Job side beds are a scary place

The clock I have in the corner of my mac tells me that it’s four thirty six am. I am sittin on what will hopefully be a tiebeam in a few weeks time, with the computer on the wall post assembly that got fitted up. The moon is just about full and helped me on a good long walk I already took, after tossing and turning in my bed for however long.

Although we have made progress in the last three days ( since my last panic attack ), lying in bed gets the mind rolling. Things would not be half as dramatic as they are playing out in my head, if there were not the fixed time frame. We have four weeks to cut and raise the frame and then to sheathe and roof it. The original time plan allowed for one week of roofing and one week for raising. Two crane days and then plenty of rafters.

This leaves two weeks of serious cutting and fitting. Also in that time we’ll have to figure out where to put the crane and the assembled bents ( even though we are in vaes rural France, of course the job site is not nearly as vast) and how to secure them once they are at their destination. The original scheme also made use of both masonry gable triangles, one of which as collapsed since the owners were last here. So improvising here as well.

The side walls are not even demolished and the stone cutter friend that was going to help with foundations and stone stuff bailed because he was too busy with other work. So there is at least a ton of stone to remove from heights between 12 and 18 feet. and to be evacuated, and seats for our timbers to be made. In what order and form this all has to happen is pretty much up to me, which is why I have trouble sleeping sometimes.

Add all this to a moderately optimistic time estimate, and it starts to look more like a wildly optimistic one. I seriously underestimated time for foundation layout and measuring, timber handling and tooling up. And I have to be careful not to get angry about that.

Steve is a great guy and one of those stubborn characters that persist and eventually get things done. It is not the first time that I work for someone like this. Ignorance of the scale of the task is an advantage to these people. But not even having a decent shovel and broom when you are fixing to build a house drives me nuts.

I promise there will be more pictures together with all this text. The timbers are beautiful and it is a joy to work them. The first wall assemblies are coming together and it gives me a smile. I really hope that in a months time I can look back at a beautiful and covered frame, protecting walls that have been there for centuries. Hopefully more to come.

On that note I’ll try that bed again.

I can hear the first rooster.

Thank God tomorrow’s off.