April 18th

More of the same as yesterday, however it seems we are no longer friends- I start prepping the study, go to fetch a tool, then see that Dad has decided to go it alone, laying down the pipes in the kitchen solo ( I have been replaced by a bottle of sun cream(-well, we won't need it today!), a pencil and an off cut of plastic pipe. interesting... but he makes it work- and alot less noisily than when I'm involved!) Nothing's been said, but after tea break we slip into our teamwork routine again and have a very productive day! Go Team Waite! I have a sudden realisation today( I had one the other day when the roof was made waterproof that half days were a thing of the past :-( . ) :That the screed is being poured fri am, and we can't walk in the house until it's dry, i.e. after the weekend...which means...we can't work in the house at all on friday... which means ( hopefully) that there'll be a giant portion of cheesy chips, and 4 pints waiting for us in a pub on friday....

April 17th

Rain stopped play for the roofers, though now the entire roof is felted and batoned, dad and I can carry on. Rather jealous that they're off down the pub though- hmmm. Dad and I in a system now- I clean the floor- chiselling off excess concrete, sweeping, lay down the radon barrier, measure the insulation and mark where he needs to cut, then we lay it all down. attatching the skirt is a 2 man job as it keeps sticking to everything bar where you want it- so I go ahead, un rolling it and peeling off the back while Dad sticks it in place (this is a shall we say cosy? experience in the downstairs toilet) I lay down the egg boxes, cutting some to fit. Dad preps all the pipe work, drilling holes where it'll go through walls and plumbing it into the manifold. We then team work laying down the underfloor heating pipes in a pattern more or less to the plans detailed by the company. A few heated moments, laughs and mishaps later- involving trodden on fingers, broken nobbles, pipes dropping on heads etc... and we still get on, and it seems like it'll work.

April 16th

Funny thing I realised today- I was upstairs in the bedroom and overheard Mick n Tony shouting out measurements on the roof: I work in centimetres, Mick in milimetres, Tony in inches, whilst Dad prefers metres- it's a fudging miracle we got this far!! This week Dad and I are concentrating on the downstairs floor, as screed will be poured on fri am, so we need to have it cleared, radon Barrier down, insulation in, skirt attached( technical name by-passed me- maybe coz I wasn't listening....), egg boxes laid down ( not actual egg boxes, rather a plastic sheet with grooves for underfloor heating pipes- but that's dad's term for them) pipes laid down, plumbed into manifold, filled with water and pressure tested. No idea how long it'll all take as we're novices-here goes trying!

April 13th

Glad we (Dad and I) are working "indoors" now, as the heavens opened. Mick n Tony on the roof, so they came in and had a cuppa while the downpour subsided. Today Pops was sanding the beams, which I then varnished-as these'll be external oak beams. Mick N Tony had the last laught however, when they worked the afternoon in glorious sunshine as Dad and I were rained on inside whilst working- there's currently only membrane over the beams, not the whole roof, so the rain sits on upstairs floor, then finds its way though to us. lurvely!

April 12th

Today I spent sanding the oak beams, then waxing them. The belt sander really tested out my healing ribs in places ( at the top of the tower-reaching over the drop of death, and then downstairs- bending over backwards whilst sanding forwards as there's no space for my fat head inbetween the joists- apparently yoga would have been of use today) something I learnt today- I'm quite a good painter left handed. Ties in with the thing I learnt yesterday- I hammer better with my left than my right ( not messing around coz of boredom- more out of necessity in hard to reach places)

April 11th

The day of the oak beams: 5 man job - well technically- 4 men and a lady (scrap that) 4 men and me! The trusty3, Tony, and Dad's old uni buddy Phil- fresh over from Canada just to help us (you just can't get reliable english staff). Not too complex a task once we got a system going- we rehearsed first with a bit of 2 x 2! up the stairs, then it got tricky. First of all, we had to lift the heavy beams up onto the tower in the bedroom,whilst trying to not knock anyone off the tower whilst rotating the beam, then also trying to not let the beam come crashing down on Pop's head ( he's busy on the ground trying to balance a beam on a stick to push it up to us- circus acts with plates on sticks springs to mind as he's dancing around trying to keep it on the wood and centred before you remind yourself to focus!) then lift again in the hope that it'll just slide down into the tailor made niches... which they did eventually with some persuasion(some gentle- some not so much). The thing that freaked me out today was Phil and Tony jumping from the tower, out onto the scaffolding and onto pieces of wood that weren't yet fastened to the roof like spider monkeys!yeesh! someone get those boys some bananas! and someone pass me a D-R-I-N-K!! The afternoon was great- armed with a hammer and a bucket of nails I went round nailing the rafters that were placed for the vaukted ceilings into place. Come home time, and the clouds drawing nearer- we decide to cover up the oak beams to protect them by batoning on some membrane onto the roof- unfortunately- timing slightly off and we carried out the procedure in a galer with hailstones-NICE! membrane flying everywhere while we struggled to pin it down long enough to attach it. succeeded in the end- complete with a nice juicy whack of the hammer on my nail- typical! Can I go home please?!

April 10th

Fresh back after the bank holiday and 4 days off- I truly am spoilt! We "chuck up" the roof trusses- one at a time. this entails dad and I positioning them, tying them to a rope, then lifting them as high as poss, whilst Mick N Tony pull them up from the top floor. Then, go upstairs to stand on the plasterboard tower to guide the centre of the truss into place reading for nailing/hanging in the joist hanger. good exercise going up and down those stairs! Glad I made the most of my break!

April 5th

Really looking forward to today- all the rain over the last few days has created a large blister above the stairwell I'm dying to pop! We devised a game plan of how we were going to let it flow out the front door via a tarpaulin supported to direct it the right way...however, I pop out to get tools and come back to find Dad n Mick trying to drain it...half a bucket a time- Boring!! not to mention long winded, and guess who's the sap having to run through the house to empty the buckets whilst getting yelled at to hurry up? hmmm this isn't working- next idea- to use a spare soil pipe to drain it out through the front door. This proceure resulted in everyone getting soaked and minimal water entering pipe. £rd plan ( the original one) worked a charm. I sliced the polythene, holding the top of the tarpaulin while dad n mick held it lower down guiding it safely out in record time. Then we found time to build upstairs internal walls whilst the scaffolders built our next level up.

April 4th

Today we completed the first floor frame by inserting the remaining walls. I then "made the windows" (temporary ones to help minimize draft and rain- whilst affording some daylight at the same time) although we have no roof yet, am sure they'll come into use soon... Now we have a blocked stairwell ( all the internal walls are piled up over it) and a completed upstairs frame- I innocently ask " how do we get downstairs?" - "ah, we'll just HOP through one of the windows" was the reply "GREAT!!" I placed a hop up onto the scaffolding and chose the window which seemed to have the sturdiest scaffolding planks which also appeared to be slightly closer to the building as our access. eeks and Jaysus are the two words on my mind- not a fan of jumping down from a height where there is daylight a person can fit through between you and the secure surface. But anyways, guess I'd better man up!

April 3rd

Today was just Mick and myself, we had a plasterboard delivery, and from previous experience- we know how annoying it is to carry sheet by sheet inside negotiating scaffolding and staircase etc, so Dad had it all delivered before we attached the last walls upstairs- so we lifted the plasterboard with the tele handler, then had to move it one sheet at a time to another room- this was still tedious but much preferable to the alternative! A visit from the building inspector completed our working day.

April 2nd

Today saw the erection of the timber frame on the 1 st floor. We were well prepared this time and had Marc and Ben join our team of 3.The day went suprisingly easily- teamwork at its best! Class moment was when Dad asked Marc ( Dad had lent Marc his steel toe cap boots in case of heavy objects falling) " so now you've walked a day in my shoes- how do you feel?" to which Marc replied " I feel like a clown" ( Marc meant because they were too big for him, but anyone who knows my pops will definitely take the alternative meaning).

March 31st

Yes!- working on a saturday!! Thought those days were behind me! haha. So, another 6.30am get up today, as timber frame for first floor is arriving on monday, so we needed a secure base to walk on. We put down the underfloor heating upstairs today. Again I was the organiser, as we worked in a chain- obviously the most effective system in our team as When the men started putting the boards in place they put them on the opposite side of where they were meant to go. 2 against 1 in a theatrical discussion of "they're meant to be over there" "oh no they're not!" " oh yes they are" etc...( including despairing of looks of "don't worry your pretty little head love- we've got this.") until I showed them both the diagrams! huh! honestly! I've decided every build site needs a female!

March 30th

Just call me "el burro" ( the donkey) spent the day carrying everything around and placing them in the right location and order so that dad n mick could position and secure them. Quite enjoyed being the organiser-not sure why I'm not able to carry this through to my personal life....hmmmm

March 29th

Today we started putting down the joists. So Mick was passing them up to me on the scaffolding. Not hard work- just abit tricky woman-handling the long planks of wood so they didn't fall back down and knock Mick out, and trying to position them when someone left a load of poles in the blooming way! (scaffolding).