So returned to the Chapel and the task of removing the old plaster from the walls. decided on this as we still had the scaffold up at the worship end and that would allow good access to the walls at that end. The old plaster has turned out to be a mixture of lime plaster and cement render covered by lime. Many areas have come off easily while other parts have been a real nightmare! All of it has been very dusty work and I thought the ceiling removal was messy! Joe came down to help out this week and he was a trojan working hard with the rotary jack hammer to remove the cement render. Sometimes the old bolster and chisel worked best but mostly it was a bit of this then that just to relieve the muscles from repetitive strain! Also had a visit from Mum, Mary and Martin on the Thursday I really loved having them there. It is such a lovely place and deserves to have visitors. Hopefully they are the first of many! Martin was great and managed to remove a whole section of plaster using the rotary hammer, very helpful. any time Martin any time! A visit from Unique Joinery to look at the windows will hopefully result in a quote to update them at a good price.
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So big week we had a dead line to beat the return of the batman which was Monday 21 March. Started the week with almost no ceilings having removed most of the old one last week, a mixture of plasterboard, fibreboard and lathe and plaster or a combination of these! It was most frustrating to take down the fibre board as it broke into handful size lumps far to easily, thankfully wearing a mask and goggles did the job of keeping most of the bat crap and years of dust from entering my system! Tuesday came and so did the materials, also a local builder came to the rescue. He was able to supply two guys who worked through to Friday and did a fabulous job of putting up the new ceiling, membrane, boards and insulation. I helped out getting down the remains of the old ceiling, passing stuff up to them and holding things at the right time! During the week I also removed the wooden platform and seating, very carefully of course, so it can be repaired and reused in the Chapel later on. Took countless photos to aid the rebuild process, I only hope they are of the right things when it comes to it! The application for drains went in this week also and I had to work out the best route, falls and number of inspection chambers to build. I'm a bit worried about the falls as they could be very steep which is not too good, but lets see what the building inspector thinks. We have now been added to the mail data base so we should show up as having a post code soon (10 days) this will make life much easier as we show up on delivery systems and most importantly utility company lists, all this makes ordering anything a simple process as opposed to the pain in the ass it is now. Motto get a post code for your property before you do anything else! So we have a new ceiling, fully insulated with 200mm Celotex on the slopes and 300mm Earthwool across the horizontal. Under that a vapour barrier and finally woodwool boards ready for lime plaster later. Most importantly we beat the return of the bats and the batman and I await them both with interest! Onwards to next week should it be floors, walls or drains? Warmer weather means the 'Bat man' has reviewed the date he thinks the bats will return making the removal and replacement of the ceiling urgent and very time limited. Pete has managed to remove the ceiling and first thing on Monday will begin to replace and insulate it - a race against time.
So Pete started at the Chapel more than a week ago now, the first week was all about setting things up, organising a caravan to sleep in on site, because the chapel is cold and running with condensation and in some places has no floor! Meeting with the architect, building control and people who live in the village who are being very kind. If you are one of the villagers reading this and have been offering Pete cake and stopping for a chat THANK YOU. I promise to make cake for you in return once we're settled.
So far this week Pete has met with the 'Bat Man' who has explained that the warm weather may mean the bats return earlier than anticipated thus shrinking the window that Pete has to take down and replace the chapel ceiling which has to be done before the bats return (probably the end of March) A skip was delivered yesterday and we found out that the drive way, which looks like tarmac, is in fact mostly gravel and mud - it took 3 hours and another lorry to get the lorry delivering the skip out of the mire that is was stuck in. Between yesterday and today Pete has managed to get down about half of the ceiling, we thought this was all plasterboard but it has proved to a mixture of plasterboard, fibreboard and lath and plaster. De nailing the rafters as he goes is proving to be a slow and labour intensive process as much of the work is likely to be. There has been no signal today (as there are very strong winds) and every time Pete wants to make contact he has to leave the Chapel and drive up the hill. Jan and I returned to Cornwall after moving Sarah into her new flat in Sheffield. She has many flights of stairs but a light and spacious new home which is lovely, although her fridge is not working!
Arriving very late on saturday night we just went to bed. Next morning we added the awning to the caravan which nearly doubles our space and will make being in the caravan a better experience all round. |
AuthorJan and Pete, retiring Headteachers with a dream. Archives
November 2018
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