Next the Ceiling

After fitting the AC we found that it was struggling a bit a midday as the roof panels, although insulated, we're still getting warm. We decided to go for more insulation with rock wool. Now came the messy job! If this was a normal roof/ceiling then the trusses would be spaced at 60cm and be the full length of the roof, but you already know what my roof looks like and the trusses are 40cm apart, bring it on!

Every single 'panel' of Rockwool had to be cut. Luckily my google search immediately came up with the right tool for the job, more of a bonus …. I had it in the kitchen drawer! I'd recently bought a Kenwood electrical carving knife after struggling to slice our sour dough bread thin and straight enough to get in the toaster! It does the job really well, although for the bread it's not the perfect solution, actually I don't think there is one, but at least it turns out to be the perfect solution for the Rockwool!

The Rockwool was held in place by covering with silver bubble wrap and stapling in place with the trusty Stanley staple gun.

The next phase took a month, each and every truss measured and the trimming wood cut to length, the ends that butted up to the long side pieces were chaffered to look nicer and all the pieces sanded and oiled …….. 120 pieces in total. Then we sourced pandan leaf mats from the village, everyone that made them sold us all they had but we still had to get more made, lots of waiting time for new ones to arrive but many side projects got started and some even finished. All the locals use the mats for sitting and sleeping on in their homes, insulation from the concrete floor I presume, they don't use mattresses and seem to be fine and comfy with a millimetre of panda leaf padding.

Doncel's Mum making the pandan mats on her terrace, yup that's her house, she was actually given a very pretty bamboo house recently by an NGO, moved into it and a week later moved back to her old place :)