Tuesday 14th July 2009 – I HAD AN EARLY NIGHT LAST NIGHT

Yes, after the bedtime story (I can get quite used to staying at Liz and Terry’s), which was “The Chronologically-Challenged Duck That Was Admired More For Its Personal Qualities Than Its Physical Attributes”, I dozed off to sleep.

But not for long.

At 01:30 we were treated to the kind of spectacular storm that you only ever see once in a lifetime. Thunder and lightning continually until about 05:00. Impressive was not the word!

Terry stuck his head outside at 07:30 and it came back in wet so it wasn’t until about 08.30 until I got my coffee in bed (I can get quite used to …… “you’ve said that once” – ed) and once the rain quietened down at about 11:00 we set off to continue our attack on my roof. We had all of the chevrons on the front off (and half the front wall as well – this is going to be a longer job than I anticipated – we are even going to have to demolish the chimney and start again) and put half of the new ones on before the rain drove us off the roof again.

Terry came home and I stayed on to do some domestic chores but in actual fact I fell asleep.

It’s still thundering now so I dunno what’s going to happen in the morning. It was odds-on that the weather would change the moment I stripped the tiles off my roof.

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Monday 13th July 2009 – YOU CAN GUESS …

… what happened today, can’t you?

Indeed. A house with no tiles and no roof, so we have a tropical storm. Dunno how much rain fell in that 15 minutes but in Liz’s plant bucket there was about 5mm of rain after the plants had had their share, and all the streams around here were raging torrents.

Mind you, it’s not as if there is anything likely to be ruined as first of all I don’t possess anything like that anyway and secondly the house is pretty much empty. In fact it will probably do a lot of good, washing away mice nests and all that kind of thing.

This morning though, Terry and I went into Montlucon for the rest of the material. And wise move too. Being financially disadvantaged as I am, I set my mind on just one roof window and the most basic of those – costing 80-odd Euros. “Where are the cheap roof windows?” I asked the salesman. “Over there on that pallet” he replied, pointing at some, complete with all the fittings and looking quite good quality on sale “special offer” at 69 Euros. So I’m now back to two windows, and also two for the barn. And Terry got four for his barn.

Tons of wood (chevrons as well as waterproof plywood) and all kinds of stuff. I reckon I paid in all about 1500 Euros which has punched a big hole in my budget.

But not to worry because all that remains to buy are the chimney lining and the guttering, and that will be that. Everything for the barn roof is here.

So if tomorrow is nice and dry we’ll start changing the chevrons and then fitting the insulation. And if there is a thunderstorm you’ll probably find two carbonised masses stuck to the scaffolding and neither Terry nor yours truly will be blogging tomorrow night.

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Sunday 12th July 2009 – WE STRIPPED THE ROOF

slates taken off roof house les guis virlet puy de dome france Yes, the roof is now off the house.

We all had a bit of a lie-in seeing as it was Sunday (and I can get used to having coffee brought to me in bed, I can tell you) and then we set off to chez moi. While I was sorting out the wood, the breathable membrane, the insulation and the new recycled slates, Terry did his war dance on the roof and the old slates didn’t last too long.

Getting up onto the roof though was easy. Not having a roof ladder (and refusing to pay £189.00 to Screwfix for one), the last time that I was in the UK I went to Toolstation and bought a bolt-on ladder hook for £25 or so and it’s certainly worth its weight in gold.

slates taken off roof house les guis virlet puy de dome franceAs well as removing all of the slates and much of the rotten wood, we also removed four mouse nests (and a large quantity of very angry mice), three birds nests, two plants and also one partridge and one pear tree. That took us until about 16:30 and in the words of the famous Arthur Naylor, “it’s not worth starting another case” and we drove back here.

Tomorrow we’re off to Brico Depot for the marine ply, some more chevrons, a roof window, the stainless tube we need for the chimney, the guttering and the crepi for the facade.

About 1000 Euros, I reckon. I’ll be selling my body on Boots Corner in Crewe if it carries on like this.

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Saturday 11th July 2009 – HELLO!

Welcome to the nth version of my blog.

The desertion of my previous blog was brought about by the closure of the service, although I left voluntarily just before the cut-off date.

It was in fact the first blogging site that I left voluntarily so I suppose that’s something to celebrate.

I’m only going to be here temporarily as once I find a reliable webhost for my websites I’ll be embedding my blog in there. That makes much more sense to me.

In the meantime, back to the plot. For those of you who have followed my adventures elsewhere, we finished putting up the scaffolding at home today. One leg went through the roof of the verandah and a lateral support went through the door. We had to knock part of the fence down though to get another lateral through.

And once we worked out how the scaffolding went and we put in the diagonals, it wasn’t half rigid. I can’t think of a purchase I’ve been more impressed with and it was certainly a good move to buy it.

Tomorrow Terry is going to smash in all of the slates and the rotten wood while I sort out the new wood, the recycled plastic roofing tiles and the insulation. At last I’ll be starting to empty the barn that I’ve been filling up for years and I can’t wait.

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AMAZON LINKS – READ THIS

Changes in my site and in particular the fact that I am reaching a much wider audience in North America than previously means that I now come within the scope of the
FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
of the USA.

I am therefore obliged by law to inform you that I am an Associate of the various Amazon companies and that I earn a small commission from any qualifying sales that you make when you click on my links.

This commission is used to defray in part the costs of my web hosting. This comes out of Amazon’s profits. No extra charge is made to you.

Over the years, I have always mentioned this every so often in the body of my blog but now I have to give formal notice of the fact.

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