Category: Uncategorized
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The roof
With the structure of the roof repaired, we were now ready to begin rebuilding what we had so laboriously taken apart. So, booking another week off work, we set about a 9-day marathon of roofing. With the slates cleaned and sorted into three piles, depending on their condition, we started our work on the hip…
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A heavy weight…
Asking for help is something most of us are disinclined to do. This is largely because we, incorrectly, view the inability to carry on alone as a weakness. Yet, there are plenty of tasks that are simply easier, and lighter, when shared. Such as renovating a house. We were lucky to have many extra pairs…
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Padstones
What is a padstone I hear you cry. Well I recently learnt that they are large, surprisingly heavy, blocks of concrete that prevent massive hunks of steel from dropping through your ceiling. So pretty important, all in all. The two purlins in need of replacement in our roof are opposite each other on the side…
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Dad to the rescue
After covid had scuppered his previous attempt to lend a DIY hand, my dad finally made it up for a weekend of roofing. This, after visiting one of my siblings to take the grandkids to a dinosaur park, and before taking another out for a fancy birthday meal. But who wants dinosaurs and cake when…
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More roofing
It is a truth universally acknowledged that roofing takes absolutely ages. At least it does when you are two amateurs working weekends and evenings. The good news , however, is that the rain has held off. This long dry period that has left us all sunburnt and exhausted, and killed off half the plants in…
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Roof week
It’s roof week! During our initial estimates of how much work the house might require, Chris felt replacing the roof might well be an unavoidable job. Yet, it wasn’t until we had had a better poke around and gotten the advice of a structural engineer that we knew that the slight dip in the roof…
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Red bull gives you… insulation
There comes a point in every DIY project where you seem to have a hundred half-finished jobs, but nothing that actually seems to be moving you forwards. We’re very much in this zone, seeming to flit from one thing to another. At some point all the half finished jobs will reach a satisfying crescendo, but…
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Finishing at the start
When people say not to look a gift horse in the mouth, I guess they mean that things that seem free always come with a catch. Probably about right. When we were going through the motions of buying the house Chris went back one day to take some measurements. The estate agent, who was there…
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Slowing down
Anyone who has ever done any DIY will know there are periods when everything just seems to slow down. You’ll be flying along feeling like you’ve hit your stride, when suddenly it’s as though someone has placed the hourglass on its side and everything stops. This is how our second long weekend has felt. While…
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Changing rooms
This week, on our fourth week of owning the house, we had our first full seven days of DIY. When we first knew we were getting the house, we agreed that all holidays would be devoted to its renovation until further notice. Now at the end of our allotted time we are bruised and battered,…
Ruined 