visiting

 Pirate and Nephew....

 Nephew's new workshop....I'm getting inspired! We've bought a spare roll of insulating membrane from him, for my workshop. It is breathable, but also keeps the wet out.  Just what we need.
They have a new pair of pups, so it was walkies time...

Only youngsters yet...siblings,despite the looks.

House Progress

 Next door has been roughcasted today, next step render and harling'

 We've been getting our wrapping, polystyrene blocks sitting on a ledge and attached to the walls with fixings

and here is Dad...working with his two sons,a real gentleman.
Our house's team is from Poland, and is four workers plus a supervisor.
They work well,work hard and keep a clean site.

House mending

This is why our home needs insulation....single skin brick, built about 70 years ago.

The "tiles" are at least not the original, which were basically roofing felt..and the jackdaws attack those, as we see on next door's roof. However they deceive the eye...they are metal sheet wrapped in a thin skin with grit on it.  When we can, we'll have to insulate the roof space.  What is there is a couple of inches thick and in bad condition.  There should be ten inches.

 A late House Marten nest, too late for a brood. They will have to remove this for insulating the walls.

The jackdaws and starlings are being evicted as well....

Family Tree hunting

I've had an afternoon of computering, looking at the Pirate's family tree.
Some work has been already done, but some directions need filling in or pushing on.
I'm catching up on the groundwork, before talking to the Pirate's elders ( 5 and 9 years elder! ) and to the other family researchers.
We've found others of the same surname,some just an hour from here, so we're searching for the links...

small trip to Maidens

Printing progress

At last the prints have dried enough to frame..just a light plastic frame and no card mount
I've made a new list of how many to finish off the print runs..for most I'm limiting it to 20, which gives incentive to move on an make more designs.

I'll be getting them priced up for posting soon and on my etsy shop..all progress has been limited by the extraction of a very deep molar tooth root with a large attached abcess. Looks like this has been affecting my health adversely for quite a long time by slow and insidious growth, so without it I'm feeling instantly better, if still fighting a secondary infection...we'll get there!

The weather is cold and blustery outside, so I'm busy convalescing inside whilst the Pirate is sorting old tools and stuff and looking after me.

Wrap Up !

These are the Before pictures...our home is being wrapped...should this be  "outsulated" rather than "insulated" ??

 The front garden is being used as a yard for our block of houses

 They're working round the older half of the village , built 1930s onwards, pre-fabricated houses with a 20 year expected life.....metal frame,single skin brick...

 Now they're using money that central government takes from power companies and Scottish government's money from Europe to do all sorts of insulation. We do have to pay, but luckily only a tenth of the cost.

I don't envy them working in this weather. At least we aren't having hurricanes or tornadoes, thankfully. We just get the windy and wet tail end of each one after it makes its way around the ocean.
The scaffolders are here today, but all our insulating, rendering and harling was supposed to have been finished mid August...there are some jobs that the rain holds back.

I'm looking forward to even smaller bills this Winter as well as feeling warm!