Week Fifty-one

Week beginning 22nd May 2023.

We took a long weekend in Glasgow to get some rest and recuperation but before we left on Friday we fitted the flashings on the south elevation of the mega-shed. It didn’t take us too long, leaving us plenty of time to pack a bag for our weekend away.

We had booked tickets for the bus to Glasgow but after waiting patiently for 50 minutes without the bus appearing and frustratingly not getting anyone to answer the phone to let us know what is happening we gave up and went home to collect our car. As it turns out the bus appeared just minutes after we left. Not the best start to the weekend but we didn’t let it get to us.

We had a lovely time visiting the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Street Level Photoworks and the GoMA, all very stimulating and thought provoking.

We also fitted in a bit of people watching whilst sitting outside The Park Bar in Argyll Street, that was fun! We also managed a lot of sleeeping and a bit of reading. To end a lovely weekend we went out for a few drinks with Ishbel, Molly’s sister, at the Hillhead Bookclub and Jinty McGuinty’s, two very different drinkeries but both good and fun.

We came back on Monday afternoon, refreshed and raring to get on with it.

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It’s Tuesday morning and the forecast looks promising so we have decided to explore the possibility of fitting the roof ridge on the mega-shed. We have decided that we will only do it if it looks like it wants to fit and doesn’t present any obvious challenges, other than working on the roof of course.

With the first three meter section looking good we are proceeding with fitting the roof ridge. We have worked out a safe method of getting the tin ridges up here and are using cardboard to stop the ridge scratching the roof as we slide it into place.

We are checking the level as we are going along and it’s all looking good.

We are onto the last of the three ridge sections and it is looking good, although there is a bit of a gap where the flashings and the ridge meet but it is not so much that we can’t fill it with some sealant to keep it watertight.

We are about to go for lunch and Molly has spotted something strange in the apex of the house’s east gable so she’s climbing the scaffolding for a look.

It’s the early construction of a wasp nest and we have decided to remove it. It’s kind of ironic that after all the time we have taken putting insect mesh around the house and shed, a wasp has decided to build one on the gable!

With lunch over and the wasp nest dealt with we are getting on with fixing the ridge, we fix a stitching screw at least every 600mm to make it secure.

The last job of the day, apart from our usual tidy up, is to make a sealant line to direct the rain from the flashing into the gutter. Not as easy as you’d think but we couldn’t come up with a better solution. Any suggestions?

We’re taking a wee stroll before settling down for the night. It’s so beautiful and lush now with all the trees in leaf. It’s amazing how quickly it comes on and how easily we forget the barreness of winter.

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It’s Wednesday and we are expecting Donald from Openreach to come and survey what will be needed to give us fibre broadband connection.

In the meantime, encouraged by our achievement so far this week, we are preparing the east gable of the house for a bit of cladding above mezzanine level.

Our first task is to add some extra battens, painted black, for the cladding to attach to. It’s not too difficult but we are struggling with the insect mesh and having to undo some of the staples that hold it in place. We should have done all this before the insect mesh but we weren’t aware that we needed battens up the edge of the roof line.

Donald has arrived and is having a good look at our set-up. We are showing him the starting point and ending point of our duct that was put in especially for our telecoms. Unfortunately the string to pull the cable through the duct has broken and we can’t see where it is in the duct. Donald isn’t phased by this and says he will use a specially long rodding system. He says he hopes that the duct doesn’t snake too much.

After quite a bit of persuasion we have finally managed to get the rod through ready for when the engineer comes with the cable. It’s amazing that Donald seems to have gone out of his way to help us with this and we relly appreciate it. Thanks Donald.

Now we need to add some more extra battens for our angled drip edge, just like the one on the west gable. On this side of the building things are a bit more complicated because we are building a balcony here and we can only clad to a certain point before it is built. We are having to think hard about exactly where the drip edge will go so it looks right with the balcony.

We are finished for the day and have managed to fit the two sections of drip detail ready for cladding tomorrow.

It’s great feeling like we are making more real progress after a very challenging week, last week.

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We’re onto the cladding on the east gable today and are very excited about it too. Getting the cladding on makes us feel like we are really close to having the house we want. It’s going to look a bit ramshackled but in the nicest possible way. It will have the ‘characteristics of the self-builder’, as we say!

We are taking our time getting started because we have to fit 75mm larch on either side of the window below to give us a starting point to work from so that the cladding above and below the drip detail line up. Exactly as we had to do on the west gable.

Job done but we have discovered a bit of a challenge with the piece that goes right into the corner where the roof meets the wall, there’s no batten there.

Our solution is some specialist glue and some scewed nails, and it works! Upwards and onwards.

We are making slow progress, not least because we are measuring just one board at a time so we are having to go up and down the scaffolding and because we need to find reasonably straight bits of larch so that it looks good. An awful lot of the larch is curved or bowed and some are both. We have to find the balance between using as much of the larch as possible, so that we don’t run out, and having a good finish. It’s a difficult decision making process.

It may have taken us a while but we are well pleased with today’s progress. We just love seeing the larch on the building. More tomorrow.