Moved the very heavy concrete lintel into place, possibly like the Easter Islanders did their big rocks: with rollers and wee bits of wood. If you have two supports near enough to the centre so it see-saws a bit, you can lift one end with one hand, put a taller bit of wood in, rock it back, do the other side, and voila - it's higher and your spine discs are still where they should be. Got help to put it in but it wasn't sitting right so I rocked one side out on an accro prop, fiddled about at the back, re-mortared and rocked it back again, then repeated for the other side. All level and square and plumb and all those other words the original builders were not aware of! I wish I'd built the hearth out a bit, then I could have had a bit of oak as a lintel but didn't think of that until too late! Can't have a wood lintel flush with the wall as it would be too close to the flue and would burn, hence concrete... Still, it'll look good - if I ever finish it!
The next thing is to support the middle of the wall, between the lintel and the back, outer wall. I was advised to cast concrete in with some shuttering, but after fiddling about I worked out that this will only work for square spaces and I wasn't about to spend a week scribing wood to fit the wall (the concrete would seep out of any gaps). So, once again, simpler solutions work: a big stone acting like a bridge from the lintel, through the back wall. Took minutes as opposed to hours fiddling about with moulds and casting concrete. Also a lot better for the planet, like. I had stone, and lime mortar in me bucket. Job done.
We have also been wiring the house in our spare time. Not as hard as everyone thinks. Wires go from fusebox, along wall to socket and back again. Earth wires go to the earth - a copper spike in the ground. Bit hard to get everything level due to the crumbling stone and mud walls, but near as can be.
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