A Happy New Year to all our subscribers, we are on the home straight now!

Since writing the November update so much appears to have happened even though most work stopped on the 18th December for Christmas and only re-started again on the 4th January.

Outside the scaffolding has finally all gone as the roofers finished tiling the main roof and fixing in place the ridge tiles.  Yes, they will be back to replace the few tiles that the scaffolders broke whilst removing their structure and to finish the tile hanging on the side of the building but they don’t need large scaffolding for that.

The ground workers have also started excavating areas where we will be building dwarf walls for our planter gardens.  These planters are to both delineate the ‘garden’ of the property and to provide some flood protection to the building.  Outside of this wall we will be installing a substantial drain (rather like a covered moat!) to again, try to reduce the threat of floods to the building.  With the recent rains there is some urgency to get these measures in place!

Inside has again been a hive of activity.  Most of the brick pavers are now laid along with the quarry tile floors in the potential wet areas of kitchen, back porch and toilets.

Thanks to the mild weather, a gang of decorators have been hard at work applying the lime-wash to ceilings and walls.  Lime-wash is a natural paint product but, unlike domestic emulsion, you do need several coats to cover the surface and each takes quite a time to dry.  Quite a bit of the inside has been lime-washed but there are still a lot of ‘fiddly bits’ to cover.  And of course the new rendered area outside will need a few coats when the weather stops raining.

With the majority of the plastering and wattle and daub work completed, the new main stair case has also been installed – another great feature providing a wonderful entrance to the Hall Chamber.

The Ground Sourced Heat Pump was finally all connected together and the bore holes charged up with brine.  Commissioning has started but heat is yet to be send through the underfloor pipes as everything needs to be at the right moisture content to avoid breaking tiles.  Even when the moisture is right, it will all be a very gradual process to allow the building to dry out slowly.

Aim for this month is to complete the inside work and to get that new water main connected to our blue pipe that has been in place for many months now!