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since 01 January 2008

PART THREE

PART TWO

hole in chimney breast for woodstove les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

Work on the attic has now started in earnest.

I drilled out a circular outline in the chimney breast and knocked it through with a chisel. Into this hole I've passed a piece of enamel piping 125mm in diameter. This is the outlet for the woodstove that I will be putting up here for the winter to keep me warm


filling in the cracks les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

I then cemented up the hole around the pipe. With what was left I filled in the cracks that were in the wall and there were quite a few of those. Not of course like the nasty crack that appeared on the wall of 10 Downing Street. Workmen painted over it before Gordon Clown could read it.

Heating is of course something of a priority in the Combrailles. We can have summers where 40°C is reached, but I've been here when the temperature has bottomed out at -16°C and that's not pleasant.


painting the beams and chevrons rafters les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

When we were doing the roof I splashed the wood treatment and LIDL brown wood preservative all over the beams and chevrons from the outside. Seeing as I had some of the stuff left I put another coat on the woodwork from the inside. You can't use too much of that.

Next was to start to paint the wall of the room, and in fact, if I had had more white paint I would have done a lot more than this but I ran out.


windows in attic les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

I mentioned elsewhere that windows were going to be the issue here as the window openings are so small. But then again I couldn't find anyone amongst my circle of associates who was actually willing to make me any windows, therefor a custom-made one by a ... gulp ... professional organisation was on the cards

But a casual enquiry at Brico Depot produced a couple of ready-made windows that were more-or-less of the right size. The smallest of the two needed a small amount of planing off in the horizontal planes but the vertical planes were a reasonable fit.


windows in attic les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

Of course after that it wasn't a problem finding a window that fitted the larger opening at the other end of the attic. Brico Depot had one on the shelf that was almost the right size.

It was easier to chisel out the rough vertical edges on the window frame so that it would fit neatly in that plane, but it was about 10mm too small in height. This required some blocking up on brick shavings, putting a thin wooden shuttering on the outside, filling in the gap from the inside with mortar, and finally removing the shuttering and facing off the mortar from the outside.


treating a difficult corner les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

In the corner at the top of the stairs the "cement" or "plaster" or whatever it was was really just dried sand and every time I tried to do something to it, all I managed to do was to simply brush it off the wall.

To solve that problem I mixed a really wet mortar mixture and dabbled it onto the surface. And when that dried I did it again. And again. Then I gradually made the mix thicker until it resembled proper mortar and that seems to have bound it all together.


painting the inside of the attic les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

It looks rather Tudor-ish right now up here with the wattle-and-daub effect, and I bet you are all wondering what on earth I'm doing with white paint, seeing as how I hate white so much. In fact, it's the leftover from when I painted my little room, which is also white.

But it was the cheapest paint in the shop and it's acrylic so it makes a nice plasticky layer over the brick, stone and cement which keeps the dust bound to the wall. There's nothing worse that having dust everywhere when you can do something to prevent it.


painting inside the attic les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

You can see what a difference it makes too. It's all clean, light and airy up here now and beginning to look much more like living accommodation.

But as it all will be covered by a layer of insulation and then a layer of insulation-backed plasterboard and then that fibreglass wallpaper which will be painted a decent colour, then the white is neither here nor there.


painting finished inside the attic les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

The attic is now painted and it's turned out to be quite nice.

In fact, if I were in some kind of desperate rush I could put a floor down tomorrow with a raised trap to cover the stairs and quite easily move into there tomorrow night. But I don't want to have to do this more than once so I'm planning on taking my time and doing it correctly.


insulating the roof les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

This space-blanket insulation that I fitted on the roof works best in an air gap of 25mm and as the chevrons are about 65mm in depth I tacked in some small nails at 40mm and cut a load of 40mm polystyrene tiles to fit in between the chevrons - pushing them down to the nails so that they are flush with the outside of the chevron and stand 25mm off the insulation.

And this is a job that takes longer than you think.


continuing the insulation les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

So the lower part of the front roof has been done and now I've started on the back roof

And why am I using polystyrene?
 i.... no-one's given me a substantiated suggestion what else I can use and, more importantly, where I can get it
 ii... I'm on a limited budget
 iii.. any insulation is good insulation and it'll more than economise on the energy wasted in making it
 iv... it's not polystyrene anyway. If you look closely at it, you'll see it's recycled dalmatian


continuing the insulation in the attic loft insulation les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

The third day of insulating. I'm a long way from being finished but we have some electric cable in the picture. The ones in the roof are for the 12-volt halogens, and the ones on the central beam are for 230-volt lighting.

I'm having 4x12-volt halogens switched in 2x2, and 2 mains lights on one switch. I wasn't actually going to bother with mains lighting as I can do everything I want with 12-volt, but it makes sense to have it, especially as the Studer inverter can run all day idling away and drawing no current. And I also picked up a few cheap 230-volt compact flourescent bulbs.


finishing the insulation in the attic loft insulation and staring the electrical wiring les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

I've finally finished the polystyrene and all of the electric wiring is complete. The cables are buried, albeit in trunking, as they aren't going to need any attention or maintenance.

It's all making quite a big difference in here already and I'm pleased with how it's turned out so far.


loft electrical wiring in attic roof les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

From another angle you can see the trunking carrying the wiring. It's dangling down at the far end of the room right by the window. In the fullness of time it'll be connected to a wiring circuit that I'll be bringing up from downstairs. That will pass through the false wall that I'll be putting where the head of the new stairs will be.

And the new window looks well at the far end of the attic.


view of loft attic les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

From the reverse angle you can see the roof down at the far end with its infilling of recycled dalmatian. And just above and to the left of the window is the vent for the chimney that I will be fitting there.

It's all making quite an improvement already.


flooring and wall boarding purchases les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

I'm intending to put down on the floor some of this tongue-and-grooved laminated flooring and I had my eye on some at €5.74 per square metre, of which I shall be wanting about 28. But today, in the clearance lot was some at €3.67 per square metre. And not a miserable 4mm thickness or even a decent 6mm, but a whacking great 7mm.

I don't think much of the style or the colour but there's no dispute about the quality. And I have to get my budget back under control, so I can live with it at this kind of price and quality.

The shower room will need to be done sooner or later and I was planning on tiling it, which would cost an arm and a leg. But this plastic tongue-and-grooving on special offer and just enough to do the bathroom then again in the interests of the budget I wasn't going to miss out.


the charge control board les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

I have fitted the 600-watt inverter on the control board as I'll be using the power tools for the walls and floor in the attic. I've wired in the electricity meter so I can see how much electricity I'm using. It's not as good as the one in the barn as this one only goes to 1 decimal place while the one in the barn goes to 2 places and so is much more accurate.

There's also a British double socket wired onto the power board now. One side will be for charging up power tool batteries and the other side will be for a temporary extension to take power to the attic.

British electrical plugs have fuses and these are easy to change. As my circuit will be a maximum of 1200 watts, that's a rating of 5 amps so a 5-amp fuse in the plugs for my appliances will protect them.


studding for the walls in the attic les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

I've turned my attention to the walls and there's about half of the studding fitted. To this studding I'll be fitting space-blanket insulation and thus there will be an air gap between the walls and the insulation.

But the place isn't half going to be insulated so I shan't be worrying about the cold. Even in my little room I noticed in the winter that switching on the light and the computer raised the temperature by a degree or so. It'll do more than that in here.


studding finished and flooring started in the attic les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

The insulation is on in this end of the room and the counter-battens to take the plasterboard have been fitted. And if anyone mentions "padded cells" they'll be disqualified.

There is also some flooring down. It's 18mm OSB which was the thickest in Brico Depot but they seem to think that it will be perfect for the job. The OSB is lighter than chipboard and comes in smaller sheets so it's much easier to bring them up the ladder into the attic and much easier to handle.


electrical wiring in attic les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

The insulation is now finished down the two side walls. That involved fitting the battens and then xylophrening them to protect against woodworm and the like. Then the insulation was stretched across the battens and stapled on. Once that was done I was able to deal with the wiring at the far end.

The floor is advancing too. The old pallets that I'd been using as flooring were pulled up, the beams were xylophened and then I fitted the first sheets of OSB. A couple of them needed trimming down and cutting to shape and so the Ryobi Plus One circular saw that I bought is coming in very handy.


in the attic les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

I've lowered down the scaffolding tower for now as it was in the way. I'll need it later though for doing the ceiling so I can't remove it completely.

There's quite a bit of stuff in the attic this isn't being used just now but once I start on doing other things it will all be put to good use.


flooring almost finished isolation mince les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

Here you can see the flooring almost all finished now. And also a roll of the space-blanket insulation that I've been using. It's excellent stuff and worth its weight in gold. Remember that there is no door or wall to the stairwell and even when there was no floor in the room the temperature reached a full degree higher than in my little room.

That's unusual because normally the temperature in the house part is always a couple of degrees lower than in my little room so clearly the insulation is having some effect.


flooring almost finished les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

The parts of the flooring that haven't been finished are the parts near to the head of the stairs.

Some heavy engineering is called for in this part of the attic and I can't finish off the floor until that has been done.


installing counter-battens les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

Once the insulation is fitted the next task is to attach the counter-battens on top. The insulated plasterboard will be screwed to this so that there will be an air gap underneath. As you know by now this space-blanket insulation needs an air gap to function correctly.

But everything is going much slower than I anticipated although I don't know why. My original timetable to be in by the end of September is looking far too optimistic.


plasterboard fitted to walls les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

And now we have some of the plasterboard on the walls. It looks like a patchwork quilt but that's because I've had to cut it into manageable sizes to fit it up the ladder.

I tried initially to glue it on but that didn't work and after several alternatives were tried, it was nailing that seemed to be the only thing that worked. Not that it matters - all the holes and depressions will be filled in.


more plasterboarding on attic wall les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

The plasterboard is spreading like a rash of measles up the far wall and this attic is beginning to take shape. In fact it's quite impressive.

But nailing the plasterboard is not the way to do it, even though it's the only thing that's working. Screwing would have been much better but it wasn't an option as this plasterboard and insulation is 50mm thick so I need screws of at least 70mm which I don't have.


more plasterboarding on attic wall les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

With the far wall finished apart from a few offcuts needed, I'm now working my way down the back wall.

And on reflection, I'm regretting buying this insulated plasterboard. It was not the best option. The time I'm saving in not lining the walls in polystyrene is wasted in messing about with hammers and nails.


plasterboarding the attic ceiling les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

The plasterboarding on the walls is now finished as far as possible and it's the turn of the ceiling to receive attention. But the first piece that I cut was too heavy for me to hold with one hand while nailing it to the chevrons and when I finally managed to attach it the weight of the plasterboard pulled it off through the nails.

Glueing didn't work and neither did anything else so in a major change of plan I've fixed battens onto the ceiling and started to put some polystyrene insulation up there. On Saturday I'll be buying more insulation and a pile of tongue-and-grooving. I can do that on my own.


fitting new beams in attic floor les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

The pause in the roofing meant a start on the heavy engineering. Two new floor beams need to be fitted. The first one will support part of the new flooring in the attic as well as providing a base for the wall insulation and plasterboard.

I can't let it into the existing beams as there are other beams in the wat so it's supported on L-profile hangers. It's then fixed to the wall with anchor bolts. That Hitachi battery-powered SDS drill is another extremely useful purchase. It punched four holes into the stonework of the house much easier than I was anticipating.

But these beams are heavy - the second one I'll be cutting downstairs so it'll be easier to lift and easier to manoeuvre up the stairs.


drilled outline in beam for upright les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

The uprights need to be let into the horizontal beam for a distance of half their depth.

To do this you measure up the width and the anticipated depth of your uprights, mark it out on the horizontal beam, set the depth gauge on the drill to the required depth and then drill into the horizontal, keeping within the marks that you made.

And if you have a sharp good-quality wood chisel, then you cut down the holes you have drilled.


fitting uprights verticals les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

Next step is to choose your uprights, cut them to length and then cut into them the joints that you will need for the vertical supports (I always strap my uprights together in neighbouring pairs and cut the joints in them at the same time so that the vertical supports that I will be putting in are perfectly horizontal).

Once that's done, you cut out the base to fit the let that you have just cut into the horizontal, and then screw it home.


fitting the second horizontal beam les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

The stairs are going to be narrower - 65cms instead of 1m so this means that I need to fit another horizontal beam. This one I was able to let into the existing beams so having cut the lets, I nailed some board temporarily across underneath for the new beam to fit on, carefully cut the new beam to size (in fact I cut it oversize and then carefully trimmed it down when it was in place) and dropped it into the lets.

I then drilled through the existing beams from the back and knocked a few huge nails right through to hold the new beam in, and then removed the temporary boarding.


fitting second upright and horizontal supports les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

The second upright (the matching one to the first one - see above) is in and all the cross pieces have been inserted. It looks rather like Richard Hauptmann's ladder except that it's much stronger.

It took me ages to make all of the joints and to cut the wood to size, but you have to do it properly. I cut the wood slightly over-long and the joints slightly undersize and then filed everything down to fit. I'm quite impressed with the fit - it's all millimetre-perfect.


cross beam added to floor les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

There's also a cross-beam added to the floor. This is embedded in the two new beams and the two older beams to the left.

The third beam (the first of the old ones) has been devoured by some kind of obnoxious animal and it's this beam that will be taking the weight of people entering into the room in the attic. The wall underneath that's holding it up is going to be knocked out which won't help matters, so I'm fitting in these cross beams to spread the load.


insulating rear wall les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

Now that the first upright is in I can insulate the wall just there. This is where my desk will be. The battens on the wall have been xylophrened. I'm making it a kind of policy to xylophrene any wood that is coming into contact with any of the wood that is already up there.

I fitted the flooring in the corner too so now it's safer to move about.


positioning door into room les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

You can see where the door is going to be once it's installed.

And once it was in position, I measured up the floor so I know where to fit the left-hand upright and then measured the floor so I know where to fit the two extra cross beams.

The stairs are going to turn away to the left from the door at 90 degrees, go halfway down and then do a U turn. To the right of the door is where my desk and office stuff will be, and on the first floor underneath the office space is where the shower room will be.


two extra cross beams les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

The old beam in centre-pic is pretty well eaten so when I knock down the wall underneath I can't rely on that supporting the weight of people entering the room so a couple of cross-beams are pretty essential.

These beams need to go in exactly right if they are to do any good so you have to cut the lets undersize and the beams oversize and file everything down until it fits, and that takes time.


uprights verticals fitted wall insulation floor fitted les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

With the uprights in position, the floor fitted into the corner and the space-blanket insulation fitted to the walls, you have a much better idea of how things are going to work in the attic.

You'll also notice that into the new horizontal beams I've cut the lets for some more uprights. Installing them is the next task.


new uprights verticals fitted les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

The two new uprights are now installed at the head of where the stairs will be, and I've also put a cross-beam in, just above the window. That's going to support a shelf across the top of the stairs.

I'll be fitting the cold-water tank onto that space at the top of the door but it's looking smaller than I expected it to be. I have a 200-litre tank that someone gave me but I don't think that it's going to fit and so I'll have to think again.


framework for stud walls fitted round head of stairs les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

With the next day's pic taken from almost the same place as the previous day's it is much easier to compare the progress.

The framework around where the head of the stairs will be is in position and you can almost picture it being clad in plasterboard. The horizontals are not permanently fastened yet though so I can still get bulky objects into the room. However I now have to enter the room via a ladder.


insulation fitted to rear wall shelf installed above door les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

The insulation is now attached to the rear wall to the left of the wooden framing and in the apex above the door. There's even a shelf up there now - that's where I had plans for fitting the water tank.

The remainder of the flooring has now been fitted, one piece of which was not without some considerable effort.


plasterboard on back wall les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

There is now some plasterboarding on that back wall and in the corner just there I've put some extra wooden battens for I'm going to build a cupboard in there. But my target of being in there by the end of September is well-nigh abandoned now.

The insulation is certainly doing its job up there. 2 degrees warmer than in my room and at one stage I had to open all of the windows as it was so warm. It's going to be interesting in there in the winter.


plasterboard on outside walls finished les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

The plasterboarding on the outside walls is now finished- even the two patches around the far window have been done.

Well, not quite. There's a sliver of an offcut needed for one corner but I have that ready, and then there's the corner that you can see, where I need to think about the cabling. In fact I didn't think about the wiring at this end of the room and I haven't made allowances for it. I'll just have to work something out.


plasterboard strapped and filled les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

Looking across the room from the reverse angle you will see the plasterboard strapped together and filled over the joins. Once it's dry it can be rubbed down and patched if necessary.

It's looking much more like living accommodation now.


eastern end of room stud wall framework plastering les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

There's a much better shot of the eastern end of the room here and you can see the timber framework that will enclose the head of the stairs and the little cupboard that I'm going to build.

I'm quite pleased with how that timber framework came out in the end. It's much better than anything else I've ever built.


tongue and grooving les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

The tongue-and-grooving is coming on fine but I reckon I was somewhat over-optimistic about allocating 2 days for it. A week is probably more like it. Because of the undulating walls and beams, each strip of tongue-and-grooving has to be cut individually. You can't set up a pattern and chop a dozen off with the chopsaw.

I've fixed battens 60omm apart onto the ceiling. In between them I'm putting 40mm insulation and then nailing the tongue-and-grooving onto the battens.


tongue and grooving on ceiling les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

Day two and this is where I reached.

Fitting the battens isn't as easy as it should be either. Normally you would fit the lower one, stand a slab of insulation on it and then fit the upper one but of course that won't work in a situation like this as the slab would drop out. So I'm using a "standard" - an offcut of batten cut to 60cms that I can tack into place and use as a gauge.


large spider in room downstairs les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

Meanwhile down in my lttle room I was moving some stuff around and this gentleman popped out to say "hello". I say "gentleman" because I reckon he should be called "Boris" after the legendary "Who" track from the late 1960s.

I imagine that Shelob would be a ruddy sight larger than this and wouldn't have left me in peace for the last two years.


tongue and grooving in attic les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

Day three of the tongue-and-grooving and I bet you are all fed up of seeing pictures of my blasted attic and this flaming roof. But not half as fed up as I was with doing the perishing thing. It's like it won't ever be finished

This side needs about another two hours and then the other side needs to be done. And for that, as well as having to cut around the central beams, I need to make some framework for round the windows.


tongue and grooving on attic ceiling les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

Day four of the tongue-and-grooving and here's a photo of the other side of the roof in the attic. You can see that I'm now advancing down that side too.

But this was nothing like as easy as the other side. In the confined space under the eaves working left-handed and upside down I had to have a pause every so often to give my knees and back a rest. Two days to go if I'm lucky.


tongue and grooving on attic ceiling les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

Day five and I'm now on the last row of tongue-and-grooving. It's easier now that I can stand on the little scaffolding and work upwards.

I've reached the first window now and I've built a framework around it. It needs to be tongued and grooved in the plane that you can see, but it also needs to be tongued and grooved upwards to enclose the different layers of the roof. It's out of these layers that the roof breathes so when I've done it I have to drill some holes and put air grilles over then.


tongue and grooving attic ceiling les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

Day six and still in the attic and I'm still tongue-and-grooving. I didn't do as much as I wanted to because there was some rewiring that needed to be done and I also had to track down some nails as I'm running quite short of them.

Tomorrow should see me finished as far as I can and I won't be sorry. Mind you, it was much easier than trying to plasterboard the ceiling and I quite like tongue-and-grooving if it's done properly "rules this ceiling out then, doesn't it?" - ed.


tongue and grooving attic ceiling finished les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

Day seven and the tongue-and-grooving is as good as finished and about time too. The ceiling was done fairly quickly, even cutting down the tongue-and-grooving lengthways with the circular saw, and then I had to box in the windows.

This tongue-and-grooving is not very good quality at all, with knots missing and all that kind of thing so there were plenty of offcuts to use at the side of the windows. I'll put beading around the edges in due course


plasterboard stud wall les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

I now have the plasterboarding on over the timber framework that is the head of the stairs and you have a much better idea of what I'm trying to achieve with my stud wall.

This corner just here is where my desk is going to be. There is a good view out of the window in the side wall over to the range of hills on the skyline 4 or 5 kms away and if I put a solid wall there I'll have neither the light nor the view and it seems a shame to waste it, so a little window is called for.

You can also see the little cupboard that I've made. All the odds and ends will be put in the boxes I bought at IKEA and will be stacked in there.


finishing off tongue and grooving les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

This morning I had to tongue-and-groove the ceiling inside the cupboard, that I had forgotten to do, and that wasn't as easy as it might have been either. Next job was to finish the rear half of the ceiling. This involved trimming lengthways some of the tongue-and-grooving.

You may remember me talking about "standards" a few days ago so I now have a 2000mm standard (2000mm being the length of a piece of tongue-and-grooving) and I've knocked a row of nails into it that protrude about 3mm out the other side. My circular saw has a bed of 50mm and the cut is central so when I measure up the width of a piece of tongue-and-grooving I overestimate the measurement by 25mm, press the standard into the wood at the overestimated width so that the protruding nails hold it to the piece of tongue-and-grooving, and then run the bed of the circular saw along the piece of tongue-and-grooving while being guided up against the standard...


beading wiring attic les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

... and then I started on the beading. I've done the corners of the 2 windows in the ceiling and I've started on the beading round the edges of the tongue-and-grooving. But it's not going half as far as I reckoned it would and I've nowhere near enough. So to pass the time I started the wiring in this corner.

The darkness of the photograph - even after it has been lightened digitally - will give you an idea of how late it was when I knocked off for the evening.


wiring attic les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

Next day I decided to abandon the beading. It's taking too long and it's the kind of job I can do once I'm settled in.

I've started on the definitive wiring. On the back wall is, from left to right, a British 13-amp double socket (for mains voltage - I prefer them as the plugs are fused), an American 110-volt double socket (which I use for my 12-volt circuits as they are designed for hefty cable) and a British 5-amp single socket - which I'll be using for a small 6-volt circuit seeing as I have a pile of 6-volt stuff.

Round the corner are the light switches - one bank of 2 for the 12-volt lights and a single one for the 230-volt lights, then another bank of American and British sockets, and a telephone socket. I now have 12-volt power into the room and if you look carefully you can see the mp3 player that is my hi-fi (connected to a pair of powered computer speakers) and a table lamp that's actually working.


framework for concrete base attic les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

Next was to deal with the woodstove. It will get pretty hot and might scorch the wooden floor so I built a framework on the floor, lined it with a plastic sheet, and then concreted it. This will be a slab that will be tiled and the woodstove will be placed on it. Once I take away the framework, the slab will be held in place by the lamitate floor that I'll be fitting.

I've had to make the slab with a lot of stones so that it will knit closely together - after all, it's only 2.5cms thick - but I made it too wet. There is nowhere for the water to drain away of course, with it being in a plastic sheet, so the water has floated to the surface and pockmarked it in places. But it's not a problem as they will be filled with tiling cement.


tiling back wall les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

While the concrete is going off I've been tiling the back wall behind the stove. The wood that I'll be burning will be stacked against this and the tiles will be easy to clean.

You can see that tiling is yet another one of the things that I'm no good at and it doesn't help not having a wall that's perfectly upright and straight either. But then again, it's done and a blind man would be pleased to see it. And it'll probably look better when it's been grouted.


tiling concrete pad attic les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

That was the morning and some of the afternoon taken care of, and for the rest of the afternoon I tiled the concrete pad. That's turned out quite well too.

I'm going to get some small bricks and build a raised edge to it, to stop ashes and the like falling onto the floor. When it's all done it will look quite pretty.


door hanging les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

The door is now hanging where it is supposed to be, but not without some effort either.

The door latch and lock have been mortised into the frame and I chiselled out the door so that the hinges will sit flush to the surface. With a little manipulation and a small amount of planing it closes perfectly so it's turned out quite well.


clear varnish in woodwork les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

What you can't see in this pic is all the varnish on the tongue and grooving. That's because I've actually found some clear varnish that really is clear. I prefer untreated wood but it's not realistic in this kind of environment.

What else you also can't see is the rubbish. I decided to start by tidying up and picking up all of the stuff. This was done by the simple expedient of taking the yard brush and brushing it downstairs. This is of course the big advantage of starting your work at the top of the house. When you arrive at the bottom you simply sweep the rubbish outside or fit a suspended floor.

What you can see is the box with the bed-settee inside and the office desk. Dave happened to pass by so he helped me get the bed settee up into the attic. I had an old desk that I was using as a workbench in the barn and was now redundant so why don't we get it into the attic? So with much dismantling and more bad language we eventually managed that too.

I've also installed all of the light fittings upstairs and started on the sockets at the far end of the room.

And now that I have the door fitted up here the temperature is keeping pace more-or-less with what I get in my room. But it's a totally different kind of temperature - like a dry temperature upstairs and a damp wet one downstairs.


working 12-volt light fittings in attic les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

Fiat Lux !

That pic was taken at about 20:00 this evening and the reason that you can see inside there is that I now have four lights all properly connected and switched! The lamps are those 12-volt LED lights that I bought from LIDL a few weeks ago. They may not look very bright but that's just 4 watts of lighting in there and I think that's quite impressive.

And that's not all. I now have power all around the room - 12-volt as well as 230-volt. My electrical day was quite profitable and, much to my surprise, everything worked straight away with no adjustments.


working 230 volt light fittings les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

You might think that this photo is rather blurred and underexposed, but it was taken with just 2.4 watts of light running off the 230-volt circuit.

You can also see the pot-bellied stove too. It's all assembled and in place and it's tiny. The wood that I cut to 30cms will need to be cut again.

And the chimney that came with it is the wrong size! The aperture is 107mm and the chimney pipe is 117mm. I had to cut down another piece of chimney and slice it downwards and then fit it inside the aperture (there's a flange to stop it going into the fire). I lined the split with fire cement and the natural springiness of the chimney piece sprung it back into a tight fit. I then sleeved the chimney over the top. Now I need a joining piece for where I had to cut the pipe.

I've also grouted the tiling.


edging the tiling base trouble with woodstove les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

I wanted to put a raised edge around the tiling base although Krys thinks that it will be difficult to keep clean. Keeping things clean has never worried me in the past and I'm worried about flying embers burning the floor but there's no point in soliciting advice if you don't intend to take any notice, so what I did was to put a raised edge around the front and most of the sides. I left a gap in the edging at the back so I can brush out around there.

But I've hit a major problem with this stove. I connected up the chimney and had it all fired up and running. But outside the room you couldn't see your hand in front of your face with the smoke and overpowering fumes that had blown back through one of the fireplaces downstairs.

I would have expected that the hot air would rise up the stovepipe and carry the soot and ash with it. When that burst out into the chimney the hot air would rise creating a current of air from the chimneys below, which would pull up the soot and ash. But not a bit of it. The soot and ash had descended in the chimney and come out at the bottom. So much for free circulation. And so much for the woodstove too.

I was toying with the idea of lining the chimney and putting piping all the way up to the outside, and I wish I had done it now. I can't get the pipe in now that I've done the walls and so basically the woodstove will have to be put on hold while I think about this.


sanding and patching the attic walls les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

I've been sanding down today and I've got most of the walls pretty smooth but there's still a little bit to do where I had to do some patching.

Once I'd done the patching though I swept out the room and started on the wallpapering. I've done about a third of it and tomorrow morning, after finishing the sanding, I'll do the rest. But it's looking much more like a home now.

You can see my paste table - two trestles and a couple of bits of OSB, but saying that it's a paste table is somewhat of an exaggeration seeing as what I'm doing is actually pasting the walls instead. So you might as well say that it's a cutting table.


walls now wallpapered les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

It's dark outside as you can see if you look through the door and the four LED lights give quite a pleasing effect to the room.

If you look closely you can see that all of the walls are now papered and ready for painting, but you can't see the scaffolding tower that has been up there since we took the roof off back in July. With the now-redundant woodstove in position you can't manoeuvre the scaffolding around the walls and the step stool is a little higher and much easier to move around.


painting the attic walls les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

Half of the room is now done, and I've used half of the paint. So it isn't going to get a second coat any time soon. I've brushed it on too rather than rollered it - to make it go farther.

Krys suggested cream for the walls and that would have been an excellent choice but it's a bit too late now. Blue will have to do. It'll get the rest tomorrow and if I run out I can do one of the walls in ...errr... white.


painting now finished les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

The painting is now finished. There was a little paint left over to do the final wall, but I wasn't sure whether there would be enough. So I added a cup-full of white paint and stirred it in. It didn't go much lighter and it seemed to spread much easier too, so I wish I had done that from the very beginning.

And I now know why this flooring was reduced for sale at Brico Depot and why there was so much of it. Most flooring is just plain good old ordinary tongue and grooving and it slots together quite nicely. This stuff has "our special patented interlocking system" and that should have set the alarm bells ringing in my head.

It clicks together nicely on the shortest ends but on the longest sides it's quite a struggle even with Ashley, my super-heavy-duty mallet. And when you try to do both together it's impossible. It's now four times that I've had this floor restarted in an attempt to get it fitted properly.


laminated flooring well advanced les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

You're probably looking at this photo and thinking "what's going on here? Has he been reading the instructions or something?"

Well, that has been precisely the problem. I HAVE been reading the instructions (or looking at them anyway - it's a kind-of schematic diagram) and unless there is something wrong with my eyesight, the instructions are totally wrong.

In the diagram it's quite clear that you lay the lengths down so that the large part of the tongue is flat on the floor, and you insert the small part of the tongue on the next piece into the groove. But, as I found out this morning, if you lay the lengths on the floor so that the small part of the tongue is facing towards you, you can slide the large part of the tongue on the next piece underneath the small part of the tongue on the first piece, and with a little bit of brute force it all clicks together.


attic finished les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

Well, folks - here it is! If you look very closely you can see that all of the skirting board is fitted, even in the little cupboard. And the room was emptied and brushed out by 18:15 too.

It goes without saying that a great big thanks is due to Terry, who came along, got me motivated and got me started on the roof back in July, for which I will always be grateful. A big thanks also to Liz, who kept me going with supplies of vegan chocolate cake, to Dave who came to join in for a couple of days, and to Rhys and Krys who kept me at it with loads of virtual cyber-support.


attic furnished les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

This is the new chez moi complete with bed settee There's the occasional table, and I'm still wondering what it is the rest of the time when it's not a table. It looks quite nice and trendy - totally out of place with me - and assembling it was ...errr... something of a challenge.

Then it was the bed-settee's turn. I'm keen to see how I feel tomorrow morning after a good sleep on a decent mattress.


furnishing the attic les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

You'd be astonished at just how much stuff you can fit into a room thats just 2.8mx1.7m, the size of my little room downstairs. It's pretty much filled the attic - at 5mx5m.

This is about half of my library and you have to agree that it's amazing what you can do with a couple of planks and a small pile of bricks.

You can see the hifi on the top shelf. It's a little cube that is in fact a radio and a slot that takes SD cards. And seeing I am into SD cards for all kinds of things - even the radio in Caliburn can take SD cards so this is ideal. It came from Curry's in the UK and cost £,17.99. And, of course, it runs on 12volt DC. The speakers though were pretty awful and they soon were binned in favour of these that I picked up in a clearance sale in Montlucon.

Next to it is the Ibanez acoustic bass. When I came to live down here full-time in 2007 I rediscovered the urge to start playing again and in the absence of mains electricity an acoustic bass was in order. It took me ages to track one down. Next to it is the legendary Gibbon - a Gibson EB3 short-scale bass of the model used by such people as Jack Bruce of "Cream". It's a 1964 model and I bought it in 1975. It cost me a fortune back in those days and I sold my soul to buy it. It's pretty well-travelled and even so, I''ve been offered what amounts to a King's ransom for it, sight unseen. It's sat in its armour-plated wooden crate for the last 20 or 30 years with hardly ever seeing the light of day but I reckon it's time to bring it out into the open and give it an airing.


attic inhabited les guis virlet puy de dome france stand alone renewable energy farm solar panels wind turbines copyright free photo royalty free photo

Here's the latest pic of my room, with pride of place going to the blue fold-up wardrobe. It's not quite big enough to put my jumper holder in, and it's difficult to hang that anywhere given the sloping roof in here. That came from the USA in 1999 along with another hanging wardrobe that I now have nowhere to put. There is also the white chest of drawers that I bought from the brocante at Virlet a while back.

Also in shot is the green curtain that keeps out the draughts. I have two of those and they both came from the Dunns menswear shop in Crewe in the late 1970s. My brother worked there when they were having a major refit and the changing rooms received a makeover. These old curtains that had been there longer than anyone could remember were consigned to the dustbin and I liberated them. They are good-quality heavy stuff and ideal for here. Not very colour-co-ordinated, but I have some nice dark blue curtains with lining back in Brussels.


And now that I've finished the attic and properly moved in, I'm going to spend a few days enjoying it...


END OF PART THREE
 
PART FOUR
 
THE 2009 PHOTOS MAIN PAGE


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