Trying It On For Size...

...where the "It" in question is our kitchen!

Today Andre built a mock-up of the "outline" of the kitchen - basically some massive long pieces of wood cut to the correct dimensions, just to frame out the space so we can see (more or less) how it will feel, space-wise. He added some plywood board to serve as the "countertop". I know it doesn't look remotely like a kitchen, but it's the wooden thing at the top of the stairs, in front of "the Box".

Like when we did the trial walls for the bathroom, I was really chuffed with the notion that we could trial the dimensions of the kitchen. As it happened, we thought the size of the kitchen space was fine, but we were both surprised to discover the extent to which we felt it "stuck out" and ate into some of the open space. I guess we've just gotten used to having one big, all-purpose space... and no kitchen.

The mock-up doesn't give us an exact approximation (oxymoron??!) of how the space will feel because right now you have to walk through the "kitchen" to enter the "bedroom" (aka, the Box), whereas when we really build it, we'll be extending the floor at the top of the stairs and the bedroom door will be somewhere over there. But at least it's a step - albeit a small one - towards turning this construction site into something resembling a proper home!

The building of the mock-up also rekindled an ongoing debate about open-plan spaces. In a nutshell: Andre loves them, and I don't! Suddenly, standing in the "kitchen", it hit home that our new dwelling is going to be well and truly open plan... and I wasn't too happy. I have always maintained that the kitchen should be separate from the living area (and everything else)... but I also understand that given the space constraints in this flat, and also the fact that the design was in large part driven by our very special ceiling and the loft extension, we don't have a lot of choice now. In fact, we have no choice! If we build walls to enclose the kitchen, I can see that it will ruin the whole effect created by the ceiling. Maybe I can convince Andre to come up with some sort of sliding screen thing...

Finishing Something (finally!)

It's great to finally be able to say something (anything!) is finished!

Over the last two working days, I managed to use the remaining slates (still have not received the delivery of new ones) to finish the main roof slope (faces east / side of the building). Finishing this side required doing another corner (see the post on slating the first corner) and then cutting the top row of slates along the edge of the flat roof. All of this proved to be rather time consuming as almost every tile had to be individually measured and cut. Again, I had been avoiding doing the corner...but I realized it would not be possible to finish the flat roof without these slates in place. Fortunately I did not run out of slates, but at this point, I think I only have 8 left, so hopefully my order will be delivered tomorrow so I can finish placing all the slates before leaving on Wednesday...

May 7th - Saturday morning. Another dreaded corner awaits

The first row finished, and starting the second

Halfway up

Saturday work hours stop at 2pm - so stopping here

Monday May 9th - a few more rows

The last few rows

The top row - each slate had to be individually measured, cut and drilled.

The last slate on the top row

The finished corner!

Montage of finished side

"Flashing" the Roof

No, it's not what you think... Flashing in the building world is fairly mundane - not a trench-coat in sight... Anyway - flashing is a waterproofing element that typically prevents water from seeping in between the joint of a roof and a wall. It's actually quite tricky because water is a rather mischievous thing and is the scourge of buildings, builders and architects everywhere. In a brick building with a sloped roof the flashing is even trickier because one has to put it at an angle and then cut openings in a step-like pattern in between the bricks for a single sheet of lead to be inserted into. That lead wraps over another element that is typically coming from the roof itself and when they are combined, water can't get in (almost like a yin/yang arrangement). It's a very meticulous and time-consuming process and if you're slightly off with your measurements & cuts it won't fit (as I found out the hard way) It's probably easier to explain with the photos:

May 3rd - The step-like openings between the bricks and the ends of the waterproof membranes

Before cutting the steps into the lower half of the wall (a dirty, messy job)

A piece of flashing (known as "Code 4") that is being cut after the measurements made

The lead flashing in place to verify the cuts are correct (if it's slightly off, it won't work as I discovered)

Bending the lead into the correct shape (playing with lead is kinda fun)

The finished piece of lead flashing

The lead put into place overlapping membranes and the "soakers". Soakers are small 10" pieces of bent stainless steel (shaped like an "L") that site between the slates and prevent water from getting in. The edges of the lead are tucked into the brick openings and wedged into place.

May 4th - The flashing at the bottom with the "soakers" and membrane exposed above

Now that area has its flashing

May 5th & 6th - Around the corner and almost at the top. Here, a chemical patina has been applied which prevents the lead from discoloring and staining the slates.

Slating the "Dark"Side

The "Dark" side is the north side of our roof. With the repointing completed, the next stage involved putting down the slates and doing the flashing. The flashing is described in the next post, but it happened more or less simultaneous with putting down the slates as I realized (the hard way) that one needed the slates in place to accurately do the flashing. So rather than bang out all the slates as I had hoped, they were put down in stages that were mostly geared around doing the flashing.

I ended up starting to slate along the brick wall on the morning of May 3rd, but after a few hours realized that it needed to come down due to a rather annoying corner and stepping out of the brick a few feet up. The problem was that I had not aligned the slates to that stepped-out face, and the way I had originally done it, the slates beyond that point would be so narrow (like, an inch) that they would probably fall apart over time. So I basically wasted that morning, but re-doing it was probably the right move.

I had been hoping that this side of the roof would be easy and fast, but it has turned out to be anything but, taking two days for the slates and several days for the flashing and re-pointing. To top it off, I started to run out of slates...maybe the "Dark" side is an appropriate name after all...

May 3rd - the first attempt of laying down the slates in the morning

After taking them off...

The redone slates with the first piece of flashing in

May 5th - Morning

The first course of slates in place

Second course down

A few more rows

Starting to run out of slates

The stopping point at the end of the day