Week Fifty-eight

Week beginning 10th July 2023.

On Saturday we went to Oban for the usual round of dumping, shopping and showering and in the evening we invited our new neighbours round for something to eat. We set up a table in the house and had dinner there. Cate and Steve told us about their plans to knock down the old farmhouse and build a new house using as much of the old stone as possible. They also have plans to rewild the farmland that has been neglected for the past years.

We did a bit of work yesterday – measuring of cladding for the shed in preparation for a car charging point being fitted but had to stop because we are unsure its exact positioning and then went on to doi the nsulating and sheeting inside the shed.

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Another week begins and we have to finish the battening and OSB sheeting for the plasterboard starting next week. We can’t do any more batteing until the delivery of plasterboard, plyboard and timber arrives later this week so in the mean time we can finish sheeting the mezzanine walls.

We have tried calling Andrew about the cladding on the shed but no reply so we have come to our own decision about how to fit it and are getting on with it.

It’s onto the east mezzanine wall, a tricky job because we need to cut angles for the return staircase, but we are getting better at it. Pete is checking how well the caberfloor meets the end of the joists and the wall heads so that the OSB can go on without bulging and has discovered that there is a bit of work to be done there. While Pete is doing that Molly is measuring and cutting some of the OSB to fit the return staircase.

Molly has noticed a delivery lorry reversing up our track. It’s our delivery of plasterboard, plyboard and timber. We are caught on the hop as we weren’t expecting it until later this week and it’s raining so we need to get it indoors straight away.

The delivery driver is kindly putting it as close to the house entrance as he can, even though it’s a bit of a tight squeeze for his truck.

We have three palets of plasterboard, ten sheets of plyboard and a smallish stack of timber to move. We are going to leave the timber outside covered in tarpaulin but the rest needs carried indoors, a daunting task.

We have just carried in the first palet load of 75 sheets, each weighs 25kg, but we are going to take a break because our new neighbours have invited us over for a cuppa.

That was a nice break and we met some other neighbours there that we hadn’t come across before. So, it’s back to carry plasterboard into the house.

We’ve carried another 75 sheets in and are going to stop for dinner. We are getting pretty tired and a bit sore so a break is just what we need.

Refuelled and re-energised, sort of, we are back for the last wee haul of plasterboard and the ten sheets of plyboard.

It’s nine o’clock and excluding the breaks, it has taking us about three hours of heavy lifting to get this done. That’s about two hundred sheets weighing over four metric tons! We are tired, wet, dirty and sore but it’s just as well we’ve done it because it hasn’t stopped raining since the delivery arrived.

Bed time.

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We have woken up still pretty exhausted from yesterday’s toils and it is taking time to get going this morning.

Finally, Pete is on his work computer for the day and Molly is off to Oban to pick up a few things.

Molly’s back in time for lunch and Pete is ready for a break. He is reminded that sitting working on the computer can be hard too, not like physical work but tiring nontheless.

Molly has gone for a nap and Pete is getting on with his work. Pete has finished for the day and finds Molly finally rousing from a long nap. Yesterday’s work has really taken its toll.

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We are up bright and early because the solar panel people and the electricians are coming today. It’s eight-thirty and Innes is here already to finish the first fix electrics.

Molly is going to have to liaise with the two teams because Pete is working and can’t get involved.

The solar panel team , from AESSolar has arrived but they immediately realise that they can’t fit the panels because they have brought the wrong fixings. Early in the build we were thinking of fitting a different roof sheet profile and their fixings would have worked for that.

They are going to get on with fitting all the electrics and the Tesla Powerwall and will come back another day to do the solar panels.

We’ve just had lunch and Pete is heading off to meet someone. He is not long gone and an engineer from Openreach has unexpectedly arrived to put the broadband fibre cable in. It’s all go.

The AESSolar guys are making good progress and so are the electricians.

The men have not long left and Pete is back so Molly is taking him round to see what has been achieved today. Pete is quite excited about the Powerwall, it looks so cool, and pleased at all the progress. Innes will have to come back next Tuesday becauuse having to run all the electric cables along the bulkheads is taking longer than it would on a more conventional build where all the cables would run in the gap between the ceilings and floor above.

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We are up very early because Pete is expecting a colleague to arrive at eight so that they can car-share down to Crieff for a staff development day.

Molly is on her own today and is getting on with a bit of tidying and reorganising. Now she is insulating the area in the shed beside the Powerwall, having just added a timber to the stud for the OSB to be attached to later. We need the electrics disconnected from there before we can fix on the OSB.

This after noon Molly is cutting more OSB for the east mezzanine wall ready to be fixed on tomorrow when Pete can work on the house, It’s a two person job.

With all those bits cut there is only one full sheet of OSB left and quite a wee pile of half sheets and off-cuts. It’s amazing how many sheets of OSB we have gone through to build the house and the shed and we may even need a few more sheets, we’ll see.

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We are off to Oban to pick up a fine toothed saw blade for cutting plyboard and to get some supplies because Zadjil and Carolyn are arriving this evening to stay for a few days, it’s his birthday weekend.

Back from oban we are now getting on with the work we had started when the delivery arrived on Monday and interupted our work. Pete is back sorting out the caberfloor and Molly getting everything ready for attaching the OSB to the east mezzanine wall.

With those tasks done Pete is trying to work out how to deal with a very tricky bit under the stairs in the guest room. We need to add a timber or a bit of frame so that where the plasterboard from the wall meets the plasterboard under the stair gives a neat sharp finish. It’s a real head scratcher and Pete has decided to leave it for another day, maybe Zadjil has the grey matter to solve it.

We are just finishing tidying up and putting away the tools when they arrive. Dinner time.

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It’s Saturday and we are off to a slow start, a nice leisurely breakfast and a bit of chat.

We are going through what’s left of our snagging list and getting on with it. Molly and Zadj are measuring up where we need to fix battens around the ceilings for the plasterboard to attach to and Pete and Cariolyn are moving the timber form Monday’s delivery indoors.

Ater a few hours of measuring, cutting and nailing we have most of the snagging list dealt with. Molly and Zadj are now taking on the challenge of working out how to solve the problem under the stair while Pete starts battening part of the return staircase wall.

Molly and Zadj are still working on the problem and Pete is tidying up so that we can all go for a wee run in our new car and go for a walk in one of the local oak woods at Strone Hill.

It’s been a good day and when we went for a walk the rain stayed off and we had a real treat foraging some lovely blaeberries. We are back in the caravan now ready for dinner and a few glasses of wine in good company.

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It’s Sunday morning and after a slow start, again, we are having a birthday breakfast of croissants for Zadj. He tells us that he woke at five this morning thinking/worrying about the way we are planning our internet network. It seems that where we plan to put the BT modem isn’t optimum and won’t do everything we need it to.

We have been talking this through for ages now and finally we have come up with a new plan and a location for the engineer to install the fibre modem. Originally all this tech was to go in the boot room because we thought we needed to hard wire the Tesla Gateway unit but now we realise it uses wifi. So we are going to have this tech in the small space on the west mezzanine and because of this will have to reroute some ethernet cables. Now that the decision has been made and a new plan devised it isn’t going to take long to move the relevant cables.

We’ve had a tasty lunch of Molly’s spicy noodle soup and now we are splitting into two teams – Molly and Zadj are going to finish framing the tricky angled piece for under the stair and Pete and Carolyn are starting sound insulating the interior walls of the house.

Pete and Carolyn have a very messy task but are getting on with it and working well as a team while Molly and Zadj are getting to grips with the angles.

We’ve been at it for a few hours and Zadj and Molly are fixing their frame and Carolyn and Pete are cleaning and tidying up.

That’s it, we’re done. It’s been a good week and thanks to Zadj and Carolyn for all their help. We’re also very happy with the progress the AESSolar guys and the electricians have made even though they aren’t quite done yet. We are happy and very satisfied with another weeks worth of progress towards our finished home. Let’s see what next week brings.