Roofing the Grange

Walking Monday: 3.8km

Cycling Tuesday: 9.2km

Swimming Tuesday: 0.95km

Walking Wednesday: 3.8km

Cycling Thursday: 9.2km

Walking Friday: 3.8km

Swimming Friday: 1.20km

Moles caught this week: Pip 1

Moles caught this year: Pip 8, Tim 5

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This may be the last major building activity we undertake at La Basse Cour. The stone outbuilding, colloquially called Walnut Grange, is getting a new roof. We repaired, patched and re-pointed the stone walls last year and now Gérard and his team have arrived to rebuild the timbers and put on a new roof. We are having a steel roof in the same grey as the hanger roof and house window frames - RAL7016 colour shade to be precise. The front will be built in with timber cladding and custom built-to-measure wooden doors - I managed to find a wood stain that was available in a RAL7016 tint as well. Next we'll be setting up a RAL 7016 fan club ......

Gérard came round on Sunday to check out the delivery and - in between rushing off to Lauzach to sweep a chimney - cut back a few major overhanging branches on the old walnut. (I once asked Gérard his views on the 35 hour week, "It's OK if people don't want to work very hard"). The trainers on my chainsaw course would have had kittens if they had seen him free climbing the tree with his chainsaw in one hand, no helmet and no protective gear. The result has opened up the tree though:

The neighbours here still talk about the ten days in 2012 that Gérard spent re-roofing our barn in consistent sub-zero temperatures, Gérard, Aurelian and Sébastian arrived back here working at the same furious pace as when we last saw them - although they have two speeds they only seem to be frenetic and even more frenetic. 

First off was the old steel roof on the main building so that the new pannes (purlins) and roof structure could be fitted:

Next the steel panels on the lean-to came off, the whole roof structure here is being replaced as the previous one was a seemingly random collection of bits of rotten timber nailed together:

At the end of the first day the rest of the roof is off and the first new panels are in place: