After a huge amount of debate, we finally decided that it made more sense to build the double garage now rather than pay to store our remaining belongings until the house is ready.We had already done the setting out and the main earthworks when we started the house foundations at Easter so, when, in early May, it became clear that John H could be available to build it for us and that we could get a mini digger at short notice, we jumped at the chance.
Having got John H set up in the West Loch, we started the foundations for the garage on 10 May with John and John batching and barrowing concrete and Suse levelling it in the trenches. When Suse had to go back to work by bus she passed Jo on the Rest and Be Thankful coming up to help.
The first two courses of blocks went in on 12 May and we barrowed in type 1 and sand for the slab on 13th.
Having done some drainage tracks which involved getting the digger hopelessly stuck (thanks to the two Al’s for unsticking it) we then sprung a major hydraulic leak which involved Mathers from Helensburgh having to collect the machine and us having an afternoon off.
The whisky bar in the Hunting Lodge on the way to Campbeltown was an interesting find as was the empty pub at Tayinloan with the Landlord doing the ironing!
Once we got going again, 6m3 of C35 concrete was poured and levelled in an hour (thanks to the 2 Als) and when the replacement digger was delivered by West Coast, we took some time off and John H dug the phone and electricity trench along the back of the Woodhouse’s garden and down through the site.
16 May it rained all day so we laid type1 on the farm road. Next day we loaded the site with blocks and got two corners done, 6 blocks high. John H was puzzled by the ability of midges to continue biting even when it is raining. Welcome to Argyll!
Work on the garage stopped so that we could help Peter Hay and Donald Anderson to “flake” the electricity cable. This is a highly technical term which means if you haven’t got a machine to lay the cable you have to haul it out yourselves in stages. I don’t think they were quite aware of the distance from the pole to the site but they took it all in their stride and I think they were secretly quite happy to do something out of the ordinary for once.
Got another corner of blockwork done and worked late stacking blocks for next day, only to discover that the original order hadn’t been fully supplied. Borrowed Al’s trailer and dashed in for another pallet on the Saturday morning. We took pity on John and bought light weight blocks.
John and Jo were moving out of their flat so John was keen to finish the garage and get back to help but as we couldn’t be sure when he would finish, and Suse had to get back to work, she set off on the bus (again).
In actual fact, things went really well and John finished at about 1 o’clock. Unfortunately, I saw him a couple of hours later at Ardrishaig where he’d managed to write off his car on one of the many bad bends. Still, it turned out OK for him because he got more from the insurance company than he thought he was going to get from selling the car and only his pride was injured.
Spent the next few days installing the BT cable and backfilling the trench (broke the window on the digger working too close to a tree – thought I had been shot but it turned out it was just a branch). Left on 22 May to go back to Bathgate and to pack for our departure.
John H and I came back up early in June to put on the garage roof. Again, we got away with things by the seat of our pants! We had arranged for the steel roof beam to be delivered to Lochgilphead and collected from there by Jewsons, who would drop it off on their normal run. As happens in Argyll, there was an accident which closed the road and the beam went back to Glasgow. It came up the next day but missed the Jewsons delivery.
Plan B.
The beam was 6m long and I’d assured John that we would manage it on the back of the trailer. He didn’t say anything but you could tell he wasn’t convinced. To his credit, he still didn’t say anything when we drove into the yard and saw this monstrous piece of steel. I instantly recalled the line from “Jaws” – “We’re gonna need a bigger boat”. We were dead lucky to find somebody who was prepared to run it down to the site for us at a price (plan C). We were probably ripped off but it meant that we could get it fitted. Funnily enough, I think John H probably also doubted that four people would be able to lift it into position, but we had Ali and Robin to help and by doing it in stages, it went in surprisingly easily (but no-one was free to take photographs!). We got the beams in and the roof decking on by the end of the weekend but it rained non stop again.
Update
While we were waiting for the Building Warrant to come through in the summer, we put on the cladding and were relieved to find that we really like the effect. Emily came up and began to lay the sedum roof. It still isn’t finished but is watertight and draining nicely. John made up the windows and the glass is in now. It is rather dark but we made stable doors so that we can let in more light when necessary. There were lessons to be learned when doing the cladding so it was good to practice before doing the house.
Look! Mum with hair!
The picture doesn’t do the garage justice. It looks lovely with the stable doors and larch cladding.
Oh and the blockwork that you can’t see