Rhubarb cruelty

So, another week gone and more progress on our remaining rooms.  We managed to borrow a scaffold tower from a neighbour on Monday morning and so could get on with skimming in the afternoon.  Having the twin towers up did make things much easier.  The two of them just fitted with about 3mm to spare (we had to make sure the wingnuts on ours were a certain way or they wouldn't fit, it was that close).  This did make moving them a little tricky - push one a couple of inches then the other and so on.  But it did mean that we could reach the whole length of the ceiling in one go and so could do each portion in one go.  There are four 'portions' to the ceiling - above and below the purlins times two for the two sides.  When we were skimming before, we tended to do one session and then do something else for the rest of the day.  You can only do so much in one session or the plaster starts to dry out before you are ready to do the next stage.  This time we managed to get more done in each session and also to do more than one session a day, so we had it all done by Wednesday.  We were really pleased with that because we did think it'd take us all week.  So, that room could now be painted I guess - exciting (I like that bit!).

Instead of painting though, we moved swiftly on to the bat loft ceiling.  We have got all the insulation in which has been a truly horrible job!  It has taken longer than the skimming! There is not much head height up there - before the insulation Bob could stand up (just) in the middle, but as we put each layer in obviously the ceiling has got lower and now, after 6" of insulation, Bob can't stand up anywhere.  We have stuff stored up there - cast iron downpipes, rolls of damp proof membrane and roof breather membrane as well as boxes and boxes of Laura's clothes.  So, all that needs moving around as you work.  To make life more miserable, it's a really dusty job and in a confined space that's not much fun.  We are using solid polyeurathane(?) insulation with silver paper on each side.  You can cut the 1" stuff quite easily and cleanly with a stanley knife, so that's not too bad.  When it comes to the 4" stuff though you have to use a saw which makes all this horrible dust.  It's quite static too so it clings to you.  Last night when we'd finished my black trousers were beige - I had to take them off and beat them against the outside wall (good job it was dark and no-one came past!).  So, we are really well and truly pleased that that job is over and done with and our work clothes are now in the wash!  Think that's all the insulation done in the house now.  Seems a little strange not to have piles of the boards all over the place.  We bought most of it about two and a half years ago when it was on special offer and it has been stored under the caravan, in the top of the wriggly barn, in the end bedroom, everywhere ever since.  Now we just have a few offcuts left which we can use when we box in the soil pipe (for soundproofing rather than for thermal insulation as the pipe goes down the corner of the lounge!) and we will also put some round the bath when we put a panel on the side to keep the water hot for longer.  So, next is plasterboarding which will also be a bit awkward, but the dust isn't so horrible (it settles!).

We are having our first rhubarb crumble of the season for tea tonight.  We have quite a bit of rhubarb which is sprouting nicely, but a few weeks ago I decided to try forcing some.  That is, keep it in the dark and it grows quickly trying to find the light and stays pink and tender.  Oh, that sounds a bit cruel doesn't it, like veal calves or something?  So, I have used the bit we cut off the neck of the septic tank (before it was used, don't worry) which is a fibre glass tube about two feet across with a bit of wood across the top - it doesn't look pretty I'll admit, but then neither does anything in the garden yet!  It has worked anyway and we have lovely pink rhubarb.  Next lot's going in some vodka ready for warm sunny evenings to come!  You make it like sloe gin, but with vodka and rhubarb and it is delicious chilled with ice in the summer.  We are still cooking most evening meals on the woodburner - I think we've only used the other cooker for one meal in the last month or so which is quite good isn't it.  I am currently perfecting naan bread cooked directly on the hotplate which works really well.  In a way, it'll be a shame when the weather is too warm to light the woodburner.  On the other hand, I can't wait for the better weather.  Last week was lovely here and really spring-like, but we were confined to our dark hole for most of it of course!  The birds definitely think Spring's here and are in full voice until after dark which is lovely.

Welsh cakes, woodburner and windows

Well, guess what . . . . I have actually had three whole days off this week!  Can you believe it.  I think this is the first time this year on my new M & S contract (under which I should in theory have four days off) that I have actually had more than two.  I kept expecting to be asked to go in, but it didn't happen until my first day off when they rang to see if I'd work today.  By then though we'd got our schedule organised and so I politely declined.  So, I just have to go in tomorrow (wearing pink because of their valentines promotions!) and then I'm off for a whole week!

So, what have we got done?  We have finally got all the windows done, that's what.  We collected the new glass on Monday morning - all lovely this time thank goodness.  First we did the little window which still looks endearingly wonky and, yes, that strange blackbird has been to investigate it, but still seems to prefer fluttering at the oak room windows.  You can see it's poo on the triangle window ledge!

The opening door in the lounge and the fire escape door in the end bedroom are also done with bolts and locks fitted.  Unfortunately, it hasn't done much to make those rooms cosy because there are still some pretty large gaps round the frame.  Ironically, we need some warmer weather to be able to point them in with lime mortar, then we can squirt expanding foam in and that should all make a difference.  It has been extremely chilly and dank for the last few days - freezing fog.  I think we've got away lightly on the snow front though compared to the rest of the country - we only had about an inch that lasted for about a day.

So, with the windows as far on as we can get them for now, we have moved onto insulation.  We raced ahead with the first layer in the roof of the end bedroom.  That's the easy one, just 1" thick which goes between the rafters leaving a gap between that and the breather membrane under the slates so condensation can escape.  I was in the lounge on cutting duties and Bob was up the scaffold tower popping them into place and calling down the next measurement - a tried and tested system that works quite efficiently.  The next layer goes immediately under that and is 3" thick and will need a bit of shaping to make it snug against the purlin.  If it's not a tight fit, it will also need screwing itno place, so that won't be quite so easy to do.  Then we will have to attach some battens so we have something to attach the plasterboard to.  You just can't get plasterboard screws long enough to get a good fixing through that sort of thickness and we found by trial and error in our bedroom that this was the best way.  We will probably put another 1" of insulation between the battens seeing as there will be a gap doing nothing, so with all that, I don't think we'll lose much heat through the roof!

We have to be careful what order we insulate that room in so that we can get to the bits we need and also so there are no gaps.  So, we've finished the first roof layer and we've started on the walls.  This room had to be tanked as it's built into the hill and so we put metal studwork up which is only fixed top and bottom so doesn't pierce the tanking.  The insulation fits into the H-shaped studwork and it is easier to do that before you screw the studwork together and so needs to be done before the thick roof insulation or we wouldn't be able to screw the top together.  Annoyingly, the insultaion is about 2mm thicker than the recess in the studwork.  I tried just bashing along the edge of the insulation with a mallet to squash it, but it didn't really work, so we have to shave a bit off each edge to fit it which is a bit of a pain.

We had a bit of a slow start this morning.  Firstly we had to go in the 'bat loft' and design a new (much smaller) loft for the little creatures that have never actually shown any interest in the huge luxury living space we originally provided for them.  This means we can reclaim the space up there and have a sort of mezzanine storage/slobbing out area (called a crog loft in Welsh houses).  I also had a quick look through the boxes of Laura's clothes which are stored up there to find something pink to wear to work tomorrow.  Then down to the kitchen where one of the joints in the woodburner flue had dropped just after we lit it last night.  Obviously we couldn't do anything about it immediatley (a little warm!), so that was priority this morning.  The plumber had just joined the pieces of flue with heatproof silicone stuff, but it obviously didn't work too well, so we needed to get some self-tapping screws to do the job a bit more securely, so another trip into town (I made cheese scones for lunch while Bob did that).  We are also on cat feeding duties for Bill, so by the time we'd done that and checked that his ground source heat pump/underfloor heating was behaving it was lunchtime!

We have had a little visitor at night recently which nibbled a potato and some pasta stored in the utility room.  So we shut the door to the utility at night and put a piece of chocolate on the floor which didn't get eaten, but the one in the hall did.  So we assume it can't get in the utility with the door shut.  We hadn't heard anything from it for a few nights and the chocolate in the hall didn't disappear.  Last night though, we were watching TV and heard a little scrabbling noise from a carrier bag by the fireplace so in a co-ordinated movement, I switched the light on as Bob snatched the carrier and the little crittur scurried behind the fridge.  With a torch we could see it's silouette behind there with twitching ears (it actually looked quite cute) before it made a dash for the fireplace and disappeared.  As I said before, replacing the tiles round the fireplace is a job for when we clear that corner to do the stairs and part of that will be patching up the back of the fireplace.  Currently there are lots of broken bits and holes and a cunning little mouse would easily find a way through the unpointed wall in the lounge to the fireplace in the kitchen.  So, we haven't really got much choice but to put a trap down.  I just hope I'm not the first down the ladder to find it one morning!

We have made tea on or in the woodburner every night for more than a week which is quite a good feeling!  I even had a go at making welsh cakes on it last week.  They actually burned a bit, so I did the rest in a frying pan on the cooker - they also burned a bit, so it wasn't the woodburner's fault at all.  I guess because they have sugar in they go from not cooked to burnt in the blink of an eye.  They were good though and I'll definitely give them another go some time.

We have a door . . . nearly!

Yes, the door is really nearly finished.  This is it just propped in place, checking for fit etc.  Then we put the hinges on and hung it for real to make sure you can open it without it catching anywhere, and you can which is good.  We have taken it down again though because you can do a better job of varnishing it when it's lying flat - less dripping and the varnish should go into the knots, etc.  We have some varnish recommended by the chap at the timber yard where we got the oak from - it is a cross between and oil and a varnish, so it should soak into the wood and doesn't give a gloss finish.  It is supposed to take 4-6 hours to dry . . . . I did it 29 hours ago and it's still a bit tacky!!  Guess cold and raining doesn't give ideal drying conditions - it's going to take a while to get three coats on at this rate though!  So, we've sealed the kitchen off and left it alone.  We had to seal it off because I've been doing the insulation in the utility room roof today (yep, we like the shiny silver look so much we're having it throughout!) and that's a really dusty job.  That'd look nice wouldn't it - handmade, traditional oak doors with  insulation dust finish!

We had a look at the weather forecast for the next few days and it was really strange to see both the maximum and minimum temperatures for Wednesday in double figures and with no minus sign in front of them!  That's almost 30 degrees warmer than it was before Christmas!!! What will we do with ourselves - shorts and a barbeque?!

Shiny space-age house

Upstairs in the house now looks really weird.  Alongside the old brick fireplace, we now have metallic, shiny silver walls!  Very bizarre looking.  It does actually feel warmer up there than downstairs which is encouraging and it seems lighter too.  Guess if you have mirror walls it should do!!

So, the ceiling has 2" insulation board between the rafters and then 3" or 4" below the rafters.  The walls have 1" between the studwork and another 1" on the roomside.  Then I've stuffed rockwool in any little nooks and crannies around wonky bricks, etc and taped all the joints with special foil tape.  That's weird stuff - it's like sticky tinfoil and, oh, don't ever pull the backing paper off a strip all at once, it curls up on itself before you can blink and then you get in a right pickle trying to sort it out . . . . . . not that I've done that at all of course, no, not me!!  All in all, we should be fairly toasty up there I think.  We now have to get the building inspector to take a look and then we can plasterboard . . . . . well, after the plumber has done the pipes for the radiator  . . . . . and there is one more oak post to go in first.  Oh, there's always something else to do before we can do the next thing!

While I've been insulating, Bob has been carrying on with the doors.  We had a bit of a palaver getting the nails.  We wanted traditional rose-head nails - the ones you see on old doors that look like little studs on the outside and on the inside you see the ends bent over and back into the wood.  Bob found the only company in Britain still making them - it's in Glasgow, but the Period House shop in Shrewsbury is one of their stockists.  On New Year's Eve Bob rang them to make sure they had some in stock - yes, loads.  So on Tuesday we went to get them.  They didn't have any 3", only 21/2" - the chap on the phone had made a mistake.  But, the lady running the shop could pick some up from their Ludlow shop and bring them with her the next day.  So, Bob went back the next day - oops! she'd forgotten them!  Her partner was driving over with them, so Bob went off for a coffee while he waited.  When he got home we excitedly (doesn't take much!) opened the boxes to have a look.  The first one we got out was only 21/2" long, and the next, and the next and so on.  Out of 11/2kg of nails we only had 30 that were the right length!  Anyway, a couple of phonecalls later and the poor girl at the Ludlow shop was sorting through their big box of nails to find  11/2kg of 3" nails and then posted them to us and they arrived special delivery this afternoon.

Now we have to learn how to clench!  No, it's not a post-Christmas exercise for firming the buttocks!  It's when the nail is knocked through the wood with the pointy end sticking out the other side and then the end is bent over and knocked back into the wood a bit like a staple which fixes the joint.  It's not that easy, but by the time the doors are finished we should have the hang of it.  The nails are really quite soft which is good for bending them over, but means that the pilot holes have to be just right or the nails bend all over the place as you knock them in.  The other problem is that when you knock the pointy end back into the wood it can knock the head end back out.  Following some internet research, tomorrow we will try holding a sturdy hammer against the head while the pointy bit is knocked back in . . . let you know how we get on.

The chickens have finished their Christmas stalk of sprouts and so are glad that the snow's gone and the garden has thawed out enough for them to peck at the greenery.  I haven't told them that more snow is forecast for tomorrow yet!  Still no eggs from Bonny, but her comb is definitely bigger which apparently happens when they are ready to start laying, so we have high hopes for the next few days.  Did I tell you Peggy laid a lovely double-yolker just before Christmas - just my sort of egg, lots of yolk and not much white and delicious in my bacon butty!  They have all taken to wandering around the bit of woodland across the lane which is owned by the quarry.  Yesterday, the quarry manager came round to take some photos of the Keep Out signs for some report or other and said that if the chickens are in the picture, he'll put in his bio-diversity report that there are wild chickens in their woods!  Well, it'll make a change from great crested newts and horseshoe bats!

Back to work

We were back to work today (including Laura - can't have her resting too much!).  Yesterday, Laura and I did the Sainsbury's/launderette thing in the morning and then Ben and Lucy called for a cuppa on their way home from Scotland in the afternoon.  Bob did a bit of pottering around work in the morning, like sorting out the extension reel we had been using for the hot air gun and hairdryers to thaw the pipes.  I can't remember if I said, but the outside electrics tripped at one point (that's in addition to the caravan circuit tripping!) and we narrowed it down to the extension cable.  He checked the plug and the wires were a bit loose so he thought that was it, but it wasn't.  So he checked the sockety bit on the reel - nothing obvious so he then decided to unwind the whole thing.   About half way through all the loops of cable were completely melted together!  Oops, guess it got a tad hot!  No doubt you are supposed to unwind the whole lot, but because we usually just use it for one drill or a couple of low-energy bulbs, we don't usually bother and didn't even think about it this time.  So, we now have a much shorter extension cable!

So, today's work has been to sort out the oak we picked up just before Christmas for the two outside doors.  We have a pile of planks of various widths so they needed sorting out to give something like the correct finished widths.  That done, Bob has been routing tongue and grooves into them to slot them together and next they will need sanding.  We found some little stained glass panels at a local salvage yard so we will put them in to give a bit more light in the kitchen and hall . . . . . just got to work out how you do that on a ledge and brace door.

While Bob has been woodworking, Laura and I put a coat of Danish Oil on all the oak beams, posts and purlins upstairs in the house.  They look tonnes better for that - not so dry and dusty as they did before - you can see the difference in this picture.  Oiling wood is a really nice job to do, really satisfying as you see the grain and colour come out as if by magic.  People of a certain age may remember Rupert Annuals in their Christmas stockings and they always had a magic painting page where you just paint over it with water and the colours appear by magic.  That is just what it is like putting oil on dry wood. 

Once that was done we got on with insulating the walls upstairs and managed to do the first layer on the bedroom walls.  Need to finish the roof insulation next and then we can put the next layer on the walls.  Then it'll be ready for plasterboard and that will seem like progress!

Right, better go now - we're off to the pub in the next village for a pizza and a pint - yum!

Christmas shopping . . . . . aarrghh!

Ho, ho, ho!  I should now be feeling christmassey having had a mega Christmas day yesterday.  I was starting to feel a little panicky at the weekend having not done any Christmas shopping at all and hearing all sorts of people saying they'd just about finished!  So Bob and I went Christmas shopping on Monday . . . . well, we drove over to Stockport to collect out cast iron radiator which is our Christmas present to ourselves, so that was two presents done!  We had to go to the bank in town on the way home and managed to pick up another couple of things.  Then on Tuesday I booked a day off with the boss and went to Shrewsbury vowing not to return until I had got everything - and I managed it!  I really wasn't looking forward to it - you know, shopping is just not my thing at all.  That said, it wasn't tooooo bad.  I have to say, Shrewsbury is a much nicer place to shop than the places I used to go - Northampton, Peterborough and Milton Keynes.  Everyone always seemed so stressed there, pushing and shoving with grumpy shop assistants.  But there was a really nice atmoshpere in Shrewsbury, shop assistants were helpful and cheerful and other shoppers just seemed more friendly, holding doors open, smiling and joking - just much nicer.  Don't get me wrong, I still don't like shopping, it just wasn't as bad as it could have been.  I got home at about 4pm having popped into Oswestry to get a couple more bits and then I spent all evening wrapping it all up.  Phew, all done!

Yesterday, the last day before the return of the big freeze, we made more mortar and put the last two extractor fan vents in, then used up the rest of the mortar around the back boxes for sockets.  Have you ever tried getting sockets straight and level on a random stone wall, wel it's not easy!  They are packed out with bits of slate, stones and mortar which will hopefully hold them in place.  Today we have been trying to clean up the purlins and woodwork upstairs.  Some parts of them are a bit dodgy so we have tried to remove the soft bits, some parts have been whitewashed which is fairly easy to get off and other bits have several coats of amazing paint.  However they used to make paint, it certainly sticks to wood.  Some bits just won't scrape off and if you use a hot air gun on it it kind of melts and soaks into the wood a bit more.  The same if you use paint stripper and sanding just seems to polish the paint rather than removing it!  We've tried all of them and there is still paint there, so we'll just have to keep having a go.  Once our shoulders and arms could take no more above-head sanding, we moved onto other jobs.  Bob boarded in the bit in the utility room where all the cables congregate ready for the fuse boxes (I know, they're not called fuse boxes anymore!) to be screwed on.  Lets hope he has all the cables grouped together properly or the electrician will be confused!  I have done some more insulation in the walls in the kitchen.

Yesterday evening we had a go at felt-making at the smallholders meeting.  It was quite messy and made your arms ache, but we had a laugh . . . . . especially when we looked at the finished result!  It looks like an old rag . . . but we're proud of it!  Now who shall we give this wondrous homemade gift to this Christmas?!!  Any of our parents should be proud to own it shouldn't they?  Tee hee, don't worry we wouldn't do that to you!  Here's how you could make something just as wonderful!  Take some washed (and in this case dyed) wool which has been carded (this is were they kind of comb it to get all the fibres going the same way which is the stage at which it would be spun into knitting or weaving yarn).  Then you pull bits off and lay them on a piece of bubble wrap (this is a very ancient art, but I didn't know they had bubble wrap way back when!).  Then put another layer on top with the fibres going at right angles to the first lot and then a third layer going the same way as the first.  Then you put warm soapy water all over it, lay a piece of net curtain on top and rub round and round all over it using a scrunched up palstic bag.  The bag and net curtain are to stop the fibres sticking to your hands.  After a while the fibres start knitting together and then you can turn it over and carry on, and on, and on!  Eventually it turns into felt and is quite firm and strong.  I think Bob and I were being too gentle and kept getting thin bits and holes.  When it almost felt, you can decorate it.  Everyone else used sequins, feathers lace and sparkly wool - in which case you arrange the decorations on top then lay a very thin layer of wool fibres over and then carry on with the water and rubbing.  Bob and I decided on a punky version of a Union Jack instead - well, it made everyone laugh!  We've decided it's an old battle flag and has certainly seen some action - it even has a bullet hole!

Roof insulation

Well, you'll be pleased to know that today has been lovely.  The sun has been shining and it has actually felt quite warm - I think it got up to +4 at one point, but the sun just makes all the difference.

This afternoon we have been getting on with the insulation in the roof of our bedroom.  We have to put 2" between the rafters (which we've done) and then 3" underneath, then plasterboard, etc.  Above the purlin (the beam running across the middle of the roof) we are actually going to put 4" of insulation.  When we were doing the roof we had to put big steels along the purlins to help them out - you can just see it in this picture.  The steel is most chunky in this section of roof because the original purlins were most dodgy in this bit and if we stuck to the specified 3" insulation you would be still able to see the steel.  So, we might as well up the insulation and hide the steel in one go.  If all goes to plan, you should just be able to see the bottom of the purlins running across the ceiling.

Oh, those steels were a nightmare for us for quite a long time.  The structural engineer specified the size and told us we'd think of a way to get them in!  We had them made locally and then they sat in front of the caravan for some time.  I don't know how many nights we spent wondering how on earth we were going to get them onto the roof and into place.  They varied in size and so we started with the smallest.  Luckily, because the house is built on a slope, the scaffolding at one end was about head height and so it was fairly straightforward to put things up there, nip up the ladder and then move them to where they were needed - no carrying big, heavy things up ladders which was brilliant.  So, once the steel was up there we balanced two pieces of wood from the scaffold poles across to the purlin, lifted the steel up and then slid it gradually down the wood.  The worst part was when we had to tip it over the end of the wood, hoping we'd got it in just the right place - each end just balancing on the wall.  All this was actually relatively easy with the smaller steels, but the two big ones (in the picture) sat in front of the caravan for ages and every time I walked past them my stomach churned.  Though it was hard, heavy work ( we could only just carry them between us), we did it using the same method as the others and, oh boy, what a relief it was!  Definitely a beer and a curry celebration!  We had had numerous offers of help, but were so nervous about what we were doing we didn't feel we could involve anyone else!

Actually, not true, Laura helped us with one set.  In the middle barn some of the rafters were good enough to keep which meant that we couldn't put the steels in from outside and so had to haul them up inside using ropes and a ladder.  While Laura and I hauled on a rope each, Bob manouvered the steel rung by rung up the ladder.  All went well until one of the ropes snapped!!!  Luckily everyone was standing well clear (we do think about Health & Safety sometimes - see even hard hats!) and the steel jammed against a stone in the wall and we were able to sort it out, but after that Laura was suddenly not too keen on the job! 

Anyway, we managed all the steels with no injuries and hopefully, apart from covering them up with plasterboard, we don't have to think about them ever again!