The men are busy fittting windows to the various openings and the stone masons have fitted the skews or Kneelers (if you are English) to the roof edges and even atop the small dormer roofs at the front. Slating of the roof is still not complete, but they are getting there, all be it slowly. Today they were fitting the ridges.

Bay Windows installed

Front windows installed

Everyday seems to see more and more men on site -joiners, electricians, plumbers, stonemasons roofers and even the odd gopher, cleaning up after them! So there are signs of progress everywhere, to put it succinctly upstairs and downstairs! There’s even a room with a view – of Angus’s office in the garden!

First Floor takes shape – 1

First Floor takes shape – 2

Underfloor Heating sealed

Garden view from First Floor

Well work recommenced on the 6th. January and it is plain that the lads were all well rested as they set to with gusto, ousting poor Angus and Frances from their cosy master bedroom and proceeding to demolish it! I’m sure it will all turn out for the best in the end, but right now it is starting to look much as it did, when Henrietta and I renovated the Lodge in 1992.
So that you can understand what I mean, I attach photos of the bedroom taken then and photos taken today.

Master Bedroom 2 – 1992

Master Bedroom 1 – 1992

Master Bedroom 1 – 2014

Master Bedroom 2 – 2014

Just before the men knocked off for their well-earned Christmas and New Year break, the plumbers were busy laying the underfloor heating coils on the ground floor. It was hoped to pour the concrete covering before Christmas, but unfortunately the wild wet and windy weather made that impossible.

The stone facing on the two gable ends is well advanced as is the stonework on the first of the two dormers at the front of the building.

Underfloor Heating 2

Underfloor Heating 1

Gable Stonework

Dormer Stonework

Now plainly visible as you drive past the farm on the B794 going to/from Corsock, thanks to the newly felted green roofs. The window openings have been sealed with polythene and to all extents and purposes, the building is now wind and watertight.

Front

Back

A forest of roof trusses makes the Cat’s Cradle and one can only wonder what it will be like crawling around there tracing leaks or running cables – ah well they’re young!

The Bay window at the rear of the house which was partially dismantled whilst stabilising the building in 2005 has been restored and the bottom sill lowered in order to make a French window opening into the back garden. Unfortunately because of all the scaffolding still in place, it is a little difficult to see clearly just what’s been done.

Lintel Removal Dec 2008

Bay Window stabilisation Dec 2008

Sandstone stored for future use Dec 2008

Lintel Back in place Dec 2013

Binky proudly shows off lower sill

Cat’s Cradle

Suddenly a transformation is taking place as the flat packs are dismantled and become floors, walls and even the roof. Mind you all this is only possible with the right tools to do the job – screwdrivers and the odd shifting spanner are definitely not up to the job – you definitely need the most enormous crane and a nail-gun or two!

Roof takes shape

Enormous Crane

Walls and floors

On the roof