The day started hot and muggy and by lunchtime we experienced the most severe storm this year, just like a tropical monsoon! It came through the tin roof on the scaffolding, through the windows, doors and walls, sometimes pouring, sometimes dripping, but almost everything got a soaking.
In the morning Tom started pointing the sitting room walls with lime.
George was busy mixing the lime mortar. You can see the impending storm in the dark clouds above…
And then this happened. Within minutes it was coming in through the front doors.
Oh. My. God. And there isn’t a front door here, we had taken it off for access.
Holes in the walls, no roof, no windows. Bloody hell rain.
Oh the irony. I know where I would rather be though.
Suddenly it was pouring though the tin roof into Zanna’s bedroom and down into the study. Sam and Dan rapidly installed a board underneath it at roof level to stop the impending flood.
The narrowly averted flood that could have happened on our new concrete floor. It literally would have become a swimming pool.
Sam is back this week to continue with the electrics. He’s getting all the wires buried in the walls, joining up all the sockets and switches. But not before he had wrapped our fuse box in plastic as water was coming through the kitchen ceiling into this… Good job there was an electrician in the house!
A slightly damp George raking out the pointing in the corridor.
Lunch of champions. Chips and cigarettes.
Sam fixing the sockets into the sitting room wall.
Tom and his trusty trowel.
Cat stripping the study window.
Dan is back (hooray!) and is fitting the attic floor (hooray!) A very exciting step! We can barely remember what it is like to have floors…
The lime pointing at stage one, stage two is ‘knocking back’, taking off the excess.
There is a rush to get the pointing finished in the sitting room before Thursday as we are having the flagstone floor cleaned. All the cement and levelling compound is being removed, then it is being polished. After this has been done the floor will need to be covered over so it doesn’t get dirty again. Tom is at maximum capacity again this week…
Sam’s wired up sockets, all chopped in so they will be flush with the wall when plastered.
The electric cables being hidden behind the lime pointing.
More cables going through a ceiling joist, which you will note is wet due to leaks… I hate seeing timber getting wet, but there is nothing we could do. It will dry out soon enough.
Cables going through the attic floor joists.
There is even a cable going through our main RSJ.
The new softwood floor in the attic. Sadly this got a soaking in the storm as well.
Not long before we can properly walk up here and start to plan the room layout. It’s been very difficult to visualise this space without a floor.
There will be a lot of scribing required in the fitting of this floor.
Wet sheets hung up over the lime pointing over night to stop it from drying out too quickly or cracking.
“It will look lovely when it’s finished.” Poor, damp house.
It WILL look lovely! Pesky rain xx