Week Eighty-eight

Week beginning 5th February 2024.

It’s a shockingly wet start to the week. Pete’s sister tells us there hasn’t been much rain in Tuscany this winter and they are hoping for some soon, while here we have had far more than our share. The river is as high as we have seen it since moving here and it has incredible force, and the fields are all flooded so the whole strath is like a lake.

We’re staying dry and working indoors preparing the third window sill for the mega-shed, ready for when it’s dry and we can put the scaffolding up to fit it.

We are now tackling one of our least favourite jobs, tidying and organising all the timber off-cuts in the mega-shed, that for some reason we can’t bare to take to the wood recycling. We are cutting lots of bits of timber into more managable sizes and making kindling for when we can have an outside fire. With the timber reorganised we are doing a bit of general mega-shed tidying.

This afternoon we are putting up our picture hanging system in some of the rooms. We decided that rather than put nails or screws into our beautiful plaster for hanging pictures, a rail system would allow us to move pictures around without damaging anything.

Although the rails are practical they don’t actually look as inconspicious as we’d anticipated so we might have to paint them to disguise them a bit, but that’s for another day.

We’re off to Cate and Steve’s for dinner tonight which is a real treat, Cate is a great cook and we always come away feeling well fed and watered and of course we really enjoy their company. Thanks Cate and Steve

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It’s a workday for Pete, being Tuesday, and Molly is getting into a new routine. Pickleball in the morning and a visit to the dump followed by shopping in the afternoon. We’ve decided that for the time being Molly can deal with the shopping on her own while Pete’s at work so that when he’s off we can make the most of the time for building work.

Molly’s back from Oban and Pete has finished for the day so we are going around the house checking what the electricians need to work on when they come on Thursday. There’s still quite a list of tasks for them but most importantly we need our hot water system connected, the hob properly connected and the ventilation system connected. There is still a lot to do in the mega-shed too, but most of that is simple stuff.

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We’ve woken to a beautiful snowy scene this morning but it does mean that Pete needs to prepare the car and clear it of snow before he heads off for work.

Molly is up and about a bit later than Pete and just as she is finishing breakfast she is called away to run a neighbour to the railway station so that they won’t miss their train. Molly is taking the chance away from her days work to capture some of the beautiful scenes around here, made even more spectacular in the snow.

She is placing a specialist order with the timber mill for some kiln dried, dressed larch for using in the house. We can’t use the cladding timber because it has been out in the rain for too long and will no doubt bend and twist as it dries out. It’s a bit of added expense but we are convinced it will be worth it qnd give our house an extra wee bit of uniqueness.

Whilst putting up the hanging system earlier in the week, Molly noticed that the aluminium housing for the LED strip lights in the hall had bits of plaster stuck to the edges here and there. She is now cleaning all of the aluminium housing so that the electricians can fit the LED strip lights when they come on Thursday.

It’s early evening so we are doing a bit of work around the balcony door. Pete has noiticed that one of the battens sticks out a bit and so isn’t flush with the rest. It’s because there is a fixing bolt sticking out preventing it lying flush so Pete is cutting a bit out of the batten so we can refix it. With that done, we are preparing the reveal, a facing timber, for above the door on the outside and fixing it in place. With any luck the weather will dry off enough at the weekend for us to finish the door reveals and maybe even get some cladding on the wall at the balcony.

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It’s Thursday and Pete’s off bright and early. As promised the electricians have arrived. Harley and Liam are going round the house with Molly, she is making sure that they prioritise the things we need done more urgently.

While Harley and Liam get on with their task list, Molly is in the mega-shed making the reveals for around the balcony door so that at the first opportunity they can be fitted.

Molly is doing more Shou Sugi Ban by buring the larch she has prepared as window sills for in the bedrooms and on the west mezzanine. These three sills are quite long and we need to keep an eye on them because if they warp or bend we won’t be able to use them. The burnt sills are now getting a coat of varnish.

The electrians have gone after doing a fine day’s work. We now have hot water, heating, a working oven and hob and all the power points in the house are connected. Tomorrow Andrew is coming to commission the ventilation system which means all the main technology will be up and running. One downer is that Pete has been told that the power cable from the house to the mega-shed needs replaced and so he is going to have to dig holes to find the conduit that connects the two buildings, a task he is not looking forward to.

We are taking down the scaffolding tower in the house which we had left in place so that the electricians could connect our infra-red heaters which are mounted at the foot of the trusses. Hopefully our faith in the efficiency of our house is well-founded and the very limited heating is enough to keep us warm!

We have just had our first showers in our new house and it is fantastic and a great leap forward for us to have hot water and a working shower. No more trips to Oban swimming pool and we can keep a lot cleaner than of late!

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Andrew has arrived to commission our Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery system. It’s not that straight forward because he has to balance all the fresh air coming in to the various rooms and ballance all the extractor vents that take the dirty air out of the building. He also has to put some lagging, insulation, around the air intake and extract ducts to stop condensation developing on them.

While Andrew is getting on with that with a bit of help from Molly, Pete is outside digging away to find the conduit for the power cables. It is no easy task because the conduit is at the bottom of a small manhole and can only be dug out by hand with a trowel. It has taken him a while but he has managed to dig out the first before morning coffee break.

It’s lunchtime and Andrew has commissioned the MVHR, Pete has dug out the second hole and Molly has second coated the sills.

We are fitting the reveals that Molly measured and cut for the balcony door but it is a bit tricky because the wind is getting up so we need to get a move on.

With our kitchen now operational we are moving our pots and pans, utensils and food down to the house so we can cook here from now on. The house is warm, between 17.5 &18.5°C, and we can feel the infra-red heating panels if we sit under them. It’s amazing to think that the house has kept quite warm with minimal heating through this very cold and wet winter.

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It has been a very windy night and there was some howling which kept Pete awake worrying that the roof might blow off. This morning we are not so sure the noise actually came from our buildings but we don’t know either way.

We are quite tired but we still need to get on with ticking off our task list so now that the wind has died down quite a bit and it’s reasonable dry we are going to replace one of the reveals around the balcony door that split when we put the final screw in yesterday.

We are moving on to adding the cladding around the balcony door to try and get this gable finally finished. It’s the usual story, cladding that isn’t straight and needs persuading and the odd bit that needs custom cut to fill the gap but we are getting on great guns.

The balcony area is now fully clad and looks so much better than before. We love it when we make this kind of progress because it adds to the houses character.

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Enthused with the progress made yesterday we are keen to tackle another job that has been needing done for far too long. This is the reveals on the shed and we know that there will be some good old head scratching to try and work out what to do.

On this side of the shed we had to attach extra battens onto the timber frame to make sure the cladding would reach the edge of the foundation slab. The result is that the windows are positioned much further back and without the supporting structures in place for the reveals.

We are pleased that the day starts with some sunshine and despite being tired we are making good progress. Pete has come up with a plan for attaching the reveal above the window and once we have this in place we find the solution for fixing the side reveals. Molly is sourcing and preparing the timber for the reveals and then helping Pete position and fix them into place.

After lunch we start on the second window and now have to contend with a bit of rain so it is tough going. We are determined to get this task done and we get our heads down and get on with the measuring, the cutting, the fixing and adjusting until each reveal is right. In the process we are creating a good old guddle but we are getting there.

We are finally rewarded with another job done and can start to clear up our mess in preparation for another week.

With the shed back in order and a quick trip to the shop we can reflect back on this amazing week and the stunning beauty of Argyll.