A friend commented that there had been precious little recently in the way of house build updates. Which is very true. Progress has been slow, and we are still taping and foiling some months into the process.
A number of things have conspired to make what should have been a relatively quick job a complete marathon.
Husband has had to fill and tape all wall, door and window seams throughout the house BEFORE foiling, as well as taping everything again AFTER foiling.
This has turned into a huge, time-consuming undertaking which he felt was necessary because of gaps left by the builders. Gaps that if left open would have compromised our structural water and air tightness.
His faith in the quality of the work by the builders has been severely dented as these are not cosmetic problems that we felt could be covered over, sure to cause us issues some years down the line.
He has been doing this work alone, and other time-critical work has taken weeks away from this process, such as installing the house guttering and the start of work on the croft as Spring approached.
However, the end is in sight. The floor insulation for the next stage has arrived.
It arrived on a thankfully dry day, but a windy one. About 50 huge sheets of insulation which blocked the drive on arrival and which we had to manually carry between us into the house.
These sheets are big, requiring two of us to manoeuvre, but very light in weight, only 10kg each. They exhibited impressive aerodynamic properties as the wind caught them, acting like a sail, taking both our body weights to counter their desire to take off down the croft.
It took a whole afternoon to get them wrestled safely under cover into the house.
They’ve also provided me at least with a bit of a morale boost. They are a nod to the promise of progressing onto the next stage, which is laying these, then the underoor heating pipes, then screed, and us being a few steps closer to this being a house.
We will get there. Courage, mon brave!
Ravencroft Skye 
You are doing a great job and time spent now will be time well spent later when you are both toasty warm indoors with Bertie.
It is such a shame you had rotten luck with the builders but the knowledge you now have will stand you in good stead. I also now have a vivid image in my head of you both moving the insulation panels, well done for keeping hold of it and thank you for bringing a smile to the face.
Keep going and keep enjoying the process. When the cold winds and rain whip around the croft you will be safe inside knowing you did a top job and those aching bones and muscles will start to fade away by the fire as you raise a glass of whisky and toast your achievements “we built this house”.. A pretty amazing achievement I think xx
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Thanks Jo. You always keep me bouyant and positive! 💕
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You will get there, but every step feels like wading through a molassas swamp. Also you will sometimes look back and be unable to see your progress. Just keep working and you will get it done. Then there will be days when you will be in awe of what you have created, and joy in just being where you are. It all balances out in the end.
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I’m sure that this is true. I must practice patience.
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It will be of little consolation but poor standrads of building work are endemic in this part of the world; you are fortunate in being able to remedy the issues before it is too late. Tedious as it is, you will reap the benefit later. Not too worry Spring may arrive in about a month and we can all start gardening.
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Looking forward to that already!
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You’ve done the right thing taking your time insulating and waterproofing everything properly. You’ll benefit greatly from this marathon session in the long-run. What’s this ‘delay’ done to your initial completion deadline?
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Thank you. We think probably about another six months. It’s slow progress with one person only working on it, mainly my husband. We hope to be in the house before the end of the year 🙏
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That would be amazing. Fingers crossed.
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