ollibees

Timbers everywhere!

• By Julia Pankratova
• 2013, 21 July
• 1 Comment

There’s been nearly four weeks of no updates on the progress of the house (time flies), so there’s one well overdue… being written as we sway in our hammocks in +30C heat at 7pm on a Sunday evening, after a hard day of labour, chilled glass of cider in one hand and a laptop on my laps.

There are timbers everywhere! Rafters this, joists that, noggins, beams, purlins,  woodchip, chipmunk…!

Few things happened over the past few weeks:

• Half of the old roof went down – the tiles, the joists, the rafters, the beams – the lot. The gables reached their final height and got topped up by a half-tonne mammoth of a steel beam. Getting it where it is now without a crane, due to too close a proximity to the mains power cables, was a massive challenge of its own. Malc, through various means (some of which I should not be mentioning here apparently…), got it up there in the end within two days… The man is gifted. I never doubted his ingenuity!
• The new timbers are in – the joists, the chipboard flooring (not the final finish! 🙂 ), and as of this weekend – the rafters at a steeper angle – all to create half of the new roof and where our en-suit master bedroom is nested in. We also started on the dormer window in our bedroom. The view from it onto the golf course and the fields is stunning… Cannot wait to move into it!!!
• The retaining wall has now been complete. We are in no danger any longer of having Graham and Katie next door atop of us! 🙂
• The bi-fold doors and window openings in the living room have been finished and the old chimney went down, opening up the living room to its new size. Should we have to “lose” the kitchen / diner in the next two weeks – this may have to be our temporary kitchen / diner / office / storage.
• Some of the new windows, bi-folds and doors, including windows for the living room and the bedroom dormer and en-suit, as  well as Velux windows, are going in next week. This will make the new part of the house somewhat watertight and potentially liveable, should we have to migrate from the part of the house we are in now. I am still resisting the “move” until absolutely necessary!
• The walls for the kitchen extension, snug and study have gone up higher still. They are nearing their final height before the pitched roof and flat sedum roof have to go in. This does mean of course, that we do have to vacate the kitchen in order for more demolition to take place in the rest of the house. Fun times!
• There’s been some work done around the garden too, whenever there was a minute or two to spare. The chill-out corner is looking less messy and we have had now a couple of nights in front of a wood burning pit, chilling in our hammocks until midnight.
• More raiser flower beds were built out of the remaining railway slippers and the steps alongside them are work-in-progress.
• The lawn has been partially top-soiled now and seeded with grass seed this Monday. Morning and evening watering as well as sweet-talking to it did wonders. We saw the first grass shoots four days later, and as of today many grass blades are 4cm high! Result! 🙂

• Another but larger woodshed has been built out of the remaining bits of the old sheds, as well as old timbers out of the house roof. This will be storing even more firewood, once the rest of the house roof comes down.

Most of the rubble over the past few weeks went to be recycled as scalpings. The Old Redland 50 roof tiles were “donated” to the Romsey Reclamation Yard and the rest of the stuff we took to the Winchester recycling centre. Still no skips, although we do have to pay the “scalpings” guy £160 every time he collects our rubble. He’s been trice so far. There may yet be another load or two to go over the next few weeks.

All in all, it was a successful few weeks, and we have been blessed with dry weather! It was too hot at times.. but then again – that’s just a different excuse to complain about the weather! 🙂

We are also blessed with the most tolerant, patient and generous neighbours, who never (almost) grumble, are always friendly and helpful and inviting. Graham and Katie next door have now given us an open invitation to use their swimming pool whenever we like… we have not taken the advantage of their kindness (yet) :).

The coming week will see our half of the roof as much complete as possible, in order for the bedroom dormer window to go in. The living room will be glazed, and we hopefully will put floorboards in the living room and the store room. Whether the kitchen goes this week or not, is still a matter of debate.. 🙂