Experience should have taught us that set backs occur during any building project but before you know it the problem is solved and you can hardly remember it happening. At least that’s what we keep telling ourselves as we encounter one issue after another as we rebuild or conservatory. 

It’s a job that seems to have been going on forever. We started clearing the old one way back in June and kind of expected it to be finished by Christmas. We should know better. 

Most of the structural work has already been documented on here so I’ll not go into all that again, but I’ll bring you up to speed with our roof news. We are using a new kind of tile made from recycled plastic. They are alleged to be particularly good for lower pitches like ours.

After building up the window apertures to install the Veluxes Rob was finally able to get the tiles on. It took a couple of days but looked fantastic. One of the benefits of the plastic tiles is that they are clearly marked for installation including where to line them up and hammer in the nails. It looked fab, but the was just one problem: the was still water getting in! 

To be honest it was a bit depressing. We’d have a couple of good days (mainly because it didn’t rain) but then the drops would come back. We dealt with it by ignoring it and going down south to visit family for a week. When we got back there was still evidence of water and with Christmas fast approaching we were forced to take action.

We covered the whole roof with several layers of plastic sheeting to see us through the festive season, cracked on with getting some insulation and power into the room, then hid it all with fabric pinned to the ceiling and twinkly Christmas lights. 

This would have been great we it not for two unexpected visitors: hurricanes Barbara and Connor! Barbara visited while Robert was down south picking up son number one for his Xmas break. Luckily son two was here and able to help me make repairs after we spent a sleepless night listening to the cover doing it’s best to sound like a helicopter landing outside the bedroom window. We lost a couple of large planks helping to keep the cover in place as well as a concrete block. However with a pair of scissors and a few more heavy objects we reduced the noise. On the other hand water was coming back in, albeit just around the edges. 

It didn’t dampen or day. We had a lovely Christmas day and were able to use the room to sit, open presents, have dinner and generally lounge around in all day. And then Connor came to call! 

It’s been a few years since I’ve of the boys has got into bed with us in the middle of the night, but at 3am Robert, Reuben and I sat in our bed with a cup of tea listening to the clattering and banging outside. By this time Robert had already braved the elements twice to make running repairs despite the high winds and hail. As the large pieces of wood and concrete blocks holding the roof in place made their way to ground level (occasionally going over the house) we sipped or tea and pretended everything was normal. After trying to get a bit of sleep Robert went out one more time to remove any remaining debris from the roof in an attempt to save the rest of the house. We were finally it of the danger zone! 

The wind has since dropped dramatically but it is such a relief to know that we no longer have to beware of flying blocks! Give me a few drops to take care of any day. In fact we’ve discovered that the cover made no difference to the few drops we have as they’re all around the front edge. I’m sure we’ll have it all sorted before you know it then we’ll hassle remember the days we thought we’d never get the conservatory finished.

I hope you all had slightly more restful Christmas. Here’s to what we can achieve in 2017!