Remembering our desire to get Grange completed as quickly as we could in 2018, I am afraid that last week was (again) spent entirely on that goal.
I had 2 things that I could progress and what I focussed on depended to a large extent on the weather which has been pretty awful – as I suspect it has been throughout the UK. As an aside, I am mystified by the French and British meteorological offices’ approach to naming storms. The large, and very damaging storm which passed through late Wednesday / early Thursday, sadly caused a number of deaths in the Netherlands but I don’t think was named by either office whereas, other, less damaging systems have acquired identities!
Thankfully, while blustery all week, we haven’t had any damage but we have seen a lot of rain! Re-reading my blogs from last year and reviewing some of the photos, the conditions couldn’t have been more different. Last year there were threats of hosepipe bans pretty early in the year and it took months for Lac du Drennec to fill again – this year it is practically toppers now.
The advantage however, was that we were able to make good progress on the structure of Grange – I hate to think what it would have been like had we been at build stage this year. Thankfully much of what needs to be done now is inside or at least covered. However, while there is lots to be done in the garage bays themselves, as we have chosen not to build on a large concrete slab, and because the bays are slightly lower than the drive, when it does rain it gets very wet and VERY muddy. As such, I try and only work there when there isn’t a lake of water in the bay.
Last week’s blog, said that there was a day’s worth of work remaining to complete the lambris and detailing required and this is now done. I posted in November when we had the lambris delivered – 103 packs totalling 206 square metres. As we had bought some of the cheaper lambris I was expecting a bit of waste with split, damaged or very knotty planks but having completed the job I am left with 3 unopened packs and not too many offcuts.
With the beading around the window and internal door it looks like a proper finished job.
That done, I then started to insulate the ceiling of the garage bays. While the upper floor of Grange will never be used as accommodation, we always intended to insulate all around, including underneath and we have used the same waterproof membrane to hold the insulation in and reduce any moisture rising up to the top floor.
It has also helped us to decide what we will use on the ceilings of the bays. The membrane is a dark grey and therefore the bays are dark. We have decided that we will use white plastic lambris (the ONLY place it will be authorised at Kergudon!) as it is will make the bays lighter and require no painting and minimal maintenance. Being plastic it will also assist keeping moisture out of the upper floor. However that job is a couple of weeks away I suspect as I have only completed 2 of the 4 bays so far and am about half way through the 3rd.
The final task I have started, once we insulated under what will be the storeroom, is to lay the laminate floor. We want to get the storeroom complete and useable as quickly as we can as it will allow us to move all of the many things we have stored in various places into one, accessible, place. It will also allow us to make a big difference to our own home with a couple of ideas that we have.
I haven’t laid much laminate flooring previously but I do recall that it was pretty simple and quick so, I hoped, doing the storeroom should be a day / day and a half’s worth of effort maximum. Unfortunately, the flooring we bought, which because it is only a storeroom and so not visible to guests and not likely to be heavily used, was the cheapest available. It looks good as flooring but evidently they have saved money in the cutting as it proving to be a nightmare to lay especially joining the rows together which is probably not helped as they are 7 metres long.
As such, I am having to make some adjustments and ‘fudges’ to get it to fit together which is taking much longer than I had anticipated. The advantage is that, for the same reasons we were happy to use the cheapest laminate, if there are a few gaps, it is not the end of the world and they are very likely to end up hidden under the shelving units however, it doesn’t stop me getting frustrated and taking some time to get it as right as I can!
Next week probably more of the same, if not from me then certainly from the weather if the forecast is to be believed!
Kenavo.