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Published: August 31st 2008
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Gavin and Hamish stuffing straw
stuffing straw into holes was a seemingly endless task as when it was trimmed some inevitably fell out Well things moved on apace windows and door fitted by close of play Weds. It should have been an excuse for a party but it had been a long hard couple of days, so settled for a quiet night in our new windowed house and an early night (first night in our new abode but bales aren't as comfortable as you might think).
Thursday - Ewan was in Edinburgh for a couple of days, Graham, Rachel, Theo and Rory arrived so went for walk down to loch. Both Theo and Rory got their socks wet (too deep for their wellies) so lit a fire to dry out wet socks. Spent rest of day pottering about not really achieving much - feeling listless, Wendy continued checking the walls and stuffing and covering straps with hessian to try to ensure that the lime plaster has something to stick to.
Went to Lawers Hotel in the evening to celebrate Marcus's birthday great night, great music.
Friday more stuffing and trimming, Graham, Rachel et famille arrived and helped stuff round windows. Made to do list for weekend. Had a debate about the options for stuffing the gaps round the windows....
First sample of lime
Dean (our lime man came down on Sat 23rd to discuss how things should work out. Very useful and then spent very pleasant couple of hourd discussing life the universe etc option one - pack with bits of wood and fill the cracks with sealant
option two - use expanding foam, which contains lots of nasty stuff, but would be quick
option three - use sheeps wool and then cover with a mastic.
we went for option three, as we'd loads of wool and it was easy to do, as well as providing good insulation.
Saturday - all visitors were immediately enlisted to help and did so with very good grace. Thank you all!
Willy and Ewan worked on the west gable cladding battens
Hamish covered the eaves with black plastic to protect them from the lime plaster splashes and covered windows with cardboard to stop the grains of sand in the lime plaster from scratching the glass - apparently it's a bit like sand-blasting them.
Sarah, Dave and Ruth stuffed the gaps round the windows with wool
I went shopping, cut bits of black plastic to cover the windows - this time to protect the frames from plaster splashes and made soup for lunch and curry for dinner.
After dinner, we had a(nother) pleasant evening with a bottle or two of wine in our new
The house from the south west
I think this is actually taken from the north east... abode, while Willy waxed increasingly more lyrical about what a wonderful time he's been having.
This morning, Graham, Rachel & boys dropped in to say goodbye, closely followed by Ruth and Dave.
I stapled black plastic over the windows and on some of the eaves and mopped up the blood when Willy split his head open on the scaffold again.
Willy and Ewan finished the battens, delayed somewhat by the need to use an industrial strimmer to trim down a particularly bulgy bale.
Sarah & Hamish finshed stuffing the windows and then the three of us put steel lath and a plaster bead over the window reveals.
At some point we also made a thick wooden spike to stick into the outside wall. That will be where our outside light is fixed at some point in the dim and distant future.
Before we put clay plaster on the inside walls, we'll have to put in spikes for curtain rails and a picture rail, for light switches and for electric sockets - in fact for anything that's going to hang on a straw wall.
Tomorrow back to work for Wendy and me
Cutting corners
I got Ben to trim the jutting out corner back to do lime and hopefully my last week before a short(ish) break.
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