Category: Building Gar Bothan diary

Week beginning 26th June 2023. We woke to pouring rain on Sunday morning and decided that we should start battening the east mezzanine gable. It was a bit tricky because we had to cut the tops of the battens at an angle and leave a gap allowing for the edge batten and for the ceiling… Continue reading Week Fifty-six

Week beginning 21st June 2023. On Friday evening Zadjil and Carolyn arrived for the weekend and we had a nice dinner and catch-up. On Saturday morning we asked them to help us build another of the mezzanine balustrade corners since Zadjil had done such a good job of one on his previous visit. Unfortunately when… Continue reading Week Fifty-five

Week beginning 12th June 2023. We had a long weekend in Edinburgh, extended mostly because we both had dental appointments. We had a lovely time on Saturday with our good friends Nicky and Graham, we went for a nice walk around the new lagoons development beside Musselburgh race course then a couple of drinks and… Continue reading Week Fifty-four

Week beginning 5th June 2023. And so we begin our second year of building Gar Bothan. This morning, after exactly one year we are having the first of two air pressure tests. Optimistically, we are hoping for a score of one but anything below three will suffice. Ideally it would be 0.6 which is the… Continue reading Week Fifty-three

Week beginning 29th May 2023. At the end of last week, on Friday, we continued cladding the east gable and struggled with the unruly larch. but still managed to get another decent amount done on the southern part of the east gable. The rest of the weekend involved a trip to Edinbiurgh to see Pete’s… Continue reading Week Fifty-two

Week beginning 22nd May 2023. We took a long weekend in Glasgow to get some rest and recuperation but before we left on Friday we fitted the flashings on the south elevation of the mega-shed. It didn’t take us too long, leaving us plenty of time to pack a bag for our weekend away. We… Continue reading Week Fifty-one

Week beginning 15th May 2023. It’s another Monday morning and our plan for today is to fit all the remaining gutters to the house and the mega-shed. We are off to a slow start and are generally feeling weary but we’ll plod on. We are taking a lot of care to ensure the fall from… Continue reading Week Fifty

Week beginning 8th May 2023. Spring has finally sprung and the plants are coming to life. Our garden is coming into bloom and it makes us very happy, especially the plants and seeds contributed by our family and our friends. We’ve also had lots of visitors to our bird feeders. here’s a wee selection of… Continue reading Week Forty-nine

It’s Thursday morning and Andrew has arrived very sharpish, we haven’t even finished breakfast. It’s very windy so we are having to change plans, we had hoped to finish roofing around the final roof window but it would be too dangerous. Instead Andrew is going to show us how to fit the gutters. We start… Continue reading Week Forty-eight – Part Two

Week beginning 1st May 2023. Apologies for not posting a part-two last week but we went to Edinburgh for our grandson’s eleventh birthday and didn’t find the time to post, so here is a catch-up. On Wednesday, with Alistair’s help, we finished fixing the tin on the mega-shed roof. On Thursday the weather forced us… Continue reading Week Forty-eight