Week Forty-nine

Week beginning 8th May 2023.

Spring has finally sprung and the plants are coming to life. Our garden is coming into bloom and it makes us very happy, especially the plants and seeds contributed by our family and our friends. We’ve also had lots of visitors to our bird feeders. here’s a wee selection of Molly’s photos.

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On Sunday Zadjil and Carolyn helped us fit the guttering on the west side of the mega-shed and it was soon put to the test, passing with flying colours.

Ross arrived just in time for dinner so we were well set-up for the week to come.

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It’s Monday morning and we have lots of extra help so we are splitting into two teams, Molly and Zadjil in the west team and Ross and Pete in the east team with Carolyn supporting both teams and taking photos.

Molly and Zadjil are working on building the angled wall frame for on top of the mezzanine ready for fitting as soon as the plasterboard has been ftted to between the trusses. It’s a tricky job but mother and son make a good team.

Ross and Pete are working on the equivalent task on the east mezzanine. It isn’t quite square so Pete is giving it a bit of persuation with a hammer and it works. “That’s how it’s meant to be”, he says triumphantly.

We have all fulfilled our tasks so everyone is ready for a lunch of Molly’s spicy noodle soup, delicious.

Zadjil and Carolyn have just left so now there are three. We achieved a lot with their help and it was nice of them to come and work with us on this bank holiday weekend. Thanks Zad and Carolyn, it was great having you here.

It’s back to the grindstone and we are insulating and sheeting the wall in the shed where our Tesla Powerwall will be installed. It’s a messy job putting in the wood fibre insulation bringing back memories of challenging times earlier in the build.

Next we are setting up the scaffolding tower in the house so we can start boxing in the middle roof window.

With that done we are back onto airtightness taping before finishing for the day.

We are taking a wee stroll along the River Orchy before dinner. It’s a lovely evening and the fish are jumping so it makes for a fine end to the day.

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It’s Tuesday morning and the hope is to get the final bit of roof around the third window done. The forecast is promising for it to be dry after lunch but in the meantime it is raining so we will get on with the taping.

Ross and Molly finishing off the double trusses and Pete taping up the boxing in around the roof window. It doesn’t take us too long to get this all done.

It’s still raining so Molly and Pete are going over how Andrew boxed in the first roof window with Ross. We all agree our roles in this challenging task. It is challenging because we have to remember exactly what Andrew did and there are some tricky angles to contend with.

We realise that the first task is to cut away some more of the insulation above the wiondow so we can get the correct angle for the top piece of boarding. Pete volunteers to do it and puts on a paper overall and dust mask to protect himself from all the dust that goes with cutting the insulation.

While he’s doing that Molly and Ross are preparing the side panels that will help to support the boxing in.

It’s already four o’clock but the rain has stopped and the sun has come out so Pete is keen to start the roofing. He is going back on his offer of a walk along the approach track to the Dalmally horseshoe but Ross is taking it on the chin.

We have brought out the window flashing kit to have a look at before we fit it around the window. Once that’s done we can start on the tin sheets.

The flashing kit has taken much longer to fit than we had expected but we have to keep going because rain is forecast for tonight and tomorrow and the roof and window won’t be water-tight.

Pete is cutting out a big section of tin so that the sheet can fit around the window. He’s never done this before and is finding it challenging but does get it done even if his long cut isn’t perfectly straight.

The second sheet needs cut too and this is proving just as challenging.

We’ve had to take the sheet down and recut it because it didn’t fit properly. Speaking of fits, Pete nearly had one when he realised he had to cut it again.

We are all getting tired and Pete is getting narky because it is already after eight-thirty and we still have a bit to do.

Finally, at nine-twenty we are finished. Time for food and a large glass of wine! We’ll fit the last sheet tomorrow if it’s dry enough.

It’s obvious that Pete has pushed everyone to their limits and he shouldn’t have been so keen to start the job so late in the day. He is sorry he put Molly and Ross through it but they are taking it with good grace.

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It’s Wednesday morning and we are all pretty tired. Ross had a full body cramp in the night and Pete a leg cramp which we are putting down to all the roof work and heavy lifting.

We are having a slow start because we deserve it and are tired and sore but we are going to box in the middle roof window today because it looks like it’s going to rain all day.

Before we can start on the boxing in we need to get most of the insulation in. We are using wood-fibre board, foam and glass wool just as Andrew did. Pete is fitting the insulation and Ross is cutting the boards to fit while Molly is measuring and cutting the battens for boxing in the third window.

With the insulation in, we fix on the side panels that Ross and Molly prepared yesterday.

Pete is staying on the scaffolding foaming in the little gaps and Ross and Molly are cutting the other panels for around the window.

We have finished boxing in the ssecond window and we are all very pleased with our work. With two of the three windows boxed in the space looks fantastic and light is flooding in. Molly and Pete are now confident about fitting the third one on their own but fully acknowledge that Ross has played a big part in helping to work out how to do it and how to get the angles right. Thanks Ross.

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We are up very early this morning because Andrew is due at around eight-thirty but can only stay half a day. We are going to ask him to help us fit the final sheet of tin because the last sheet on the roof is always tricky, and it is much safer doing it with four people rather than three.

It has hardly taken us any time at all to fit the last sheet of tin and it’s a beautiful sunny spring morning. Happy days!

With all the tin on the roof, Guru Andrew can now show us how to fit the flashings and talk us through how to fit the ridge on the roof.

It’s quite a challenge to get the flashing looking right because the gable isn’t quite right and we have to accept it’s not what it should be. It is not compromising the integrity of the build and it is doing it’s job. You will need to have a good look to notice anything is wrong.

Andrew left before lunch and Ross has just left to head home.

It has been an epic week and a lot has been achieved with the help of Zadjil, Carolyn, Ross and of course Andrew.

We now have almost all the airtightness taping done, half of the guttering finished, two of the three roof windows ready for plasterboarding, all the corrugated roofing sheets on, including around the roof windows and the flashings on the house started. What a lot of work we have done!

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to them all.

We really want to thank Ross for working so hard, and way beyond the call of duty, so to speak. Ross, you are a joy to have around and we make a great team together so thanks a million for all your efforts. We really hope we haven’t put you off coming back and of course, you will always be welcome to come for holidays.

As we rapidly approach a year since we first started with just a pile of wood and a bit of land, we can see the end in sight. We are fully aware that there is still a lot to do but we are feeling positive, although quite tired, but above all we are still very enthusiastic about our crazy adventure as self-builders with the ambition to create a home suitable for a sustainable future.