Monday morning and we have a houseful today with lots happening and lots of progress.
Tom and George are pointing the massive chimney breast at the heart of the house, from top to bottom.
Tom defying gravity (and scaring Cat) while pointing the side of the chimney breast down the stairwell.
Tom, joyously, starting from the top in the attic.
The very top of the chimney breast is built with small bits of stone that were smothered in mud essentially, it was not pretty. George and Tom have cleaned it up so it is now possible to point it like the rest.
Sam, our electrician, is back today to work on the first fix, ready for the plasterers to start next week. He is fitting the wiring for the lights in the bathroom, Zanna’s bedroom, the landing, and here in the attic while we decide where we want them positioned.
I am incredibly good at taking very flattering photos of Sam. Here is a perfect example. It’s all in the timing.
Another great photo of Sam drilling through the studs in the bathroom wall. I think this photo is great, Sam probably won’t (sorry Sam!)
Measuring up for where the staircase will be so we can position the lighting in the correct place.
We have help with the beams! A carpenter friend of Dan’s has very kindly lent us his assistant, Josh, for the week, maybe longer, to sand and oil all the beams, joists, lintels etc. all over the house.
Josh is super nice and a very tidy worker, he has attached Henry hoover to the sander to suck up all the dust he creates! We definitely approve of this!
These photos are from last week when Cat went to collect the steel bracket for the granite holding the bathroom sink from Riteweld Engineering. It wasn’t ready but she got to see it being fabricated.
The thin bracket detail designed to match the brackets that we are using for shelves in the bathroom.
We keep talking about using scented candles in the house, on shelves and in cubby holes around the house and it always makes the boys giggle like school boys and make jokes about our future relationship status(es) and what we will get up to while the candles are lit… We asked Tom and George not to fill the ‘eyes’ in the chimney breast here so we can put scented candles in them, and at lunchtime they went out and bought one and had it lit for the rest of the day. They giggled all afternoon! Sadly, the actual reason we use a lot of scented candles is to hide the smell of dog farts.
Our monster in the attic with eyes.
The lime pointing is covered with damp dust sheets over night to stop it from drying out too quickly.
Sam has fitted the ducting for the extraction unit in the bathroom ceiling.
The end of the ducting up in the attic, ready to be fitted to the roof tile vent.
All the wiring for the bathroom is complete.
The wiring for the lights in the new staircase and landing are coiled up ready for when the stud wall is built.
A light switch is buried in the old lathe and plaster stud wall on the landing.
Pete, the roofer, returned today to start adding the battens for the roof tiles. This is proving to be a proper head scratcher though. The depth of the roof varies by about 300mm from one end to the other and bows out in the middle where the wall bows out. This is proving very difficult to plan where the battens go, and how to allow for this discrepancy in the rows of tiles…
There is also the difficulty of how to join the roof up with our neighbour’s as the roof angle is slightly different. In over 30 years in the job, Pete has never fitted a roof like this… It’s going to be quite a challenge!
The handmade clay roof tiles that George moved up to the scaffolding on Saturday, waiting to be fitted.
A lump of stone has been added to our water/mud feature at the front door so we don’t step in the muddy puddle.