In the Beginning . . . . Part III

18 May!!!! Oops - haven't been very good at this! So a brief update of the last 5 months:

Plans Building Conservation lady came for a site meeting - useless article! Didn't really know what she was talking about and just sent as a messenger to say 'No' I think. She parked on the pull-in so the quarry lorries could get past. Obviously done her homework on the site - the road stops here and the rest of it (down to the quarry) was blown up about 20 years ago! She said she'd seen cedar shingles on a roof, but not a sedum roof (she's supposed to know about buildings!). Anyway, Tim drew up new plans (based on our rough sketch, but much prettier). They were passed in April - phew! Henry (Structural Engineer) came round at the end of December and said we could leave a fair bit of the roof timbers - just replace like-for-like as necessary, but use steel to re-inforce the purlins.

Christmas Whistle-stop tour of family meeting Laura and Ben at Mum and Dad's in Norfolk. Ben went back to uni without visiting. (Sad face drawn on my diary here - I was feeling guilty because he had been telling everyone he was technically homeless now!)

Septic Tank Chris and digger came to stay for a couple of weeks in January and installed the septic tank. Percolation tests varied a fair bit. For the first one, Bob dug the hole, we carefully measured the water and poured it in and then stood expectantly with the stopwatch on my phone ticking, not wanting to miss the moment when the last drop of water slurped into the ground . . . . next day there was still water in the hole! A couple of other holes where the soakaway was going to be were much better and took about 90 minutes. (You do this test and then a calculation based on time, size of hole, etc and that tells you if the ground is suitable for a soakaway)
Digging the hole for the tank went much better than expected (thought we may hit bedrock after a few feet, but we didn't). One day there was a buzzard sitting in the garden eating worms while Chris was digging - guess they're used to diggers and dumpers in the quarry. The soakaway was more troublesome and took ages. Very, very muddy, cold, wet, snowy - yuk! But finally got a flushing loo in the caravan (oh, what luxury and no more trips to Wales to empty the loo!). (We used to take it to the place we bought the caravan from to empty it - about four miles away in Wales)

Roof:

Got a few quotes which varied widely, but decided to have a go ourselves. Bat report said we had to wait for five days of over 5 degrees before disturbing the roof so that any hibernating bats stand a chance of surviving being moved. No chance - we chose the worst Winter for 18 years to do this! Finally decided we couldn't wait any longer and still have a chance of finishing by April as stipulated, so the scaffold arrived in early February. Told Peta (the bat lady) we had to get started and she came round to have a look. Before we knew it she was up on the roof throwing down slated and ridge tiles, having a whale of a time . . . . what happened to waiting for a few mild days (we had to scrape snow and ice off the slates to get them off!!). So, having been given the go ahead, we carried on and stripped the slates. We had to use our new scaffold tower inside the house part as the timbers were too shot to let us do it from outside. We were really shakey on the tower to start with (neither of us like heights), but it's surprising how quickly you get used to it. The main scaffold was brilliant - really sold, wide and safe-feeling. On a sunny day, it's brilliant up there with the buzzards circling - we will actually miss it I think!

First steel is in place and attached and the next is
ready to 'drop' into place on the far side

The steels (angle irons of various sizes) were really heavy (physically and how they weighed on our minds!).  Many sleepless nights thinking about the task of getting them into position.  Smallest first over the stairs/ensuite part - lift it up onto two pieces of wood balanced on the scaffold and the purlin, then slide the steel along the wood and 'drop' it into position alongside the purlin - worked well and not too traumatic.  Same for the end barn and again it worked well.  (Because the house is built on a slope, one end of the scaffolding was only about 5ft off the ground which was really handy for getting things up to roof level, especially these steels.  I wouldn't fancy trying to carry them up a ladder!!)  Next was the middle barn - couldn't use the same method as the original rafters were staying so we had to do it from inside.  So, we put the batloft floor in, then used pulleys and ropes and the rungs of a ladder to gradually lift the steel up.  laura was helping - so, girls pulling on ropes and Bob shifting it up rung by rung.  Bit nail-biting - especially when one of the ropes broke!  We could then work from the new floor and, although heavy, it was manageable.  A big bumble bee had made its home in a hole in the wall and once we'd put the floor in, it couldn't get down to it - I felt sorry for it and had to keep letting it in through the trap door!  The biggest steels (150 x 150 x 10mm) were for the house (bedroom) and we were dreading it and put it off until last.  But we used our first method and managed without help . . . what a relief to get them all in and fixed!

We had to put a new lintel over the hayloft door, so we had to take down and rebuild the stone above it.  Replaced most of the rafters in the end barn and all of them in the house (bedroom).  Then lots of 'making good' of stonework, woodworm treatment (using bat-friendly stuff), straps for wallplates, etc - seemed to take forever.  Finally started re-slating during Laura's visit - 9 April 2009.  Had to 'top up' slates for both sides with reclaim.  People at Roofing & Salvage were brilliant with advice and help.  They recommended Edna to help us cut slate (Edna is really an EDMA - sprung cutter and hole punch) which was a really good tool.  The reclaim slates for the north side weren't brilliant - covered in lichen and so needed quite a bit of scrubbing.  Even then they are quite silvery and easy to spot on the roof - hopefully they will tone down with age.  The south side ones were better, but still not as nice as our lovely old ones.  The salvage guy was quite jealous of them and would love a house with them on.  They are from the Llangynog mine (about 10 miles away) - blue slate with the grain going across (newer ones have the grain going up and down) - see, we have become slate anoraks!

Seemed to take ages to finish the roof (just over a month - we finished on 17 May).  Doing the lead round the chimneys also took ages, but we had to learn it all as we went along.  The Roofing and Salvage chaps came to our rescue again and lent us their 'lead bible' with instructions on how to stretch and shape each piece of lead - so useful.  We also had to put lead around the rooflights, so that side did take a while.  The last straight run on the South side went much quicker - until we got held up on the very last bit for days by pouring rain. 

So, finishing was a bit of an anticlimax.  We grabbed a gap in the rain to mortar in the last three ridge tiles, but it started pouring again just as we finished so it was a mad dash to get the tarpaulin on and clear up rather than standing back to admire our handywork, beer in hand  and patting each other on the back with the other.  Never mind, we'll do that bit when the rain stops.  Mustn't moan because we had brilliant weather for most of it.  Although, I seem to remember nailing the last batten over the breathable/waterproof membrane just as the heavens opened.

The topping out ceremony (a branch from one of our
Elm trees in the chimney) - Cheers!!

Wildlife  Made a bird table to fit in the dolly wheel of the caravan (inches from the window).  Really well used during the coldest weather - gang of 14 long-tail tits most days.  Squirrels a real pain so we got a catapault - they are a bit more jittery, but still chance their arm.  Woodpeckers have built a nest in the tree stump behind the caravan - noticed them taking food there for the first time on 16 May, so expect to see babies in about three weeks.  Only saw the male until a couple of weeks ago so assumed there was a gay community, but now both come regularly to the feeders and table.  Nuthatches, wrens, blue tits and great tits all have nests nearby (great tits may be in the house wall), but we haven't seen the long-tail tits for ages.

This is the list of birds we have seen here - notably, we have never seen a single sparrow or a starling!!!!
Blue tit, coal tit, log tail tit, great tit, gold crest, wren, tree creeper, buzzard, woodpeckers - green and greater spotted, robin, pheasant, jay, nuthatch, bullfinch, marsh tit, blackbird, dunnock, chaffinch, goldfinch, sparrowhawk, tawny owl, redwing, chiffchaff, linnet, siskin, blackcap, raven, chickens (!), woodcock, red kite (just twice in Feb and June 2010), willow warbler, redpoll, pied wagtail, greenfinch, peregrine.

And that's the end of my diary from the early days.