Almost there

Well, things are moving along here at St Abbs and most of the work to the exterior of the house is now finished.

Do you remember this rather large concrete water tank base?

Well, Chris got stuck in to its demolition...

...and now it has gone!  Of course it was very damp all around it (Chris disturbed a toad!) which was most likely the cause of the damp patch at the bottom of the dining room wall ~ that's the wall which sticks out between the kitchen and bathroom extensions in the photo above.  Hopefully this area won't get so damp now.

Buried in the concrete base were some lovely lumps of granite!  I guess whoever built it just used whatever they had to hand, although to my mind it seems a sacrilege!  Still, I have a nice pile of granite lumps now for a future rockery project 😉

This is the view along the side of the bathroom extension.  The guys have replaced the roof but the bathroom is still a work-in-progress.  They will be coming back in a few weeks to sort this out.  At some point in the dim and distant past someone thought it would be a good idea to concrete from the house to the garden boundary wall ~ goodness knows why!  We suspect that the void between the two walls has been filled with rubble or stones, which is creating a damp trap ~ plus this appears to be where the dreaded rats have been getting into the house.

Chris and George are going to open the area up and take out whatever has been used as infill.  I'm sort of hoping it might be more lumps of granite but I doubt if we shall be so lucky LOL  The garden wall may have to be temporarily dismantled whilst the guys sort out the damp issues and make the wall rat-proof.

This is a little bit of the wood which was removed from under the slates on the bathroom extension.  The whole lot was rotten and all had to be replaced.  George said it was like cardboard!  There had been a lot of water getting through from the leaking chimney, coupled with no ventilation in the roof space.  Well, that's not technically correct actually.  There are air vents but they were covered by the insulation, so about as much good as a chocolate teaspoon really!

The old kitchen asbestos slate tiles have now been replaced.  They were not in a good condition and were leaking in places *sigh*

The guys carefully removed the tiles and put down a new layer of plywood sheeting...

...followed by a layer of Kingspan insulation and topped with a second layer of new plywood.

The two sides were then built up...

...a Velux window was installed, and the roof was prepped ready for the fibreglass coating.

My word, that fibreglass sure did smell awful!  I felt so sorry for the guys who were applying it, as it was a very hot day and they were both all kitted out in protective suits, latex gloves and face masks!

The plumber came back out once again to fit the lead flashing on both the kitchen and bathroom extensions.

Shug finished off the kitchen roof with uPVC fascias and Chris finished the guttering.

Don't you think that St Abbs is looking so much better now!  The painting and guttering is all finished, apart from the side wall of the bathroom which will be completed once that area has been sorted out.  We have also now had the middle window replaced upstairs, ready for the boxroom-to-bathroom conversion in a couple of months time.

The only windows outstanding are those in the porch (which will also need a new roof ~ again, it will be fibreglass) and the one in the bathroom.  We haven't had the latter window replaced yet, as we don't know whether we will have to have the lath and plaster stripped from the walls because of the damp/mould issues in there.  Those two jobs won't be done until sometime next year.

Adrian and I are both really pleased with how much progress has been made in the six months or so since we moved in.  The work we were most concerned about getting done before winter have now been done.  The next job coming up on the agenda is my new craft shed, so watch this space for updates 😊