That’s what I found myself saying over & over again as we battled rain soaked gusts relentlessly hammering into our ‘roofless’ house for over 8 hours today. Our Carpenters did a fantastic and extremely dangerous job up there on the roof all day building the framework of the new dormer.
Now, at 4am, it’s calm and quiet.
Yesterday they set about demolishing the old leaky, tired dormer with an axe and by lunchtime we were left with a 6m x 5m hole in the roof, open to the elements. The crane was due to arrive at 11am, to lift the roof steels in to place. It finally arrived at 3pm and despite my anger and frustration I couldn’t help but smile when it turned into our little Close – an awesome bright yellow and glitzy piece of kit which strangely had all the guys on site drooling!
Even more impressive was the box of tricks that the driver carried around his neck – the controls for the crane. He jumped out of the cab and with his ‘magician’s assistant’ set down the stabilising legs before hopping up on to the scaffold and steering the crane from above by pressing a few buttons in this box of tricks. The steels were lifted effortlessly high up above the roof and like a majestic ballet they were slid gracefully into place, guided gently by Simon, one of our Carpenters who balanced confidently on top of the ridge. DK was elated, as months of design and calculations had their moment – everything fitted perfectly and the steels were quickly bolted securely to the existing roof timbers to form a strong and robust support framework for the new dormer.
Only days earlier we had found ourselves questioning the merit of these huge steels in this poor little house, but if we had any doubts before these were eliminated this evening as the wind and rain hammered into the tarpaulin covered dormer frame from the North West. The house shook on its foundations with the force and I felt comforted that we now have the right structure in place for this very exposed location overlooking North Dartmoor.
The New Contemporary Style Dormer Takes Shape
At 7am the Carpenters arrive and I haven’t slept since 2am – too much thinking! I am now shattered and with the knowledge that I have to spend another day out there labouring and running to and fro for materials and to the tip, I find myself plodding to the bathroom like a Zombie.
DK stopped me in my tracks and sent me straight to bed … to sleep. Unbelievably, with all the hammering & banging going on in the background I managed to sleep until 9am.
Today was a very satisfying day, watching the new Dormer take shape and standing inside looking out of the new large window openings I knew it was all going to be worthwhile – the views from this house are stunning, 180 degrees panoramic views of Dartmoor and beyond to Sidmouth Gap.
