So while I merrily chamfer away to the sound of baby starlings cheeping in the roof ( the last brood all fell out and had to be rescued so here's hoping Mum has patched up the nest) Mike is building the walls. This is a wall. The theory is that they will be built in the shed, then erected around the existing building. The roof joists will then be hoisted into place with a little help from our friends (Mr McKerral's wood lorry) and then all my retarded planks will be whacked into place, covered with something waterproof, and the old roof will be removed.

That's the theory.

These are the first 12 of our 96 bits of wood for lining the roof. We've got it all nicely organised as we can do 12 at a time and somehow manage to lean them up against the roof. Managed to get one top coat, a chamfer and a bottom coat done yesterday. And listen to the Archers at the same time. What about Sid!

Well, thats the last of the dwangs! Not easy when you're 6'4" and the roof comes down to the floor.
Next job is building the walls which will be done in our new super shed at the end of the Village Hall.
Meanwhile my next task, having sorted the slates, is to fireproof 96 planks which will line the roof. Each has to be chamfered (chamfurred, shamferred, shamferd???) on 2 edges, then the stuff mixed to exact quantities, then given a second coat. and we reckon we can do 12 at a time. I'm in for the long haul.

Last night we were measuring dwangs

Floor joists on one side going in. There was huge trauma when the wall plate ( that horizontal bitty of wood) wouldn't line up with the holes in the concrete which it had to be fixed down to ( very secure in case of a force 10 off the Bay) but all is now well.

Work starts at 7a.m and goes on till 10, then 7 - 9 in the evening. And long may the dry weather last.

He's lowered the wall outside our old bedroom, we (WE - I helped!) made a nice concrete pad on it, and another wall plate goes in here. Then one on the far side and we can get the new floor joists in. Building already which is great. Meanwhile I slog away in my midge jacket sorting slates.

No, I bet you can't work out what he's doing either. But at the moment it's all to do with putting in wall plates to hold the floor joists. He did think this wall was load bearing and the roof would probably fall down, but what the heck

Below is the little old attic space; now imagine that it is going to be transformed into a new - slightly higher- room; and above, Mike is attempting to pull our bedroom completely to pieces

Well everyone, I bet you thought the loft extension was nothing more than pie in the sky and a figment of Mike's imagination. So did I.

However after struggling with the vagaries of all the planning rules and regulations ( thank goodness we didn't need a civil engineer when we built the house 35 years ago, he'd have hated when the roof took off 3 feet towards the road in a gale), and the sheer nastiness and humiliation of RBS who refused us a mini mortgage, we're off!! Took a whole Sunday morning to psych ourselves up to take the slates off , and the insulation under them (very messy ICI U-foam plus pumped in - weren't we ahead of our time), the thing has finally got started. Loads more photos and hopefully not much chat ahead.