Blogs from Perthshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 10

A mark to anyone who recognised the Shakespeare quotation in the title: another mark to anyone who knows which play it's from. I've mis-used it a bit - the actual phrase is "And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel, and shining morning face, creeping like snail unwillingly to school". Progress on the house is creeping like snail. Most of the tasks that are left are fairly small and don't make that big a difference. I touched up some damaged paintwork on a window frame and although it did look better, it's not like the big "Wow" that we got when we achieved something like getting all the windows in in the first place. Progress continues though - Ewan's been busy while Willy had a week off to recover from his birthday and to try out ... read more

While I was at work last week , the lip at the front of the house resulting from not pouring the screed deep enough was dealt with. One part has a slope and the other has a very nice edging board in Douglas Fir, which I sanded on Saturday morning. Window cills have been cut and shaped, though only two have been fitted and the wall lights have been mostly connected up. Ewan's made a wardrobe door, which matches the bedroom ceiling and looks fantastic. So far this week, we've started to tile the kitchen splashback and the splashback behind the kitchen sink and grouted the utility room tiles and the floor tiles beside the French doors.There's loads more tiling to go though. Ewan's made chunky Douglas Fir boxes for the living room wall and another ... read more

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