Another week or at least part week - the blog seems to be running behind the reality but who knows what is really real? Anyway picked Wendy up on Thursday from Callander and returned to find Douglas continuing with the electronics to control the heating systems (Dunsley the makers of our stove seem to be unable or unwilling to answer straight quiestions and seem to be intent in over complicating things (they have added a gas/oil burner to our system which simply doesn't exist). Anyway I'm sure things will get sorted eventually. Note from Wendy... I do not actually recall Douglas being in the house when I arrived, but perhaps my short term memory is failing me. Thursday evening and Friday morning, we tidied up in readiness for my Dad, brothers (Stuart and Roger) and sisters-in-law ... read more

Well the house wasn't quite finished but with not too much imagination it was partyable. (well - it had its first party when it was just an empty site without so much as the slab, so a house with functional plumbing, cooker and fridge was more than adequate for the occasion). Anyway to our tale, Wendy and I went back up the road on Monday after visiting many DIY outlets over the weekend in search of tiles for the kitchen, utility room and both bathrooms, (as well as a visit to Glasgow to see Bob Dylan). We had a day priming doors and Tom and his dad Big Tam, came to connect the solar panels to the rest of the heating system. On Tuesday, Ewan returned from Holland and Jonny from Dundee. Jonny continued with the ... read more

I think we're on a kind of plateau now, just waiting for the next surge. The scaffolding has been sold and was taken down at the begining of the week, though it hasn't yet been collected. The kitchen floor is now laid and Willy has continued to remove ancient varnish much to the detriment of his back and shoulder, as it's a repetitive movement which requires quite a lot of effort. We have 5 volunteers coming at the weekend to do some limewashing... and if any of them want to find out first hand how much effort goes into reclaiming a wooden floor, then they'll be very welcome to have a shot with Nitromors and a scraper. The amount of work involved in re-using the reclaimed flooring is enormous ... first the floors had to be ... read more

This week has been exciting and progress has satisfied even Willy's impatience, though we visited different branches of a well known DIY store on three consecutive days, as well as the weekly trip to Screwfix. We went up to the house at the weekend and took some more beech floorboards. We didn't do much, just swept up a bit, then headed down to Perth to pick some kitchen units. We found a style we both liked and went to talk to a consultant to order it all, but they were fully booked. So I spent the evening with the kicthen catalogue counting all the bits we needed and noting down the item codes, while Willy watched football. Next day we went to the Livingston branch and ordered all the bits - I surreptitiously checked that she ... read more

Ally the roofer, whose apprentices roofed the house last summer when Ally broke his leg playing football, came back to make a hole for the chimney and some holes for extractor fan vents and fit them into the roof. The roof is now kind of busy: it has a chimney, 4 extractor fan vents, a vent for the soil stack, 2 solar panels and 6 veluxes. It is traditional, when the chimney is completed, to have a drink on the roof in honour of the event. I don't think that happened, (surprisingly, given the number of events which have given rise to the consumption of alcohol). I was going to say that we are now the proud owners of a chimney, but we have actually owned the bits that make up the chimney for several months ... read more