It’s been a busy few days; we finished the spare room and Kieran has now moved into it.

To start on the next bedroom, we borrowed a plasterboard lifter from Jean, our neighbour; what a brilliant piece of kit! It lifts the plasterboards effortlessly to the ceiling and saves on hours of back breaking effort. Kieran did most of the ceiling on his own, using it. Nick took out the fireplace without a great deal of effort; not the most substantial item in the house.

But the biggest job this week has been raising the beam over what will, one day, be a doorway from our house to Nick’s workshop. This involved taking down the wall below a big oak beam, propping up the wall above the beam with pit props borrowed from another neighbour (they’re a generous lot around here), removing a chunk of wall above the beam, followed by the beam itself, then replacing the beam at a sensible height to allow people to walk under it. It was a bit tense at times, waiting to see if the whole house would collapse around our ears, but luckily it didn’t and we now have the space to put a door.

This is all part of a greater plan to build Nick’s workshop; he needs one to house all the new toys he’s bought recently and, he claims, to build all sorts of stuff for the house, ( a kitchen, for example, which would be useful). Kieran’s been practising his his bricklaying skills on one of the workshop walls; I think he’s missed his way in life – the wall’s beautifully straight and level!