My first task this morning was to finish boarding the top of the house with AJ and Sam so that we had a platform to start working on the pitched roof. The emphasis of the project is very much on keeping costs down where possible and reusing old material, so this particular job turned into more of a jigsaw puzzle as we tried to match the sizes of various timber to create a solid floor with minimum waste. I then spent some time securing the wooden frame for the roof to the walls and preparing the front of the house for plastering by attaching angle beads to the corners. Throughout the morning the team carried in buckets of the stones that were delivered yesterday to form the base of the floor.

Today we had two local people joining us to help with the build – Augustine and Olivio, whose house was built by Grassroots two years ago. Both are experienced plasterers and spent most of the day working on the interior walls. Meanwhile half of our team worked on the roof while the rest of us started on the internal ceiling. This involved first attaching a layer of insulating polystyrene underneath the joists followed by sheets of plasterboard to provide a paintable surface. Adding the plasterboard turned into a very time consuming job as we had to carefully measure and secure each piece to ensure a tidy fit. Nick, Ady, AJ and I all have very sore arms from holding up and screwing in boards for about 4 hours straight! We worked well into the evening after sunset and by the time we left over half of both the roof and ceiling had been completed.

Overall the building work is progressing well, though we are all very tired and there is still a lot to do! Tomorrow is Sunday when, traditionally, no work should be done. However, we have consulted with the people of the village and decided to work until lunchtime. Half of the team are also opting for an extra hour in bed, but the rest of us will be up at 6:45 again!