Impulsively and on short notice I took Friday off this week.
Came up to Shropshire to help Craig after we got Fil “Sparkplug” and his wife to agree to come up in their campervan from Cambridge.
Craig had bought these 20 year old stables from the lady he bought his house from.
She was replacing it and rebuilding a new home on the foundation footprint (Crazy English planning permission rules)
So what he bought was this.
We dismantled it in November……….
So up by 04.30 and by 09.00 I was here and by 10.00 Fill and Mrs Sparkplug was parked up outside too.
Uneventful trip had me stop to grab a couple of pics along the way.
Life goes on……..
Our task for the two days was this…….
Get the rest of the structure and roof up so Craig could carry on with the build on his own.
So once the unpacking, unwinding and coffee was done, we went up to the workshop space and discussed, planned and double checked various parts of the planned erection.
So the main, to be exposed ridge beam was lifted into place and then with a strap we pulled it to align and drop into place as rain and being stored in kit form for 9 months had had certainly affected some of the panels.
Fil the strapping lad tidying up after the heave-ho.
Of course what does not show in all of these photos is the amount of time it takes to make small tweaks for fitting, and larger tweaks for our own health and safety.
Nobody wants to get hurt 200 miles from home, let alone at home.
Ridge beams all fitted and various extra bearers and supports added
.
Inbetween Craigs wife and Nicky made sure we were motivated with food and drinks…….
Thankfully it was overcast all day.
Next job was to start sorting through the pile of roof panels that had been packed and piled around the back of the temporary garage.
Then a decision was made
On how to raise the super sized and heavy, trust me, roof panels safely onto the structure.
The old dividing walls were laid on the floor as a stable work surface, followed by fetching the hydraulic engine hoist on the Radio Flyer wagon.
Every panel needed more denailing, and then strengthening with 100mm to 150mm screws to ensure they lasted another lifetime.
The original build was all done with nails.
You can see the size of the small panels vs the larger ones we were standing on.
Loads of lifting and shifting, and also using these low down dollies over some OSB boards to get the panels into a workable position.
Lifting these large heavy panels onto the roof is dangerous and heavy work.
So using the engine hoist to do the initial dead-lift made a load of sense.
VIDEO.
https://youtu.be/NCkz3-KbnKE
And number one up and over.
Screwed down, with more interior screwing down going on.
At this point it was around 18.30 and rain had set in earlier.
So we decided that the rain was just going to make things dangerous and slippery…….
ANOTHER LITTLE VIDEO…..
https://youtu.be/cb_5Q26Vbug
YES, IT WAS NOW WET.
At the point where we stood under the cover, looking out and feeling pretty pleased with ourselves for the work done so far.
Closing shop meant covering things over, strapping bits down and heading indoors.
Lorraine had planned it all out for us in the farm kitchen……
DIY Pizzas.
I think we were all long gone to sleep by 10.00
Both Craig and I were awake by 03.00 as we sleep less that we want to.
I chatted with Dennis for a while then dozed off again till 6.00
More in a while.