The lid is on!
Hooray, the guys are in the dry. The big holes for the windows will need to be filled in, but that will be after Christmas. In the meantime, that thin sheet of Tyvek stuff is what matters. Josh and Terry are spending most of their time creating noggins for the ceilings under it, and the roofers put extra battens on which to fix the tiles over it. The guys tell me that the tiles will be on before Christmas too. Now, THAT will be amazing.
It poured with rain on Monday, but the roofers persevered and managed to get some very soggy sheets fixed in their places.
The oak frame is starting to look a little lived in, a little too lived in really with the odd bit of scrap falling from the top to the deck. So James has covered the vulnerable parts of the frames to give them some protection.
We’ve decided on a combination of black stain on the soffits and Osmo varnish for the facias. James has been painting, and they’ll be cut to size and brought upstairs for fitting next week.
A few short late-afternoon visits in the week allowed some time for some photos around the site. But most of our time has been spent at the computer and immersed in catalogues choosing stuff and fleshing out the Fixtures and Fittings schedule.
Hard on the heels of Birthday Week last week comes Thanksgiving. I remember inviting my parents-in-law down for Thanksgiving dinners in the early 90s when I first moved here and was still a little homesick. They were very forgiving about having a Christmas dinner served to them a month early for no other reason to appease their daughter-in-law, and I’m grateful for their patience. I kind of gave up doing it after a few years because I decided it’s not the turkey that’s important, it’s the four days off in a row, the travelling and travelling-related-drama, and all-American-ness of it that I missed. This week, with the kids doing their after school classes, Clinton doing Scout-y things and me driving laps around Surrey dropping and collecting children, the night kind of passed us by. So I was determined to retain a small part of the whole exercise–through pumpkin pie, of course.
It’s a weird time to be American and in the UK after the horrible election. For once the geographical distance feels huge both socially and politically as well. I don’t run around feeling “American” but I like to be part of a community. This past week has left me wondering what that community truly is, and what its trajectory might be. But the process is what’s valuable ultimately, and it’s important that the kids still connect with their American side. So to maintain that connection in a positive way, Gemma brought in a piece of the pie to her Scout “International” evening, and Gregory might be starting to grow an interest in his political side. Incremental gains.
Wistful moment: it used to look atmospheric, being the only light on our little section of road! Hopefully with a little TLC, it will be restored to its former awesome state. It’s not exactly an urgent issue, tackling this bit, but it’s one of those things that will make it really nice to come back to.
Mid-November and it’s getting really really cold. The rental house’s main valve to the ground floor radiators decided to give up the ghost this week just to make things interesting. Not quite a frost on the inside of the windows state of affairs, but it’s certainly cold underfoot when making that first cup of tea in the morning. But this is NOTHING compared to early dark-o’clock onsite.
