6th January 2018

After quite a break with Christmas and work Christmas Parties etc, Sharon and I went back to our part time job today. I had been up just before Christmas to meet John up there as he dropped off some beams. We had decided that there was still a bit of a smell of smoke we thought but couldn’t be sure so we took the decision that whilst we were at the stage we were at we would replace the floor/ceiling above kitchen and the large bedroom. So the beams were got in readiness for that. Since then the only things that appear to have changed is there are 2 new concrete lintels above the 2 downstairs doors. I can’t decide if John has been up or I missed them before Christmas. Also Paul has been and got rid of the last lot of logs from the back garden from the massive trees that were taken down and cut up when he did the massive garden tidy up when we first got the place.

So today’s task was to try and remove all the floorboards in the large bedroom as carefully as possible trying not to damage them wherever we could. The reason for this is we would like to use some to replace some of the damaged ones in the living room. A bit easier said than done as quite a few were already damaged but we did a reasonable job and managed to save a good 90%. Any damages we can cut off and also cut out any smoke damage if required.

Removing the old beams was a bit more difficult as they were extremely heavy and really needed two people of similar height and two pairs of steps. Obviously Sharon is quite a bit shorter than me and we only had one pair of steps. So I went it alone. Not a bad effort, I’ve got most of them out just leaving the four at one end until I’ve spoken to John as removing them will take away the landing at the top of the stairs. I plan to do that when we can replace them on the same day.

We had the site inspectors round today for a review of proceedings (Spok & Denise). It’s lovely they are taking an interest and it’s nice to show them how we are getting on. Sharon was a great lackie and moved all the boards as I took them up. She also kept me supplied in tea snd was great with the tidying up. The best bit is we both love working up there together and we usually get a fairly good result.Read more