Category: Building Gar Bothan diary

Week beginnning 29th January 2024. It’s dry and quite nice this morning so we are going to put up another couple of cladding boards on the north side of the mega-shed. This means that when the electricians come they can fit the extractor fan and an outside socket there. We’ve not long started working and… Continue reading Week Eighty-seven

Week beginning 22nd January 2024. What a stormy night it was last night! Pete was about to make breakfast but has come back with the news that our awning has collapsed. On closer inspection it is actually trashed, the guy rope loops have torn and some of the poles are bent and one is even… Continue reading Week Eighty-six

Week beginning 15th January 2024. It’s another very cold day, we’ve had quite a few since the beginning of the year and it is making it very difficult to get the landscaping finished. It also means we have to endure the cold which, although we are hardened to it, is not too pleasant. We are… Continue reading Week Eighty-five

Week beginning 8th January 2024. We arrived back at Gar Bothan mid-afternoon having spent the weekend in Edinburgh and a visit to the dentist this morning for both of us. We have enough time before it gets dark to fit the infra-red heating panels to the brackets we fitted last week. It’s a two person… Continue reading Week Eighty-four

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… Continue reading Week Eighty-three

Week beginning 25th December 2023. It’s Boxing Day afternoon and we have just arrived back at Gar Bothan after our Christmas trip to Edinburgh. We arrived on Friday night so we could take Niven and Caitlin swimming at Dunbar Leisure Pool on Saturday morning. Unfortunately, Caitlin wasn’t well and only stayed in the pool for… Continue reading Week Eighty-two

This is a special edition of ‘The Portobello Reporter’ made for Pete by Neil Braidwood. We thought it would be nice to share it. Enjoy

Week beginning 18th December 2023. It’s going to be a disrupted week in the run-up to Christmas but there are a few things we want to get done before the festive break. We are starting with finishing the trims on the double trusses above the east mezzanine. We now have our system for doing this… Continue reading Week Eighty-one

Week beginning 11th December 2023. It’s another Monday morning and our aim today is to get some small but important tasks completed. To start with we are refitting the balcony door lock barrel so that the key turns to lock the door. When Pete fitted it he didn’t realise that the lock had to be… Continue reading Week Eighty

Week beginning 4th December 2023. Before Andrew headed home he gave us a to-do list so that we are ready for the electrician, who will hopefully do the second fix on the house before Christmas. So, this Monday morning we are working on insulating the area where the balcony joists meet the supporting timber on… Continue reading Week Seventy-nine