Not so much of a work weekend, but more of a work day, as there was some film work happening that Sunday, so we had a lot to fit in. It was also fiendishly hot. It was going to be a long hard day.

The “project de la jour” was cutting the rebates for the boards which were going to infill the triangular section over the porch, and which would sit behind my bargeboards.

Kevin had hoped that we would be able to use the table saw to cut the rebates, but the drive belt wasn’t going to take it, and money was tight, so we had to rely on Kevin and mine’s circular saws, and cut them by hand.

I hind sight, in spite of it being a dusty, tricky job, the boards were so warped I doubt that it would have been any easier using the table saw.

The frame into which the boards would be fixed had to be constructed first of all, and that was a trial in itself. The front rafter set was twisted to heck and it took a lot of fudging to get the frame in the right place, and stable enough to withstand carrying the boards. In comparison, sawing the boards wasn’t so much of an issue, once the first couple were done. There was a slight problem with my saw having the wrong sort of blade – but we managed. Thank heavens for ear-defenders and goggles.

In all we got five boards up, with the prospect of getting the vertical brace in and the remaining boards (getting progressively shorter of course) in place by midday on the Saturday in July – all going well!

I was going to have to paint the boards at some point, and since that weekend I found a source local to me, of linseed based paint, as well as lime washes. I’ll just have to decide which way to go, which colour and they get jiggy with it, so I can put up my boards on Saturday afternoon!

Since then, I have discovered that painting wood carvings isn’t as easy a task as I had first thought. Getting “the look” right is a hard process of trying not to make it look too “modern”. The lack of any painted wood carving from the period is a rather big hurdle for your typical Winchester Style wood carver. Oh it’s a hard life sometimes!

It was a good job that another talented woodworker/carver turned up - Nick Bibby. We’re at opposite ends of our craft – I’ve spent all my time carving huge bits of wood, but would dearly like to work on something small. He’s the reverse – all of the carvings he does is all fine, detailed work, and ostensibly Viking – style.

There are others out there who have expressed a desire to assist in decorating the longhall in wood carvings, but I am going to have to set some time aside to rough out some designs for them, give them a piece of wood the right size and send them on their merry way!

Though it’s been fun, it’ll be so nice to see the back of the boards. Two years, it’s taken, since I finished the first trial piece.

But then, of course, there’s the back porch to do.

That should be a piece of cake!