More Insulation and Battening! CM vs MM = Trouble in...Paradise??! ;o)
With the A-Frame plasterboard all fitted (although still with a lot of filling and sanding to do!), we are now into the long room and are in the process of fitting the insulation Before fitting the battening on top ready for the plasterboard to be fitted. The battening has already proved to be a very long and excrutiating job, as we hadn't included it within our original plan and it has been very time consuming - throwing us right off our estimated timescale for the plasterboard work.
We have been working from first thing in the morning and I have been stopping to be with Summer and do other work elsewhere where she can be with me and safe. She often comes up with us whilst we are working and we set her up in a safe area (away from all tools and barricading doorways to prevent access to the stairs!) on a dustsheet with her colouring things and toys, which gives us more time to be getting on with things, but, as with all children, it is not long before she wants to go elsewhere and do something else - but I think probably longer than most - she is very good! There is a great deal of stuff indoors and outdoors (weather depending) that I can do and involve her in, and she is a very easy child who likes to learn and be involved, so we are very lucky. It is great to have the one on one time with her and she really enjoys her colouring and painting at the moment. Very enjoyable to see and be a part of. She is also potty training at the moment, which is provikng interesting with everything else going on, but she is doing very well and we are very proud!
Summer also loves to be outside and has been helping a lot in the garden. She really is a joy to be around! :o)
As soon as we have had lunch and Summer goes down for her afternoon nap (3 hours! She loves her sleep!), it is back upstairs and onto the walls and plasterboard.
Summer will wake up at about 4.30/5pm, we will have a bit of time together doing some gardening and then it is time for me to make the dinner. Bedtime and story time (we try and do one in English and one in our very best French - I am sure she will start to correct us soon!) is at 7.30/8pm and then it is on with battening, insulation and plasterboarding until early hours most nights. It is absolutely exhausting, but we have to do it to catch up on the time we have lost with having to do the battening and the roof leaks we have had.
We are both extremely exhausted and have to admit that although we are doing our doing our best to get the job done and work together, this specific job seems to be ever lasting and is taking every last bit of our patience and energy. Not surprisingly, we have been bickering very often and have had a few big arguments where we have had to take time out away from eachother for a few minutes to take a few deep breaths (and a few puffs on a cigarette - something that is proving very difficult to refrain from once again and is an ongoing battle for both of us!) and then continue with the job, sometimes with gritted teeth, no eye contact and no conversation for long periods of time.
With Scott working in millimeters and I in centimeters, it is just one more extra annoyance!!
For me, plasterboard is my most hated job ever! With most jobs, I can usually pick it up easily and just run with it, but for some reason, I just can't get to grips with it. The amount of times I have cut the perfect size and shape to fit our wiggly roof beams and meet with the other piece of plasterboard already fitted and then find I have done it on the wrong side and the chamfered edge is on the wrong side, so have to discard that piece for later off-cuts and start again is unbelievable!! I have never had my patience tested so much!! It has actually frustrated me to the point of tears at one time, but I think massive fatigue and stress has also been a factor to this. I just want to be getting on with my walls and for the ceiling to be done!! There is so much left to do and the idea that I will be filling and sanding every plasterboard joint and screw hole throught the entire upstairs is just unbearable right now!
The added pressure of not knowing if we are going to come anywhere near our deadline to try and obtain a gite let or two is not helping at all.
These are not easy times!
You can see in the below picture that there are extra bits of wood which we have fitted along side or to replace the strutts that are already running opposite to the beams. This is either because the orginal strutt was so eaten away by woodworm that it needed replacing, or to bring the level of the strutt outwards to try and keep them all at the same level for the plasterboard to be fitted to.
