Workshop Roof Update

They are getting on well with the workshop roof, but had to stop this afternoon because of the heat. Manuel's coming back later to do some more. Yesterday they worked until nearly 9 in the evening. I hadn't anticipated that, so the pups didn't get fed until very late. Today I'll feed them earlier.

Manuel is very happy with the workshop roof. He has been unhappy with the house roof as he couldn't get it 100% flat, although it looks fine to me.

You will see that they've started taking the plaster off the outside of the workshop wall. Manuel is replastering that as a present.

Broody Chicken

These are the lovely nesting boxes that Ian made the chickens



And this is where Spot has decided to brood....

British Wool Balls

Tiles neatly lined up ready to be fitted

The tiles were placed on the roof by a crane. This obviously saved them having to carry them up. As there are 3,000 tiles, this obviously saved a lot of time - and carrying...

That Was Close!

Immediately after Manuel and his space suited buddies left, having finished spraying the two roofs, I popped up to grab a couple of snaps. As I stood at the top of the ladder taking the shot across the roof of the house, the heavens opened. Kate and I had wondered if the colour of the sky affected the speed at which the sprayers worked, but fortunately they got the job done with 20 minutes to spare. I couldn't find any leaks upstairs today, which is a relief with rain forecast for the next week.

Roof Spraying

We're pleased to announce that Manuel and two men from the Atomic Weapons Agency are currently on the roof spraying insulation onto it. This should make it water tight until the tiles are laid which is good news as rain is forecast for the next week. They were meant to be spraying yesterday, but it was rained off. It was shortly after that that we discovered that the concrete coating on the roof wasn't quite as water tight as we'd hoped. It seems it could cope with rain that wasn't too heavy, but when confronted with a real cloud burst like yesterday morning, it gave up any pretence of being a roof and let the water do what it wanted. As a result everything that we'd moved upstairs from Kate's workshop to avoid water damage, had to be moved downstairs into the front rooms to avoid any more water damage.

View from the Roof

apr_12
Originally uploaded by ian_pullen

This was one of the shots that I heroically took while prancing around the roof like a mountain goat. Manuel looked impressed - don't think he'd ever seen someone displaying such supreme confidence at that altitude.

And don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.

Roof

Manuel took Ian up to see the work on the roof. Ian took advantage of this to take some photos. I took advantage of this to take a photo of Ian hugging the wall while Manuel looks like he is wondering whether Ian is about to fall off.

The gutter fell off yesterday. Manuel said it wasn't a problem, but I'm not quite sure what he means by this. The house roof is taking longer than they expected as apparently it is very bumpy and they are having to scrape the old cement off to make it flat. The roof must be pretty solid as they are running round on the top of the roof with wheelbarrows and all sorts of tools.

Someone has switched the summer on

As we've noticed before, summer seems suddenly to arrive. And this week someone switched the summer button and we're enjoying the hot weather - until Tuesday when rain is forecast again. That's going to be a bit of a problem as the roof of the house is now bare of tiles and the builders have been scraping off cement which means that it is not waterproof. And of course, all of the things from my workshop that we moved to keep them dry are now upstairs.... And Ian's new photo studio equipment. Let's hope that the weather forecast is wrong, however as we know, it is generally unerringly accurate.

The back of the house is covered with lots of pre-historic looking insects. They have fallen off the roof. They like the shade so they disappear when the sun gets on them, but their way of disappearing is just to fall off what they are on, which gives a sense of raining insects.

I'm writing an article today about stripping batts for spinning. It's for a UK knitting magazine which has a spinning supplement coming up. The supplement is being given away free at the fibre/wool festivals this year. The timing is great. I've been doing an online marketing course and the lady that has been running it is a knitting writer and designer and is putting together this supplement. When I told her of my new venture she asked if I wanted to write something about batts for this supplement. Of course, I won't get paid, however the PR aspect will be worth much more than I'd get paid for an article, so I'm delighted to be doing it. And Ian, of course, is delighted to be able to take some photos that will appear in print.

Roof Pics

I don't think that Bob is missing Ian....


The glass in our doors. Obviously Ian has taken some much better pictures, but here's mine...


The new roof


This is the new roof from the inside. You can see where the light is coming through. I am pleased with how it is looking. It will make a huge difference. The pictures don't really do it justice as the workshop still looks dark, it is actually a lot lighter.


Manuel was still here at 5 today - after starting at 8. He's 'done a Manuel' on the corner of the roof between the workshop and barn. It got rebuilt at least once today as the curve wasn't quite right. Again, I've not done it justice, but if you look carefully you can see how it is beautifully contoured...



I'm trying to keep Basil awake at the moment as it would be nice if he didn't feel the need to remind me of his breakfast needs quite so early in the morning...!

Roof

I'm watching Manuel and his new sidekick walking on the new workshop roof. They don't look at all nervous - which I take to be a good sign. I will take a photo later, I don't like to do so when they are here in case I surprise them and they fall off!

Basil takes his responsibilities seriously. When Ian is away, Basil takes it upon himself to remind me, at 5.30 am, that he has breakfast in two hours. and appears genuinely surprised when he gets told to go away!

Easter

Well, again it is Easter and not an Easter bunny in sight. Javier, one of my students nearly fell of his chair when I told him that in England, we do not have parades of pointy headed, masked people. We also had a long debate about chocolate eggs. They thought I was joking and it was ending up as some sort of pantomime act with a chorus of 'oh no they're not' replied to every time I tried to tell them.

We went to see the parade in Llerena - the matinée one at 6, not the one starting at midnight and ending at 5!. The weather has been poor, otherwise we might have gone to the one in Merida which goes through the Roman ruins, through the Temple of Diana. Nice little juxtaposition of religions. It hasn't rained for the last couple of days, but it has rained earlier in the week. Some of these status are hundreds of years old, and they don't take them out in the rain.

Looking forward to Manuel cracking on tomorrow. I keep having different ideas for how to lay out the workshop and once the roof is back on, we'll be able to get a real feel for where the light will fall.

Workshop

I would like to point out that I was not taking a picture of the new builder's bottom. I was actually trying to capture Manuel and his new assistant balancing on the top of the wall, catching concrete beams. It made me feel poorly to look at them.

I've been deciding the best place to have the skylights. I think I'll be guided by Manuel. So far he's planned one in the corner nearest the road at the house end of the workshop. This gets the last bit of sunlight in the afternoon. Part of the challenge is working out where the sun will shine. I was thinking that the sun shines straight down - which of course it doesn't.

They are not working over the weekend, so it'll be next week before I can get it painted.