The last of the chapel boards have come up and it is now about stacking them outside and burning the rotten ones. Then its lifting the beams and removing the sleeper walls. Lots to do but not much progress so just going to load a few photos as I go.
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The new internal pond has grown steadily with the continuous rain outside. I am expecting a couple of ducks to waddle past soon! We had the 2nd bat survey done on Tuesday the results show 11 bats present about the same as last time good to know we don't have hundreds up there. Still lifting floor boards but over 2/3 done now so hoping to have all the lounge cleared by Friday, leaving sink area to sort out next week. Cleared out a smelly downpipe that was overflowing last night, needed a shower after that! This cutting edge feature, the internal pond, explains why the floor boards I took up last week were much younger and in better condition than the rest. Obviously this is a wet area and the old boards would have rotted. That sump drain Peter spoke of last week looks like a good plan.
Still taking up floor boards and moving stuff out the building. The wood store now has a lovely green roof and is filling up. I'm no longer removing nails as it is just too long winded a process, may be a task for summer visitors to have a go at! BREAKING NEWS.... Had an email back from the planning team who visited last week. They have accepted all the ideas we discussed except the location of a shed. This is great news so next stage is to get it submitted, just waiting on Peter's calculations, sadly not as quick as he thought. The weather has been sunny today and doing my usual check of the hedglings I spotted that Sarah's christmas tree has sprouted shoots. I've continued the big board removal inside and a few more items have also been moved from the chapel. The wood store outside is built and it just has to have a roof to keep out the worst of the rain. Some boards are just too long so the ends will get wet but with the amount of woodworm around that should be the least of our worries!
The outcome of Peters visit is as follows.
Three new sleeper walls need to be build as none of the originals will do. These will be of 300mm deep concrete mix c20 strength. The two by the walls being 450mm wide and the centre one being 600mm. More air bricks to be added where possible. In the kitchen area, the same three walls to be built and the wet here is quite common so not to worry, could put in a sump drain. All new beams to be on a dpc layer and he will try to get me the drawings in about a week. Lowering the outside areas will help! During the night I decided that the reducing floor area was going to be a problem, where was I going to store every thing? So an old floorboard and beam storage system was required. Sadly Ikea don't stock things like that so a make it yourself option will have to do! Planning started in my head the next day and I began removing parts of the lounge floor beams that were solid at least in parts, even if a little woodwormy. These were to become the legs of my creation. This helped as it continued the efforts to remove the floor so building a store was not just wasting time. After painting with wood worm treatment they were put outside ready for the next stage of the plan to use the boards I was taking up to make the actual storage unit. The next part of the kitchen floor came up leaving the sink unit area in place as it is handy for coffee and washing up! With the removal of four more lounge floor boards I had enough floor removed for Peter the Engineer to see what was what and advise on the foundation work for the new block and beam floor. I also had enough boards to make the sides and cross braces for the wood store. I started to remove rubble that had come off the walls and fallen down the side of the of the old floor just as Peter turned up.
After last weeks BBQ I returned to begin taking up the floor in ernest!
It sounds like an easy thing to do and should take no time at all but my experience of doing the first bit in the lounge told me it would be different. After removing all the BBQ equipment tables, chairs etc etc I was ready to lift the kitchen floor. The first board was simple but after that they were more stubborn. By the end of the day most of the boards in the first half were up. It looked quite wet beneath and at one point was squidgy! Peter the engineer is arriving tomorrow evening so he should be able to give me an idea of what it all means. In the meantime more of the old timbers I took up last week need burning. Most of the new ones may be ok and could be reused I think, after woodworm treatment of course! Whilst we were gardening and BBQing RDS were digging up the road and laying a drain through to connect us to the main sewer. Well done guys many people have commented at how neat it looks. Picture to follow... Today also saw an important site meeting with the conservation officer, Joan our architect and us...and a planner called Colin. The meeting seemed to go well and we talked about many things from windows, link rooms, heating and heat pumps, gutters and car parking. we will have to wait for her report to arrive in a week or so... lets hope it goes well.
So as we leave to get home we have a good feeling over the week so far and few more boards up! So big apology...no photos of the event sorry to all who came and sadly for us too as we should really have a way to mark the event other than a before and after shot. Anyway, it was fantastic to have so many people come to share some food, drink and conversation. The food may have been a little charcoal covered in parts but everyone was very complimentary anyway. A very big thank you to all our new friends everyone has been very welcoming towards us both and our endeavours and we will continue to share many more great evenings with you all in the years to come.
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AuthorJan and Pete, retiring Headteachers with a dream. Archives
November 2018
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