All trussed up and no place to go

Okay - points to those who recognise the music reference here! The title isn't strictly accurate; I was going to use another title, but that is going to have to wait until a bit later.

The trusses arrived yesterday, along with the crane, and due to not sleeping well and pain in my shoulder going down into my arm, I decided to spend the day at home yesterday - which meant that I got to watch all the exciting things going on at the house. I think that the problem with my shoulder, stems from having a year 10 pupil (male) fall against me in the corridor after assembly on Monday, because it didn't start hurting until about 10.30am - the corridors at school are narrow, and with all the building work going on at school, there is a limit to where pupils can exit and enter the buildings to get to their lessons. So, the corridors were crowded, there was pushing and shoving going on, and as a result, a pupil fell against me, and bruised my left arm. However, it's the right side that is aching - the same side that always aches. Never mind that for now - I'm trying to keep going so that I forget about the discomfort.

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome someone to the family - her name is Maisie Grace, and she's my niece! The daughter of Charlotte and Shaun (Charlotte, my stepsister), was born on Wednesday morning, at 11.05am, weighing in at 5lb 11oz - congratulations to the proud parents, the new grandparents, and welcome to Maisie! Of course, there is a quilt in progress for her!

On to the job in hand - updating you with the details of the house. I might try exploring another website later, to upload more photos - to give you a slide show of them, as I took lots yesterday. I was that excited by it all, and Keith had given me orders to give him a full account when he got home yesterday, that I took 90 photos and 5 or 6 movie clips. I was excited when I saw the crane go past the house, and then when I saw the trusses go past the house, when you could see through the roof, when the roof was no more - it was all just too exciting! (I know, I'm sad - but hey - I haven't been able to see much of the school being built, and I am finding the whole process really interesting - both school and house). I made notes of the times as well, what was going on, and some of the photos look exactly the same - it's just that parts of them show the trusses going past the house - and so on.

The photo on the right shows the crane at the back of the house manoeuvring into position. If you enlarge the picture (click on it, and it should enlarge), you can see the trusses going past the house - the gap between our house and the white house on the left. The crane is the red thing, and you can see where the roof is coming off on the right hand side.

The crane arrived at 8.56am, and the roof trusses at 9.01am (I did tell you that I found it all quite exciting, and have become really quite 'sad' - a bit of an anorak in describing it all, taking notes and so on!)

Here you can see the trusses on the lorry - don't they look big! Mind you, they have to be - they are the side of our bedroom and our living room. Also on the lorry is more wood, to be used for attaching trusses up, putting them in the primary positions, so that they are attached and not falling over. Also on the lorry are our velux roof windows.

I took most of the photos from the flat - standing on the balcony. The photo on the right was taken from the car park. I was thinking about sitting in the car park for most of the day, but during the period in which I was sat down there, not alot happened, and it was quite chilly as well. This photo shows the crane well. Nathan was in the church car park from 7am, making sure that no-one parked there, so that the crane and lorry could come in without any problems.

Here on the left, you can see no roof - the roof has come off, so I suppose you can't see the roof. Anyway, you know what I mean. You can also see the outer and inner walls on the left hand side - the men were removing the inner wall during the morning. You have to bear in mind that there are no ceilings upstairs either - there are only the walls in place. It looks like the power line pole is leaning a bit - I'm sure that has nothing to do with Joey scratching it and sharpening his claws on it!

The photo on the right shows the crane in an extended position - it started extending at 9.32am, and this picture shows Graham (our builder) getting a ride on the crane so that he can stand on top of the trusses, to fit the chain onto the trusses, to lift them off the truck. In this photo you can also see that the roof has gone entirely from the right hand side. This photo was taken at about 9.55am, at which time the trusses were moved off the lorry and onto the the car park.

Of course, I know that what you really want to see is how big the crane got - and so the photo on the left shows you. I sat in the clat all day, on a comfortable chair, just watching the events. This photo shows the first truss being listed - that was at 12.09pm. It took a bit of time getting the truss into exactly the right place, but by 1pm that chains were off. At 1.12pm I observed the crane swaying a huge amount - the winds started getting stronger, and it made the job more difficult, but by 6.30pm it was all done. There was a bit of a problem, three of the trusses on the right hand side were put in the wrong way round to start with - it took 45 minutes to get the trusses unattached, moved and then re-attached.

The final photo for today was taken later - at around 6.40pm. If you enlarge the photo, you can see Keith standing up on the roof. All the trusses that had to be made specially have been fitted, and some tarpaulin fitted over the open roof. The winds continued, and got worse during the night.

At around 3am this morning, Mathew phoned - he'd just woken up, up at the house, and saw that there was water coming in to the kitchen. He came back to the flat a little later. The winds continued to give us a restless night. This morning, Keith went to get some bread and some hot cross buns, and looked in on the house as well - the water that had come into the kitchen wasn't so bad. There have been chaps up at the house today, but they can't do very much due to the wind. Keith has heard that there were a couple of other mishaps yesterday - such as one of the beams (or was it a truss?), going down into the bath, as a result of the wind. We have heard that they will continue the work over the weekend, which is just as well. Apparently, we're going to be receiving our eviction notice soon - we have about 2 months of the lease left, and we really need the house to be finished. Next update - when there is something to update you with!

During the Storm

I'm not really one to be easily scared. The wind last night woke me up due to the clanging metal - I woke whenever there was a loud gust of wind. So, I didn't really sleep very well, but I didn't think that the storm had been that bad. I drove to school this morning, and it was strange seeing how high the water was in Bideford - it reached the top of the arches of the old bridge.

Coming home this evening has been a bit of a different matter. I knew that there was a bit of wind - but the rain was stronger, and the wind didn't seem so strong. That all changed as I drove along the link road - before the turn-off to Westward Ho! - the back road, I could feel that the wind had picked up. I had BBC Radio Devon on, and heard that the new Barnstaple down stream bridge had been closed due to the high winds. As I drove down the hill, I saw the massive waves. I got into the flat and decided that I had to take a photo:

We have heard that the wind is going to continue, and there has been a severe (?) flood warning issued for the North Devon coast including Westward Ho!, due to the high winds together with the spring tides.

At this moment in time, I would rather be up in the house than here in the flat. I can see very grey skies behind the house at the moment - and I know that we can't be living up at the house at the moment - the ceilings have come down upstairs, and there is no carpet in our room, or in Nathan's room. Therefore, Nathan is coming to live in the flat for the moment. I have spent a little bit of time clearing the spare bedroom so that Nathan has somewhere to stay.

The biggest problem here at the moment is the high winds. It is really quite scary here at the moment, the high winds are shaking the flat - I have seen the windows vibrating, and even the green roof of the flat shaking. You can feel the flat shaking - whilst sitting on the sofa the wind can be felt shaking the whole place. I really don't like it - I didn't like it when it happened back in December, and I like it even less now. I would much rather be in our house, but Keith tells me it is worse up there.

I suppose I shouldn't complain - we do live in one of the most beautiful parts of the country. It's funny - I remember strong winds and gales when sailing - remember Dartmouth Dad?, and then when I was on the Sir Winston Churchill, we left Alderney in force 8 winds. It all seemed fairly safe then - you expect boats to be moving about on the water, pitching and rolling and the wind whistling in the rigging, but not on dry land.

I shall now post the blog and finish my beer - and try to keep myself warm and calm.

Preparing for the Storm

It's been a while since the last post, and there have been changes. Yesterday saw the builders battening down the hatches - well, the roof actually. The intention was to take the roof off tomorrow (Monday 10th), and put the trusses on the roof. Due to the high winds, it has been decided that this will not happen now, so they had to make the roof secure.

The picture on the left here shows them working, and it actually shows Nathan on the roof as well - he's the figure you can see on the right hand side of the roof - and you can see him quite clearly without having to enlarge the image at all.

We did have a bit of a shock yesterday. It turns out that in order to put the new roof on, the builders have to take down the ceilings upstairs. This meant that Nathan had to clear his room yesterday. Luckily we had sorted out our bedroom last weekend, and boxed everything up. Our current bedroom is having the least amount of work being done to it, but Nathan's is having lots of work done to it. The drum kit has now moved into the living room where the rest of the things have been stored, and you can still get in the door, but you can't move around the living room at all. I think the cats quite enjoy having somewhere to hide and explore.

I have spent the morning at the house clearing the office. That was quite a feat - trying to find places to put the things left in there. I've had to tidy it, sort out dozens of leads. We need to bring the chair and the desk down here to the flat. This means that I had to dismantle them both, as they were too big to bring out through the door. The pieces then needed to be taken downstairs, so they can be brought down to the flat.

Last weekend we went to clear our bedroom, and went up on the scaffolding again. The height of the scaffolding at this stage, is the height of the second floor - so the pictures give us a very accurate idea of what the view will be. It was a lovely day, and the ladder is now situated at the front of the house, which makes it a bit easier to climb up.

The picture on the left is another view. The roof has no tiles, and no chimneys. I'm glad that we're in the flat at the moment - you can see where rain has come in to our bedroom down the chimney. Also, with the high winds expected, I don't relish being in the house. At the same time, I'm not looking forward to experiencing the winds here either - I'll be able to feel the place shaking, and we'll both have trouble sleeping. Having spent time clearing this morning, I shall be glad to get back into the house, and not have the entire place looking and feeling dirty, and cluttered. The last photo I shall leave you with, is a view of the garden - I'll give you a warning - it's not good to look at it if you're afraid of heights! As you can see, the garden is a mess, and really just a building site. Still, at least I'll get a chance to design the garden as I want it to be!

Well - that's it for now - if I get a chance to take photos of the trusses going on the roof, I'll do another post. I'll also try to take some photos of the rooms without ceilings. What is a bit strange, is that we've contacted Torridge District Council about a rebate for council tax. We could only get a part rebate as the house is partly furnished. As the ceilings will be coming down before the new roof goes on, I'd have thought that we could claim more, as we really can't live in it, in that state - neither can anyone else - although Nathan has threatened to live in the kitchen.