Onto the wooden bits

The last few days have been lousy weather - cold, with gusty rain storms. Not really the sort of weather for putting down joists and underfloor insulation as planned. However, the work went ahead nonetheless, and we just hope the builders know what they're doing.


Suddenly the house looks bigger than when it was just a piece of string on the ground, and then a concrete slab. The floor is higher than I expected, and the viewpoint from the first floor windows should also be better than I hoped.


These are little holes between the floor level and the foundation. The idea is that air circulates freely inside the foundation and keeps it dry.


Batts of fibreglass wool are inserted between the joists, resting on netting stapled to the underside of the joists. Looks cosy.


The lads are at work while keeping a weather eye on the rain clouds out at sea. This was the wrong place to be looking as the unpleasantness comes in from the mountain behind. I hope they will make haste with their tarps when the rain starts.

Within two weeks, the walls and windows are expected to be in place and the roof following soon after. Let's praying for good weather. The next two days of snowmen definitely does not count as good weather.


I spent my time profitably mulching my beans and peas with cherry leaves. I don't know if this is a smart thing to do or not, but the farmers in these parts have all done something similar with black plastic. I trust that cherry leaves will not be more harmful. The onions have been fed with one trayful of worm casts from my Can O' Worms.


The other day with some very useful help from the young master, I dug out some significant chunks of concrete from the rock pile, and formed the outline of the second row. There's an awful lot of cement in this soil, so I imagine I won't have to use any lime for a while.