I had thought it would be just Bob and Jen. Then Esther said she was free. Then Andrew and Daisy, then Ryan, Alec, Sam, two friends of Bob’s I’d never met…
I thought I’d better get the interior of the toilet done before the weekend. It’s only polite.
And since Jorge and I had successfully finished the bunk beds, I made some sheets for them. Jack helped.
I also made a one-hour bench from bits and offcuts. Came out comfy and lovely, and I will make several more, I think.
Everyone arrived by late Saturday morning and work was underway. We set about de-nailing all the rest of the wood from Antony’s old house and auditing it for use in the last building to be built with that batch: the Wendy House, a two-bed bunk-house overlooking the bluebell wood.
Andrew, a keen and efficient manager as well as builder, was indispensable. And quick with a circular saw. He was in charge of cutting all the pieces.
Bob and Jen made an excellent team as usual sticking the bits together and putting them in place.
With all four walls up, we put up the end rafters to hold the ridgepole…
And went and had lunch.
But the frame was soon done, and we set about enjoying it and being very proud.
This took some time, with people taking it in shifts to enjoy the building.
But eventually we managed to get what we thought was the full enjoyment out of it for one day and moved on to other things.
Daisy, Sal and Anna started digging the trench from the water pipe up towards the house site, by way of the shower, which will be a proper shower at some point this summer.
And as it all wound to a close, Andrew enjoyed a swing over the fading bluebells.
I’m exhausted, but also elated, as usual, with how much we got through that would have taken me weeks on my own.
Now Jorge has gone back to Spain, and I might sleep all day tomorrow, or at least waste time on the internet, before my next volunteer arrives in the evening and it’s back to work.