Not exactly finished, I admit that. But one side of one bit finished. About 2/5 finished. Allow me my moment of rejoicing. Here, David poses with his (and it was largely his) triumphant roof. I think it looks rather well.
We got electricity in the house, complete with a light.
But the big news is the progress on the exterior walls. Dani came round for the first time, hopefully, of many and was very helpful and enthusiastic, even though she had only meant to come for dinner and ended up staying the night and working most of the next day.
Below, Lea and Mac prepare the wall for receiving render. The actual use of the hedge trimmer doesn’t seem to have been documented, sadly, but I can say that Lea definitely had the talent for it, leaving the walls lovely and unfluffy.
It was a bit of a moment of truth when we tipped off the water and started to use the first of the lime putty (slaked back in February). I was worried about the consistency, as I didn’t really know what I was doing when I slaked it. And it is a bit thin…
But you work with what you’ve got. Two blops of putty…
…to six blops of sand…
…mixed up into a thick paste that just about held its form and was easy to spread on the walls and work into the straw’s texture. Peter and Lea were very quick learners, and did a great job, so we got through most of the ground floor exterior walls (barring the back wall, which I’m not doing until I’ve sorted out this bloody damp problem.)
I think I remember the stuff I used before being thicker, but hey, we’ll make it work. I expect I will put it on in very thin layers and let it fully cure for ages between coats, in the hopes that that will make up for it being a bit thin. In places, it’s already drying to a lovely creamy colour.
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