More windows

The upstairs windows are now in and we're starting on the ground floor, which are bigger - most of them need three people. Being as how I am temporarily disabled, we are inviting friends and relations to window-fitting parties - the latest was yesterday and we put in five windows. Eric came all day and Kate and Ali in the afternoon. When the timber frame is exactly the right size, the windows slot in so easily. Or sometimes a certain amount of planing down of the window opening is needed. But mostly, with three or four people, it's a joy.

The plan at the moment is to get the exterior done before the winter sets in. Which means: windows and doors, battens, render board and render, also the guttering. The renderer is coming a week tomorrow which means that we are hoping for good weather this week. R doesn't have to get all the battens and render board on before he comes because he's going to be here for a couple of weeks. There's a lot of stuff to order: window brackets, expanding foam, battens, render board, special screws for render board, special washers for render board, special cement for RB, render, beading, bell drips (whatever they are), window sills, door thresholds, etc etc. R spends a lot of time with a pencil in one hand and a calculator in the other.

My main job at the moment is to get more work so R can be full-time on the house. I got a job as a mobile library manager but had to give it up owing to stupid shoulders - I have two interviews coming up - one as an immobile library manager and one in the Communications Department at the University of East Anglia. Fingers crossed.

The windows are in the house - that is to say some of them are in the window frames and some of them are in the hall waiting to be installed. They're lovely! Ready painted and just needing to be slid into their sockets. They arrived yesterday (Monday).

They came on a ship from Lithuania to Felixstowe then on an artic to the Green Building Store in Yorkshire, who import them, because our drive is too small for an artic. Then they came all the way back down here in a small lorry. Listers of Halifax, no less. The driver was a very nice Yorkshire lad who didn't have many other drops so he kindly helped to unload. It needed four strong men: R, the roofer (who has now finished heroically clipping the tiles) the lorry driver and our friend Eric from Rendlesham, who stayed on afterwards to help Russell put the first windows in.
The first window!

They started on the smaller windows on the top floor cos they're smaller and easier, and R's friend Ali came today to help finish the rest of the top floor.

R and Eric


Ali


The ground floor windows will need a bit more muscle though - they are a lot bigger. R says it'll be a few days. But there's plenty to do to get ready for the plasterer. Battens to hammer onto the walls (and it turns out that the upstairs of the timber frame is a different size from the downstairs so we need two sizes of battens) and Heraklith render board to put on top of the battens. So that'll keep R off the streets for a few days.

My shoulders have been a source of despair and despondency 'cos I thought it was genuine frozen shoulder which can last for many months, or indeed a year or two. But I saw a brilliant physio today who seemed to think that it wasn't primary FS but caused by the garage-demolition setting up a vicious cycle of muscle spasms and stiffening, and she thinks that with gentle exercise and a TENS machine and some other stuff she can have me as fit as a flea in a matter of a few weeks or months. So that's a great relief. Also it's great to have something to do to make a difference - I was feeling a bit hopeless and helpless. I'll let you know how it goes.

The windows are in the country! Having made their way across the sea from Lithuania. Let's hope they fit - it's a long way to send them back. We are assembling muscle for next week. Lee the plasterer came this week to talk about battens and beading and other esoteric plastery matters. He can start about October 1st - on the render which will define the look of the outside of the house.

The result of all this sudden activity is that R gets himself released from the tyranny of The Wall for a couple of weeks, while he gets wooden battens on the outside of the walls and lightweight render board (Heraklith) fixed to the battens, for Lee to plaster on top of. Look out for exciting window-going-in-photos. The doors are coming at the same time as the windows so then we'll have a weather-tight house.

You'll have to talk amongst yourselves for a while - there is stuff happening but nothing worth getting excited about. R is about 1500 bricks short of a wall - my mum says he must be getting bored up the wall, but R says he's just impatient to get on with the house. Has not affected the excellent quality of the brickwork.

I have come down with what appears to be an unexpected case of two frozen shoulders. Very boring. Almost all work on the house has stopped for me - some taping may be possible. So I focus on earning the dosh so he can do the house. I am learning to be ladylike - that would be a first - asking people to get things off the top shelf in the supermarket and open doors and all that.

The plasterer came today and will come back in about two weeks, by which time we need to have got the windows in. If anyone would like to come for a day or two to help, now would be a great time! When the windows come we'll need four strong(ish) men. I will provide wonderful food and we have a three-bedroom, eight-berth caravan. Plus we need to get the battening and render board up before the plasterer comes.

Windows will be coming at the end of next week - yikes! It won't half look different though.

So watch this space.

Sinks and Seals

I dunno – you wait two weeks for a blog and then three come along at once.

Point one: cheap stuff. This has been a bargain week – two sinks, two toilets, a washbasin and two sets of taps: all at knock down prices, which is the kind of prices we like.

It all started when I went to London for my birthday the week before last. While I was down that way, I went to the IKEA in Lakeside, Essex, where I found a very fine kitchen mixer tap for a tenner and two wooden loo seats for £2 each. This sparked a tour of the IKEA Bargain Corners of the Midlands and North, in the course of visiting family and friends.

The net result was two sinks, which I loaded into my car along with all the other paraphernalia I always carry on these trips. I was hoping that someone would say to me, “You’ve got everything but the kitchen sink in there” so I could put them straight.


This is an IKEA showroom picture. We bought one just like this - what I call a ceramic sink and my mum calls a pot sink - she doesn't like them!

Then last Friday, I was on my way back from work Mildenhall way and I drove past an Aldi, so I dropped in just in case, and they were selling toilets for £50 and washbasins for £40. So I came home and dragged Russell out to buy them, in case there were dozens of other people all clamouring for discount loos. Plus an added bonus mixer tap.


The next point on the agenda is the making of the house airtight, which I am sure I have mentioned before. Obsessed or what – but I thought you’d like to see some photos of it. It’s done through a combination of gunk, tape and membranes. The gunk is Orcon and I have put it, so far, between the ground floor panels to stop air coming into the insulation down there. I got the guys to put it in as they were assembling the floor – it went on like lines of bright green toothpaste. The wall panels are taped with bright blue tape where they come together. And a membrane goes around the outside of the first floor panel and is then taped to the inside face of the top of the ground floor panels and the bottom of the first floor panels.


Ground floor panels with Orcon



The top of the walls - the checked stuff is Pro Clima's Intello - it wraps right around the outside of the first floor beams, which sit on top of the ground floor walls. The blue stuff is the Tescon tape - both stretchy and very sticky.


The bottom of the wall. The black stuff is the damp proof membrane which wraps right around the outside of the ground floor panels.


Now the stairs are in I can leap up to the first floor with tools in hand to do up there. I still haven’t quite worked out how the roof will go but I’ll let you know as soon as I do. It's a lot more complicated up there what with the roof and all; and also I seem to have come down with a couple of unexpected frozen shoulders - R says I'm just showing off as most people settle for one - so that's going to be interesting.

It's another sunny Saturday morning and R has just laid the first forty bricks of the day, and I'm off to Norwich to get these blasted tile clips.