Day Zero Project

A good friend at work (and author of the blog DoesBeccaLove?) introduced me to the Day Zero Project the other day. It's a website where basically you write a list of 101 things to achieve in 1001 days, which I've found is actually pretty hard in itself!

This kind of project is perfect for me as I'm a list maker by nature and usually have to plan everything I do in as much detail as possible. When you write something on a to do list there is no shirking it, once it's written it becomes real and acknowledged and must be completed.

I know I could cheat and set myself loads of easy tasks like 'do the washing' or 'cook dinner' but I'm always pretty tough on myself so my list had to include things that are challenging for me - the point is that in completing each task you get a real sense of accomplishment! So below is my 101 list (well up to 85 things so far!), you are welcome to read through it and I hope you feel inspired to start your own list and follow your dreams :)

http://dayzeroproject.com/user/sarahhamer

Good Luck x

The Roof

I've kept the blog posts separated by topic to make it all easier to follow, but the truth is that most of these jobs have been running alongside each other dependent on the weather/available daylight etc. So this is the roof story...

Ryan's main job, whilst I've been doing the insulation and interior parts (you see I picked the best job out of the two!), is to sort the roof out as it was clearly still leaking and we don't want our nice new battens getting ruined like the old ones.

Flashing covering toward the rear

Poor Waki had obviously had a lot of hard to find leaks, as pretty much the entire roof had been covered with some kind of roof flashing material!? Unfortunately it was laid on so roughly that it was still letting water in and was actually holding the moisture underneath it instead of just evaporating when the sun came out so it had to come off immediately.

Flashing covering toward the front

Ryan had to scrape it off bit by bit and upon uncovering the supporting roof braces he discovered that the roof had collapsed slightly and was actually around 2 inches lower than the front brace so we'll have a bit more headroom to enjoy inside once it's held back up properly! It bows worse on the passenger side and as we've also removed some of the rotten roof battens we'll just try to avoid walking on that side until it's shored up properly.

Snow covered Waki with her gazebo!

We've covered the roof in a tarp to protect it in the meantime and to stop the snow getting in the way of work, we actually used our old gazebo until we could dig out our large tarp!. The first time I actually went up on the roof (instead of just clinging to the ladder and peering over the edge!) was in a bit of a mad rush to cover it as the first flakes of snow began to fall, you certainly get a fantastic view of the village from standing up there but I was pleased to get my feet safely back on the ground.

Ryan went up the next day to tip the snow off and do some more work but not until he had built himself a little snowman up there, unfortunately I didn't manage to get a photo before it got thrown over the edge into the snow heap! :(

So when the weather improves, or when we can drive her to stay overnight indoors at Ryan's work, she will at last get a good few layers of roof coating paint.

Insulation

 

25mm foam between battens, topped with foil blanket

Just in time for the cold snap we have the walls and insulation in order, at least ready for the ply to go onto. Though without the ply it looks like we're trying to build our selves a space station due to the layers of foil everywhere!


We're happy with the original insulation (a good 25mm layer of solid blue foam) so where we haven't had to destroy it to get at the beams we've decided to keep it, any roughed up edges were easily remedied with expanding foam and I also had some white 25mm foam that replaced any of the blue that was completely destroyed.

Layer of 4mm foam on a roll



I bought the blankets online from a company called EVAQ8 who specialise in survival kits and equipment, and they were only 80p each and unfold into huge sheets! The blankets are designed to reflect 90% of all radiant heat from the body and so work perfectly as insulation.

I also bought a roll of 4mm packing foam which we've sandwiched between the foil for an extra layer of protection from heat and cold. 



Final emergency blanket layer



All of this was put up layer by layer with spray adhesive, which was probably what contributed to my good mood since it was cold and I only waved the door open for a few seconds at a time to clear the worst of the fumes! :)

So next up is the nice fresh plywood layer...