Outside work progress

Whilst Sam is busy doing a quality paint job inside, there ahs been some progress outside.
First image is by the front door ready for paving, which has gone up in price by 20% since I first identified it a year ago, due I suppose to Brexit and exchange rates.

And this picture shows the infill that I started on today, between my garage/studio wall and the neighbour's shed. A crevasse about 10m long and 1.5m deep and various widths. It is filled by bringing stones, rounded ones preferred to enhance drainage, in a wheelbarrow to the end of the crevasse, and then bucketing or throwing them in from a narrow and rather hazardous access point at the corner.. Today's competition is to estaimate how many tonnes of stones have been moved in this way. Fortunately not much more can be done until after the weekend since I need to insert fenceposts for a wee fence before completing the backfill.

Painting and Fitting out

 Here the kitchen is being installed, lots of kitchen kit piled up ready to be fitted.

Walls and ceiling have been painted 3 coats, thanks to Anne and Bill who generously apent a day painting the first coat in the lounge/kitchen.

 And thanks to Sam who is spending a week working all day every day to get the paintwork up to scratch. Sam has very high standards, having been trained down under professionally.

And outside there is slow progress to prepare the path and patio areas for paving.

Pre-cast exterior stairs

Here are some images of hte pre-cast stairs being offloaded from the lorry and lifted into place with a Maniscope.

 The steps are shaped to fit the gabions, which stagger back at an angle and with steps. to enable a slightly wider platform.

Roofs, walls looking finished

Here is the green roof, looking a bit patchy because they sent short by 6m2, so more is on the way. It has now been watered in, by rain and hose, so should settle in and establish itself over the next few months.

 The pink north wall with small windows

 and the front entrance wall with cladding complete

 Solar p anels installed on the studio roof, pumpoing out energy [well not much in winter months] but not yet grid connected.

 Tapoing of the plasterboard now in progress in the house

and the south wall cladding is now finished

Green roofing

Today it is all go with green roof being craned in and laid out inn all its multiple layers finshed with Sedum and pebbles around the perimeter.

Down below the plumbers are finishing the first fix, much delayed since mid December, and  builders are constructing the supporting boundary wall.

Whilst the joiners are working on the external cladding which is almost completed.

Stepoc boundary wall

 A view of the green roof

 The pink north wall

Cladding finished by front door

External finishing of render and cladding

 Here are some images of the finished lime render, taken in a rainstorm, but showing something of the tones. The garage/studio is in off-white, whereas the house is in pink, to match the stone that is widely used around and about.

 The external stairs will now be pre-cast in the Lochton cement factory, and will arrive in late January, but the structures to support them are now in place.

 And here there is plasterboarding in progress in the lounge

 and in the hall

 whilst outside the cladding is going on the walls to the south and west

Strengthening the overhang and cladding with Scottish larch

Here are some pictures of the overhang, a feature of the main house. The engineer required it to be strengthened to support weight above, so it has become quite busy.

The framework is sthen covered in mesh to keep the flies and wasps out.

And finally it is clad in Scottish larch, using Stainless steel nails and with airgaps between boards to allow the space and indeed the whole roof to breathe.