Heat, elevation or cleanliness?

I’m spoilt for choice. Last week four friends, the stairs and the wood burning stoves arrived. The former for Tash’s birthday, the latter two for ever(ish).

While Tash showed her old friends the local delights, David and I did a couple of days’ work, fitting the workshop’s final bargeboard, flashing and a fascia and, when the stoves finally arrived, there were plenty of hands to help unpack and carry everything indoors. The stove for the house weighs a hundred and thirty five kilos so it needed David, Martin and I carry to it across the yard, still attached to its small pallet that gave us a bit more to hang on to.

When first looking at stoves for this house I was rather taken with the Dovre ‘Vintage 30′ which made me laugh – like a nineteen fifties’ TV. On the plus side it comes with the highest accreditation for airtightness (DIBt tested); on the downside it has a small window and could be the beginnings of a Flintstones themed home…

…Wilma!!!!!

The stove for the house is made in the UK, has a large window and was not expensive as good stoves go; I hope it doesn’t have too much effect on our next airtightness test.

After finishing the final barge board and fascia on the workshop, David helped me start lining the shower room with 18mm ply, but not before we’d had a good look at the component parts of the stairs, slotting the stringers into the top newel posts and watching a neat video animation of assembling stairs by Stairbox. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgcKj0yBI8k

Since our last guest departed I’ve checked all the stove and flue parts (all complete) and taken all the ply panels off the shower room wall, inserted the sound insulation as originally planned, put the panels back and cut and fixed the first of the end wall panels. That left me facing the shower plumbing – there was no further escape so I got down to it, setting up to measure thicknesses, allowing for the cladding of plywood and tiles.

The shower mixer goes in the wall with only the knobs sticking out and two outlets, one for the hand-held set and one for the rain head. In an attempt to make firm, watertight connections I’ve used many turns of ptfe tape and some thick paint-on gunk that never sets. I bought a packet of O-rings but tightening the elbows to the right angle squeezed them so tightly they bulged out of the joint; no good after all.

Tonight the shower bits and pieces are fixed more or less in place just to check that the positions work, for imaginary showers at least.

Tomorrow I’ll remove the fittings and concentrate on the plumbing connections that will connect them to the mixer valve. The shower attachments can only be screwed into their plumbing fittings in the wall once it’s covered with ply and tiles, by which time any leak would be hidden… This is the most ticklish conundrum the building has presented me with so far.

Heat, elevation or cleanliness: questions, questions!

Elevation: I’d like to get the stairs in so I can work upstairs more easily, but I’ll need some capable help. Andrew (more than capable, not cheap) is not available for a month, but after some hours of research and inspecting the component pieces I’d feel fairly happy doing it without expert help. I’ll need to use some timbers that were outside so they’re now indoors, drying; stair-building can’t happen for a few days yet.

Cleanliness: As for cleanliness, I’m leaning towards a fairly relaxed approach and anyway the showers need bathrooms to go with them, structures to be built, walls and floors too be tiled and painted…

Every time we come or go from the house the swallow slips off her nest over the front door, which concerns me. I think she’s sitting on eggs and the internet tells me incubation takes anywhere between ten and twenty one days; I’ll let you know what happens.

Heat: This last week has brought its share of cool, damp and grey weather. Last night we slept in the bell tent and the dampness of clothes that had been in its shelter reminded me how damp everything got in the workshop last winter – installing the workshop stove has to be the priority!

Stones on Gigha.

The old man stands only about 700mm high and his bottom is rounded. He is not planted in the earth but sits on it like a skittle or a large pestle. His angled head made me want to grip it and turn him on his base, like a grinding stone. From a distance I mistook him for a hooded figure sat in the grass.

David, Martin, Lottie and Elly, thanks for everything!