Going Up in the World

After much planning and imagining and discussing and calculating, we finally took a flying leap and entrusted the stair design to John Dement of Handmade Stairs. He took out the top bend so that the stair lands facing the big window at the back and added an extra riser. He and Frank were here for 3 days fitting the stair and building the enclosed balustrade and the rolled handrail.

We think it works beautifully especially the solid balustrade.  Same idea as the concrete stair we both liked in Biarritz! We’ve only oiled the treads and risers to protect them and have an interesting job ahead of us closing off the curve at the foot of the stair. (Two sheets of hardboard glued together, formed to match the curve of the stair – we think).   Meanwhile, we are getting used to being able to access the “other world” upstairs and are realising that it is a large space with its own character- very different from downstairs mainly because of the light and the extra views .

We managed to get the materials for finishing off upstairs before the stair went in, and also hardboarded over the stairwell too. We couldn’t get all of the plasterboarding done because we needed the wall studs to provide supports for walkways. Now, we are wondering how we’re going to do it!

The next big push was to get the wiring in the ceilings so that we could fit the hardboard and get Clyde Insulation back to complete the installation of warmcell in the roof. It was a bit of a slog – we kept having to move piles of hardboard, or piles of wood, or sheets of plasterboard, or scaffolding, or ladders. After a couple of days sofa and curtain hunting in Glasgow and another day away kayaking, it took a few late nights to get it all done and taped. The lads arrived at about 10.30  but it took them a while to get organised with the drills and hoses and so on, so we just made it.

It felt warmer just having the hardboard up, but with the insulation in as well, there is quite a difference.  Of course we have had the fire on for an hour or two in the evenings just to be cosy while watching the telly, and to heat up the water.

We have ordered the window for the wall between the hall and the dining room and once that arrives, and we get the rest of the doors in place, we will really be able to tell how warm the living area of the house is and whether we are going to need heating.

With the two small bedrooms completely plasterboarded, we are working on the big bedroom now. Having the big wall between the bedroom and the landing enclosed after all this time is quite strange. The hardboard ceilings made the rooms seem dark but the light walls are lightening them again. It changes all the time!

It was such a struggle doing the hardboarding on the big ceilings that we are wondering whether we can face plasterboarding them now, or whether we might put up something else like v-lining and spray paint it. Anyway, we’ll use up the plasterboard we have and then concentrate on getting the electrics and the bathrooms functioning.

On our trip to Glasgow we called in to my mum’s and collected all the books and pictures from her attic. After getting used to the flat slabs of colour on the walls, the pictures are going to make a big difference.