Day 18 - Watch us now

On the top photo one can see various parts of the roof revealed. On the left, the room below goes right up to the ceiling, while on the right there is attic space where a couple of them are standing in.

The existing fibreglass insulation is being complemented with an additional 120mm layer of pressed natural wood based insulation. Environmentally friendly (compostable) but as tragically later to be an issue in London, very difficult to catch alight. It smoulders if you hold a lighter to it and in the wood fireplace will burn slowly if placed on very hot logs.

The existing four roof windows have been removed, one of which we had installed 2002 and will be reused. The other three will be new. For speed, the entire area has been covered in insulation even though the windows have to be put in. The insulation despite being wood is actually water resistant for a period of 6 months, so the roofers don't need to cover it in plastic sheeting before the other work and tiles are done.

Bottom photo is the situation by evening. Able to make such progress as we had lots of help. The builder actually is a one man band with a student on gap year most of the time and then relying on local lads who are mainly employed in other areas such as agriculture. Although frustrating at times, I still support this method as it's good for the local economy and apart from helping out the youth financially, it also gives them lots of experience and responsibility at a young age. One of them for instance works on his family farm, arrives after morning milking and leaves "early" to do the evening milking. He has lots of building experience from helping our builder and was able to use this to good ends when building the families new cow stable.

The chaos on the ground (actually State forest) in the upper photo is the responsibility of ours (Angie and myself) to clear away which involves removing all the old nails from the wood and then we cut them up in to 35cm long pieces for next winter's firewood. Lots of stacking involved. Angie actually did much of today's.