Thursday 9 February 2012

Hubs joyfully ascends


Oops!  Sorry, wrong photo!


This the right ladder. But where is Hubs?


Here he is! Upwards he goes!


First footing of Team Coe.....


......on the first finished bit of our kitchen ceiling,
which is the first finished bit of our upstairs flooring.


And very joyful he was too and quite rightly so. It has been his push and drive which has got us this far. If I had been in charge of getting this house habitable it would still be at the 'first roof being put on' stage.

So another step is done. Indoor tap nearly frozen this morning. Computer keyboard feels 'sticky' with the cold. I am 'sticky' with the cold. Layers on, plus dressing gown over the top of all. Dark clover pink it is. Even wore it outside as I did the animals today. Big woolly hat, fingerless gloves, scarf, cardi, and boots, completed the ensemble. Good news, though, clean underthings on - washing machine hose unthawed enough for me to do some washing. Can't do anything outside, apart from animal care, can't do anything in the housecan't write because too tired with the cold, so have decided to have a go at the knitting machine which was donated me a year or so ago.

Baileys. Hubs has just popped out and bought us some tipple. Him - Whiskey. Me - Baileys. Celebrating the ceiling? Well I could say 'Yes', but in truth it is to warm us up as we remain quite frozzled with the cold. Ah well, not to worry. Raising my now empty glass to you and saying 'Cheers', and hope your fire is burning bright.

17 comments:

Horst in Edmonton said...

Looks like it won't take too long and he will be finished. I hope that is just the sub floor, otherwise it will be very bouncy and lots of dust will filter through. We use panels for the subfloor and then wood boards for the floor. We also glue and screw the subfloor to the joists so as not to be to noisy when you walk on it.

Razmataz said...

If you leave your tap on with an ever so slow drip, it will prevent the line from freezing. Living in Canada we are told to do that in the event of a long power outage.

John Going Gently said...

have one for me!!!

Vera said...

Hi Horst: The floorboards are screwed into the joists by special screws and eventually, between the joists, there will be insulation and another layer of wood boarding put over that to cover it. We expect to have some movement of the floor, it being entirely made of wood of course, but dust? Our walls are made of river stone which is glued together with a limestone mortar. The house was a ruin when we came here, and now the roof is on and it is gradually drying out bits of mortar, and even occasionally a chunks of stones, fall out. We don't have house dust, we have mortar dust!

Razmataz: thanks for your advice. I did that last night and the tap was OK this morning.

John: will indeed 'have one for you' and thanks for giving me the excuse to have an extra tipple! Bless you, I hope you are not suffering too much during this cold spell.

Diane said...

Just think how much warmer it is going to be for next winter with a kitchen ceiling in :) Great stuff. Diane

Vera said...

Diane, it sure will be warmer. Still have lots of work to do, but small steps....

Roz said...

Looks fabulous!!! and do you know I think I may have a baileys coffee!! catching up after a period of hibernation - hope you are well xxxx

Roz said...

I hope you don't mind, but I have recommended you for a Liebster Award, aimed at those blogs with less than 200 followers, which merit a wider readership. If you would like to collect your award, please just go to my site and click and copy the image. Then you have the pleasure (if you want) of passing it on to five more blogs of your choice. Take care, love Roz xx

Horst in Edmonton said...

Oh, I forgot about the bare stone walls, I guess you are used to dust. I wonder if there is any way to stabilize the mortar and keep it from crumbling. I may just look into it.

Vera said...

Hello again Horst: What we did in the Half Barn was scraped out all the loose mortar, then refilled the gaps between the stones with lime mortar mix. Took ages and was very fiddley, but it does keep the look and feel of it being an old house. To save time, most people cover over the stone walls with plasterboard, and although we have had to cover a couple of walls in this way, we are still going to keep as much exposed stone as possible. Once the walls are covered there is hardly any dust. (I hope not anyway!)

DUTA said...

Small step, and yet a big one towards finishing the house.

This winter is a very cold one even in the usually warm countries. I've taken notice of the tip with the tap (Razmataz); one never knows when it may prove useful.

Cheers!

Phil Lowe said...

Brrr, I was shivering along with your description and at one point I thought the animals outdie were wearing your dressing gown and other clothes but then I re-read the piece and promised myself not to speed read so much. I often see your comments on Jean's blog and thought I'd check yours out. Excellent stuff. Hope the weather gets warmer for you soon. Phil

Jean said...

This is not an easy time of year to be doing any sort of building work - I have all on to drag myself out of bed and into my car to get to work. The cold gets into your bones in old houses somehow. Roll on spring ..... can you remember how it felt to be way too hot ??!!

Vera said...

Roz, so you like Bailey's as well! Looked on the Internet to see how to make that coffee after you mentioned it! MMM... Yummy!

And thank you so much for the award. It was very sweet of you to think of me.

Vera said...

Duta, you must really be feeling the cold because your climate is normally so warm, so I hope you are managing to stay warm, and also hope that you never have any trouble with freezing taps!

Phil, Hi there, and thanks for visiting, and yes, speedreading is something I do and it definitely can make for unusual interpretations of what the words on the page actually say!

Jean, Old houses are indeed hard to keep warm, especially if one's builders have decided to finally get round to working, which requires open doors all day! But in summer, these old houses come in to their own, having a much welcome coolness even in the hottest of days. Can I remember hot summer days? I try to!

Ken Devine said...

Progress!! Pity about the cold, though.

Vera said...

Progress indeed, Ken, despite the cold!