Week Forty-three.

Week beginning 27th March 2023.

Where does all the time go?

Another Monday morning and the sun is shining and the clocks have changed to `British Summer Time’ so if necessary we can work on with the extra hour of light.

The first batch of tin for our roofs has arrived so if we get dry calm weather we will be able to start fixing it. It’s been a long time coming.

Andrew is due to come on Friday to show us how to fix the tin on the roof. He wants to demonstrate on the north roof of the house because we can also learn how to fit it round the roof windows. This dictates that we need to get the other two apertures cut out of the roof to then fit the windows.

Today we are hoping to cut both apertures and fit the battens and purlins that will support the windows. The first thing we need to do is measure the aperture from the inside and in each corner drill a hole throught the insulation to the outside. TIhe drill should puncture the waterproof membrane so that we can see where to cut from the outside.

With that done Molly is cutting the membrane to reveal the outside of the insulation. We can now cut through the insulation using the drill holes to guide the sawing and with the aperture roughly cut we can now tidy up the edges ready for battening and fixing purlins.

We need to cut back the existing purlins around the aperture so that we can fit a support frame. Before we can fit the frame we need to add some waterproof membrane which the frame will hold in place.

With the aperture framed by the window support structure, we can now create the drip detail that will guide any water created by condensation on the underside of the tin away from the window aperture. It is simply a length of batten, wider than the window, fixed at a downward angle. We cut a slit in the membrane and slip the batten under it and tape it all neatly to maintain the watertightness of the membrane.

With the first area finished we are now working on the second. It’s clear we are going to have to work late to get all this done so we have decided that, under the circumstances, an afternoon espresso is in order.

It’s eight and we have finally finished. Both new apertures are watertight, as far as can be expected, and we can now go and collapse in a corner and have something to eat.

Our first task this morning is to clean up the mess of insulation from cutting out yesterday. When we knocked the insulation in it fell into the house and has made a right mess. We were too tired and it was too late to clean up last night so here we are.

That wasn’t nearly as bad as we expected and hasn’t taken long at all so we can get on with some other tasks.

We are moving most of our timber indoors ready for building the remaining walls and for battening up to be ready for plumbing and electrics first fix. The plasterboard will be fixed to the battens later.

There’s still taping to do so we are doing it a wee bit at a time in between bigger jobs.

We are finishing the kitchen window reveals and are fitting the guest bathroom window sill. Our approach to the window sills and reveals is to fit them when we have the odd couple of hours of dry weather in between the showers rather than waiting for a couple of dry days to do them all at once.

Just as we are about to finish for the day our neighbour Ishbel has dropped by with some scones for us. It’s great that we are being supported and looked after by our new friends and neighbours and it’s a real treat to have home baked scones.

It’s been a much less pressured day than yesterday and we have been working at a slightly more leisurely pace but it still took us until six to get finished so it’s been another longish day. Time for some R&R.