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Published: April 26th 2009
Look - no scaffolding 1
Ewan & Willy took the scaffolding down and the building looks quite different now I think we're on a kind of plateau now, just waiting for the next surge.
The scaffolding has been sold and was taken down at the begining of the week, though it hasn't yet been collected.
The kitchen floor is now laid and Willy has continued to remove ancient varnish much to the detriment of his back and shoulder, as it's a repetitive movement which requires quite a lot of effort. We have 5 volunteers coming at the weekend to do some limewashing... and if any of them want to find out first hand how much effort goes into reclaiming a wooden floor, then they'll be very welcome to have a shot with Nitromors and a scraper.
The amount of work involved in re-using the reclaimed flooring is enormous ... first the floors had to be taken out of their original buildings and stored till required... first in Preston and then in Rigside. Then the varnish had to be scraped off the tongues and grooves and any splits glued back together. The varnish and the grit stuck to the varnish was actually blunting chisels and scrapers incredibly quickly. Then the floor had to be re-laid and pieced together,
which takes far longer than laying new boards. Then the old varnish had to be removed with nitromors and a scraper. Then it needs to be sanded, first with a coarse sander and then with a finer one and finally it can be treated with oil or varnish.
As for the parquet... well it was covered in bitumen, which I scraped off in sub-zero temperatures. Everything I wore while doing it had to be thrown away, because it just doesn't come off your clothes.
It's better to re-use the wood than to put it in land fill or burn it, but is it more eco-friendly in terms of transport cost and use of nasty chemicals than using new locally sourced and milled floorboards would have been?
All the parquet flooring is now at Tombreck and is having the varnish removed using a device called a thicknesser, which, as it's actually taking off a couple of mm from the surface should really be called a thinnener - or am I missing something? The parquet floor is not oak as I had thought, but some form of tropical hardwood.. perhaps a form of teak. Maybe someone who knows about
We have doors
Bedroom doors wood will be able to tell us.
Electricty has arrived upstairs.. at least in some rooms.
The bath is now panelled with larch, so to make up for the fact that last week's photo of the bathing beauty doesn't appear on the blog, I'll take another. (Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, Willy didn't have time to have a bath over the weekend, as we were far too busy... also the bath was being used as a sink for washing dishes).
The doors arrived today, the hinges and knobs arrived last week and the facings and skirtings arrive tomorrow, so then the ones upstairs can be hung. Downstairs still needs some flooring beside the back door.
The fridge arrived on Thursday and the kitchen units on Friday ... but the ccoker isn't due until early next week.
Ronnie comes back next week, so then the kitchen and utility room sinks can be fitted.
Some time next week the staircase arrives, probably to the great disappointment of various small boys, but much to the relief of their mothers.
Back from the weekend. Lastweek was pretty much as Wendy says if not quite so grim. Lots of
the things we're doing now are finishes or near finishes so there's much more instant gratification from completing them. Also the house is beginning to look more like a house, three quarters of downstairs is now floored (thanks Ewan and Keith).
Anyway .. to the weekend. After giving the house a quick tidy I set off to pick up Wendy and 3 volunteers (Steve, Greg and Darragh) at Stirling. Everything went pretty much as planned and once we were all back at the house we were joined by old friend (nearly a year since her first Tombreck weekend) for dinner in what will become our bedroom. A pleasant evening was had getting to know each other over a few glasses of wine and planning what we would do over the weekend (lime washing, priming facing boards, tidying up outside and sanding). We then went to bed or at least some of us did, only for Tober and a mutual friend, Anne to come calling so a quiet(ish) party insinuated itself into place in the smallest bedroom in the house, where we were rejoined by Greg and Emma. very cosy.
Saturday despite a slowish start, at least on
Lime-washed ceiling
Temporary kitchen too! my part,we did pretty much as planned, thanks guys. Keith continued with the flooring which is looking remarkable and he is obviously enjoying it. It's also turning out better than I had thought possible when we picked up the wood some 18 months ago.
The volunteers lime-washed the outside of the house on Saturday morning , with the excepotion of the very top of the gable, which needs either a long ladder or a brudh with a long handle.
Wendy painted some door facings and I cleared some of the debros from the garden.
Then Katy delivered a large pot of soup at lunch time, which the 7 of us enjoyed very much .
In the afternoon, doors were painted and ceilings lime-washed.
Saturday evening Emma and Greg departed for Glasgow and Edinburgh respectively. I then got a fire together for the planned barbecue while Wendy attended the local resident's AGM.
After the fire we had a pretty good barbecue accompanied by a glass or 2 of wine. A great night was had by all, neighbours, visitor and volunteers.
Note to future visitors... if you try to walk into the house through the
Keith laying parquet
This floor looks absolutely stunning even though it's only partly laid patio door, without first opening it, it hurts your head.
Sunday was a morning after kind of day but I still managed to nitromors the kitchen floor (except for small patch where we're currently storing the wood to make the non regular shaped doors for upstairs bedroom and bathroom). Our volunteers assisted by Wendy tidied up outside and inside the house (no mean feat). We then had more of Katy's soup for lunch (thanks again Katy) then headed down the road.
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