Pipes in place

Today has been another grey and miserable day for the most part and I wish it would just brighten up some - I don't mind cold but grey is meh.

Pipe lagging for our day today

Fitting the plaster board back into place

Measuring the pipe ready to cut to size

Pipe is nicely behind the plasterboard

The other side done as well

Anyway the men were to the shop first thing and arrived after that with all the insulation they needed for their task of the day - to run hot and cold pipes underneath the plaster board ready for when we get to the next part of this job which will be to actually fit the boilers and run the water to them. First of all they replaced all the insulation and panels that didn't need to be down then set to cutting and fitting the pipes in place. They had to pop out again to get a different angle corner joint for it to work perfectly but it's better to have the correct thing in place. It took them all day but by the end of the day the pipes for both sets of solar panels were run and in place. Tomorrow they will put some conduit in for the far panels which will eventually contain power (as I've got the option of a resistance heater in each boiler as well for days like, well, today) and then I think this may be done for the year as the weather is not good enough for climbing about on the roof with heavy boilers.

A lovely end to the day

The panels on the roof; now waiting for boilers

The overcast finally cleared late afternoon and it was a lovely blue sky and a nice autumn afternoon. I also snapped a picture of both the solar panels in place.

So there it is. Thanks for reading and back tomorrow.

A weekend then the second panel

Another weekend has flown past and we are now less than two weeks until Christmas! Crazy how fast time is flying now.

Lovely autumn/winter morning

Big bumps that needed sorting out

Rosie puts a stone into the wheelbarrow

Weeded and de-stoned; lots more to do though

Rosie sits on top of the big pile of sand

Our little sandcastle that we made together

The train comes into sight

The weekend was a pretty good one all told but had its moments as you'll see. I was woken about 4am by Xena being sick and then later on she started throwing up blood. Once the vet was in his office I dashed her over to get checked out and he gave her some injections and special food and said she had a stomach bug. Fortunately she got better steadily through the day and was fully back to normal by Sunday. When I got back it was time to go outside with Rosie to get some chores done. I raked over the huge bumps in the drive by the front gate and then, with Rosie's help, started to clear stones and brambles from the burned section next to the gate. We worked really hard and I was pretty exhausted by the time we stopped. We then had fun with the big sand pile and also made a small sandcastle next to the sand and stone pile. It was a good day outside and great to get lots of progress done. At the end of the day we spent some time in the lounge and set the train running around the tree which is always good.

Angela re-covered this in the night

Play time in the lounge

Rosie feeds the birds

Angela clearing out the Glass room

Plants on the windowsills, Rosie and the pups look on

Christmas stickers onto the windows

The lounge looking lovely and Christmassy

Rosie with her sparkler

I did not get much sleep, unfortunately, as a storm blew in with really strong winds and it was howling and banging outside and kept waking me up. When I got up the next morning Angela told me that she'd been out earlier putting plastic back over the blocks as the wind was so strong it had blown the tyres off the top of the pile! I got the trolley and shifted them in really quickly. Angela and Rosie had fun playing with some magnetic toys and then the sun came out so Rosie and I went to feed the chickens then did another load of clearing down by the gate. While we were working on that Angela was clearing in the Glass room and preparing a load of plants for winter so then Rosie and I helped by carrying them up to the lounge. It is great to see that room looking so awesome now. In the afternoon Angela and Rosie did stickers on the windows and doors in the lounge and now we really are ready for Christmas. There was time in the evening just before bath time for Rosie to have fun with a sparkler.

Taking the shrink wrap off the final panel

We needed to remove insulation to access the beams

Cold damp and wet on the roof

Not an ideal day for roof work

The securing metal strap in place

Such a beautiful view up here

Bekir takes the pipes upstairs

And so to today which started off foggy and cold and stayed that way for almost the entire day. I suggested to the men that they stay inside because of the weather but they decided to work on getting the second frame put in place just to get this phase of the solar boilers complete at least. Halil removed some of the plaster board and insulation from the place they'd need to access to fit this frame and then Bekir went onto the roof and set to work. It was a much quicker process, as expected, and they managed to get the frame and the final panel in place during today. I didn't get a picture of the panel yet unfortunately as I was busy. The weather cleared briefly during the day which was nice while it lasted but it didn't last long. At the end of the day the men went to pick up some water pipes so they can run these out to the roof, but just cap them inside and out and not attach them to anything, so we can then put plasterboard and insulation and plaster everything inside. I don't know when we'll finally get these boilers fitted due to waiting for some special valves (which I have now ordered) and also the weather not being ideal for working on the roof.

My pizza from this evening

This evening Rosie asked to go out for our dinner so we went and had a lovely time and some good food too.

So there it is; thanks for reading and back tomorrow.

Panels in place

Well we've made it to another Friday and today has been another learning and slightly frustrating day however progress has been made.

We actually could see the sun this morning

Joining fittings being tightened into place

The panel is in place, but it doesn't fit

Bekir working to true the frame

It was a nice morning for once, and so lovely to see the dawn and the sun rise rather than the thick cloud or heavy fog we've had for days now. The men were in on time and headed out almost straight away to go to the shop to pick up a pipe cutter, the light fittings for the eaves crawl space storage, and also to check the invoice we've received. When they came back they set to work on the first of the solar panels, trimming the pipes to the same size and then fitting the joining fitments before shifting it onto the roof. I missed this process however when they had the panel in place they found that the frame was not 100% plumb and square and so they had to spend several hours fixing this slight mistake. We are learning so much doing this and that always makes it a little slower.

Halil trims the tiny pipe

Hefting the panel up onto the roof

Carrying it over to the correct location

Carefully sliding it into place

We have solar panels

There goes the sun

Bringing blocks in

With the frame now square it was time to prepare the second panel and get it fitted; they did the trimming of the pipe and then I watched, slightly panicked, as they lifted and carried it into place. It went without a hitch which was a huge relief and I left them to making the final adjustments to the frame and then joining the two panels together. The day was bookended by lovely sun while the middle of the day was cold and overcast again, and right at the end while Bekir was still finishing up on the roof Halil got the trolley and brought in a load of the blocks from the patio. He has also covered those he didn't bring in really well with plastic, in case it rains.

So there it is; we've made progress but there is rain forecast now so we may end up pausing our solar boiler experiment for a while until the weather improves. Let's see how it goes. Thanks for reading, back on Monday.

A struggle

Today has been a struggle, with bad instructions and confusion, but we've worked our way through.

Bekir starts on the roof

The first hole through for the support strap

Fixing extra supports in place

Strap bent and secured

The sun came out, still working on the roof

Drilling an extra hole

Fully secured in place

It started with fog and mist and I did suggest to the men that they not work on the boiler but Bekir wants to get things he's started finished so he went for it. They were focusing on getting the frame attached securely to the roof beams and this involved drilling holes through the roof planks and then bending the steel structural strap around a beam inside. I've got a lot of pictures of this but not much more to say. Thankfully the sun did come out during the morning and warmed everyone up. They completed this just after lunch and then our progress pretty much ground to a halt. We need to find a frost dump valve before we can fill any water into the system, and also needed to get some caulking for the plumbing joints, so they spent a fair amount of time in town trying to find these things. The caulking was ok but the frost protection valves, no joy. We then wasted a load of time trying to work out which way around the solar panels were supposed to go and settled, finally and right at the end of the day, on "it doesn't matter". It was too late by this time to actually start fitting them so that was the end of the day.

Just as the sparkler stopped sparkling

Just as I was starting to write this update Rosie called me from the patio as she had a sparkler; unfortunately I was just too slow with the camera and caught it just as it finished. Never mind.

So there it is; another day, though we aren't where I wanted to be at least progress is being made. Back tomorrow, thanks for reading.

A school day at the Old School

Today has been very much a learning experience for everyone; it's been pretty tough at times but progress has been made and we are getting there.

Breaking open the fitting box

Bekir and Halil work on assembling the frame

Here are the rest of our blocks

The second frame is nearly done

Bekir removing tiles

The men started the day thinking they'd be working on the floor but the forecast for today and tomorrow is expected to be dry so I suggested we make a start at least on the solar boilers. We carried one of the boxes of hardware up and began the process of assembling the framework however didn't realise we were following the wrong instructions and even had the wrong box - I've bought one solar boiler that has two solar panels and one that only has one so there were two different sets of fitments. Oh well, Angela spotted the mistake and after that the frames went together quickly. Mid morning the remaining blocks we had ordered for the walls also arrived and they have been unloaded as well. After lunch with all the frames in place Bekir went onto the roof to remove the tiles along the line of the beam we were considering using to secure to, more on that later.

Bekir carries the frame over to the other roof

He made it safely

Extra beams to secure it to

Tidying up at the end of the day

A short while later I was watching, and hiding a bit in fear, as Bekir lifted the frame over to the far roof section to measure and ensure we had everything in place with plenty of space. The wind was starting to pick up at this point and it was cold and not ideal really but they kept at it, and he got over safely thank goodness. I then had to leave them to it for a fair while during which time they realised that the original beam they had planned to use was not in the correct place so they have fitted some extra wooden supports inside the roof which will have the metal brace bent around. By the end of the day a lot of preparation had been done and tomorrow they'll start to actually fit the first of the boilers, which is actually the biggest one with two collectors and a large boiler attached. We do also need to get some more valves before we can actually start using them but the main thing for now is to get all the invasive work done before we plasterboard the entirety of the inside.

A sun set of sorts

I'll leave you with a picture of the sun starting to set - it's been so long since we saw any sun!

So there it is; an exciting day today. Here's to tomorrow, back then. Thanks for reading.