Forward March

Since the last blog and the arrival and erection of the scaffold there is now an official countdown of twelve weeks to get the roof up. Although that sounds a long time this means we have to get the whole front facade of Cathy and Paul's built, the old roof off, (and asbestos disposed of) the steel frame cut out and removed, all the brickwork/block work up to party wall height, then the roof trusses can be measured, a two week factory production of the trusses. All this before the roofers can slate the roof.

We also had a serious let down in the fact that the roofer I had wanted to slate the roof has clearly decided he doesn't need the job. Like all things in life this was fate yet again working for us, as one of my lads whilst talking to a client of mine mentioned we'd been let down and I was worried about booking a replacement. No sooner was that client on the phone suggesting I ring one of his roofing suppliers who had some fabulous reclaimed Welsh slate and who's son was a roofing contractor. We couldn't afford the Welsh slate we knew, as the slate alone would cost us £15,000 (between us) let alone the felt, battens and ridge tiles, but we certainly were interested in getting the roofer over. Troy turned up on Saturday, we talked some numbers and he then showed me some samples of the slate. This was clearly mean, it was like cooking bacon in front of vegetarians. They were so appealing I even took a photo to email Dad, even though I knew it was a non-starter. Troy didn't help either, when I told him we wanted to use Spanish slate he ummed and ahhed and politely told me how disappointed I'd be every night when I came home.

I sent him off with a plan to work out a price. To all our amazement, and as a partial result of the simple nature of the roof, and the enormous economies of scale involved with the roof size Troy and father Tony came back with a quite superb price for both fitting and materials. Although we are spending more than we had expected to pay for Spanish, its really only marginal, and in fact the only two Spanish samples we really liked were actually more expensive. I've really been worrying about the roof, and I suddenly feel happier about it than I ever have. Paul and I are off tomorrow to the yard to pick out the crates we want before anyone else can.



Looking back from Paul and Cathy's front to the now cleaner yard.


Looking North East across the valley from Paul and Cathy's corner. This will be their view!

Looking in from Paul and Cathy's front, through the whole barn.

With the impending roof construction I've also realised that the large glazed areas of both ours and Cathy and Paul's barns are something I have given very little thought to from a constructional point of view. I'd vaguely imagined we could do something on a grander scale but a similar vein to the glass roof Dave made for us at the old house, clearly times (and the building regs) have moved on. For this item I'm afraid its a 'watch this space'.

The slates that we never thought we'd be able to have.

Although we're having the enormous satisfaction of seeing so much large scale construction going on week by week its the absolute pleasure of the detail that's doing it for me, particularly these fantastic openings that Mick has made to look like were done originally, and the new brickwork that Dave has laid to Paul and Cathy's frontage.