What a gorgeous day! It was definitely shorts and t-shirt weather by the time I went out to start work on the observatory. The insects were clearly making the most of things too. I think I saw more wasps today than I have done all year, and when l looked back towards the house when the Sun was over the roof at around 3pm I could see huge clouds of small insects caught in the sunlight.
First job today was to slip some DPC material under the roof rails and then start fixing the rails down. I used some zinc-coated “self-tapping” hex head coach screws for the rails, which meant I could put them in using the drill and a socket. With the first rail on each wall fully fixed down and the second loosely fixed I could work out how much more I needed to allow the roof to open fully — just another 20 to 30 cm as it turns out, so I’ll cut a couple of pieces long enough to have a set of fixing holes at each end. I’ve left the second rails loosely fixed for the time being as I’ll need to lift them when the EPDM goes on the warm room roof.
Although the OSB I ordered wasn’t delivered this week I found two and a half sheets plus some smaller offcuts in one of the sheds, probably left over from building the beer shack — nowhere near enough to do the rolling roof, but plenty to cover the warm room. So for the rest of the afternoon that was what I did. One sheet did most of the job and then the cutting took more time than anything else. I still have a little more woodwork to do before I put the EPDM on, but I’m hoping I can get all of that done tomorrow.
