Week Fifty-seven

Week beginning 3rd July 2023.

We had a lovely walk down to Inverawe with our visitors on Sunday.

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It’s Monday morning and we have an exciting day ahead because Solargyll, the electricians, are coming. We know this because Pete checked his email while still in bed and there was one from the electrician saying three men will be here just after nine to start on the first fix. We have jumped out of bed into our clothes and are making sure there is enough space for them to do their work. It’s all a bit of a rush but we manage to get it done so now it’s time for breakfast.

Our visitors are still here so we have to make sure they still have a nice time even though it’s a working day. Martin is keen to do some more work on the house which is great and Molly is going to take Eddie, Niven and Caitlin to Kilchurn Castle.

The electricians are here and we are going round the house with the plan for the electrics so that we can tell Innes of any changes or additions to the plan. He is very attentive and gives us advice on a couple of our new ideas.

With that task done Molly heads off for the castle and Pete and Martin start working.

The first task is to redo the corner piece of the south east ballustrade to make it fit more neatly where it meets the roof and trusses. It takes Martin and Pete a bit of fiddling about to make it work but they have managed to do a good job.

Another task is to fit a sheet of 18mm ply in the bootroom for the electric consumer unit and the power inverter for the solar panels to be fixed to. Innes prepares the area and then Martin and Pete quickly fix the sheet of ply. Job done, Innes and his team can get on with the rest of their work now.

Molly et al are back from Kilchurn Castle and they had a nice time. Now it’s time for lunch then Pete and the visitors are heading for Edinburgh. Pete has his first work meeting tomorrow and the rest are heading home.

The car load has left for Edinburgh and Molly is on her own so she is tidying up and doing the laundry while the electrians carry on working.

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Molly has had a bit of a lie in but has woken to her phone ringing and it’s Pete calling before he heads off to his meeting.

Molly is doing more laundry, there is a lot of bed linen to deal with given all the visitors. She is expecting her sister, Ish, later this morning so she won’t be alone for long.

Ish says she would like to learn to use the powertools so Molly gives her a run down of how to use them safely and accurately. Molly and Ish make a good team and are making good progress working through the remaining snagging list.

After a nice lunch break Ish and Molly are now working on sheeting the area that Martin and Pete fixed on Monday. So it’s careful measuring and cutting to get the pieces to fit neatly.

Happy with their work on the sheeting they are now looking out some larch to put in the shed to dry off so it can be fitted onto the shed ready to hold the car battery charger that should be fitted in the next week or two.

It’s time for Ish to catch the bus back to Glasgow. It’s been a good day and the weather has been unexpectedly good. Pete should be back soon, just in time for dinner.

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Pete is up sharpish this morning so he can be ready to start work at nine. It’s the beginning of a new regime, Pete working to earn and Molly doing building work on her own.

Pete has set himself up in the caravan as an office and Molly is applying some more sealant to the double trusses in the areas where we can’t add any facing timber as the area is too small.

Molly is tackiing the ballustrade on the east mezzanine. She is measuring up to add a section in front of where the heat battery will go, this is necessary because it will otherwise be seen when looking up from the ground floor and it won’t look very good like that. She has done a nice neat job of that.

Last week Pete called Simon who had helped put up the kit and trusses early on in the build, to see if his team could come and fit the plasterboard. Molly has just heard that they will be here in a fortnight to do the work. The pressure is on to make sure everything is ready for them.

Now she is on a roll and is tackiling the angled bit of wall at the kitchen so that the wall doesn’t extend beyond the bottom of the staircase once the plasterboard is applied. Another nice neat job.

We are regrouping now that Pete’s work day is over. Molly is showing Pete all the work she has done today and he is really pleased that she has achieved so much and done such a good job.

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It’s Thursday and Pete has to go to Dunfermline for work. He has decided to take our new electric car although he feels it is a bit neat with it’s current charge -85%, a range of about 210 miles.

Molly is getting on with measuring and cutting some battens to make a frame for the plasterboard that will be fitted in the kitchen area above where our cooker is to go.

She is now going through the snagging list she has made and cutting some more OSB for the south west ballustrade. And now it’s time to clean up.

Pete has just called from Callandar to say that he can’t recharge the car because he has to register with Chargeplace Scotland and when he tries to put his bank details in he can’t verify the account because his phone is wet and can’t recognise his thumb print, and he has forgotten his online banking passcode. He is really stressed but feels he has no choice but to carry on for home in the hope that the battery will last.

Pete has just arrived home, he made it with just 7% charge remaining and he is super stressed and annoyed. It turns out that in order to refuel your electric car, many charging points require that your are registered with Chargeplace Scotland. To register they ‘need’ to know your date of birth! They ‘need’ to know your registration number! And you have to buy an RFID card for £12 to activate the charger! RF stands for radio frequency and it is a way of tracking you. Why Chargeplace Scotland needs to know all this about electric car owners is a mystery and, as far as Pete is concerned, an invation of privacy. Why can’t we just rock up to these chargers and fuel up no questions asked! Imagine if all combustion engine car owners had to comply with this nonsense, there would be a public outcry.

Rant over.

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Friday morning and Pete has recovered his composure. He doesn’t work on Friday’s so we can work as a team again.

Today’s first task is to fit the battens Molly cut yesterday, to create a frame for the plasterboard in the ceiling of the alcove where the cooker is to go. With that done we need to prepare the area above so that the OSB can fit perfectly by trimming the caberfloor more accurately. It has taken us all morning to do it because everything is a bit off but now it is all looking good.

We have added three layers of OSB to the stud at the side of the stair to make it level with the OSB sheeting above. This is the kind of snagging that we are having to do.

Now we are going to fit OSB to the walls on the west of the living area up to the top of the ballustrade ready for plasterboarding. To fit the OSB above the alcove we are fixing some timbers to the frame we have just made to support the heavy OSB while we position it carefully before nailing.

Molly has moved the scaffolding tower to the south west mezzanine wall to make it easier for us to fit the OSB there and finally we need to fix the OSB sheet that Molly and Ish prepared to the south east mezzaniine wall.

We have stopped for a mid afternoon coffee break and to assess what we should do for the next couple of hours. We don’t have enough time to fit the OSB to the north east mezzanine so we are leaving that for another day.

Pete has an email from Iain, our electrical contractor, to say that the solar panels will be fitted on Wednesday and that he will come with his team to finish the first fix of electrics and fit the power inverter and cabling for the panels and the Tesla Powerwall.

Coffee’s over and we are going to tidy up and clean our building mess in the house and then we are going to get the electrics plan for the mega-shed and change and/or add to it as necessary.

It’s been a full-on week and for Pete quite stressfull. Our cricumstances have changed and it will take us a wee while to adjust but we are good at change so we aren’t concerned about that. Things are also falling into place for getting the house finished, which is great but it also means there is a lot of decision making required.

The marathon of building a house is starting to feel like a sprint to the finish so here’s hoping we can muster that last bit of ramping up the energy to reach the finishing line.