We've had a couple of really productive days this week. As you can see from the photo there has been a start with the stud walling for two of the bedrooms and the bathroom.

All the studwork is done with metal U shaped track and it slots together to create the walls. The plasterboard is then screwed with self tapping screws onto the framework. As you can see there are also two doors fitted. These come complete with the door frame and a rebate that the metal rails just slot into. Very easy indeed.

Now that much of the preparation work is done things are starting to move more quickly.

It's taken along time to get here but the plaster boarding has finally started. Only one ceiling mine, but it's a start.

The plasterboard delivery didn't come until Monday this week, 150 sheets, three pallet loads. Monday afternoon was very tiring moving all the boards inside. It wasn't helped by the wind along with rain and hail showers. We had to keep stopping and covering the boards, then rushing between breaks in the weather. The plasterboard comes in pairs stuck together with a strip of paper each end. We started by moving them in pairs, but by the end of the afternoon two sheets was too heavy and we had to split each pair and move them singularly. Exhausting.

Whilst waiting for the plaster boards the other half of the house upstairs has been floorboarded in a similar way to before. The first side took two days to complete but this half took three days. The problem was that the existing oak floorboards were very uneven and warped with some large height differences (up to 50mm) in places. I used some large sheets of chipboard/OSB3 in the center of the room to pack up the floor but nearly every board required additional packing wedges and shims to level everything off towards the edges of the room. At least I've now got a fairly level and flat floor to work from.

The other jobs this last week of so was to put up some studwork around the edges of the room and fit the framework for a suspended toilet in the bathroom. The suspended toilet kit comes with a metal frame with the cistern/flush integrated into the construction and then the bowl is bolted on later after tiling. They are a little more expensive but save quite a bit of space and are easier to clean as you can just mop underneath.

The garden has also seen some changes. Debbie has been over the garden with a rotovator to breakup and level the soil after the diggers churned it all up putting in the septic tanks. We do have a garden plan, but the lack of time and huge number of jobs, I think we are going to just grass the whole area for now and plant a few shrubs and trees to get things started. There's plenty of time later to finish the garden.

So with the ceiling up in one side I can start next week putting up the internal walls and doorways.

With the floorboards laid I could now proceed with the ceiling.

The plasterboard for the ceiling is screwed to metal rails suspended from the rafters I fixed in last week. From the photo you can see a complete rail and bracket fixed to the rafter. Resting on top of the rail is a scrap piece and the bracket to show how it fits together. The brackets are simply screwed to the rafters at 40cm centers and once in place the rail is pushed onto the brackets and hangs there.

As usual getting everything level was important. The hardest part of the job was the measuring and levelling. It's really difficult on your own to measure long distances or hold a level with one hand and measure with the other whilst up a ladder. In the end I used bits of string stretched tightly across the room at the correct height. It did mean a lot of up and down and moving step ladders but I got there in the end. The bottom edge of the rail is set at 2.5 meters (plus 13mm for the plasterboard) above the lowest point of the finished floor height. Using the strings as guides each bracket is screwed to the rafters. Various lengths of brackets are available, so it's not too important that the rafters are level as the brackets take up any slack.

All the brackets and rails in place as shown. Personally I find that using this metal rail system really easy and prefer it to using wood. Also there is no danger of rot or woodworm and all the rails are straight and consistent. Now the rails are up I can order my plasterboard and fit the electric cabling for ceiling lights and put up the plasterboard. With the ceiling in place the internal stud walling can be considered.

At last things are starting to take shape.

brittany renovation

Well all my stuff arrived Monday morning first thing on the lorry. Piles of wood, insulation and metal studwork bits.

Some of it has gone to preparing the ceiling on one side of the house. This side has a flat ceiling 2.5m high (the length of a plasterboard), whilst the other side is plasterboarded between all the woodwork up to the ridge. The reason is partly to gain a little loft space and somewhere for various bit of ventilation and pipework to run.

The rafters are fixed just over 2.5m above the finished floor height and then metal track is suspended on small hangars perpendicular to the rafters. The plasterboard is then screwed to the metal track, hopefully flat and level with the floor. By getting the height correct the stud walls should be easy as they just pop straight in without cutting