Slates and gates

Admittedly the weather's been shite a good bit of the time, but it's still taking much longer than expected to get this shed completed. I like our builder - he's friendly and helpful and full of promises. Anyway, once the blocks arrived they went up quickly enough. Not necessarily in a straight line, but they were up. The lintels weren't altogether on the same plane either, but who needs a door and window to look level? Being picky I think.

It was at this stage of the build, with both gables up and vulverable, that the Big Wind came. In the photo above you might be able to see a long piece of timber placed vertically against the gable with another pressed against it at an angle. This kept the gable safe until the roof went on.

And finally the slates - I was really pleased with the slates. This is what we'll have on the house too. They come from a quarry over near Portroe in Tipperary on the other side of the mountain we can see from the site.

When I say the slates come from the quarry near Portroe, they actually come from Spain. The Portroe quarry is who we pay and who delivers them. This is how things work, slate-wise.

All that's left now is the ridge tiles. Maybe tomorrow, the builder says. There have been good reasons all along why it couldn't be done today.

Bearing this in mind, Joe asked a friend to help him put in the doors and windows, so that job is done already.

It's beginning to look like a building.

And we have gates! This was another job the builder was going to do, but guess who put in the posts and hung the gates in the end?

What a clever dog!