The plasterboard came last week - tons and tons of it - about 370 sheets in total. We shifted more than half of it into the house and then gave up cos my shoulders started to grumble as did the floor joists.


I went away on a course for a week and when I came back all sorts of exciting things were happening. The place was hung about with electric wires like lianas in the jungle - the illusion heightened by the fact that the house is getting quite warm these days, with the insulation and all. The other morning I went in there at 8.30am - it was freezing outside - ice on the cars - and 14 degrees C inside. Result!!






R is having fun - he has lots of creative things to do which are making a big difference: hanging the building paper on all the external walls, putting in the ventilation system, organising the electricians and plumber and starting to put up the plasterboard. So the house is full of subbies, ventilation pipes, electric whatnots, piles of gypsum, the flue waiting to be installed and random bits of wood. What a difference a week makes.

When I'm sealing windows

Well, we are getting ready for the Big Plasterboard Fix (hereafter known as BPF). Him Outside was away for two weeks after Christmas (the slacker) doing a professional development course for Transcendental Meditation teachers. When he came back, after a fortnight of deep rest, he was a bit slowed down for a while, as is only to be expected, but the brain was working very well and he spent almost a week sorting out the whole of the remaining build - all the materials needed and the sequence of work.

In the meantime since the last blog I started a job and finished it! I worked for two weeks as Planning Receptionist at Norwich City Council, but the work was unexpectedly heavy: big files stuffed with Decision Notices to be picked up from floor level all the time and only me to do it. I put my poor frozen shoulders back a bit and they started to seize up again after the first week. So I reluctantly handed my notice in.

Anyway, the good side of that is that I've been working with R to get all the people and stuff we need together and it's gone a lot faster with two of us. He works out the details and I run around getting the deals - quite a good team really.

To get ready for the BPF we need lots of bits and pieces:
More blue tape to seal the windows and doors
Sisalkraft paper to put on the walls before the BFP starts to up the vapour resistance
Blokes, as follows:
electrician to do first fix
plumber to finish first fix
stove and flue man to put in stove and flue
labourer to help with BPF
someone to do an air change pressure test to check airtightness
Details of the ventilation and heat recovery system
A bath, two showers and the screens
Best prices for a squillion little bits of wood for door linings, skirtings, architraves, window sills, the ramp, the vastu fence, balustrades, handrails, etc, etc....

Things like choosing the kitchen units and light fittings are going to be a doddle!

In the meantime, I'm signing up with agencies for temping, which might be better for us cos then I can get stuck in when we need stuff doing on the house. Plus we've started teaching TM, having converted the spare room into a bijou teaching room.

Anyway, we are working together on preparing the rooms for the BPF - Sealing windows, fitting sills, sealing all the holes the Warmcel went into, tidying up the floor, sealing the angle between the roof and shoving little bits of rockwool into every possible orifice, as in the next two photos:

Smile for the camera



AND he is finishing The Wall - doing the little sexy curvy bit of brickwork and the tile capping on top - and it's looking very nice. When it's finished, we'll have a celebration with the neighbours - I shall make a cake and maybe we'll break a bottle on it!