Week Seventy-eight

Week beginning 27th November 2023.

It’s the beginning of a big week for us, Andrew is coming today and staying over so that he can do more work tomorrow. The plan is to start fitting the kitchen and if the weather and time allows, start erecting the balcony. It’s a beautiful sunny but very cold day.

Our first task of the day is to pack up the grinding kit ready for collection, they could come any time after nine so we are doing it before breakfast.

Andrew has just arrived and we are getting right into it. While he is preparing the big 4.8m larch posts to be fixed to the concrete pads we are putting the legs on all the kitchen cabinets and working out the height we want the worktop to be set at.

Having cut the grooves into the larch timber posts for the galvanised steel fixing brackets, Andrew is drilling the holes and filling them with epoxy resin to secure the bolts into the concrete, ready to stand the posts up. The first post is very heavy so we have set up the scaffolding so one of us can be high up to support it while it is being bolted into position. The first one goes up easily enough so we are standing up the second one.

Having braced the two posts Pete can get on with cutting the first joist while Andrew works out where the first two joist hangers are to be fixed to the post and to the timber we had already attached to the wall of the house for this purpose.

Now we can start fixing the two side joists and the one across the front to make the structure strong and self-supporting.

With that done we all move inside to work on installing the cabinets. Andrew is setting up and levelling the carcasses while we assemble some of the drawers and attach the drawer fronts.

Des the plumber has just popped by, which is timely because we need him to connect some pipes before we can proceed with the fitting of the units. He has had a look and has agreed to come back tomorrow to do it and we can position everything else and just leave that cabinet so it can be pulled out to let him do his work.

Des has gone and we are back to working on the kitchen. By organising ourselves in a flexible way today, we have been able to work simultaneously on the balcony and the kitchen.

It’s 8pm and we are calling it a day. We are all feeling pleased with today’s progress so we can now settle down to enjoy our meal.

______________________________

We are up and at it bright and early because Andrew needs to make the most of the day and wants to get on with both tasks.

Pete is going to take some toil today so he can help with the balcony by cutting more of the joists.

Pete has had to go and have some work meetings so Andrew is getting on with fitting the joists on his own and Molly is getting on with finishing assembling the kitchen drawers. We have decided to stick with only floor cabinets and for them all to have drawers rather than doors. Some of the drawers are really big at 800mm wide while the others are 600mm and 400mm. It’s a bit unusual but it should work well for us.

We are making good progress and we are now ready to lift the heavy full height larder cabinet into place but first we need to attach the decorative end panels. This makes the cabinet even heavier and Pete and Andrew are having to heave it into place.

It’s seven and Andrew is leaving, another long day. It has been an amazing, hard working, couple of days and we now have the balcony structure up and it is partially decked so we can stand on it as long as we are careful not to fall off. The kitchen carcases are all fixed in place and most of the drawers are assembled. It’s great because we are getting an even better idea of how our home will look and feel when it’s finished and the kitchen looks like it is going to look great and work really well.

Thanks guru Andrew, as ever we have made lots of progress and learned loads with all your help and guidance.

______________________________

Pete is working today so Molly is alone working in the house. There is a lot to tidy and clean up because of all the packaging that comes with a new kitchen and all the off cuts of timber from building the balcony so that’s what Molly is getting on with.

Pete has finished for the day and Molly has done all the tidying and cleaning. The house is looking great with the half finished kitchen, Molly has done a great job.

We are heading off to Oban to deal with recycling all the cardboard packaging and so we can do a shop and have a shower.

______________________________

Another working day for Pete. Andrew has called to say he will come tomorrow and stay overnight again because he will be too busy before Christmas to help us otherwise.

Molly is working on fitting the drawer runners into the cabinets, making sure they are fitted in their marked place. This isn’t that easy as the marks are so tiny that sometimes they are difficult to find.

Molly has just discovered that the small drawer units with four drawers aren’t working properly. The top and third drawers are fine but the second and bottom drawers won’t close because they are too high. This is a real head scratcher because she can’t find anything in the handbook that makes it clear what’s wrong.

Pete has finished for the day and has come to see how things are going. He can’t work out what’s wrong either so we are going to wait for Andrew who has far more experience fitting kitchens than us.

We are sorting out more of our messy wood piles, now that we have made a huge dent in our stack of larch when building the balcony.

______________________________

It’s Friday and we are expecting Andrew some time after lunch so we are up and at it bright and early again. The weather is really cold but luckily dry. We are finishing the decking on the balcony so we are working outside. Some of the larch is frozen on the surface making it really cold to work with.

It’s lunch time and we have finished the decking in plenty of time for Andrew coming. Kirsty and Jef have just arrived to pay us a wee visit on their way south. Jef has been at Ardfern plastering someone else’s house and is on his way to his parents place in England. It’s great that we have hit it off with them and managed to make new friends through building our house. Viva!

Andrew has just arrived with a beautiful loaf of sourdough bread that Manda baked for us, thanks Manda. He has joined us for a wee chat before Jef and Kirsty have to hit the road and now Cate has turned up for a wee visit with delicious cake she baked. It’s great to have a sociable interlude in the working day.

Everyone has gone so we are helping Andrew carry on with the kitchen installation. Pete has gone to cook dinner so that it will be ready for when Zadjil and Carolyn arrive at 7.30ish.

Dinner is ready and Zadjil and Carolyn are here, Molly and Andrew have finally finished woirking for the day so we can all settle down to a hearty meal and a few glasses of wine.

______________________________

It was a bit of a late night last night, Pete and Molly slept in the house on one of the mezzanines, Andrew in the caravan and Zadjil andf Carolyn in the mega-shed. Pete is up but everyone else is still in bed so he has to be the alarm clock and get everyone moving.

We are splitting into teams – Zadjil and Carolyn are cutting spindles for the balcony balustrades while Andrew is showing Pete how to assemble one.

With the first balustrade constructed, we are fitting it to the balcony but first we need to lift it up. It’s really quite heavy because the spindles are made from 30mm x 90mm larch and there are seventeen of them fixed to the top and bottom planks. It is going in easily because the measurements Pete took are good.

Now that Pete knows how to make a balustrade, Andrew can go and work on the kitchen with Molly. Pete, Zadjil and Carolyn are making the other two balustrades.

Andrew has worked out what is wrong with the drawers that aren’t closing and it is a simple fix. The drawer fronts just need to be turned over and Molly knows how to do that so she is taking charge of that. He is cutting out the worktops for the cooker hob and the sink. We have chosen acrylic tops and they are very hard to cut, they blunt saw blades very quickly so it’s not easy for Andrew but he is managing.

It’s starting to get dark and Andrew has to go but not before he helps us fit the final balustrade. What a week, with his help we have a balcony with only a few wee tasks still to complete and a kitchen that only needs the kickboards fixed in place and the plumbing and electrics to do. It’s been a huge leap forward and we are all very happy and excited by the progress.

Thanks Andrew!

______________________________

We are welcomed by another beautiful frosty morning. The water to the caravan is still frozen but we still have mains water in the mega-shed to carry out everyday tasks like dish washing. How lucky is that. The plan for today is to tidying up a bit in the house and to take stock of where we are with our build. Zadjil and Carolyn will be around until lunchtime to help us.

After a delicious breakfast of coffee and croissants we are heading out to tape up the external electrical points on the south side of the building. These are outside the French window where we will have our patio and need to be ready for the electrician. Zadjil and Carolyn are searching out some suitable cladding and prizing the frozen planks apart before bringing them round to the sunny side of the house. Working as a team we cut the cladding to size and using the drill cut out a circular hole to accommodate the pipe that holds the electrical cable.

We’ve had lunch and Zadjil and Carolyn are heading home. They have been a great help and have been so generous with their time and energies. Thanks a lot you two.

We are putting the last three boards to fill the gap in the cladding that we started this morning. We are both quite tired after a long, hard and very cold week, but we are very happy with the results.