"Hence no force, however great, can stretch a cord, however fine, into a horizontal line which is accurately straight: there will always be a bending downwards." Williamm Whewell

which might go some way to explaining the excruciating difficulty I had when fitting coving in the bathroom!!! Level? Nope! Even? Nope! Smooth? Nope! Straight? Nope! 

but it looked a bit better when it had been filled and painted

So, that's the first room in the house fully completed

and an old friend takes up residence

"One has to look out for engineers - they begin with sewing machines and end up with the atomic bomb." Marcel Pagnol

 After numerous false starts, the sewing machine - with all its constituent parts this time - was set up and working perfectly - for about three and a half minutes. It's part of island life where you can't just  pop into John Lewis for parts/advice/a service. I had no alternative but to investigate with my trusty screwdriver to see if I could identify the source of the grinding noise and accompanying  lack of needle upanddownness. Ignoring the online manual, I did indeed dismantle it further than taking off the moving foot thingy and bobbin whatsaname. I removed as many screws and bits of plastic casing that would come off; carefully placing them where I could easily remember from whence they came. When I got to the point where all that was left to do was mantle, I sprayed WD40 wherever it seemed relevant. 

Hey presto - machine working at the right speed and quietly and all that was left at the end were two screws (which must have just been cosmetic, mustn't they?)

So, add "sewing machine engineer" to my patchy ragbag of skills!!! Now, where did I put that enriched uranium?

"I like to stay home a lot. I like to do other things too, like decorate or build." Barbra Streisand

The new windows are signs that we're moving forward with the project, and against a perfect blue spring sky it feels like the place is beginning to live again

I'm really happy with the way I've been recording the construction and renovation work but I've been looking forward to having a camera which is capable of taking some decent indoor pictures which show the style we're aiming for. We're constantly searching ebay, Gumtree and auction rooms for things which are affordable, to our taste and which "go together."  Following a visit to Jessops last week, I took my new Olympus E-M10 Mk2 to the Manse to record some of the work we've done on three of the rooms over the last few visits. The pictures largely speak for themselves.

Top floor sitting room

Bathroom

 (Musical Dreamboat - Aliisa Hislop)

(One day we'll live by the sea - Aliisa Hislop) 

Guest bedroom

If a picture paints a thousand words, I guess 13000's enough for one entry

"It's easier to go down a hill than up it but the view is much better at the top." Henry Ward Beecher

I'll leave it for you to decide

"Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans. It is lovely to be silly at the right moment." Horace

A story in pictures

'nuff said

"Snow and adolescence are the only problems that disappear if you ignore them long enough." Earl Wilson

Just a few photos to record the most amazing April day on Eigg in years

It snowed on and off throughout the day, leaving about 6 inches of lying snow and breathtaking views

but by the end of the next day it had completely disappeared

Eigg... such an amazing place!!!

"Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling." Gilbert K. Chesterton

Up till now I had a bed 

and no ceiling

Now, I have no bed

but I do have a ceiling!!!

courtesy of the orange machine which enables you to raise and hold steady a 25kg sheet of plasterboard ten feet off the ground and still have two free hands to screw it to the joists (thanks to Christine Booth for sourcing the Orange Beast and to her and John for lending it to me) I had the forethought to route and install cable for overhead lighting.

The master bedroom will act as a temporary kitchen for the next couple of months