Week One hundred and two

Week beginning 13th May 2023.

We are starting the week with wee jobs, first we are doing a couple of wee bits of finishing on the mezzanine flooring. Now we are doing a big tidy up of the mega-shed and house, putting away tools and cleaning the mess from cutting all those bamboo floorboards.

The electricians have arrived to finish all the data points so we can connect computers to the ethernet rather than relying on the wifi.

That’s them done and dusted and finally they have finished all our wiring and electrics.

We are planning on cladding the north elevation of the mega-shed later in the week so we are doing a bit of prep by making sure we have the framing in place ready for the reveals and cladding. With that done we can move on to checking and fixing the insect mesh.

The last job of the day is to load the car with rubbish for the dump. We have some general waste but we also have a few rubble sacks full of dock leaves and roots.

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This morning we are off to an appointment in Oban, a trip to the dump and the usual round of getting building supplies and our weekly shopping.

We’re back from Oban and are cutting the skirting for the mezzanines. We have chosen a much smaller style of timber and we are keeping it simple. We are much better and quicker at measuring and cutting the mitres so we manage to get them all cut for both mezzanines without finishing too late in the day.

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It’s a beautiful Wednesday morning, perfect for working outside. We are starting by fitting the sills and then cutting and fitting the window reveals on the north elevation of the mega-shed.

The reveals have gone on easy so we can now measure, cut and fit the 75mm cladding on either side of each window. We need to work out where to cut the notch so the cladding can go round one of the sills.

To finish the day Molly is burning some of the off-cuts of wood and Pete is attacking more of the dock plants which are trying to take over our garden.

The house is starting to warm up quite a bit, 24.5° C, so we are opening the windows and doors to cool it down a bit because we don’t want it too warm at night, we like it cool for sleeping.

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It’s a lovely day again and we can take advantage by starting the cladding on the mega-shed. First we are fitting the 150mm boards that make the north east corner. Now we can fix boards between the corner to the edge of the first window.

Final bit for today is to fill the gap between the corner and the first window on the east side of the elevation. This board needs ripped because it is just a wee bit too wide.

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It’s Friday and it’s another lovely day so more cladding is in order. Our first job is to work out how to attach the ventilation unit to the external cladding.

Now we need to cut out a hole for the extractor fan outlet where the vent is to go. A bit of careful measuring and cutting with the jigsaw and bingo we have the hole and it’s a perfect fit. All we need to do now is fit the vent cover and there we have it.

Working towards the east side we are cladding the other spaces between the windows. We are now cladding above the window situated on the west side of this elevation and we realise that with the limited amount of cladding boards that we have left, we need to start cladding the areas that will need the longer bits of the larch cladding.

It’s time to erect the scaffolding so we can start working on the area above the drip detail right up to the apex of the roof. With the scaffolding erected and checked that it is level and safe we are starting by fitting the 75mm boards that cointinue up either side of the window.

It is much harder working under the full strength of the sun and given that we need to climb up and down from the scaffolding it is proving to be quite tiring.

It’s been a long day but we have managed to achieve much more than we expected and so it looks like we might even get the cladding on this elevation finished by the end of the weekend.

It’s a lovely warm evening so we are dining outside and enjoying a glass of wine, when the sun comes out it is so warm here you feel like you could be on holiday abroad. It’s not all hard work for us, we have our rewards too.

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Yet another beautiful day so we can carry on with the cladding. We are making sure to drink lots of water and applying sunscreen because we are fully exposed to the sun for more than half the day.

To start with we are finishing the area above the drip detail that we started yesterday.

With that done we are lowering the height of the scaffolding platform so we can work on the area above the windows. Now we can take down the scaffolding so we can work on the areas below the windows. But we haven’t really started and we have a visit from Marion, a childhood friend of Moily’s, and her husband Dai. Marion has brought a beautiful climatis for our garden. We have a nice catch-up over lunch.

We are very tired so all we are doing is measuring and cutting the boards for under the windows. We can fit them tomorrow.

It’s been a hot and tiring day but we can relax now, have a nice dinner and watch a movie.

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It’s a bit grey this Sunday morning but it’s dry so we can get on with it. To start with we are attacking the docks in the garden again. Three more full bags to go to the dump!

We are nailing the boards below the windows on the mega-shed and it’s proving to be a bit more challenging than expected. Trying to hold the short boards in place and stop them bouncing when hitting the nails is proving to be very annoying and it is taking a lot of time and effort. It’s funny how when you think you’re onto an easy job things get challenging.

After a lot of time and bad language we have managed to get the job done so now we are going to have a go at tidying up all the off-cuts and making some order out of the chaos.

That’s it we are done, it’s 2.30 and we are going to call it a day.

We are very happy at the progress we have made in the last two weeks. The mezzanine floors are done and look great and the mega-shed north elevation is clad and looking the business. Happy days!