Philou

Late to the party -again! And an ATW for me please. Cheers, Philip

Right chaps! No photos today as yesterday turned out to be a non-day work-wise as the morning was spent fetching some tools, joint tape and various plasters and then a looooooong lunch ensued (yes, yet again) with Mrs Philou's sister and hubby by which time 5pm had come and gone! Today went by cutting and trimming some plasterboard infills so that tomorrow I start on the taping of the joints. I have discovered that 'MAP' plaster translates as 'Professional Adhesive Mortar'. It sets rock-solid and is not easy to sand level. I shall attempt to lay the tape in two thin soft coats and just trowel it as flat as possible, thus avoiding the sanding part. I couldn't buy locally two different tape knives (100mm/4" and 150mm/6") that probably would have done the trick. A coat of Dulux Tradesman Matt White (oh yes, I do have a tub in stock that I brought back from the UK) will finish off the job barn-side. Hopefully progress pictures tomorrow. Cheers, Philip

Got that model made by Fleischmann - bought it years ago. Cheers, Philip

No ..... don't ...... just don't .........

@Graham T Ha ha! As you will recall earlier I gave a great long spiel as to 'no, not yet'. However, I see no reason why I shouldn't make a start at the end of the month. Mrs Philou was sympathetic to me doing some layout work in the house (look back to much earlier on when I built the stairs in our dining area - they were huuuuuge compared to a baseboard). Timing will be all-important. Once I've done the plastering (barn-side will give me an idea of 'how long'), I really will need to get in some leccy as the nights will be drawing in and the natural light will be less, and our secondary freezer is plugged into an outdoor socket. But, yeah, by the end of the month, why not? It'll also keep the mojo going! Looking forwards, I did see on the telly yesterday the setting up of a cat-walk for Paris Fashion Week - I'm not interested in the fashion - and they showed one of the sets being modelled. What caught my eye was they were sculpting a grotto with a mini-Grand Canyon floor in corrugated cardboard. I got to thinking - what's not to like? Sturdy, lightweight, easily carved with a sharp knife, tons of it being skipped at the supermarket, glues with PVA and can be overlain with sacking/papier-maché/plaster. Has anyone reading here used it/seen it used? Any thoughts? Cheers, Philip

Hello chums, Mojo back with a vengeance! I got the other tower up this morning and this afternoon finished all the plasterboarding AND gave a lick of matt black paint to the window metalwork to give it that 'industrial' look (le loft look is very much 'in' over here at the moment). I ran out of paint so the room side will wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow will also see me buying some paper scrim and plaster so I can do the joints. I'm not sure how long that'll take as I wasn't very good at scrimming - we'll see. Couple of photos for today: Hopefully, by the end of the week the job this side will be 'a good'un' and the scaffolding can come down - my SiL came round this lunchtime asking if I had some to lend - so I have until Friday pm to get it sorted. Cheers everyone, have a good Sunday evening, Philip

Hello chums, After I wrote the earlier message, I went and weighed myself (as you do ;) ) and found that even though the mojo had been left behind, I had come back with 3 pounds more than with which I left! That was enough to get the mojo back and I spent a little time yesterday cutting some more jigsaw puzzle and putting it in place. Today, I managed to do a 'lift' of 1.0m on one of the towers AND get a scaffold board in place (usually a two-man job) which meant this afternoon I got the one side done. Tomorrow will be the other tower and finishing off - hoorah! Here we go, a photo or two to show: (There's now a black blob in the centre of the photo - dust I expect on the CCD. It won't be easy to clean either :( ). Funny how small things can get you into action! More tomorrow - have a good weekend everyone, Philip

Hello chums and chumesses, I am back but I think my mojo stayed on holiday - probably caught a later plane or got lost in the baggage claim! There's no new work as yet so nothing to show - but I have ordered my acrylic sheets that should be here early next week. Tomorrow, I shall raise the scaffolding by 1.0m so that I can finish the plasterboarding and give a coat of matt black on the exposed metalwork in the window openings ready for the acrylic sheeting when that arrives. During the week will be also the commencement of the scrimming and filling of the joints. I might as well give a coat of white paint on the external face of the plasterboard barn-side to reflect as much light as possible as now I have walled off that part, it's pretty gloomy until the new electrical works are in place - so plenty to keep me busy! Toodle pip - more tomorrow, Philip

Up and Down, up and down (again!). Today it was up the ladder and down the stairs quite a bit. I restabilised tower one and I attached a piece of plasterboard to where I finished yesterday using an Ikea stool that proved to be very stable. I then launched a heavy board to bridge that gap (with a Cadbury's Snack - are they still a thing?) and set to filling in the section between the two windows. Due to a misunderstanding between various brain cells, I found myself short of two sheets of plasterboard (I did the calculation of the total surface divided by the surface of a sheet of plasterboard rather than looking how I was going to minimise cuts), so instead of doing the infills as complete sheets, I ended up having to complete a jigsaw using all the off-cuts. No bad thing in the end as I have very little waste. Anyway, the jigsaw has been worked out but I ran out of time by the end of today, so a little more boarding to be done and then raising of the scaffolding will be undertaken as I wasn't going to use my steps despite the towers being very stable. All that will now wait 'til I get back. Here's today's effort - not a lot to show but I'm getting there: Mrs Philou reminded me on Tuesday that it was a year ago that I started construction - oh well, my target of 'I'm giving myself a year' has passed. Top tip of the day: Don't put a load of sharp self-tapping screws in your shirt top pocket before you start carrying large heavy objects ................. :( Cheers everybody - keep safe until I get back in about 10 days time, Philip

Up and down, up and down. On the up today. I got the second tower of scaffolding in place and my neighbour helped getting the board in place. As luck would have it, I was able to make use of the Big Beam's Big Brother and secure one end of the tower to it. The end was very close to the wall and a couple of wedges ensured that any wobble was controlled. After lunch, I got another whole piece of plasterboard in place - yay! Tomorrow, I will return to the first tower and make sure that too is wobble-free and then I'll launch a board between the two - they're only about 1.5m apart and start on the central section. On Saturday, I shall endeavour to raise both towers so I can finish off the two ends - as after that nothing will happen for 10 days as we're off to sunny Spain - ay viva España (Canaries actually). Here's today's effort: Hopefully, more tomorrow, Cheers, Philip

Up and down, up and down. Today was a down day. I cut the next piece of plasterboard and went up the scaffolding and got it in place with a centrally placed screw and put a couple of extra ones here and there - and it went downhill from thereon. I needed my steps to do the top edge screws as the edge was out of my reach, the steps were set up but there was only 1cm of freeboard clear either side of the legs. Up I went gingerly and I was very quickly down again as overnight the whole of the scaffolding must have settled as there was now a very pronounced wobble, more so in the middle of the scaffolding board, a bit too much spring in it. The effect was worse the further up the steps I went! I did one or two of the screws by resting the end of the steps against the wall, as there, it was quite firm but I couldn't reach any further. Not to be outdone, I tipped the scaffolding board on its side and used my ladder resting directly on the lower pieces of plasterboard. The ladder was extended as far as it would go and it was on the limit of my comfort zone. I managed all fixings in the end, but I'm now going to have to bite the bullet and use my shorter sections of scaffolding to raise the deck by 1.0m, despite what I said yesterday. I shall certainly feel safer and happier. I abandoned the site for today and will start again tomorrow. Tomorrow's job will be to get another complete module of scaffolding up at the other end of the wall and do the two lower half sections there. I shall then launch a board between the two towers and then scurry about like a Hobbit and do the central section. The modules can't be otherwise linked as there is insufficient length for three sections. Once done, I shall raise the two towers at the same time (plus the central section) and finish off. I shan't rush as my plexiglass hasn't yet been ordered, so that will need to be done on my return. No photos today as there isn't really anything to show. Cheers everybody, stay safe, Philip

@Andy Hayter I didn't know that! Everyday you learn something new (and at my age forget something else ;) ). I wouldn't have used that method as you will have seen from the foregoing that the uprights were at a distance away from the wall to allow the insulation to pass behind in one strip (admittedly I couldn't do it everywhere). What I did find with squirty foam (Weber) is that it wouldn't adhere to the walls due to the dust from the straw and hay which was originally stored where I created the room AND the earth/lime mortar which is crumbling and generally adding to the dust - but one to remember in a place that is more sound. @Re6/6 Congratulations on your new grandchild - I hope you went and bought a train set regardless! Today's little adventure saw scaffolding going up - on my own to get the frame up - but I did need help is putting the scaffolding board in place. It was bit wibbly wobbly but a bit of old rope and a couple of battens and screws sorted that out. After lunch I felt brave enough to put a whole panel of plasterboard in place, and here it is! : I might get one other half panel up but the uppermost will be out of my reach. I might just be able with my step ladders as the last panel is shorter and therefore lighter than the other three. I don't particularly want to raise the scaffolding by another metre for what would be no more than 10 minutes work. Cheers everyone and enjoy the rest of the day, Philip

@JeffP No attaching to any of the walls! Chewing gum, string and a prayer! I'm kidding regarding the last bit. As the original walls are very ropey in that the stone is not the best being mudstone and the lime/earth mortar having dried out completely, I approached the problem of securing the walls differently (I was offered some specialist plastic ties but declined any further drilling into the wall). My solution was this: As I was using metal lathing for the ceiling I made sure that this extended as far as the walls at each end. The ceiling was plasterboarded out as shown in earlier photos. Knowing that the laths were near-to the walls, I set out the floor rails for each side wall (the walls at right angles to the lathing) at approximately 100mm away. Once happy with the alignment, the ceiling rail was then marked out vertically above the floor rail with the aid of an upright cut to length and a spirit level firmly taped to it. I marked the centre distances of the laths on the rail and pre-drilled the holes using a 25mm plasterboard screw. 25mm screws were placed in each hole just so they just gripped into the rail and the whole lot presented to the ceiling using two uprights (not fixed) at each end. A check with the spirit level and one screw at one end was driven through the top rail into the ceiling plasterboard and then the lathing above that. The rail was checked for verticality at the other end and fixed at approximately 600mm centres following the lathing spacings. I replaced the 25mm screws with 55mm that were of a slightly larger gauge. It was then just a case of placing the uprights at 500mm centres (not 600 in my case as I chose to fix the plasterboard panels horizontally, rather than vertically as is more usual). Insulation and plasterboarding followed. The side end walls were then set out - I started the furthermost one first. Floor rail first set out as above and using the cut upright(much shorter one this time and spirit level, I marked out the top rail. I had an advantage here as the Big Beam cut through this wall and I was able to fix vertically an upright either side of it. Having previously constructed the two side walls, use was now made of the end post of the wall onto which was screwed the first upright of the new wall - again screwing through the plasterboard. This was an easy step as I now had clean plasterboard on which I could simply mark out a vertical line. Happy with the first upright it was a simple case of placing the rail on top and then placing the uprights at 500mm spacings. Once the uprights were in place and approximately vertical, the top rail was then fixed in placed using the 55mm screws through the ceiling and directly into the rafters above (I had remembered to mark their positions to boarding out the ceiling). More insulating and plasterboarding ensued. Rinse and repeat for the last wall (the most recent one). As this was to be a double wall the outer leaf end vertical uprights were fixed into the end posts of the side walls and at the mid-point into the Big Beam. This time the top rail was fixed into the planks (using the aid of an upright and level) that I had used previously to make my horizontal ceiling (see waaaaay above). Again 25mm screws used as temporary fixings and then replaced by 55mm ones. By a stroke of good fortune, these longer screws not only went through the plasterboard and planks (the latter having been profiled to match the purlin onto which they were fixed) and into that same purlin. The second inner most rail was crimped to the first one - no such luck with the screws being fixed into the purlin - out of reach this time, and the uprights slid into place. These were crimped also into the top rail for extra security after checking with a level. And there we have it: As a far as I am concerned, the inside walls are structurally complete and solid - there is no wibbly wobbly. My mojo ran out of puff after lunch and I didn't hump the scaffolding up the stairs - I shall do that fresh tomorrow morning and then plasterboarding, here we come! This is now what awaits me: After our late summer break, the acrylic panels will be placed on the outer face (in the photos above) and then scrimming, jointing, plastering and painting of the inside walls, immediately followed by electrics (even if I have to jury rig something temporarily) as there is nothing working in the barn - no lights, no work! Cheers everybody, Philip PS: If you want to see the metalwork/plasterboard/metalwork sandwich (used in the ceiling and the wall), it's just visible in the third photo on the right-hand edge of the wall - you'll perhaps want to enlarge it but the quality is not the best.

@JustinDean Hello Jay, thank you for your kind words and thanks to all of you following the saga. I'm not worried about screw placement nor the second layer, it's more of a matter of where it's going. In the photo above, it's the other side of the insulation where unfortunately there is a 2.6m drop to a lower floor. As the wall is 2.4m high it's a 5.0m overall height floor to ceiling. I just need to get my sectional scaffolding out and set it up - usually a two-man job. It's yonks old but Swiss quality with very thick metal tube and scaffolding boards 40mm x 600mm x 2500mm made of blockboard. I am like a man possessed at the moment. I managed to do some boarding-out before going out at lunchtime. It means it'll be finished before lunch tomorrow. Provided my mojo holds out, I'll start humping the scaffolding up from the ground floor to the next level and set out what I can. Once the 'external' wall is boarded, I shall starting scrimming and jointing this week. As it's high up and an internal barn wall to boot, I see little value in plastering and painting it - I'll keep the proper finishing for the internal walls of the railway room itself. Here's another photo: As an aside, our Mairie has flags outside 'en berne'. They don't do half-mast but tie black ribbon around the flag. I thought it was a nice touch as her late Majesty was very much appreciated by the French. Cheers everybody, Philip RIP EIIR

Leaps and bounds! Leaps and bounds! Not only did I do all the insulation (including the missing bit on the last wall) but I also managed to get two sheets of plasterboard in place before I called it a day. I shan't get much done tomorrow as we're off out again 'Wot!? Again?'. This time to a street garage sale round at Mrs Philou's sister's place. It's usually just a load of tat and I'm sure I won't be disappointed. Here we go: Lunchtime: End of play this afternoon: Having four walls up has made a difference - especially sound-wise. It's getting that hollow, empty sound. I expect it'll be 'ringing' when the last plasterboard sheet is in place (acrylic sheet notwithstanding). Have a good Sunday everybody, Philip

The wall is double thickness as I want to take advantage of 100mm thick insulation so I can get the R value up to 3.15. The cost of the metalwork is peanuts compared to the cost of the insulation. I'm also going for extra strength as there's a 2.6m drop the other side and there's not a lot to which the wall frame could be attached. I'm going for Perspex(TM) as it's away from direct sunlight and will not become opaque, it's lightweight and I can screw it direct to the metal studwork. It will be 'double glazed' i.e. screwed to both sides of the frame work, meaning I don't need a subframe or special clips as you would for glass. I wouldn't rely on just adhesive for holding the glass in place. Here's some acrylic sheet that I did in our bathroom two years ago - hasn't moved or clouded and is simply screwed into place after putting some silicone draught excluder onto the metalwork as a seal (this time, I will try to align the screws more correctly ;) ): Here's the wall's metalwork completed this afternoon - tomorrow, I start the insulation :( : I may have it plasterboarded out by Sunday afternoon. The fun will start during next week trying to do the outer skin! Cheers everybody - the weekend is already back! Philip

Mrs Philou has been hanging on her phone since yesterday evening waiting a call - as yet - no-one. (I think she may have cocked-up the ad!) We wait. Down to proper business: The wall is underway, though I did a little carpentry as the cellar doors were jamming slightly and then a quick tidy-up before adding more waste to the pile of 'bits'. I have done 2/3rds of the wall, and started the last 1/3rd just before stopping for the day. Here are few photos: The state of play as was day before yesterday : Yet more materials: Wall as of the end of today (double thickness): The horizontal bar in the third photo has been placed there to eventually take a piece of Perspex (acrylic sheet) so that the lower mezzanine can have some natural light too. You can also see twine has been placed to prevent the insulation from falling into the lower part of the barn when I start plasterboarding. More tomorrow. Have a good evening, Philip

Day orf today! I had a fight with a heavyweight wood-burner that we no longer use and Mrs Philou wanted to put it on 'le Bon Coin', a French style ebay. I had to manoeuvre it around the barn and nearer to the door so that Mrs Philou could tend to it lovingly (yeah). It weighs a feather short of 120kg. I was worn-out! I did go out this afternoon and get the rest of my materials, so a new wall should be well underway tomorrow. I'll post up a couple of photos accordingly. Cheers everyone, Philip

Hello chums, There seems to be a missing post from yesterday regarding 1.5tonnes of winter wood that arrived. Wasn't important but another load arrived this morning that scuppered my intended plan for work in the railway room. Not to be out-done, I had a sort-out in some metalwork that had been lurking in a corner for quite some time and I found some lengths of rail and some uprights. I was able to set out all the floor rails and get some uprights into place - so I'm underway again, though this time I really have no more materials at hand. It'll be a case of get some in. I haven't a photo of work to date, but here's one I took this morning of the wall that needs to be done - it looks a long way up because it is! The wall will be double-skinned so I'll need to get some staging up to enable the 'outside' skin to be placed. Here goes: Cheers, Philip

Good evening everyone, I'm back from the birthday lunch and as you can see it did take a long time. Nonetheless, I got up early this morning and decided to complete the wall, which I did save for one piece of board that requires a piece of insulation behind. I was not going to open the 16' roll just to cut off 1' and have the rest of it lurking on the floor. It'll wait until I'm ready for the last wall, then I'll cut the bit off. Tomorrow there won't be much done as I'm expecting 3 steres (about 1.5tonnes) of wood to arrive at 8am. Mrs Philou thought it would be a grand idea to 'get some in' until I bring some of my own from the forest - that won't happen until early October. Here was this morning's effort: Have a good evening one and all, Philip

Thanks for the head's up. I had completely forgotten about looking at ebay - I tend not to go there often. I particularly like Legrand 'Mosaic' but it's not always available locally - another good reason to look at the 'bay. I'm slowly working my way around just how many circuits I shall need - not just for the railway room (2 power, 2 lights) but for the rest of the barn. As it's quite big and has multiple floors and sub-rooms, I need to think it through especially for the lighting. Today's update: Progress was quite good, I had hoped to get a token piece of plasterboard in place, but time was spent setting out the top and bottom rails which on a sloping ceiling was not straight forward. All the uprights were cut to measure as the ceiling has a definitive sag - to be expected given the age of the barn (1827). I was lucky that I was able to make 3 uprights out of 2 lengths thus made a saving of 4 lengths that I can use to start the last wall - I have some rails in stock already. Then time taken doing the insulation and the conduit - but it's all going the right way. Just the one photo today showing progress so far. I shan't be doing any work this weekend - club tomorrow all day and then Sunday lunch out. Another birthday! Cheers everyone - the weekend is on its way! Philip

@Graham T In the immediate future? No. I shall need to finish the last wall (not really been shown in any of the photos) and then once done it's all the bits to finish the wall and ceiling (jointing, scrimming, plastering and painting). I shall do that in one hit - probably a wall a day for example - and then there will be the electrics. I promised Mrs Philou that I would also do the barn electrics at the same time - we had a short somewhere and I never was able to determine where it was - so no lights or power in the barn at the mo'. Complete new circuits for the barn and the railway room to be fed by a subsidiary consumer unit within the barn (I just hope the short is not in the feed to the barn itself - dratted dormice and pine martins!). That will take more than a few days to sort out as I will need to do at least two two-way lighting circuits - not difficult, just extra cabling - plus separating out various power and other lighting circuits. Then, and only then will I start baseboards. I am hoping that by the end of October that the boards will be underway. I probably made mention earlier of the construction that I intend to use. Boards no wider than 900mm (including corner ones) constructed from 10mm ply. Sides will be 100mm deep as will cross-members with bolts and wing nuts to hold together. I haven't decided yet whether I shall have solid or open tops - I think it will very much depend on the amount of landscaping to be created. I see little point having a solid top only to cover it up with landscaping. An open top solves the problem of what to do if you have rivers/embankments and the like. I have no set board length as I want to arrange things so the board joints do not coincide with any pointwork above. Cross-members will have lots of circular holes cut out to save weight and to allow cable runs. Small boards will also mean that Mrs Philou will be more likely to let me work indoors if the weather gets too cold (I am developing a strategy of being able to work on one board plus one either side to ensure continuity of track/scenery across the joints). The layout will be aimed primarily for DCC operation and I will be providing a dedicated wifi to allow smart phones to be used in conjunction with a base station (ECoS II in my case). As only half my stock is chipped then DC will also be used - for a temporary period only (or if visitors have no DCC equipped stock). Pointwork will be analogue with mimic boards at strategic locations but the point motors will need to provided with auto DPDT switches as I am going for electrofrogs (not uni- ones if I can avoid them as I consider that they look pig-ugly, YMMV of course). I can't get my head around the need to change screens to enable pointwork to be operated - I like things visual and real - not virtual. Oh, and of course big red 'do not touch' buttons so if there is a disaster in the making - power to the track can be cut off. 'Ey up - all that to say 'not yet'. :)) Cheers everyone - tomorrow is the end of the week and the weekend starts!! Philip

Something's not right!! This happened this today: S'done. Finished. Am I getting the hang of this drywalling malarkey? I finished it mid-afternoon. No particular errors (well, none to which I shall admit). What it has shown up, that I cannot now correct, is the new floor is not flat - one particular hog became apparent, though in a non-critical area, fortunately. I think it's down to the way the planking dried last autumn. I shall live, and the modules will have adjustable feet anyway. (The gap, by the way, is the gap created by the shrinking of the planks - I'm still waiting on the sawmill for my replacements). I don't want to get too far ahead of myself as I'll soon have not a lot to do (it's only a budgetary concern, though funds ARE available if needs be). I went to see Mr Maaayorrrr (in my best Larry the Lamb voice) regarding the letter from the planners. Transpires that I should have filled in EVERYTHING even if it was 0 or N/A. I had just filled in the parts relevant to what I was doing :( . I duly put 0s everywhere and M le Maire was more than happy. Copy made and no sooner done Madame la Sécretaire had popped it in an envelope and in the post it went. Very efficient! Tomorrow, I start the third wall that should, should, not take too long - it's only 1.6m high. Have a good evening everybody, Philip

Hello chums and chumesses, I was right - lunch lasted a long time today, so I didn't get anything done this pm. I did, however, crack on this morning and all the insulation has been cut and placed in position. I don't quite understand but I seem to have at least one roll too many for finishing the next wall. It won't go to waste as it'll be recycled into the last wall. Here we go. State of play yesterday afternoon: ......... and this morning's job: I had to use a different grade of insulation as M. Builders' Marchand had none left of the one I was using. When I slit the roll open, this popped out! It was enormous! I hope that I shall continue good progress tomorrow doing the plasterboard. I really feel encouraged by what is happening AND all your encouragement - it does make a difference! Cheers everyone, Philip

Hi chums, No picture today, I came in just as it started to thunder and lightning, very, very frightening. Oh mama mia! The rain then started and so I decided to have a shower (no, not under the rain, silly). I'll take a photo tomorrow. Not a lot to show other than all my studwork is in place ready for my insulation - working tomorrow morning only as Mrs Philou's sister and her hubby are arriving for lunch, and family lunches here last for evah!! Cheers everybody, Philip