We Raised the Roof

I have not been able to make a post since early November, which tells you how busy we have been. Work has continued both inside and outside the cave, and the difference is discernable.

The roof has been raised to form a roof terrace, this was a last minute decision, as previously we were just going to tile the roof with conventional tiles. We looked at the views from the roof and decided that the view would be one of our greatest assests, so it seemed a shame not to grasp this opportunity.

A void was created on the outside edge in order to bring the roof level, and then walls and piers were created to take the wooden vigas. These had to be cleaned and the ends stained to ensure that they would not absorb moisture. Failing to do this would have caused the vigas to swell when they got wet and consequently crack the cement that surrounds the ends.

Piers up the rest of the building was ready for the render, and then later the piers and the upper terrace walls were also rendered.

The stairs are almost complet just requiring the final step at the top and the wall below which will form the hand rail. Then the stairs must be tiled. We will be fitting another door on the lower wall which will afford us a little more in the way of weather protection, and a useful under stair storage area.

The whole building in more or less fully rendered now and will have a full thick coat of monocapa next week.

We have drainage spouts leading from the roof terrace to help drain standing water, and we have to finish weatherproofing the vigas which we hope to get done before the end of the week.

The whole place is now starting to look more complete, and the views from the terrace are stunning. We will be tiling the terrace in the spring and giving the whole place a good coat of paint. We hope to get an area fenced for the animals in the spring too, but as usual there is so much to do and so little time in which to do it.

Work inside has also happened at some pace, with all the rooms apart from the cave lounge being tiled and grouted, all that is left is to finish painting these rooms, and move the bath from the main part of the cave house into the new cave bathroom. This will be a precision operation as one the bath is removed we have to get it installed pretty quickly as it is the only bath we have. Once in place we can use this bathroom whilst we refit the other bathroom.

We hope to finish the painting this week and move into one of the bedrooms, so that we can prepare the bedroom we are currently using, for my daughter who returns to Spain in 6 days.

Our next area of work will be in the pantry bringing new wiring into this area and building some open units for storage. I have already opened out a large cupboard and I have nearly finished the yeso work on the walls and new shelves, which will then leave some painting before it can be used. Pan hanger is up and working but I will leave the pictures for the next post, when I hope to have a little more work completed in that room.

Hope you all had a great Christmas, we enjoyed our first Christmas in our cave house, and the fireplace looked very festive and felt very cosy with the wood burner chucking out oodles of heat. Hope you all have a great New Year.