Boulders in my bra!

No, I'm not talking about my figure, I mean real boulders! We started knocking the hole through for the stairs today and bits of rock kept falling down the neck of my sweatchirt and finding their way into all sorts of places! Not very comfortable I can tell you! The things we girl-builders have to put up with!

After thinking about it for sometime, Bob makes the first move.  The idea is to take the stones out at the top of the hole first, then work downwards. 

This has got to be about the most solid bit of wall in the whole house and it took quite a while to chip away the mortar and loosen the stones, some of them quite big.  The walls are basically two skins of stone with rubble in the middle.  So we have started on the hall side and taken out the big outer-skin stones and as much of the middle rubble to clear the hole we need.  Luckily, the stones above stayed in place (one advantage of this being a solid wall) - they could so easily have fallen down when we took the ones below out.  Now, that would have been a bit of a nuisance, because that is what the stone extension roof is attached to, so best avoided if possible.


Before we could put the first lintel in you have to make sure there is something for it to sit on.  On one side, we managed to leave a stone in place that had a ledge for the lintel - that's good, because it means it is all tied into the rest of the wall.  On the other side, the way the stones were, meant that we had to build up from lower down where there was a good stone sticking out.  It is all an odd thing to do - you're kind of building the sides of the opening from the top down.






So, with a platform on each side you can then put the lintel in place, check it's straight and level and then leave well alone for the mortar to dry. Phew, stage one accomplished with no mishaps!

Tomorrow, we will do the same on the other side of the wall.  Then when that's set in place, we can get on with taking out the rest of the stone, knowing that the top of the wall is supported by the concrete lintels.  The sides will then need tidying up with stones or bricks to make a reasonably even opening and the lintel will need disguising in some way.  It's all going to be painted, but it'll still need 'naturalising' somehow.

You'll be pleased to know that we have three coats of varnish on the door . . . . . and they're all dry!  It's a bit of an odd finish, some bits seem to have soaked in and given a matt finish and other bits seem to have stayed on the surface and given a shiny finish?!  We may have to give it a quick buff with some wire wool to even it out a bit.  Course, at the moment it is lying on trestles and we're peering along its length, moving our heads this way and that to get the light shining on it - when it's upright, with only natural light it may look fine.  Anyway, it's now ready to hang, but we thought it'd be a bit silly to hang it and then start squeezing past it with wheelbarrows full of rocks - just be patient and wait a day or two Janet!  The other door is ready to nail together, but has to wait in the queue for the first door to move out of the way.  The frame for the second door is put together and painted (and dry!), so ready to go in whenever.  I have done some more plastering in the kitchen, so the wires are now hidden and there's even a flat bit for the tiles above the worktops to be attached to. 

I was very excited today when a delivery arrived from John Lewis!  Ordered on t'internet on Monday, no delivery charge and delivered today - jolly good service I'd say.  It was the light for over the kitchen table . . . . it's brilliant (in my opinion).  It's a brass shade with a pulley system for altering the height and a brass weight to counterbalance it.  We've had a play!  It's really heavy and looks well made (or engineered I should say), soooo exciting! 

Nice timber cladding

We finally finished the chestnut cladding with some extra timber we collected yesterday.  Freshly sawn it looks lovely and bright and clean, so I'm happy with that bit and so could take a photo!  This side was really fiddly to do.  Because it butts up to the stone wall, we had to cut the end of each board to fit in and around each stone.  We bought a tile profiler - the gadget that you hold against the wall and push the pins across until they touch all the ins and outs then use that to draw round onto your tiles or, in this case, wood.  We did buy two because you are supposed to be able to join them together which would have been really handy.  Having read the extensive instructions (all one and a half lines) about a hundred times and fiddled for an hour, we couldn't see how to join them at all so had to make do with a single one.  We drew the profile onto card - much easier to keep offering the end of a Stella box up to the wall than a 10ft plank - then when we were happy translated it onto the wood.  This whole process is very time-consuming (made worse by having to walk all the way round the building and back up the path each time any sawing needed doing - so much easier if you could just saw the wood right next to, and on the same level, as the building you are working on!  Guess it keeps us fit!).  It was worth it though as there is quite a snug fit between the two buildings (and some squirty foam from the inside sould seal any gaps).

We have laid the first lot of underfloor heating - quite exciting, it feels warmer in there already!  Only joking, it's not connected to anything!  Dad was able to lend a hand which was useful as we hadn't a clue what we were doing and he has, having had a similar system in their house for quite a few years.  This is a bit of a leap of faith - electric underfloor heating seems to be quite rare as most people have pipes filled with hot water heated by gas or ground/air source heat pumps.  We don't have enough of the right sort of ground for ground source (or the right sort of money for a borehole for groundsource) and all our extensive research into airsource just threw up problems.  This system will run overnight on cheap electricity, so shouldn't be too expensive to run.  I don't know anyone who monitors so closely the energy consumption of their house as Dad and I can't imagine he would be so happy with it as he is if it wasn't economical and so I'm putting my faith in him!  No pressure there then Dad!

On Tuesday we helped some neighbours put in their staircase.  They are doing the same as us and living in a caravan while they renovate an old cottage and barns, but are further on than us.  Again this was a job I thought we'd finish by lunchtime, but we were still at it at teatime and nowhere near finished.  The stairs turn two corners, have six newel posts and had to fit in a tight space, so it was really awkward.  The upstairs floorboards were also in and overlength which made for a fair amount of fiddling around before we could start.  The staight bit of stairs were ready assembled, but all the rest had to be assembled in situ.  A right jigsaw it was too with several pieces all having to go in at the same time - good job there were five of us!  When  we drove past yesterday, there was smoke coming from their chimney for the first time . . . . . not fair!  They've got their woodburner in and working!

So, tomorrow we are laying screed again.  This time on top of the underfloor heating in the oak frame room.  Let's hope it's a bit quicker than the first lot . . . . . . I'm not saying we might finish by lunchtime again though!