Gulp.
Damn it.
While demolishing the master bedroom wall to open it into the attic, I came across this - I know it is a terrible photo but it was a very bad angle through a little hole made with a crowbar and in the dark - I will forgive you for having no idea what it you are looking at.
It is a swallow nest - complete with little babies chirping away... :(
It is supposedly very rare to have swallows nesting in a house here and we have several families - but I am guessing that this will be the last year for them as the noise and commotion might scare them away. I don't know much about swallows, but they are incredibly fast and agile birds and seem to work hard for their young. I hope they stay.
This is what I got up to today.
2000+ calories is not too bad to burn in a day and as you can see, across the three sessions where I was working, my average heart rate was above 100. It would have been a pretty good fitness day - if I hadn't eaten a couple handfuls of candies.
As said, I was opening the wall between the bedroom and attic as we are heating the attic space and turning a large part of it into a walk-in wardrobe (the door will be to the right corner). This picture was taken a little after I started as I had already removed most of the wood paneling on the inside. I was going to get a circular saw to make the job easier, but you might notice that there is a chainsaw in the bottom corner, which I used to cat the panels into more manageable sizes. The attic behind in this section is quite narrow (about 110cm) so it isn't suitable for a wardrobe due to the slope of the roof, but should make for an interesting feature in the room later.
The door to the left is the previous "cupboard space" - a small wardrobe that wasn't heated, which meant that in the winter, it was about minus 15C in there. Not very practical.
Once I broke on through to the other side, I took a picture to show what is going on behind the scenes. Those posts that are currently holding up the roof will be replaced by a supported cross beam and you can see that the wall and ceiling insulation has already been added to most of it. It is obviously very important to have decent insulation here. This will keep the house warm and reduce energy costs, as will the new windows over time. We have a new heating system too and there will be a centrally-heated water battery put into the closets once they are ready.
This next one I added because you can see the floor.
and now you don't.
We are replacing the attic floor to make sure that the interior and exterior floors are the same height and will be in good condition, since it is now becoming living area. Each attic (one either side of the house) is 20m2 or so and in this following shot you can see where it widens and this will become the walk-in wardrobe area. This wider section is about 4.5 x 1.6 metres and it will have open shelving of some kind. You can also see that there is a window (the new ones) in there too and on the other side of the house, there are two windows, one will be in the walk-in wardrobe area for @smallsteps, the other will be opened into a living area/lounge room space, once we open those walls up too.
As you can see, there is a lot of sawdust and the entire house is insulated. What was interesting was that even though this space was slightly open to the elements through a space in the roof (where the swallows were nesting) there was no sign of moisture at all and the thick floorboards were so dry they cracked quite easily when I was lifting them. Not easy easy, but easier than I expected.
The rubbish skip is close to full now with only wood and I am continually amazed how much wood I have pulled from what is a relatively small space. The skip is massive.
And look, I even had a helper for a short period today - Well, my wife was there for about an hour cleaning and doing a bit to load the skip (This is on the second floor and I carefully threw the wood out the window to save walking it down the stairs ten thousand times). Someone has to spend time with Smallsteps as even though she is okay to play by herself for some periods, I spent 9 hours working there today and a lot of it was too heavy for my wife to do that much, even with pink rubber boots. While this all looks like a mess perhaps, I see what it is going to become and I am looking forward to it.
Now though, it is time to call it a day and go to the sauna, as my body is filled with dust in places that shouldn't be dusty at my age, and my muscles are aching. I am not used to putting in such long physical hours consecutively and I think I am going to be feeling it tomorrow - which is great, considering I have to do it all again on the other side of the house....
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Oh, this looks so dusty! Watch out for your daughter's asthma. For muscle numbness, a massage, hot bath and a glass of wine will be the solution. I've always found the ability of birds to adapt and find shelter for their nests to be extraordinary. In the Hispanic culture it is said that the swallows keep the souls of the dead and that when they appear it is to give you a message. Nice Saturday, @tarazkp
We have the top floor closed off while we work up there and our living area is pretty much dust free. Once we are finished and swap floors, we will isolate again :)
I would kill for a massage and a glass of wine and a bath! Won't get any of those - but did have a sauna, which was nice.
The souls of the dead sounds ominous, I wonder what the message would be after I rudely interrupted their nesting.
!ENGAGE 20
ENGAGEtokens."Swallows are birds spread all around the world.
They are very adaptable and can survive in various habitats. They are skilled flyers and they usually form large flocks during migrations. They are monogamous birds, and both partners participate in building their nest, which they reuse year after year.
It is considered a sign of great fortune when a pair of swallows builds a nest on someone’s house.
It usually foretells love and marriage or even the expanding of the family in the coming period.
Swallows are a symbol of love, prosperity, and good luck. Seeing a swallow up close is considered a very good sign".
I thought that this was an old folks fable as I have heard it a few times before!
Something for you to dream about Lol.
We have several nests in our wings - and they are definitely out of luck in regards to the family expansion :D
I just hope I didn't scare them with my crowbar too much.
Well,just maybe it's fortune and love or anything else good for that matter.
Also hope that they will stay, at least until the babies can fly, but birds don't usually desert their nests, unless there is real danger about.
Sounds of machinery close by is one of them.
No way that you can place a temporary board there?
I plugged the hole and will leave that corner til the very last moment possible. The tradie we have is on a very loose schedule, so hopefully in a couple weeks they will have cleared out.
Great and glad that you are a "Mensch" for leaving them alone.
Yeah, they will fly in a while and let's hope that the parents will return next year!
!ENGAGE 20
Thank you kindly @tarazkp
ENGAGEtokens.Thank you kindly!
Keep up the reno updates!
Do you need to add a vapor barrier on the warm side of the insulation or do the insulation elements contain that in themselves?
It is really a major thing for us, but I don't want to bore every here with it too often :D
Pretty sure the elements contains it between the styrofoam and the plasterboard, as there are several layers included. I am not doing the insulation myself, we have a professional doing it, as it is very important as you know.
When I was a kid, I used to watch a cartoon- Bob The Builder.
Getting the same vibes...lol
Bob has far more skills than I - that bastard. :D
lol...
Great fitness program that you're having. This house will get you so slim by the time you finish with it, I am already so very sure😊
I just need a better snack than candy :D
Hahaha, candy candy comes in handy nom nom nom🍬🍬😍
this look dusty: haha nice work, by the way, enjoy your bath @attajuttjj
also swallows mite come or bye-bye swallows nesting place
This looks like a whole lot of work. I hope this isn't as uncomfortable as it looks. I can only imagine the work you had to do. Hopefully it's all coming along. All the best.