The last three weeks have rushed by so quickly and we are into August already. We have had a new roof fitted in that time. All did not go well. It all started on Friday 13th June when we went outside to find a fascia board had dropped off the front of the house. Later we noticed a leak in one of the bedrooms.
The people who came to look at it said that the whole roof would have to be replaced, temporary repairs were done in the short term. I'm not really surprised as neighbours either side have had to have replacements over the last year. The houses were built in the early 1970s. We decided to use the same firm as they were good and well recommended.
The scaffolding went up over the 16th and 17th of July and the roofers arrived on Monday 21st July. They started work on one side of the roof and stripped off the old tiles and etc. Two of them went to get some more materials leaving one man. The heavens opened, the rain was harsh, almost like hail. It came through the open roof into the loft, it soaked through the insulation and came out of the light fittings in the bedroom, bathroom and down the stairs. The brave man left on the roof was trying on his own to place batons and put down the membrane to stop the rain coming through. The others came back and secured that side but all had to go home for hot showers and a change of clothing. Day two they arrived early, thank heavens it was dry weather, they worked hard to complete everything.
In the meantime we had the job of drying things out. Some plastering and repainting had to be done. The scaffolding should have been taken down early last week but the scaffolder had to have treatment on his eye which caused him a few problems and his team were not licensed to work without him. They finally came on Saturday to take most of the scaffolding down, working over the weekend to catch up on work missed during the week.
They came back Sunday morning and we left them to it and took all the damp sheep's wool loft insulation to the local household waste and recycling centre and decided we needed a little break so we went to look for more Wallabies on the trail mentioned in my last post.
The Wallaby above is Sam, painted by Nichola Richardson in collaboration with Samaritans, Leek. It's outside Blythe Bridge Community Library.
Woosh, above, is in Cheadle market place, painted by Creative Cheadle/Tudor House.
Above is Vivienne painted by Chris Thompson in collaboration with Westwood College. It's in the grounds of Buxton and Leek College in Leek.
My favourite of these three is Sam.
This sculpture depicts the nature and beauty of the Staffordshire Moorlands.
Curlew
Lapwing
It's raining and windy outside today. I'm glad we had our little break yesterday. At least we are warm and dry under our new roof.
I'll be back with recent reading and perhaps some more Wallabies.
