It Fits!

Monday 9 December 2013

First window box, in the west wall of the music room (to be).  Shaped to fit round the diagonal, so that it is square on the outside.  We're just going to have a quirky cross brace across the inside corner.

Constructing window boxes

Sunday 8 December 2013

There's excitement in the air.  Despite it being our official day of rest, we couldn't leave it alone today, and started work on the first of the plywood window boxes.  These will sit inside the wood frame and protrude out the width of the bales, so that window frames can be fitted at the outer edge, creating deep interior sills and any gaps between window and bales can be stuffed with loose straw.

 The first sheet of marine grade 20mm ply - a monster.  

 Number one window aperture - look at that intriguing diagonal - Yianni the woodworker insisted on cross-bracing fiercely, whether we wanted windows or not.  So we'll just have to work round it.

 The first four pieces, cut to fit round the diagonal.  Enough activity for our day off, we'll try fitting them together tomorrow.

Test Bale

Saturday 7 December 2013

Today, the last of the ladder segments was levelled and mortared in.  The base frame for the bales is in position and ready to go.  We couldn't help ourselves - we grabbed a sacrificial bale (the strings aren't on right, so it bends rather) and tried it out for size:

 The ladder frame levelled up to the NE corner

 Back in the NW - the first test bale tried out and fitting nicely - and immediately colonised by the chicken.  I think she thinks all straw is chicken property and any movements need to be investigated closely.

Relocating the Studio

Friday 6 December 2013

And then one day in between doing the inevitable housekeeping (clothes washing and stuff) I took the opportunity to move everything from the studio hut - which is suffering a bit with damp - and get it into the studio space in the house.  Nice.  A chance to get the paints out and mess around a bit (in the dark, by the time everything was settled in).

First base

Monday to Thursday 2 - 4 December 2013

 Finally, the rain stopped and the sun came out.  The chicken was allowed out of her run and took the opportunity to get in some sunbathing:

So we turned back to external wall building and had a week in which we made ladder frames to sit on top of the stem wall.  Each frame had to be constructed as square as the twisty wood would allow, then levelled onto the wall and supported with mortar, so it was a lengthy process, four days in all, with each frame needing a whole mix.  We also had to make several excursions down the land to dig out small to medium stones top up the wall where necessary. 

 The first frame constructed

 time to try it out on the wall

 Wow, it fits!

 Pete emerges from the bushes like a startled pheasant

 A few days later, the NW sections are levelled and mortared in,

 and the next day, the NE wall, and I used left over mortar to finish off the Music Room steps

All this sunshine has tricked an Iris into unseasonal bloom

A-door-able

Sunday 1 December 2013

Rowan arrived with the bedroom door.  Hurrah - now we've got a lockable space, and another bit of insulated wall.

From left: Rowan, Dave, the chicken and Pete escort the newly made door to its home.

Snug as bugs

Saturday 30 November 2013

We got the plywood to finish the partition on Thursday, but had to go do boaty things, then on Friday we had to go to Lefkas to get door furniture for Rowan to finish the door - he's making it off site in his workshop, so it wasn't until Saturday that the panels went in and Dave decided the plaster was dry enough to cover with textiles and re-yurt our space.  The textiles make it seem much cosier, cut out the cold coming through the walls and add a little air barrier for insulation.  It worked for medieval castles with their tapestries, so it'll do for us.

 

In the Nick of Time

Weds 27 November 2013

Today we could feel the change in temperature.  It's cold.  You can see your breath in the air.  Not good when living in a field.  So, the final push to finish the bedroom ...

 The sun came out - always welcome, especially with a rainbow (the pot of gold is our house!) but with the cloud cover gone, it's cold.  Snow visible on the mainland mountains.

 Yesterday I finished the partition framework - waiting for plywood from Lefkas.  Rowan has agreed to make us doors - the main door and little doors for this cupboard, should be ready around the weekend.

 Dave got several panels plastered on Tuesday, after I'd skived off to art.  The triangles and the letterbox shape below have been left for electric sockets and heating pipes to be fitted in due course

 By lunchtime wednesday - with both of us plastering all morning, Dave finished the final corner - super double hurrah!  For the record, my panels are the triangles around the window and the parallelogram by Dave's waist

 

 And without loss of time, we moved in the bed, the sofa and the heater, and hung bedspreads over the door space.  The plaster is still wet, but it won't dry at low temperatures, and we can't spare the heater, so we put all the furniture about a foot in from the walls and huddled around the fire in our bed robes.  In the night, one of the cats crept in and climbed over Dave's head, waking him suddenly - he flung it away, and we now have paw prints in the plaster on that side.

But otherwise, we had a very warm and snug night under our mountain of bedclothes, and much quieter than we're used to.

Racing the cold

Monday 25 November 2013

Everyone's saying the weather will turn cold this week, so we're working on the bedroom as hard as the rain allows.  We've been doing the woodwork trims around the tops and bottoms of the walls, and building the partition across the bottom of the room that will allow us to insulate on that side.

 We put in the pale wood on the diagonal - to join the new wall to the joist, to have an edge to plaster to.  Up behind the joist is stuffed with pillow innards for insulation.

 Building the partition walls to form a cupboard where the roof gets too low and Dave keeps banging his head.  This had to wait until we had plaster on the side walls before we could start the partition.  It will be plywood stuffed with pillows.  We can't plaster that wall because it faces south, where we intend to use cob and will need access at both sides.  So this partition idea gives us more storage (with polythene stapled across the back) and an insulated bedroom wall.

The biggest plaster panel done.  It took a whole mix and lots of arm ache.  The finish is deliberately rough, as we are only putting on a base coat.  The top coat can wait as long as necessary, we just need windproof solid walls at the moment.

Old rope

The lime plaster mix requires fibres, about an inch long, that help to bind the plaster to the mesh that we've fixed over the laths.  We haven't been able to find any ready made fibres, so Dave came up with cutting up old rope from the boat.  You slice it longways and then pull it apart.  It deconstructs into perfect little fibres that can be strewn into the mix as it tumbles.