2 rooms down, 7 to go

The front 2 rooms are finished! Kieran is a gifted plasterer and I am in awe of the superbly smooth finish he delivered in the 2 rooms. Not a bump or dent in sight. This was a trial for him and he passed with flying colours. We shall definitely get him back to do the rest of the house as and when it is ready to be plastered. I think Daithi is considering getting him to render the outside too but I feel a bit guilty since we have given to job to Dougie by word. I will leave Daithi to decide.



Daithi was hard at work over the weekend too. He finally got the barge finished at the end of the roof. He built the shuttering himself and had a bit of help on saturday to fill it will concrete. Kieran smoothed it off for us and now we wait for the suttering to be removed to see the final result. I really hope it will be ok. It was the final task to be done before the rendering could begin ouside I think.




Daithi was in Wexford on thursday and visited the salvage yard in Gorey again.
He ordered the freestanding cast iron bath I wanted (should be delivered this week) and picked up the ridge tiles for the hips of the roof. They worked out to be about 9 euro each which is comparable to new ones here so a great find. The lads in Gorey are going to try the ridges we need for the top of the roof, which are a tighter angle and apparently harder to find.


Our local farmer, popped in today and cut the grass for us with his tractor and mower. It is a relief to see all the nettles and weeds gone (for now). Conor spent at least half an hour raking the grass at the front into a big pile. The next step is to spray the area and kill the weeds for good. John, the farmer was a nephew of the previous owners of the house and was telling me of how he remembered the house. He used to rush up the stairs to see the view of the sea whenever he visited. He also remembers great get-togethers on St Stephen's Day to play cards. I have heard that from others too. Next time I see Michael our elderly neighbour I will ask more about them.

Work, Work, Work... AT LAST!

What a week!

Conor started school - no tears or apparent nerves were shown. Instead I had tears from Liam when he was lining up because he was worried about going into first class! Liam was fine afterwards and hasn't looked back. He now has the only male teacher at the school and he is "cool". Apparently he has secret hand signals for going to the toilet and wanting a drink! Conor has one more week of early days and then he stays until 2pm. Today, they both had homework for the first time and it was funny to see both the boys sitting down and doing their work.

Meanwhile we had trouble getting plasterboard delivered and so the plasterer couldn't begin until today. At last it feels like some progress is being made! One room has plasterboard on the walls and ceilings and it feels like we could move in already! The other front room is completely clear and is ready to be slabbed too. By friday 2 rooms will have been fully plastered. I am so excited. Daithi is upset that he isn't here to watch things happen but he will be back on friday to see the last day of work.

The local plumber got back to us for a price to plumb the house (heating, bathrooms,kitchen etc) - 13,000 euro!!!!! GULP! We think that we could source items ourselves to bring the price down a bit but I was very surprised! I think Daithi has reached the conclusion that we have to get workmen in now to finish the house - he just hasn't got time to do all the work now he is working away. And it is getting colder and we don't want to be in the mobile in the winter time again!

Our neighbour, the niece of previous owners of the house brought up some photos of the house in 1986. I was very interested to see the old windows in and I assume the original door. I was very surprised at the style of the door and will have to ask the older neighbours if they remember a different door because it just doesn't look like it belongs to the house! Investigation will continue....