"I make work a bit like how you mix cocktails - with ingredients like budget, history and location." Florentijn Hofman

and if I might add to the above - "budget, history, location and all the parts needed for the job you've planned!!!"

The focus this time was to fit the log burner in the kitchen. Unwisely, I had previously ordered all the parts I thought I would need. 

When I unpacked the box however, it turned out I had miscalculated and was missing a 1m length of flue, supporting brackets and flue sealant. (Memo to self - talk it through with the supplier before placing the order) Hence the need for an ad hoc cocktail of jobs for which I had the necessary parts. So I cracked on and cast a concrete platform for the stove to stand on

(The parts have serendipitously just been delivered as I'm writing this so hopefully I'll be able to complete the job next week.)

The skylight above the kitchen had been temporarily repaired with perspex sheets by John.

 Two years on I thought it was time to replace them and effect a more permanent repair.

The remaining missing slates to be fixed when it's noticeably warmer and less windy.

The kitchen is rapidly approaching the time when this,

which we found under a pile of debris when we first bought the house, needs modification to take a Belfast sink. I added supports and will take the necessary plumbing parts with me next week

With most of the really dirty work in the kitchen and snug done, I decided to separate the last part of the "building site" that is the dining room from the rest of the house and so hopefully minimise the insidious invasion of dust.

The final job for this visit was to hang and glaze the magnificent original front door.

 

Three hinges on a heavy door - perfectly balanced at the first attempt and glass mm perfect! 

Sorted! Back a week today for the next phase

"I spend a lot of time doing carpentry. Sometimes there is nothing that gives me the contentment that sawing a piece of wood does." Abbas Kiarostami

Today was the day when I would ratify the decision to buy 125 square metres of second hand floorboards. Their previous life had been under a vinyl floor in a hospital in Liverpool and they had been stored first in a container in Aberdeenshire, then stacked in a dusty pile in the dining room. 

The first attempt using a hand sander made me realise I would need a faster and more effective tool. Enter the "wood thicknesser"

which turned this

into this.

A belt sander took off the sharp edges and contours

and I was more than a little chuffed with this

Only another 100 square metres to go!

"Nurturing a project from the ground floor is something I've been wanting to do." Jimmy Smits

and speaking of floors

With man Friday becalmed by man Flu, I was limited to jobs which can be done single handed. So, I decided to make progress with the snug.

Having de-nailed and treated the joists and boards I screwed the battens to the concrete floor 

before fitting the insulation boards

Tomorrow... the floorboards!

"What is a soul? It's like electricity - we don't really know what it is, but it's a force that can light a room." Ray Charles

Slow but cathartic process of wiring the lighting spur to fit junction boxes, switches and light fittings

Unfortunately none of it worked initially but I was doubly pleased when I tracked the fault to the consumer unit where a connection was missing to make the spur live

Thus, inevitably...

"Know the function of a fuse box and the appearance of a tripped circuit breaker." Marilyn vos Savant

The morning was spent fitting the remaining three sockets and joining wires with connection boxes. Then John came round to link the new ring to the consumer unit so a test could be carried out.

Some of the sockets on the ring showed a fault - it turned out to be just one neutral wire in sixteen outlets hadn't been secured in the terminal, Once this was done it was a perfect two green lights in at every socket.

Naturally this necessitated a whisky moment

Job done!

"To bathe a cat takes brute force, perseverance, courage of conviction - and a cat. The last ingredient is usually hardest to come by." Stephen Baker

Not having a cat, I needed a focus to help me develop my range of perseverance skills. What to choose??? I know, how about a leaky roof! Returning to the Manse I discovered that water had been finding its way inside through the kitchen roof (a previous repair malfunction) and down the kitchen chimney. The problem is it's easy to see where it ends up whilst more difficult to identify the point of entry. The rendering on the chimney stack had some areas where some of it had fallen off.

I repointed and repaired the flaunching and replaced the open plan cowl with a more substantial terracotta one. I looked again at where I had reslated, changed the profile of the lead gulley and painted on some Acropol. The next rainy day will show whether I need to get a cat or not!