Week One hundred and six

Week beginning 10th June 2024.

Another week begins and we need to go to Oban for more timber so we can finish the skirting and the handrail. Kevin has arrived to finish the last bit of landscaping.

We are on our way to see our mechanic, Damian, to find out if there is a scrap merchant we can take the old car to. We have some bags to take to the dump in the back of our new car, the first time we have put rubbish in it, and we have taken care to line the boot with a tarpaulin to protect it.

As Pete is explaining to Damian about the car, one of his customers says he would be interested in buying it. This is a very lucky encounter as we could get a wee bit of cash for it rather than give it to the scrapyard. We have agreed to bring the car up for him to check over in the next few days.

We are at the building suppliers and are struggling to secure the timber to the roof bars. It has to be done properly as it would be terrible if any of the timber slipped off.

It’s taken longer than we anticipated but we are back now and Kevin has gone, the landscaping looks good and that should be the last of the diggers on our plot so we can start planning our garden now.

We are measuring and cutting the last of the skirting boards ready for a primer coat and hopefully we can fit them in the next few days.

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We are giving the timber we cut yesterday another lick of paint, one coat of primer and two of top coat.

We are now working on the timber that the handrail is going to be fixed to. We need to fix the timber to the timber frame studs so we can secure the handrail. If we didn’t do this we would have to attach the handrail directly to the plasterboard and Pete’s research suggests it is very difficult to get a strong secure fixing that way.

With the handrail timber cut to size and the wall all marked up we can give it a prime coat.

Off to deliver the car to the garage so the prospective buyer can check it over. With any luck it will suit him and that will be it off our hands and the car will live another day.

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It’s Wednesday and we are expecting a visit from Pete’s mum, Ursula, and her beau, Eddie. We are going all out to get as much done before they come so that Ursula and Eddie will see the house as close to completion as possible.

Firstly we are painting the handrail timber, now we are on to the skirting and one piece of door surround which are all going on a treat.

We are now doing more work on the boot room cupboard which is looking good.

We’ve just had a call from Ursula to say they have been delayed by an accident on the road so they are making their way directly to their guest house. This means we have time to fit the timber for the handrail to the wall before heading down to Inveraray for dinner.

We are at the George Hotel, Inveraray, for dinner and it’s mum’s treat to us for helping her move. The food and wine are excellent and because it is such a beautiful evening we are taking a stroll by Loch Fyne before taking them back to their guest house.

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We will be meeting Ursula and Eddie later but for now we are attaching the handrail to it’s support timber. It has gone well and the handrail is fixed securely so when they come they can climb the stairs safely.

Molly is remaking the frames for the nooks we have made that will hold the wee drawers from our old sideboard. The first ones she made were a bit small and thin.

We have time to do a few more small finishing jobs and tidy the place up before we need to head off to meet them.

The weather is not at all good today so we are visiting Inveraray Castle, home to the Dukes of Argyll. It is an impressive show of the wealth and power they have acquired throughout history, aligning themselves with the monarchy has reaped many rewards.

We have brought them here for dinner and so that they can see the progress we have made and they are impressed.

We are back now from dropping them back at their guest house after having a nice meal together in our house. Hopefully there will be many more nice times like this.

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It’s Friday morning and we are doing lots of wee bits of finishing like filling holes and cracks in the plaster and retouching some of the paint work. There is going to be quite a bit of this if we want to get a good finish.

We are stopping for a coffee break as Ursula and Eddie have popped by on their way home.

We’ve managed to do a bit more work since they left but now Steve and Cate are here for lunch. Our pace of working has slowed a lot lately, partly through tiredness and partly through wanting to be more sociable, but we can’t take our eyes off the ball because we really need to get this house finished, and soon!

Off to exchange keys and papers for the car, it was a real stroke of luck that we found someone so quickly to take the car off our hands and we are getting a few quid for it too.

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Pete is off to meet some friends and Molly is getting on with more of these wee tasks – filling, sanding, retouching the paintwork and more.

To end the day Molly is sowing grass seeds on the soil that Kevin recently relandscaped. Hopefully the combination of sun and rain will help the grass germinate soon.

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To all intents and purposes we have finished the house, finally, two years and one week after we started. We still have some minor snagging details to finish and the east elevation of the mega-shed to clad. None of that will take long, although how long it will take to get the extra larch delivered is unknown. So next week we will slowly start bringing our belongings from the container and start to change our house into our home.