1.25pm, Thursday 26th June, 2025 – the roofers exit stage left:
The renovations, extensions, remodelling, and general future proofing are all done, all finished, 5 years, 3 months, 13 days since we moved in, just before the first Covid lockdown, and 8 months, 16 days since we eventually sold Coven Sud (so finally had enough pennies to finish all we wanted to do).
There’s definitely another post coming soon about the re-roofing just completed, including how I had to peel some stickers off their star chart on Tuesday (something I spent all my working life telling teachers, parents and others never to do) due to my raised blood pressure, but how all ended happily with an excellent job that exceeded our hopes, the area around the house cleaner than it was before they started, and everything now uncovered, stowed and ship-shape. And nothing broken by either roofers or scaffolders!
But, for now, we are celebrating.
Almost immediately they left, with home-made strawberry ice cream (with added chocolate drops on top for Mr BW) and a bottle of Cava:
And very soon with a very early night with no need to wake up at 6am to be ready for workmen before 8am.
And breathe…
Month: June 2025
No matter how long I live in the NE, I will never get used to light between 3.15am and 11.15pm, at this time of year. Even the four hours of ‘darkness’ aren’t really dark.
it’s very discombobulating, because if you go to sleep before dark, and wake up, you never know whrther it is still light from the day you fell asleep, or from the next day’s dawn.
It’s strange, because the nights in the winter in the NE never seem that much longer or darker, although I know they are as we had four and a half years of being able to compare the weather and day lengths of the two locations through remotely viewing the CCTV security cameras at Coven Sud.
The series finale week of Countdown is sadly marred by the guest being Not Johnnie Walker, Whispering Bob ‘The Teeth’ Harris. At least Colin Murray is taking the piss out of his bragging this time around.
It’s been quite a week.
2 four letter words in the same set of Countdown letters on Monday/Tuesday, amazing temperatures (day and night) at the end of the working week, Paul Heaton and Rianne Downey on the Isle of White today. And The Orange One doing what any thinking person has worried about.
But, closer to at home…
This middle section in the picture is the only bit of the original house roof still not replaced, just a week on. The back, including replacing a Velux (no, they don’t pop out and in as easily as the manufacturers claim) and 4 dormer tops, as well as the slates and the decayed woodwork, was done by Thursday lunchtime.
I drove back down the track yesterday afternoon around 5pm after attending my spinning guild meeting and looked with concern at the LHS front. There had been intermittent rain showers all day and the overnight forecast was for torrential rain. Despite the roofers saying that all was watertight after the slates and old tarred felt were stripped on Friday morning, and the new breathable membrane and battens installed, I was worried.
I woke up soon after midnight last night: there was lightning and thunder from the SE (Cumbria) and from the north (Scotland), of a continual, prolonged, spectacular type I last saw over 31 years ago on a little island in the Bahamas where we got married – although then we were under it, rather than watching it from tens of miles away. But, Mr BW (having been supervising and assisting the roofers, and coping with all arising eventualities, all week) snored through it all, and it, amazingly, didn’t hit us. As promised, all was still dry this morning.
The roofers have been amazing.
Despite living over an hour to the south, the two company owners have been here every day from 7.45am. Over 100 hours of work this week, plus travelling. Because the unnaturally high temperatures (28.5°C in the shade) meant that they had to go home early afternoon on Thursday and Friday, at the point of heat exhaustion, despite wearing hats, shirts and sunscreen (unknown in ones less than 30), one of them was back with us at 20 to 8 this morning (Sunday), and worked through 5 downpours (refusing a towel to dry off as, “I’d never live it down!”) to finish the front LHS slating.
I have never seen tradesmen work as they do.
They turn up when they say they will, work non-stop, irrespective of weather (with no phone scrolling), until they leave, use the bins provided rather than just drop wrappings, sweep up every night and check for stray nails in the drive, don’t swear continually, ask if their radio is too loud, and remember to say please and thank you for refreshments provided. They communicate well, reply to messages promptly and helpfully, and say goodbye and ask if we are happy at the end of every day before they leave. They even sent a text message apologising for accidentally having gone home with our tray and empty cups in their van on Thursday! Plus, they have offered to clean the external top windows and UPVC edges/windowsills when they have finished, before the scaffolding comes down. Best of all, they take their power tool batteries home to charge each night, rather than plug every gadget they own (irrespective of whether they are using it here) into our electricity, as most previous workers have.
At last, 5 years on, the perfect workmen. They do exist!
Fom the outset they have insisted we only pay anything at the end, when we are completely satisfied. Today, after a discussion about the plan for the next week, we offered to pay an amount now, so that we could be sure the roofers could pay the scaffolders, to be sure the scaffolding would be taken down on Friday, before the roofers go on their holidays next weekend, but he wouldn’t hear of it. It is lovely that he is so trusting, but I do fear for his future as his work expands.
The end of the 5 year renovation/refurbishment/extension project is in sight…
To celebrate, and as a reward for the ice-cream loving Mr BW’s hard work, I have bought an ice cream/gelato/sorbet/frozen yoghurt making machine. A proper one, with a compressor, not just the £20 freeze-the-bowl for 2 days before each use version I bought (and later junked) a few years back. So far we have pineapple frozen yoghurt, and frozen (commercial) smoothie versions (both yummie, made in less than an hour from start to finish). I have chocolate, and rum and raisin, planned for tomorrow. Only good ingredients, no additives or fillers, and no added sugar, as the ingredients in the products available in the shops just leave me cold.
Anyone have experience of such machines and any sources of good recipes?
The roofers arrived at 07:50am this morning. Considering that they live over an hour away, we were impressed. “No time to talk or drink tea!” they declared when offered a cuppa first thing.
Within an hour they had the stone ridge cappings off, and had already stripped the slate off one quarter of the back of the roof.
The lad (who looked like the younger brother of one of the two roofers) did a good job in getting the slates down and stacked into the back of our trailer. Because, if you have a new car, just 15 weeks old, why not use it rally stylee to move your old roof down the sheep field the other side of your fence so the slates can be easily thrown over the fence to be nearer their final resting place – under the hedge as ‘mulch’ to stop the weeds, and on the slate garden that we are in the process of creating? Beats hours of back-breaking wheelbarrowing.
One of the other firms who quoted for the work thought he would re-use the existing slate. Looking at it, it’s third hand at least already, chipped, discoloured and generally disintegrating, so it was a good job we didn’t choose him. And, despite not using new slates, he was £7K + VAT more than the ones we chose!
The nasty old Velux in the upstairs bathroom came out with a bit of brute force:
We didn’t imagine that they would get that far today, so had only 10 minutes to get the bathroom cleared, the electric mirror cling-wrapped and the bath protected with big sheets of cardboard and a tarpaulin. It’s a good job we can think and work fast!
By 2pm, the three of them had stripped all the old slates, felt and battens off, and installed new breathable membrane and new battens.
Apparently it is now weathertight, and this will be tested tomorrow as it is meant to drizzle all of the working day. There is no other rain at all in the forecast until Wednesday week, and if today is anything to go by, they will be long gone by then.
Now, if only all our workmen could have been this good… I guess it’s called saving the best til last.
For the next 2 weeks, we will be replacing the roof of the original house, the Velux window in the upstairs bathroom, and the flat tops of the dormer windows on the back of the house.
The roof was very tired (having been done in 1974 to the cheapest possible specification), but not leaking; it could probably have waited a few more years, but we wanted to do it now, while we were doing it on our terms, rather than on ’emergency’ terms. Future proofing is all.
The salesman who sold me my car back in December recommeded the roofers. The roofers recommended the scaffolders, who were excellent. After 3 sets of bad scaffolders on past phases, it was great to find some good ones. And they even said thank you for the refreshments we provided!
Yellow wagtail site foreman on the ridge:
Missing mortar on the ridge, with old flat roof felt:
Supplies were delivered yesterday (including 2,600 new slates):
The roofers start on Monday.
Wish us luck…