Last week’s blog said that again I had 2 tasks to progress and what I did depended to a large degree on the weather. It also stated that with the arrival of September and autumn we saw the arrival of damp and drizzly conditions. Sadly these continued for most of last week meaning I focussed more on the internal task (collars) than the external (hedging) which, while progressed, remains incomplete.
The start of the week was bright but showery so I focussed on completing the collars in the upstairs rooms of Grange. For those who don’t know what collars are (which included me at the start of this building project) they are the horizontal cross beams which tie in the roof rafters preventing any risk of them spreading apart.
As we built the roof we put a collar in every 4th rafter but the intention was to make sure they all had a collar eventually to maximise the strength as well as giving me something to attach the ceiling to when I get round to it. Having laid the floor last week putting the collars up became very simple but did involve lots of cutting, drilling and screwing (stop sniggering at the back!)
With the floor laid and the weather turned damp, we had hoped that our builder, Lee, would be able to make us the door to keep the rain out. Sadly however, Lee has suffered an accident and broken his arm so we wish him a speedy recovery and we will have to rely on my plastic door for a while. Simple but effective.
The upstairs is now, with the exception of some clearing out and completing the shelving that we have bought (absolute bargain!), completely ready for insulating and decorating and Dave and I are thinking of ideas for the ‘look’. At present the decision is what to use to clad the walls and ceiling. The usual plasterboard; old scaffold boards (very on-trend); more volige; or corrugated iron side walls and wood ceiling. Any input, and other choices, gratefully received.
It hasn’t been a complete wash out week as I did manage to continue to inch around the Granary hedges. We are really pleased at how the arch we have created over the gate is filling out especially remembering what it used to look like – two of the pictures below are the before and after the first cut I gave it in Feb 15 and its amazing to see how things have changed in the background too.
Thankfully I was able to cut the hedge, the one that is most visible from the driveway, before we held our annual French class BBQ, so all of our classmates get the impression that we can keep our hedges neatly trimmed all the time! More to do next week –if the weather allows.
Lastly, we have also received another Trip Advisor review from some guests who stayed with us in Stable for a week. We are delighted with the level of feedback we have received since opening and, especially pleased that all of our trip advisor reviews have been at 5 stars – we really hope that we can keep it up and will do all we can to maintain it. Next week will be more Grange work and, hopefully, garden too.
À bientôt.