I am so ashamed of myself 16.02.13
Well we have bought the new joists
and other bits and pieces for the walls. We had intended to make a start on
pulling down the walls today but unfortunately whilst we were checking
yesterday we found more rot than we had originally thought.
John has decided he is going to
replace the rotten joist on the first floor as we will need the acro (the big
metal pole that is currently holding the joist in place) and the bit I try not
to think about, the floor above the joist, i.e. our bedroom!!!!!!!!
The rotten piece comes out and
John replaces this, to ensure that it is truly secure John triangulates the
bolts,(as you can imagine these are johns words not mine, to normal people
these means the bolts go up and down, up
and down and up and down) these bolts have to be big enough to go through the
old joist and the new attached joist long and John used more than necessary to make sure it was truly
secure, the top tip is to always put enough in and then add a couple more.
The hole in the wall and all the
surrounding area are fully treated with specialist rot and word worm treatment,
as even though all the rot has been removed it is better safe than sorry, this
is not an area where corners can be cut.
The next job is the beam over the
window in the living room, I am so gutted that this has to be removed as we are
planning to keep the stone work exposed and the wood across the windows, John
tells me not to worry and we won’t know the difference once he is finished, I
know johns good but is he that good????
He puts the acro up, just in case,
because the ceiling joist is supported by this beam. Once we start to remove it
we realise that it wasn’t supporting anything because the wooden beam is so
rotten it is just dust (3 rubble sacks worth of dust, I know this because I had
to bag it and take it to the tip!!!!!).
Here is a video of the beam coming out and a bit of the dust, John apologises for his one swear word in the clip.
Once the beam is removed John removes
the stone work around it. He then sets to work on the replacement beam, he uses
the chainsaw to remove the engineered corners and make the beam look old, so in
answer to my question, yes he is that good, once the beam is stained it will
look just like the old one, minus the wood worm and the disintegrated wood.
Next he has to replace the stone
work, and treat all the surrounding areas, wood worm there is no escape for
you, we will find you and we will exterminate, exterminate, exterminate, oops
sorry I slipped into dalek mode for a moment then! Even Dr Who, couldn’t manage
this job!
All finished and it looks amazing,
and we no longer have any part of the house held up by acro’s, well at least
for today, tomorrow will be a different story!
I also have a terrible confession
today, forgive me father for I have sinned! I did it, I finally turned into a
real expat, it will only happen once, I will never do it again, I promise. I
made a roast chicken dinner and went to the shop and bought, wait for it, this
is the really dreadful part, some stuffing from the Brit aisle, there I said it
out loud, I am so ashamed of myself! I have never bought from the Brit aisle,
and laugh at it most times I go into the shop, and just to make matters worse,
it wasn’t even Paxo, it was a Happy Shopper version! I would never buy this in
England and certainly not for six times the normal price!
But it was nice
We all get tempted by the ex-pat "Brit aisle" - I will drive 25 minutes to the British shop here to buy proper tea bags at a ridiculous price!
ReplyDeleteKate x
http://www.kateathome.com/
ha ha ha Kate, I have really enjoyed the Liptons, as I like weak tea, but do recommend that any English visitors bring some Yorkshire tea :)
ReplyDeleteLove that Pavlova on your blog, but I am more a buy from the shop kinda girl lol
If that's any consolation you don't need to be an expat - even holidays can do that to you! I've only ever spent two 5-day vacations in the UK but I was FLOORED when I saw that the one Austrian supermarket chain that used to have them took vinegar crisps off the shelves! Now I've got to go to the British supermarket which is a long way across town rather than two minutes from my university department. :-(
ReplyDeleteha ha ha I totally agree, when we are on holiday I now miss French food in the same way, I have accepted that you can enjoy things without being embarrassed, i will happily buy cheddar cheese from anywhere when I find it
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