Update

The Steading is now lined throughout with the felt that will act as a damp proof course (Such things not being on the spec for agricultural buildings over 100 years ago. ) The crushed rock is now in level, and compacted ready for the concrete floor, and the retaining wall between the split levels is now built.

The granite for the new windows and doorways is sitting on a trailer in the farmyard, and all things being equal, the concrete floor will be in when the builder feels it's safe to put it down without it being damaged by frost, and once that's done the new openings will be made, and the builder will be almost finished.

The roof will be removed in early March, at which time the builder will come back to make sure the tops of the walls are in good order.

Then the roof trusses should be coming along in time to go back on sometime in late March, (As long as my structural engineer has done the sums) or perhaps early April.

And no, I'm not going to make that mistake again.

Then it'll be doors and wndows, and lots of dust and noise inside, but it will be a sealed building then, and I'll be free (Reasonably at least) from the vagaries of the spring weather.

As for the instrument of torture and delays that is the garage, it's moving forwards. The doors are on, even if they're not in their final form, the floor upstairs is laid, and the stud walls upstairs have been built. It does work as a garage though, I've changed a land rover engine in there over Christmas and Early January. Happily, on the whole, the rain doesn't come through the roof, much. That'll change in February, when the corrugated metal roof should arrive, and go on.

Outside there's a pile of even more timber, which is slowly but surely cladding the outside of it, so that at the very least it'll look finished. Even if it isn't. And it's now so heavy that I don't panic when I hear a gale blowing in the night. Much.