May pretending to cook in her extremely untidy kitchen!!

Lots of necessary work outside – shifting hardcore and filling in drive and hard standing outside garage, finishing off kitchen fitting prior to work surface and doors etc. Second fix electrics started as well so things are moving along. This picture shows how much of a family affair this is. Barry using Uncle Mat’s saw to cut a worksurface we brought in Andy’s van.

On Thursday we eventually found the water pipe we have been sort of looking for for ages. It was 6 inches away from where my dowsing had said it was!! If only I had had faith in myself I would have extended the dig and found it. Instead we got Nigel and his JCB in to dig a huge trench. Never has anyone been so happy to see water spurting out of a water pipe!

The electricity is being installed next Tuesday, after 3 months of prevarication by Scottish Electric.The electrician will be in later this week to get ready for the great turn on.

Barry is back and he is fitting the kitchen.

Brian is laying blocks in his usual speedy manner. I have been trying to keep him in blocks from the pallet to his side but he takes some keeping up with. I now know how hard Grant works.

  If you look carefully at the cable end you can see the two holes for the mechanical ventilation to take air in and expel air.

  The kitchen is mesmerising Barry as he drifts into a trance. Or maybe he is thinking about what to do next.  I wondered how to give you all a sense of the size of the kitchen, a sense of scale, then May gave me the ideal opportunity.

 I think this is the most laborious process I’ve had to do. 4 days and we are about half way through. The kitchen is nearly finished and painted – then its another room. Barry has been a real saviour. He thinks he’s going home on Saturday but I think I might kidnap him.

The replacement/correct front door arrives tomorrow so we will be fully secure.

  Thanks to Uncle Matt we now have a brilliant house sign. So good that May doesn’t want it to go out into the weather, so she has put it into a window for now.

 We have also made lots of progress inside. This is a picture of the bathroom, which we have Ames-taped and painted. It looks really good thanks to Barry’s skills as a plasterer. He came up to fit a kitchen, but he has spent some long days plastering the kitchen/living room and bathroom. We should have the kitchen.living room painted by the end of tomorrow.

Brian has been busy putting blocks up around the house and the block foundations for the garage. It is starting to look like a house !!     

  Today the plasterboard taping got underway. Just a practice really but it went well. So well in fact that May decided we needed a reward. Mmmmm ice cream, at the seafront on a sunny Sunday IN NOVEMBER!  

 Now it is beginning to look like a house, helped a lot by the plumber coming a day early so that we could crack on with the boarding. It almost seems a shame to put the internal walls up but that is what is scheduled for Monday. We spent today tidying up inside and out as well as putting a second coat of stain on the soffits and bargeboards. We also filled some of the plasterboard screw holes in. Tomorrow we play at taping the board – just to see whether we can do it or not.

Yesterday we heard that the electricity supply is going to be dearer by “a few thousand pounds” because the owner of the field the electricity company wanted to go through has refused to give permission – so we have to go down the road – much more expensive to do.

But we have found a plumber who doesn’t think we are made of money – his quote works out at about half of the previous two, and he can start Monday! whoopee – that means we are back on track work wise, and not bankrupt, money wise.

The ceiling plasterboard goes up tomorrow, and the walls on Friday – with good luck and a following wind. Today was finishing off the roof and putting in the soffits. We can now carry on staining the roof woodwork, probably this weekend.

Today we took down the scaffolding at the back of the house so that it was clear to fit the fire stops and soffits. It was the hardest mornings work we have done – especially May who carried poles and planks to the back of the plot to be more secure. She must have made about 80 round trips of about 60 metres.

The rest of the tiles arrived today as well so we are all set to complete the roof. Good job we over-ordered though because about 10 tile have been damaged in transit.

We have set 3rd December as the date we have to move in by – mainly because of the lease on this flat – so we have to plan what we do carefully to focus on making it habitable.

Tomorrow its a second coat of stain on the woodwork, unless the weather gets in the way.

 These sheep suddenly appeared in the adjacent field. They seemed interested for about 5 minutes then got bored and focused on the much more interesting grass.   Brian and Grant, meanwhile were still hard at it and by the end of the day had completed one side of the roof and a lot of the other side – enough to put ridge tiles in place. It might not seem exciting to you but we love it!