Week Sixty-six

Week beginning 4th September 2023.

We went to Edinburgh late on Friday evening and on the way we stopped for a delicious pizza from Luti’s Pizza Parlour in Callander.

On Saturday Molly joined the many thousands who joined the march, All Under One Banner, to the Scottish parliament.

On Saturday evening we went to a party hosted by one of our neighbours, karen, in the tenement we used to live in Portobello. We had a great time catching up with our friends and neighbours and enjoyed excellent food and drink. Karen was celebrating her second anniversary of moving to the Promenade and we hit it off with her the first time we met.

On Sunday we had more pizza, this time at Pizza Express, where we were joined by Eddie, Niven, Caitlin, Ursula and Eddie H to celebrate Molly’s birthday.

Later, we picked up our friend Cristi from the airport and headed home arriving late but that didn’t stop us staying up into the wee small hours to catch-up.

Cristi is our Argentinian artist friend who was here to help us last winter. At that time we had as discusssion about art and the idea of us inviting artist friends to come on an ‘Artist’s Residency’. It was a kind of free flowing, blue sky thinking kind of conversation and we didn’t think much more of it after she left. Well, Cristi contacted us to say she had been offered an Artist’s Residency in Denmark and would like to follow that with an Artist’s Residency here at Gar Bothan. How could we refuse, even though we haven’t finished building, so here she is!

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It’s a beautiful sunny morning and Jef the plasterer has arrived bright and early and, in spite of a late night, we are up and ready for him. One of the first jobs is to carry a load of bags of plaster from the awning to the house. Jef had dropped them off when we were away at the weekend.

After a chat about Jef’s plan for the week and how prepared we are he has decided to make a start on ther west mezzanine.

We now have to do some additional covering to protect the staircase so Pete has dug out one of our tarpaulins which he will run down the staircase and make steps with plasterboard off-cuts.

Molly and Cristi are working on the en-suite finishing the plasterboarding around the window and some of the other wee bits left by Scott and the lads.

Pete is now removing the trip hazard which is caused by the hole giving access to the electricity duct between the house and the mega-shed. He is filling in the hole and cutting the plastic tube down to just below ground level before covering it all.

Jef has quite a few questions about how we want things finished and points things out that we need to fix, change or finish but he is making good progress with his own preparations. He has to fit metal beading along most of the edges and tape other bits before he can do his first mix of plaster.

Pete is working on finishing more of the plasterboarding in the guest shower-room.

We are now working together in the area under the stairs between our bedroom and the en-suite fitting the only ceiling board we have to fix. It is a bit awkward and even though it is only half a sheet it is still quite heavy to hold up and in place. We can now fit the side boards under the stairs and that’ll be us done for the day.

Jef has made a start on the actual plastering and it is looking great so we are very excited to see more progress tomorrow.

We are off for a wee walk by the river before dinner because it’s a lovely evening and you have to make the most of the good weather when you have it.

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It’s Tuesday morning and Pete is working so can’t help with the build. Jef is getting on with plastering the west mezzanine and Cristi is exploring our garden for ideas for her art.

Molly is working away on her own fixing more plasterboard in the hall and the bootroom.

It’s Molly’s birthday and it’s a beautiful, hot, sunny day. We’ve had lunch and decided that we’ll all finish early and take our canoe to Loch Awe and then canoe up the River Orchy. Cristi is making a picnic birthday dinner of tortilla which we’ll take with us while Pete does a bit more work. He can finish early because he has some ‘toil’ to take after a couple of long days going to Edinburgh for training.

We’ve launched the canoe from under the railway bridge at the top of the loch and it’s glorious for paddling today. We are doing a wee round of the top of the loch so we can see the back of Kilchurn Castle from the water.

We have managed to paddle a good way up the River Orchy, though we did have to get out and push a couple of times where the river is very shallow and fast flowing, and have found a perfect spot for a swim and a picnic.

The water is a wee bit cold but more on the invigorating side than freezing and it’s lovely for having a wee swim.

We’re back at the caravan and have cracked open a bottle of wine to go with the cake to celebrate Molly’s birthday. By the time her next one comes around we’ll be well settled in our new house.

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It’s eight o’clock and Jef is making a start already, we’re still at breakfast but we’ll get going at half past. It’s another glorious day which is very lucky for us all but particularly Cristi, who was here previously during the freeze last December. Molly is getting on with more plasterboarding, Cristi is working on her project and Pete is doing his work.

Martin has just turned up to see how we are getting on and that breaks up the morning. We have asked him if we can come down the loch to launch our canoe from his land later this afternoon and he’s happy for us to do so.

Pete has enough toil that he can stop mid-afternoon and we are now here launching the canoe from Martin and Cat’s land. The loch is calm and there is only a gentle breeze. We are heading for an island on the loch that has the ruin of Innes Chonnel Castle. It’s such a beautiful relaxing experience paddling on Loch Awe today but it can get quite choppy when the wind gets up and that isn’t a nice experience.

We’re back at the launch site and it’s time for s swim. The water here is much warmer than in the river and so we stay in longer, enjoying the lovely, warm, soft water.

We’ve popped in to say hello and Martin is alone because Cat is working. Martin pops a cork and he, Molly and Crsiti have a wee glass. It’s a perfect late afternoon to be out on their terrace and the craek is good so another bottle is opened.

Cat’s back from work and has joined us on the terrace. She’s invited us to stay for dinner, how can we refuse!

We’ve had a lovely time this afternoon and evening and Martin and Cat have been great hosts but it’s time to head home now.

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Another work day for Pete and Jef is on the job bright and early again. Molly is still getting on with finishing all the wee bits of plasterboarding that have been missed, this task seems never ending but that is often the way of things when you think you are almost finished.

Cristi has started adding vegetation to our scaffolding, partly as a joke because it was meant to have been taken away over a month ago and partly as a site specific piece.

Molly and Cristi are off to Oban to get supplies leaving Pete to get on with his work and Jef to carry on with the plastering. It isn’t such a nice day here today but we can’t complain having had a couple of really amazing balmy days this week.

Pete has finished for the day and so has Jef, and Molly and Cristi have just arrived back from Oban with a load of shopping to keep us going and five bags of plaster for Jef.

Jef is finished for the week and he has made great progress, from a standing start he has managed to paster the vaulted ceiling, the gable and all the walls on the west mezzanine. Well done Jef and it’s looking great.

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It’s a beautiful sunny morning and it looks like it is going to be a lovely day.

Cristi is busy doing her art and Pete and Molly are in the house plasterboarding the trims and reveals on the east mezzanine so it’s ready for Jef on Monday.

It’s coffee break and we have just agreed to time limit our working day so that we can take advantage of the great weather and get out on the loch for a paddle and a swim.

Pete and Molly have finished the work on the east mezzanine and are packing up for the day and Cristi is preparing lunch for us. She set up the table so that we can eat outside, one of our favourite activities.

We’ve paddled to a wee sandy beach on the loch and are having a very chilled out time swimming and sunbathing. Argyll is such a beautiful place, especially when the weather is as glorious as this.

We’re having dinner outside and it’s still warm so it’s like being on holiday in southern Europe, happy days.

It’s dark now. The sky is clear, the stars are out in abundance and we can even see the Milky Way.

Even though our house isn’t finished we are more sure than ever that we have made the right move. Argyll is so beautiful and we have the opportunity to slow down and enjoy the simple pleasures that nature has to offer.

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It’s Saturday and we need to be getting on with things, as usual, so Molly is taping around the balcony door and the roof widow.

Pete is covering the return stair with tarpaulin and plasterboard steps ready for Jef on Monday.

Cristi continues to develop her project and we are now having a go at re-boarding the bulkheads. Jef reckons it would be better to run the verticle board up between the trusses to meet the vaulted ceiling. This would avoid having the narrow shelf at the top of the bulkhead, a dust trap, and give a nicer finish.

We’ve struggled to get the first board on because we keep having to take it down and make minor adjustments to the cut-outs around the trusses but we’ve done it now and calling it a day.

It has been a bit of a struggle today because we over did it last night so we are stopping early again and are going for a walk before dinner. We are heading up Glen Strae to find the green pool to check out if it might be somewhere we’d like to take a dip some time in the future.

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A slow start because it’s Sunday but now we are revisiting the board that is cut out to fit between the trusses. We have decided to take it off and do it again because it got damaged by taking it down over and over again with all the adjustments we had to make.

We are using yesterday’s board as a template and it is going on a treat. Before we can fit the second board, Pete needs to sand down one of the battens that sticks out a bit and could make the board bow. With the adjustment to the batten and some careeful measuring and cutting, the second board is going on first time. Sweet! The final board is also going on easily so it seems we have worked out a good system for measuring and fitting these tricky boards.

We are on to the north bulkhead now and with our new found confidence and careful work everything is working well.

That’s it, job done. Just a tidy and a clean up and we can call it a day.

We have been caught in a down pour at Inverawe, we decided to come here for a walk, to pick some brambles and so Cristi can collect some lichen for an art piece. Our timing has been terrible and we are all soaked but at least it’s warm and the brambles are lovely and juicy and sweet.

It has been another big week for us and we are very happy, especially because Cristi is here as our first Artist in Residence and Jef has made such a good start to the plastering. On top of all that we have had some great times on and in the water and spent quality time with friends.