New stove
September 30, 2008 | 4 Comments |
We’ve had the first colder days: northerly winds and a rapid drop of temperature. Over the past days we’ve been using our lounge stove as a primary heating source and it works pretty well. So well that we decided to buy a seconds stove for the kitchen which will be installed before the end of October. The only time we need to use oil now is for hot water, but given the efficiency of the boiler that’s not too bad. Probably a tank of oil per year. So for the time being we’ve put aside wild plans for heat pumps. Maybe over time we might reconsider installing solar panels, however they’re still too expensive to warrant a reasonable earn back…
Highs and lows
September 26, 2008 | 2 Comments |
We definitely had some days of highs and lows. To start off with a high: An old schoolfriend - whom I had not seen for 28(!) years - and his wife visited us and stayed across the road in our cottage. We had a great time sharing memories of days long gone and added some really good new ones! They enjoyed their stay on Skye and we hope they’ll be back next year.
Second high was tonight with a special on BBC Four on David Gilmour’s concert in Gdansk, Poland. A great performance which was partly covered by BBC TV.
Connected to that is a definite low, the passing of Richard Wright, the keyboard player and founding member of Pink Floyd. He was the man of “The Great Gig In The Sky” (music in the video below), “Us And Them” and the album “Wish You Were Here” carries the signature of his brilliant keyboard work. A sad loss.
The second low was a rather complicated fault in our telephone line which was eventually solved by BT this morning. But only after long, long, long phone calls to a whole range of different BT 0800 numbers. They have a really nice attitude: “Yeah sure, if you insist we will send out an engineer but if it appears to be on your end, you pay us £116.43!”. They almost made me feel like I was a customer… “Customer’…. a rare breed nowadays. Eventually the engineer had to replace a cable between two poles some 300 meters from our house and also a cable between two poles right in front of our house.
To end on a high… The weather. We had some nice and dry days during the past week which gave me the opportunity to finish the roof of the shed as much as I could. All the roof felt is now on and the whole structure is basically water tight but the big wait is now for the slater to his job.
Rough casting revisited
September 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
I removed the protective plastic yesterday and today I took down the scaffolding. Check out the photo with the front gable rough casted, ready for painting. The other walls only have their scratch coat, but already the whole thing had a complete transformation.
I setup the scaffolding along the wall with the two windows (two bays to cover the length of the shed) as during the following weeks the slating of the roof will be done.
Although only the front gable is finished, Ben and Joel’s work have transformed it to the real thing. Coming Friday to Portree to visit Howdens and order a nice door for it.
Rough casting
September 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
In the ongoing battle to keep the cost for heating down, we decided to fit the kitchen with a wood burning stove. The kitchen is quite big, with a vaulted ceiling and we spend quite some time in it as it also has a family/dining area. Anyway, next week a specialist from MacDonald brothers (a local builder) will come by to discuss the possibilities and the cost.
On the shed: the first steps of the finishings have been taken as Ben and Joel came by yesterday and today to do the rough casting. This is a two staged process: first a scratch coat and then the finishing layer with the stone chips. For the seconds stage the first coat needs to be really dry otherwise it will just glide off, so only the front gable was finished today. Ben will return after his holiday to finish the job. I will put some pictures up tomorrow as now the front gable is covered with a protective sheet of plastic to prevent the rain from washing it down.
The King of Stings
September 6, 2008 | 2 Comments |
Most unfortunate! I got stung by a wasp this week. In my middle finger of my right hand to be precise. It burned for a night and now it’s itching. But it’s a deep itch, if you know what I mean. An itch you can’t really scratch. Very annoying… 
Not a clue…
September 6, 2008 | 1 Comment |
… how the British election system works. In Holland we have general elections every 4 years. I read loads of complaining about Gordon Brown and how everybody is waiting for general elections. IF they ever come… If he’s that bad a leader, the general elections should send Mr. Brown home… Or can they? Anybody out there who can shed some light on this…????
Busy
September 1, 2008 | 3 Comments |
It was quiet around here, but we’ve been extremely busy so the blog was on hold for a bit. What happened? The roof of the shed needed finishing as I’m awaiting the guy who will do the rendering. A job definitely beyond my capabilities. So, the fascias and soffits needed to go on and so did the barge boards. Soffits needed sawing from big pieces of plywood and all elements needed staining. All but one corner were done. The roof needs its roofing felt and is then ready for slating, which I also will not do myself. Check out the pictures to get an idea of the progress… The bargeboards are not on yet.
It all took way more time than I expected as the weather has taken a turn for the worse… autumn is nearing. Not that I’m fussy about a bit of rain but it’s the electrical equipment - like the saw - that is. So it all was done in between showers: saw in, saw out, saw in…
Today we also logged and split firewood from our massive supply of trunks. The chainsaw did an excellent job. After logging two trunks I sawed a huge piece from one of the bigger trunks to use as a chopping board. And then happily chopped the logs into a nice pile of firewood ready to be dried.
When the shed is finished, I will build a log store to left side of so we can build up a supply of dried firewood.
Weather: wind and rain, autumn is on its way, not cold though and days ARE getting shorter
Trodden paths
August 15, 2008 | 1 Comment |
Every now and then a band steps away from trodden paths and creates something really beautiful. I came across the latest single of Radiohead and the accompanying video. The video was made without any traditional cameras:
“In Radiohead’s new video for “House of Cards”, no cameras or lights were used. Instead, 3D plotting technologies collected information about the shapes and relative distances of objects. The video was created entirely with visualizations of that data.”
An amazing end result. Both musically and visually. I love the dissolving objects as the view point moves forward. Almost like things are swept away by a soft wind. Together with the high pitched voice of the singer… well, judge for yourself. I think it’s one of their best songs, to be honest.
The roof
August 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
Today I finished the first part of boarding the roof. I started yesterday and finished today at about 3pm. Never thought that banging in nails would give such a muscle ache… I was able to do the job without scaffolding although Simon was so good to give me 3 more bays of his. I’ll need those once the tiles go up.
Tomorrow: finish the gables (yuk, I’m fed up with mixing mortar…), attach metal strips from gables to rafters to increase structural integrity and start with the second part of the sarking boards.
Beyond that: roof felt, facia’s and soffits, outside rendering, painting, door, electricity, inside finish
Weather: totally summer (I got another sun burn), blue skies, sunshine, lovely cool sea breeze (no midges, hurray!!!)
For the ladies…
August 12, 2008 | 2 Comments |
Well, it’s not the guitar riff from George Thorogood but it IS a sweaty guy on a platform sipping his diet coke… The old diet coke commercial a.k.a. the “11:30 appointment”…
Enjoy ladies!!!
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Latest music...
Hair (1968, Original Broadway recording). Some naughty lyrics for that time!!
An Rathad a Bhatarsaigh, by the Vatersay Boys