roof window. It isn’t a surprise because it won’t be properly water tight until the roof is on and we have fitted the flashings. So for now all we can do is catch the drips.

With the wet weather all we can do is work inside so we are making a start on taping the trusses for airtightness. We are going to plasterboard between the trusses all the way up to the apex of the roof so we have to be careful and neat when taping where the timber will be seen.

We have come up with a way of doing that which involves folding the tape at about 10mm and carefully sticking it onto the truss. It is taking a bit of time but when the inside of the roof is boarded and decorated we will have the benefit of the full height which will hopefully bring a bit of drama to our open plan kitchen/livingroom.

We are just about finished for the day and Des, our plumber, has arrived to discuss how the first fix of plumbing will work and what we need to know and do in preparation.

There are a couple of things we need to talk about in particular, the first is the Sunamp Heat Battery which we want to install instead of a conventional hot water tank. This will be a first for Des but it should be more straight forward to install than a tank. The second is our shower trays that we bought ages ago and cost a stupid amount of money, we probably got overexcited. We are keen for them to be used but it seems that if the waste pipes aren’t accurately enough sited then they won’t fit.

Des has gone after a good meeting and he has agreed to come back on Friday for us to have a closer look at the bathrooms, in the meantime we can empty them of the insulation we have been storing there.

Just as Des leaves, Ross and Kathleen arrive. It’s great to see them and they are staying a few days to help us. They’ve been before and were a great help, and recently Ross came on his own for a few days to help.

It’s Tuesday mornig and we wake to find there has been a significant snowfall overnight. It’s very beautiful; and very cold so we have decided to work indoors. With Ross and Kathleen’s help we should be able to make a big dent in the taping, a major task. Pete and Molly will concentrate on the high level taping and Ross and Kathleen can work from floor level.

Taping is mostly fairly easy but there is a lot riding on it so it is also quite a responsible task to take on. Luckily they are up for it and we can get stuck in.

By lunchtime we have made good progress so we are taking a break from taping and are now emptying the bathrooms ready for Des on Friday. It’s nice having them emptied so we can see once again what size and scale they are.

We are back on the taping, it feels like an endless task but it isn’t because the groundfloor level is 90% finished and we are making progress on the higher level. We have used up almost all of the ME Ilbruck 317 tape Andrew supplied. We’ll need at least a dozen more rolls.

With the tape fast running out we decide to make a wall frame for the west mezzanine to get an idea of how it might work and look. The wall is much bigger than we anticipated and we are worried that it will block too much light from the mezzanines’ roof windows, window and balcony door. We are going to have to have a rethink on this.

Up until now we have been working so hard on the exterior of the building that we have given little thought to the interior. What is becoming abundantly clear is that we are fast moving into a different phase, one that involves much more detailed thinking and problem solving, and above all much more precise work to ensure a sharp finish to our interior.

It’s been a very cold night and the water pipes in the caravan are frozen, at Tyndrum which is not too far away it was -10º. Brrrrrrrr!

In spite of the cold we are going to fit the insect mesh on the house and finish fitting it on the shed becaue we have to take advantage of it being dry. We need to have this done by Friday because Andrew is coming to show us how to do some of the cladding work on the house.

Being four people makes fitting the mesh on the house so much easier than if there were only two of us. It’s quite unwieldy unrolling the mesh and we need hands to hold it taught and others to staple it in place.

We’ve managed to do the house fairly quickly so now we can finish the mega-shed.

It’s started to rain but we have managed to finish the meshing in time so it’s back inside for more taping and a bit of planing to allow one of the windows to open properly.

We worked hard today and achieved quite a lot so as a special treat tonights pudding is Tiramisu cake, Flake ice-cream and squirty cream. that’s a load of calories but we reckon the calories out from all today’s efforts easily offsets the calories in.