Bulkhead

Mike has built up the bulkhead ready for cedar cladding. The timber frame was covered with cement board, and then yet more Celotex insulation, and battens. The cedar along this section will be in thin vertical planks.

At the weekend, I also discovered they've been working on another bulkhead - this time between the ground floor and upstairs windows. And they have constructed some thin but rigid pillars that will be between the large glass panels. These are made of wooden planks bolted together like a sandwich, with a mild steel plate in between. Another plate screwed to the back gives the whole thing rigidity in both axes.

And to keep themselves busy, they have turned the staircase around. It now faces forwards. This isn't entirely crazy ... Nigel needs access to the back wall of the stairwell, which will be made up with a false wall at low level, so that pipework and ventilation ducts can be routed up the back wall and into the joists of the first floor.

Meanwhile, I have bought the rest of the stove chimney sections, and now need to buy a hearth to sit it all on. I added a rain-proof flange onto the external pipe (24 hours too late, as it had rained all night!), which now looks a bit like a rocket ready for blast off.