Will it ever set?

I could have titled this Goodbye Andy and Joy, hello Chris and Ali, but that might have been misleading as they came over from their site for just a day. With their house project advancing Ali measured and photographed rooms, while Chris and I headed for the wet hills. With a first design soon due from their architects they want to be sure they have useful reference material to evaluate it, principally the size of spaces. For a couple of years when trying to design this house I habitually carried a tape measure and notebook wherever I went, measuring rooms, stairs, roof spaces, corridors, doors, windows, basins – anything that seemed relevant at that moment.

Very helpfully Chris and Ali brought me the twenty litres of lime wash I’ll need to coat (three or four coats) the lime render when I re-apply it. Delivery to them in Manchester was reasonable, delivery here was absurd and it’s not the sort of product you can buy at a builders’ merchant.

This week has passed with no dramatic progress. I’ve continued to apply the blue waterproof tanking in the shower areas, with special attention to corners and edges and the parts that will get most spray, trying to make sure there’s an adequate layer. The instructions say it should be one millimetre thick, but how you might measure this once it’s painted on they don’t say.

When I fixed the workshop shower screen (two years ago) I’d set it on two feet, thinking it would create one less corner to clean, but spray splashes out beneath it and cleaning round the feet is awkward. I’ve therefore decided to set the downstairs shower screen into a flush channel in the floor. I had to find the right channel but when I’d finally decided on the right product (£15 for 1.2m) they wanted the same again to deliver it here – so not ‘free delivery on UK Mainland‘. Luckily for me David will be staying on his way to Islay so it’s just been delivered to his London address and he’ll bring it with him.

Although I feel I’ve made limited visible physical progress, I now know the shape and approximate structure of what I’ll build in the bathroom (upstairs). I drew its footprint on the floor, made measurements, sketches and notes and then the first bit of structure.

The bathroom structure upstairs will be more complicated than that downstairs, because of the sloping (airtight) ceiling as well as the many pipes and ducts behind it, that I need to allow access to – just in case…

Currently my main focus is the shower room downstairs, but the tile cement I put down last Sunday to level part of the floor outside the shower hadn’t yet fully dried by Thursday…

I re-read the backs of the two unfinished sacks of tile adhesive I’d kept (indoors and dry) since tiling the workshop two years ago.

The one I’d used said the maximum thickness was six millimetres; the one I’d remembered but not used said fifteen millimetres; oops. So whether or not the aged material was viable I’d misused it. I scraped the thicker area back to the permitted thickness, leaving an untouched margin for temporary height reference, and got on with applying new adhesive to the floor of the shower, making sure it was no more than the permitted maximum (10mm) for this particular product. They are all different.

I’d considered using a strong mix of mortar to form these falls, but as the thinnest part is only five millimetres and the thickest eighteen, I couldn’t see how I’d prevent such a thin layer cracking. Tile adhesive, designed to set quickly, be waterproof and not crack seemed a better bet, even if it needed more than one layer to achieve the necessary thickness. By Friday the old adhesive was still not hard so I scraped nearly all of it off and applied a first layer of the new stuff.

And then I trowelled in the first layer of adhesive and put some more where I could on the shower area.

On Monday I’ll fill the level area and work up the shower base so it’s as smooth and evenly sloped as I can get it – ready for laying the slate.

With more wood work pending, and some that will be on show (drawer fronts, cabinets, shelves, bathroom units, architrave & skirting?) I couldn’t delay buying a router any longer. I’ve never used one so needed time not only to find and buy a suitable model but to practice with it. A few days/hours and several youtube videos and Google searches later it transpired that my chosen model was available. In America. A phone call to DeWalt UK established the equivalent model and wasting no more time I bought one and a couple of bits from FFX, a company I’ve bought from before. It should arrive early this coming week – I’ll keep you posted on my progress with it.

Again almost out of timber, I drove to Lochgilphead on Saturday morning. Ordering the wood online or over the phone should be a convenience, but in the past it’s been outweighed by the frustratingly poor quality of what’s sent, as though they are either scraping the barrel or ridding themselves of the poorest pieces they have. As I resent this lack of value and customer care it’s best just go and pick what I want from the racks, though stock is often very limited or absent. Today they had only three bent pieces of 45 x 45 but some packs of surprisingly knot free and straight 20 x 45. Rather than drive to their competitors in the hope of finding better I just bought twice as much of the thinner wood and will glue it together where a heavier section is needed. I anticipate that the lack of large knots means it’s likely to stay straight as it continues to dry out in the house.

Last weekend: in anticipation of taking Monday off with Chris and Ali I worked on Sunday. Saturday was spent across the loch with a couple of neighbours, a local group and an expert guide, wandering the damp woodland finding and identifying fungi, some edible some not. The event was organised by Action West Loch who have several excellent environmental projects in hand (rain forest restoration, beach cleaning, marine restoration, cycleways). www.actionwestloch.scot.

When the (finished?) house leaves me more time I hope to play a part in some of Action West Loch’s projects.

Autumn is kicking in, the weather currently cool, windy and very wet. I look forward to some finer, maybe crisp, weather, David’s company, my daughter’s visit and Tash’s return from London. It’s been too long.

Yesterday I took a walk to High Auchans hoping to gather hazelnuts but the bracken was still high and I didn’t fancy wading through it with no one to check me for ticks later. Along the road I picked some nuts but much of what had promised to be a bumper crop was gone, blown and battered from the trees by the recent wind and rain.