A Welcome Visitor

Another month. My the weeks are passing!  Everything seems to marking time but Mick has started slating and the first instalment of larch cladding has finally arrived. It is going on the wall very nicely. The diffutherm order, the insulated wall panels that will be rendered, turned up late and incomplete but we should be able to get cracking on that once the cladding is up.

Confident that we are (fairly) wind and watertight, we have kept ourselves busy inside by laying the panelvent ground floor underfloor and taping it, as per Chris’s instructions, ‘conscientiously’ at all the joints. We can then re-lay the OSB floor.

Suse spent some time estimating plumbing and drainage and we’ve ordered the underground stuff so that Ali can come whenever he is free of silage making to dig the drainage tracks and place the septic tank etc.

The big thing for us was the surprise arrival of Jo from Australia. She had 2 weeks holiday and nothing planned so decided that if (her) John could come back  to watch some people kicking a ball around in Manchester she could come back and see her family. After a quick visit to John’s mother in Morecambe and my mother in Glasgow, she came up here for a few days. Naturally we had a wheelbarrow barbecue but soon got her to work on the floor!

While in the Central Belt to see her off at the end of a very quick 2 weeks, we took the opportunity to start looking for hardwood flooring and bathroom fittings. New Scottish hardwood flooring is fairly expensive and pretty limited so we are also looking at reclaimed floors – there are plenty of old school gym floors to be found.

We have chickened out of the glass roof over the front doors of the house, at least for now. We approached one company who said they no longer do open sided glass conservatory because they are prone to wind damage and remembering the northerlies of last winter and in the absence of any details as to how to join it to the rest of the roof, we opted for discretion in the interests of getting Mick started with the slates. It can always be done  later. We also had to make a decision so as to finalise the design of the underground drainage.

We have an offer of help from a couple of local lads who are looking for some holiday money. Suse will be off to Stirling for a week of Tai Chi  tomorrow so John will be fending for himself.

The pied wagtails have reared their chicks in the utility room and the swallows are either still at it or have started again. The potatoes are doing nicely and I am picking goosberries to take to Mum en route to Stirling. John has been running 5 days in a row trying to prepare for the Purple Thistle orienteering event near Oban at the end of August. The portable shower works a treat but does need a kettle full of hot water to make it bearable.