slave labour

We were excited to be having help this weekend. Donald volunteered his assistance for 2 whole days, poor guy had NO idea what he was getting into. So for the cost of feeding him dinner and breakfast, we worked the poor guy. Dinner of steaks, fresh sweetcorn, fresh green beans, coleslaw, baked potatoes, all washed down with wine; then for breakfast juice, toast, and egg and veggie fritattas. Hey, if anybody wants to work for 2 days, we'll feed you well.

Bill and I had decided that our best use of Donald was to be sure that we put the sheathing on the section of the cottage that has 2 floors (figuring we could handle the bottom floor stuff on our own). Since the scaffolding was already set up in the living room, giving us access to the 2nd floor, we put up the sheathing on that section. That went fairly well and gave us some sense of encouragement.

Next we went to the back and put up what we could get to. However, the septic bed offered a real dilemma. It is a raised bed so is very uneven. All that day we mulled over ways to get up to the second level. The scaffolding just wouldn't go on it. So that first day we worked around it, hoping we'd come up with a good solution. We did 1/2 of the back wall and worked around the corner that day.

The next day after bouncing ideas around we came up with a neat little idea. Leave a 2 foot section open so that we could build a temporary platform that would reach across the span of the septic to the cottage. So, using 16 foot boards (destined to become rafters soon) we nailed the boards to the 2nd floor and included a plywood floor for safety (see the picture below for a good view of it). We worked well into the early afternoon before stopping for lunch taking advantage of our momentum (and our captive slave labour). The afternoon was spent moving scaffolding around and tackling the wall facing the woods which thankfully was a flat surface. The guys would put up the sheets and do the bulk of the nailing, while I would follow behind and cut out windows and doors. We finished the bottom section and 1/2 of the top before quiting (moving the scaffolding around is heavy work and very time consuming, but I can't imagine doing this without it) .

So released from his work, Donald took a quick swim before heading out. Hopefully it refreshed him enough for the drive home. Thank you for your help Donald. Hopefully you won't be TOO sore in the next few days.