Author Archives: nickjtj

Plasterboarding continues apace and Martin’s presence last week sped it on. By Wednesday we’d finished the flat ceilings downstairs and by Friday lunchtime covered most of the outside of the bedroom wall in the double-height space, covered the landing wall of the bathroom and the landing’s flat ceiling. I collected the tools and stepped backwardsContinue reading “A space walk, eagles and siskins”

The bottom of the ditch, moist but not wet and sheltered from the wind, hosts clumps of primroses, green and pale yellow, a contrast to last year’s dead leaves. Despite the glorious weather, indoors is where I’ve been most of the days. Having got the ceiling of the open-plan room fully plasterboarded, I’m preparing toContinue reading “Small-time fiddling (and RHI)”

On Martin’s last day we finally got round to some plasterboarding and put the first layer on the hallway ceiling. Being the place I expect fewest people will linger, it seemed a good place to start, and it has limited natural light. I spent the next Monday working on the wall unit, which I wantedContinue reading “Plasterboard, mirrors and cat-sitter (appeal).”

If you can’t bear to read about bureaucracy please skip to Spring… Renewable Heat Incentive: since the government announced several months ago that the renewable heat incentive scheme would end in March, my work on the house has been directed towards applying for the renewable heat incentive. This scheme repays significant costs of a heatContinue reading “Give me the money!”

Although I thought plasterboarding the ceilings would happen as soon as I had another pair of hands, since returning from Glasgow most of the week was taken up with further enabling work. I assembled the bathroom’s sliding door kit, that is the frame for the pocket wall into which it slides, while Martin put acousticContinue reading “Chiff-chaffs, peacocks and half the first ceiling”

March 2022 I can’t not start with nature – we were sitting at breakfast, recently returned from an intense weekend in Glasgow and revelling in being at home. Movement on the top of the bank caught my eye. I thought a thrush was there on the ground, moving twitchily in the sparse vegetation. But itContinue reading “A weasel ‘n’ Monkee boots”

Tash came in to tell us it was seven o’clock; we’d had such fun since tea we’d not noticed the time passing. Chris had come back to help with the plasterboarding but, by the time he left three days later, it still hadn’t arrived. Just as well, as it took us three days and aContinue reading “A hole and high pressure”

Around midday on Monday I made my big (and possibly final) order of plasterboard (three different kinds or thicknesses), screws and the last of the acoustic insulation from the local Travis Perkins. The resilient bars (Gyproc RB1) are coming from Insulation Supplies Direct who, despite being unable to deliver them here, were so much cheaperContinue reading “Traps, waste and a high-speed mystery”

February 2022. From the seventh to the fourteenth we visited London. London smelt of foxes and marijuana and, after enjoying seeing family and a couple of very dear friends, celebrating a birthday and buying some new jumpers, it was a relief to come home. The twice postponed airtightness test, due to happen two days afterContinue reading “London – building stops”

A week since I last reported: my back is behaving tolerably; I finished sealing every imaginable crevice but the airtightness test, postponed until Monday, was postponed again because of high winds; a week later we went in search of the cave above Loch Caolisport; David dropped by and we attacked the plasterboard; I’m now workingContinue reading “Caves, rock shelters and small rooms”