Day 111 - 113 Top and Bottom

Captain Seth and his merry men have been tap, tap, tapping for several days. Having secured trusses, supporting beams and generally trying to square-up an un-square barn, without detracting from it's character, they've been on rafter duty on the North elevation.

The spine of rafters on the North face is almost complete

Mark, don't do it. We need you!

Captain Seth and Papa Bill working on rafters above studio

BarnBoys standing in the hall

BarnBoys trying to avoid getting their boots dirty

Meanwhile, with an "all-clear" from Captain Seth atop the roof, the BarnBoys could make a start on concreting the floor of the north elevation. They waited patiently for Mr Concrete, aka Mad Mike, who was delayed due to the freezing temperatures, forcing the concrete elves to wait for water to thaw before they could fill the belly of the lorry, allowing Mad Mike to be on his way.

As if by magic, BarnGirl has a concrete floor!

BarnGirl's Art Installation: 'Suspended Four'

Concrete in Master Bedroom, Bathroom, Dressing Room

Thank you, Digger Ryan, for bringing your 'Bull'. After a once over with his vibrating tamp rail, Digger Ryan brought forth, the 'bull' and smoothed the surface of BarnGirl's floor.

There are several more layers of stuff to go on top of this layer of concrete.....more of that to follow, when I'll try and be a little more specific about 'stuff'.

An example of a 'bull float'

BarnGirl makes her mark

 

Sun setting on site. Time to head home, guys

Boss Jon gives a precis of the day's activity for the 4th time!

Another good day. Another beautiful sunset

And so, to bed.

Love 
BarnGirl
xx

Day 110 - it rained and it rained and it rained and it.........

...rained....and it rained and it boringly continued to rain all night until about noon the next day.

BarnGirl's Waterfront property

It's raining 
It's pouring
Vorsprung Durch Technik is Snoring!

The lap pool returns

Handy ladders for Captain Seth and team to work on the roof

The BarnBoys don their wet weather gear and carry on. Boss Jon and Tim laying a pipe to the utility room. Meanwhile, Matt's on digging duty, preparing the area around the supporting posts. The base of the original posts will be trimmed where they've rotted and eventually 'spliced' with oak, to form a 'lightning joint'!

Pipe heading to the utitliy...the pipe, not boss Jon

And here it is

Diggin' it!

There's beauty in the rain cloud!

And a hint of a rainbow

I'm off to locate the pot of gold.

Well done, BarnBoys.....not a murmur of complaint, despite getting soaked to the skin and down to their Jockey's under the all-weather gear.

Love
BarnGirl
xx

Day 108 and 109 - Going Topless

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. The BarnBoys removed the 80 year old corrugated roof. By lunch time, Matt and Tim had finished, leaving the barn exposed and shivering, in anticipation of a dodgy forecast. Ugh. I have yet to find a forecast I like! 

Eek. Rain on the way. Does the roof really have to come off now?!
 

 NORTH

 EAST

 

SOUTH

WEST

Doris gobbling yet more earth from North Elev before roof was removed

Shepherd Howard adding to my Everest of earth extracted from the North Elev

Earth floor in Bathroom 2, Bedroom 2, Studio and Utility looking level again....sort of

 Meanwhile, down in the South, Captain Seth and his team of Chippies were adding a second row of beams to which the oak framed, glass sliding doors will be fitted.

Soffit detail - to be covered

With at least 7 chaps on site, BarnGirl needed to bake an extra batch of cakes. Rumour has it someone ate Matt and Tim's supply. Hmm.

If anyone sees a forecast for dry weather in the South East, please let me know!

Love
BarnGirl
xx

If you're interested.......

Soffit (from French: soffite, formed as a ceiling; directly from suffictus for suffixus, Latin: suffigere, to fix underneath), in architecture, describes the underside of any construction element. Examples of soffits include:

• the underside of an arch or architrave (whether supported by piers or columns),
• the underside of a flight of stairs, under the classical entablature,
• the underside of a projecting cornice, or side of chimney
• the underside of a ceiling to fill the space above the kitchen cabinets, at the corner of the ceiling and wall,
• the exposed undersurface of any exterior overhanging section of a roof eave.
• the wall into which loudspeakers are mounted in a recording studio. 
• a drop-down box used to mount a kitchen ventilation hood under a sloped or high ceiling.[1]

In popular use, soffit most often refers to the material forming a ceiling from the top of an exterior house wall to the outer edge of the roof, i.e., bridging the gap between a home's siding and the roofline, otherwise known as the eaves. When so constructed, the soffit material is typically screwed or nailed to rafters known as lookout rafters or lookouts for short.
Soffit exposure profile (from wall to fascia) on a building's exterior can vary from a few centimetres (2-3 inches) to 3 feet or more, depending on construction. It can be non-ventilated or ventilated for cooling non livable attic space.

Day 107 - Digging, Joining and those Trusses

Smiley Tim runs amok with Doris; this time Doris decides to gobble up BarnGirl's studio and bathroom. Meanwhile Shepherd Howard uses the mini dumper buggy to remove the soil and add it to my mounting Everest in the 'garden'.

'Yay, it's my turn to take Doris for a spin'

 

East End. The trench behind the retaining wall filled with small, rounded pebbles to prevent damage to the Protection Board

East End. Trench filled. Matt can now stop his pebble dance to sjchush them into place.

The remaining 3 posts standing sentinel and proud

Captain Seth checking measurements

M'four posts - East to West

So, to the trusses - the two angled trusses. A mini blip, all sorted within 24 hours....thanks to BarnGirl's 'no problem' team.  I was admiring all the work going on and then cast my eye to the vaulted ceiling in the south elevation and the trusses. My wish was to have a series of four straight lines rather than one straight, the next two angled and the last straight. It may seem a tad petty, but I felt strongly about it.

For a few pensive hours, and thoughts of having to remove work just completed, there was a transfer of drawings and sketches and several phone calls between Boss Jon, Archie, the Architect, Mr Structural Engineer and me, the problem was resolved. In fact, it resulted in an even better solution.

According the Structural Engineer, there was no need for the lower angle truss after all. If the roof line timber above it, was flanked with steel plates, the new angled trusses could be removed altogether and reused elsewhere in the barn. Perfick!

One of the angled trusses. The lower beam will now be removed. The top one will have steel plates attached either side

The two angled trusses

Well done, everyone.
Love
BarnGirl
xx