Corona and the loft room

I can't write anything here without mentioning the corona virus. Every day the situation is getting worse and the death toll across the globe is rising. Last night the government announced what we had been expecting for a while - a full on lock down.

I'm now on my second week of working from home. Putting the reason why it's required aside, I'm actually quite liking it. No commute, toast and chocolate spread on demand, regular turns round the garden and I'm able to tinker about on the piano when I please. So much to be grateful for and luckily we are all currently symptom-free, but for Dad's sake (as an old, vulnerable person - he just loves that definition!), Jon has now been banished to the barn, alone. He was going out to work on site until yesterday so we don't want him contaminating us while we are self isolating.

Communicating through double glazing!

It's going to be so hard, but know it's only a tiny sacrifice compared to what those working for the NHS and other key workers are doing.

'Fortunately' we have still been able to work on the house. Since the steels have gone in Jon has been working hard to get the floor down in the loft room. This has involved packing out the steels with timber to nail the joist hangers to, cutting the joists to size, installing the joist hangers and adding noggins to help stabilise the joists once they were in place.

Jon hopping around on the attic rafters

I'm too scared to join him up there, so have to appreciate his hard work from the top of the ladder. Not that being below is any safer. Whilst I was underneath struggling to lift up the long, super awkward joist timbers into the attic, Jon accidentally knocked off a metal set square from a rafter which fell onto my arm. One step further and it would likely have impaired by skull, so am taking precautions and wearing a hard hat now!

Dad joined for a few hours at the weekend, and we spent a few hours out in the garden in the sunshine, (out of the way of Jon!) sifting through a fraction of the soil piled up out there, to remove stones.

I was actually quite enjoying having the house project to take my mind off everything that's going on in the 'real' world. Now we are having to be separated it's unlikely I will be able to help for a week, so I will just be reporting on Jon's progress (no difference from normal there then actually!). Just worried that we will no longer be able to get all the materials we need for the coming months as it looks like deliveries / trade are stopping, which will hold everything up indefinitely. We might not be in until 2021 at this rate!

All that aside, it really is a completely surreal and terrible situation going on in the world. I hope that everyone who reads this stays safe and well.