Week Eighty-three

Week beginning 1st January 2024.

Another year begins and we have been living rough now since the beginning of June 2022, it’s amazing how quickly the time passes and how easy it is to adapt to changing circumstances. Before long we will have to adapt to living in our new home but for now there is still work to be done.

Pete went to Edinburgh by bus yesterday to pick up Niven and Caitlin, and our car, and drove them here to bring in the New Year. We had a lovely wee fire and stood round it for the bells. It was very quiet, no fireworks or people to be seen or heard anywhere, totally unlike the fantastic Portobello beach celebrations.

It’s Ne’erday and after a slow start we are going to do a wee bit of work. Niven and Caitlin aren’t used to staying up late and they are still asleep so we can use this time constructively..

We are fitting the pallet wood spice rack that Molly has made into the wall as planed. It is a bit tricky because little of the pallet wood was true so everything is a bit off straight and level. With a bit of jiggery-pokery and gentle persuasion we have finally managed to get it in and fixed. We love the look of it and it should be just right for the job. We’ll need to fill the gaps between the rack and the plaster and hopefully get a good finish. Time will tell.

We’ve fed Niven and Caitlin and they are amusing themselves so we are going to give the Venetian plaster another coat of wax polish. It’s starting to look rerally good but we will have to give it a few more coats to get the full effect.

We have been for a wee walk down to the river with Niven and Caitlin and we are getting ready to cook dinner. We are going to see if we can do it on our new hob.

We got the ingredients and the utensils and pans down but on switching on the hob we are gettng an error message. Very frustrating! So it’s back to the caravan to do the cooking.

It’s a bit of role playing game time, a family film and an early night for the four of us.

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It’s a public holiday in Scotland but nonetheless Craig has turned up to get on with fitting the kerbs round the house.

Pete is doing some wee tasks around the house and Molly, Niven and Caitlin are doing some experimentation with Yakisugi or Shou Sugi Ban. Our current plan is to have the skirting boards, door surrounds and ballustrades done with this technique but we have to be sure it looks good, hence the experimentation.

We think it looks great and as long as the scorching is done with care and patience it isn’t too difficult.

We are out for a walk because the weather is good, if a little cold, and have climbed a wee hill to get a great view down Loch Etive towards Glencoe. The far distant mountains are covered in snow but only the peaks here have a sprinkling.

While the kids have a bit of screen time we are measuring up for what size and how much timber we will need for the skirting boards, door surrounds and ballustrades. We are going to have to up our measuring and cutting game to get a good finish when we come to fit all this.

It’s getting dark and Craig is packing up for the day. he’s made great progress and having the kerbs around the house sharpens everything up nicely.

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It’s Wednesday morning and we aren’t going to get much done today as we are expecting visitors.

Craig has turned up bright and early and is getting on with the kerbs. He just gets his head down and works hard to do a good neat job.

We’ve had a lovely visit from Lucy, Molly’s niece, Dom and their kids Ailsa and Otis. They are carving out a life for themselves in Portugal, in the Douro valley, and have bought a small quinta. It is a very exciting and adventurous undertaking but they are young enough to make a good go of it.

Our visitors have just left and we are packing the car to take Niven and Caitlin home to their parents. it’s been lovely having them here because they are great company and so full of ideas and knowledge.

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We got back around 9pm last night, we decided to come straight back so that we can get on with the house. The infra-red heating panels have arrived so we are going to do all the prep needed for them to be installed by the electricians.

Craig is here again and Kevin has swung by to check on how things are going and if Craig will be ready for him to start levelling the ground around the house.

Our first task is to build the scaffolding tower in the house so that we can fit the trims to the double trusses before applying glaze to the plaster on the south vaulted ceiling where one of the heaters is to be fitted and to paint on the north side a small area under the Velux that was too tight for Jef to plaster. We have chosen a colour that is a good match and because the plaster is not an even colour we can easily blend to match.

We’ve got the scaffolding up but before we carry on in the house we are going to move a stack of roofing sheets and timber from in front of the shed and onto the grass. We need to make space for the digger.

We are ripping some more thin strips of trim for the double trusses so we can glue and pin them on to match the others. We have this down pat and so it isn’t taking long.

We’ve been invited to dinner at Martin and Catriona’s so we have to finish early to get there in time. We are happy enough with the progress and because we have already prepped the trims for the south double trusses it shouldn’t take too long to fix them tomorrow.

Off to dinner with friends, happy days!

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We will be heading to Edinburgh later, on the way we are going to check the granite slabs for the patio and path, then we’ll spend time with Pete’s mum. But first we need to finish preparing for the installation of the heating panels.

With the trims precut it isn’t taking long to fix them to the trusses but now we need to work out how to fix the panels to the trusses. We also have to apply glaze to the plaster before the panels are installed.

We will have one panel in the middle of the south elevation fixed to the bottom of the trusses so it can face into the room at 45° and the other opposite fixed in the same way to the north elevation This, and the towel rails, will be our only heating.

Pete had bought some fixing kits to go with the panels but it turns out that they aren’t needed so we’ll try and return them. The panels come with two sets of simple brackets and on the north elevation we can add a couple of dwangs to the cross-truss and fix the brackets there easily.

But we are starting with the south elevation because that’s where the scaffolding is. Here we need to add a bit of 18mm plywood to attach the brackets to. We have to be precise in measuring where the brackets go but this isn’t too difficult because we can easily do that onto the plywood down on the bench and then fit it all together before attaching to the truss.

For the north elevation we have cut and fixed a couple of dwangs in place ready for the brackets but to try and ensure that they are postioned precisely Pete is making a template with some 5mm plywood. With the pilot holes drilled it’s just a matter of screwing on the brackets.

We have to start tidying up and packing for our trip to Edinburgh and to go and see the paving slabs so it’s an early finish for us but Craig is still working and should get the kerbing on the house and the shed finished today ready for Kevin on Monday.

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It’s Saturday morning and we are visiting Dr Mike Cressey who has kindly turned us some finials for our house. Pete got to know Mike years ago when Mike was the chief archaeologist on a project Pete was photgraphing and videoing. Mike took up wood turning on retirement and is a keen follower of our house build.

He is showing us around his workshop that, though small, is very well equipped. Mike makes a variety of beautiful things from wood to sell at craft fairs and in craft shops

We are so pleased with the finials Mike has crafted for us, the two for the balcony posts are of oak and the one for the return staircase is of yew. It’s really great to have someone gift us something they crafted especially for our house. Thanks a million Mike, you are a star.