August Update – weeks 20-21

What a week I picked to lend a hand- everything seemed to happen at once this week. It was amazing though to see is take shape literally before our eyes, in fact it is worth updating by day this time:

Monday
The first delivery of green oak arrived,. Over 20 9”x6” lengths. This is for the main roof trusses which Paul will dry fit on site. The longer lengths took 3 men to lift them off the lorry!

Then the first floor steel arrived, luckily we were not required to lift them this time- they weighed over 350 kilos each!! After a nerve-racking 2 hours, all 5 steels had been craned carefully into place, either into the walls or onto the supporting pillars by Reg and his helper.

Tuesday
The second concrete pour arrived today, the ground had already been prepared last week with a hardcore, sand and damp proof course base. This time the chute of the concrete could extend into the building, saving us a lot of barrowing back and forth. Once the concrete had been poured we were left to rake it over the steel reinforcing mesh and tamp it down.

Wednesday
We spent most of today securing the steels to the outside of the stone walls with steel rods and 30cm Ø metal plates. We also had to fill in each pocket around the steel with stone and render.

Thursday
Another delivery of timber arrived, this time the joists for the first floor, Dave will have to cut each one down to size and fix to the steels with noggins in between.

By this time Paul was well into making his first roof truss which often needed two people to heave each length of oak into place.

Friday
The site was beginning to feel like spaghetti junction , another delivery of oak arrived, the rest of the 9”x6” lengths and the 8”x8” lengths for the ridge. We also had a huge digger on site shifting earth around and backfilling behind the retaining wall. Mum and Dad (M) provided some much needed help on site with some more concrete laying- I think they enjoyed their visit (?).

Weekend
Yes we even work weekends! Paul finished the first roof truss and dry fitted it together on site- it looks fantastic as you can see.

Saturday also gave us the opportunity to have a

close look at how Baden Powell’s contractors have been getting on with rebuilding the end gable wall. They have reached the start of the gable wall apex with the inside thermalite block and clad externally with the original stone.