Sunday 10 July 2011

And the flood

So a few things to add to Emily's post!
We have also tiled by the hob, and put up the knife rack, so the kitchen is really sorted now. Only a better set of shelves to make for the left hand side of the hob and it will be done!?
tiles, kniferack

Also when we got back from seeing the early showing of Senna (great film) on Friday we came back to a paddling pool / swimming pool in the courtyard and a rather wet MVHR unit. It had done some torrential down pours whilst we were out, and while the side of the roof over the MVHR is now covered with felt, the other side isn't and the rain poured in. We were rescued on Saturday morning by Matt and Scott (our builders) coming over and putting a tarp over the other side of the roof, protecting the MVHR and allowing things to dry out. Hopefully they will have the felt up in the next 1-2 days on the other side, and then they have to re-do the middle wall, retrofit purlins, re-do the front walls and doors and windows.......only a little bit of work!?
slatstarpaulin

The other exciting news is that Gil has submitted the plans for the balcony and fence to the planners - so now we just wait - I can't seem to upload the plans tonight, but will see if I can work it out for later in the week. Now off to bed to rest very weary arms from painting.

Of roofs, promontories and painting.

I think C showed a pic in the last post of the roof off our shed; here's a bit more of the same sans builders on it. Currently the side nearer the house and courtyard has been felted and the slats for the slates to be nailed to have been attached to counter-slats (ie there are ones going vertically, so the horizontal ones don't trap the water running down the felt). The felt is new-fangled, breathable stuff.
The other side is more complicated with a wall plate that is angled so the gully behind the parapet wall has a pitch allowing water to flow to the outflow at the house end, and to match the steep pitch of the road and therefore the wall. It's in progress though, after complications with the RSJ over the garage door (half the size it should be and almost rusted away).

roofless leftroofless middleroofless right

We've also finally finished knocking down the dodgy potting shed with the big (heavy!) red tiles, up at the top of the garden (the place that is best for sun in the afternoon/evening). Now it's a lovely place to sit (it'll be lovelier once we sort out the paving). Just as well, we thought we might die horribly while knocking it down (thank you Sarah for your help!)

ex-shed

D'you like the phone-box door? Bought about 12 years ago in Cornwall and lugged about till now. We think we'll try to grow something up it, not too overwhelming and hopefully nice smelling.

There's been progress inside too. Our lovely friend Han came for the weekend and used left-over engineered wooden boards from our upstairs floor to create a promontory for the kitchen, giving us more work-surface and shelving. I understand others call this sort of thing a peninsular unit. Hmmm.

Han working Han promontory

new prom fridgenew prom endnew prom shelves

And this weekend lots of painting has been done - largely by Clare as I have an elbow injury (no idea how, but v limiting as to rollering).painting

painted room

painted room 2

A place for those cookery, garden and house books - and the oversized art ones, too. (Hundertwasser, anyone?)
shelf side of prom

And the coffee-maker is happy at last!coffee side of prom

It's really feeling as if the whole place is coming together.

Friday 1 July 2011

Shed Stuff

So we started removing the old shelving from inside the outbuildings, to reorganise and start the bike room etc, and found a slight problem;
dry rotdry rot 2
Dry rot - and a massive leak down the street side wall through the roof.
damp sheds
So we are now back in a destruction phase, with builders back to re-do the outbuildings, which includes rebuilding an entire wall, redoing most of the wooden beams for the roof and redoing all the slates - here is where we are at....
ex-saunadodgy lintelchoc block floorchoc block floor detailrebuilding back wall
roof off
Only a little work for the builders (!) - oh and no yard and lots of skips again.......