Chris and Bev – Heads in the Clouds

The next major transformation to the outside of the house will be the rendering of the ground floor walls. The chalky white render will be applied in May onto cementatious render board which we need to get fitted. Dave, Mark and Ewan weren’t keen to switch from their usual timber to this board but have admitted that it isn’t as bad as they’d feared – it cuts with a saw, snaps and doesn’t need drilling. We’re not sad to see the back of the metallic membrane as the boards creep their way around the building, and can now better envisage what its final appearance will be like.

In the garden, Lee was back for a couple of days this week to lay new coping bricks along the last stretch of wall repair (for the time-being). The bricks were specially made in Suffolk and, as you can imagine, rather pricey – £12.50 each – but the new stretch looks good and the wall has lost the gap in its smile.

Yesterday Richard, Johnny, and Pete started plastering – a significant milestone. Wall by wall, ceiling by ceiling, the plastering will take about a month apparently. The finished surface feels like silk!