Winter

First of all, apologies for not updating the blog for so long. Like the rest of the country we had a very cold spell over Christmas with temperatures well below zero for a prolonged period. As it remained sunny for much of the time we had that thaw/freeze scenario which leaves paths and driveways treacherous. I confess that we smashed our eco credentials and bought some coal so that we could keep the fire on overnight.

With 9 people here for Christmas dinner (that’s almost a kilowatt of heating in itself) we wanted everyone to be comfortable. It was good to see how the spaces worked out for the telly watchers, the board games round the table and the quiet reader. The kitchen coped and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I have already mentioned the temperature differential that was maintained but there was a cool spot by the windows and so we have bought warm, insulated curtains for the living room as well. These are actually giving us a couple of degrees so well worthwhile and much cheaper than triple glazing. It is also rather fun, particularly after a couple of glasses of wine, spotting puffins in the patterns.

Speaking of which, the Nordan engineer finally showed up to replace the cracked window in the sliding doors. He put it down to faulty cutting of the glass and told us that we had put the windows in perfectly (relief).

Although the house itself has been warm enough, the water pipe froze in the ground and we were without running water for a week. After a couple of days the outside tap unfroze and we were able to go back to the days of the caravan, collecting our daily supply. Some people live like that all the time and have much farther to walk!

Since the New Year, we have eked out the reclaimed timber and floored the two small rooms upstairs. They have also been plastered (John did it as it wasn’t enough to bring Ian back for and it’s amazing what you can get away with after a bit of sanding)  and had doors and skirtings fitted. We found the sand yellow paint colour that we had in our kitchen at Ballencrieff and that is going up nicely. The old bedrooms curtains and bedspread are in what we now call Joanna’s bedroom and with some bookshelves and side tables it’s all fine in there.

With the office functioning, I am now installed there but will have to get some blinds as the low early morning sun is a bit troublesome. Not that I’m complaining, as it warms up the room very effectively. There’s a huge difference when it isn’t sunny. We have some old shelving to tidy up for later but in the meantime we are thinking about the Building Completion certificate and pushing on with the things we must do for that. Yet another deadline!

We bought some units for the utility room and have got that a bit tidier now. John has bought a new chain saw but we still don’t really have anywhere to store logs. That will be the first priority after the essentials.We think we have finally sorted out a design!

Come the end of February, we are off to Lanzarote with Kathleen and Nicholas for a few days and will call in to Ecobuild for a day. We booked with Globespan so had to rebook when that company went bust but after I had a nasty virus it will be a welcome break.

And again we are counting our blessings. Our neighbours Fiona and David were caught out by some dodgy plumbing and drainage and had their living room flooded. On the same day, their daughter Katie developed appendicitis and had to be taken to hospital, first Lochgilphead, then Oban. She’s fine now and the insurance company are enabling them to do a proper job with the repairs but what a nightmare few days.

Even worse, fellow builders from the mill in Whitehouse, Fay and John, had a lucky escape when their caravan burnt down.  They are now renting a house in the village – not part of the plan, but everyone rallied round to give them clothes and furniture and they found they had some very kind neighbours. These things certainly keep your priorities ordered.