Men on stilts - aka getting plastered

---

I got a phone call from Dean saying John and he weren't going to make it till Tuesday, so I headed up the road bit late having stayed warm in bed when Wendy set off for the 6.55 bus to town.

I spent the day finishing off bits and pieces, tidying up and moving stuff in readiness for Dean and John. Had lovely venison stew at farmhouse.

On Tuesday Dean and John arrived and we got the show on the road. Plastering continued for the rest of the week including an enjoyable Thursday evening at the Lawers Hotel with Dean, John, Katie, Rab and Ian. (editor's comment: I do not believe that the plastering did continue in the Lawers Hotel. I think the author is emulating the Kerouac stream-of-consciousness style, which I just consider badly punctuated).

Robert returned to continue with the electrics: we could have power downstairs within a couple of weeks, which would get rid of a lot of the trailing wires and extension leads that we suffer from at the moment.
Then down the road Friday evening to pick up Wendy and take her up to the house. First time in 4 or 5 weeks and she seemed impressed.

It was all very strange. It's a very familiar space and yet it looked very different. First of all I saw the still damp plastered walls, ..but the whole of the living room is so much changed that it took me a while to take it all in. Last time I was there, I think I could still see through to the study behind it. Since then, the dividing wall has been completed, the ceiling plasterboarded and skimmed and the stud wall and the block wall have been plastered. Of course, the view's still pretty much the same.

We did a bit of sanding of posts and tidying up and then went off to the residents meeting, where a decision was made to site the play area for Tombreck kids (and small visitors) right beside our garden.

There then followed by a social evening with the Czech, Slovak and Scots volunteers working with Andy doing voluntary work for the National Trust. Having partied with them last summer we had a good idea of what to expect and weren't disappointed - a great evening when "tales were told and songs were sung", a mixture of czech, scots and all sorts of stuff including some great drumming.

Slightly lazy morning, bit of the morning after feel to things, on Sunday - a bit more sanding, then a visit from our Czech friends from the night before. Then down the road for a quiet night

---

Photos

Internal window frame
Just waiting for Mr Tiffany to make some stained glass to fit in the opening.

Curvaceous wall
Underneath here was an angular block wall - it has been sculpted into a softer, gentler curve

a room emerges
This is the kitchen looking across to the airing cupboard and staircase - the staircase has been left entirely to your imagination

Man on stilts
Dean looking very tall

Another man on stilts
This time it's John

two men on stilts
Makes it much easier than constantly moving a ladder about

Wendy sanding
This is in the corner of the bedroom, sanding the posts and the cladding that forms the bottom of our internal window frame

A musical evening
This is a group of Czechs and Slovaks along with some Scottish musicians - really good fun

Katy
Givin it laldy

Andy
Always up for a tune or two

and there was more drumming
At one point I think there were 4 or 5 drummers

a few beers were drunk
there were at least 25 people in the cartshed, so this is a relatively modest amount of alcohol

but there was more
also some had already been put in bags for recycling -music is thirsty work