"If your work isn't mission-driven or emotionally resonant to you, it will be very hard to maintain passion and focus over a long period of time" Jennifer Hyman

One of my failings in life has been my propensity for temporary obsessional behaviour. I get heavily involved with something for a while but can suddenly find myself obsessing in a different area, losing interest in the previous one. However, Manseadventure has proved to be an enduring passion and focus for me. It is the best and most rewarding work I have ever had - I just can't get enough of the problem solving and manual labour. I love learning new skills, making mistakes and correcting them. I know it's not as good as if I'd paid a professional to do it but everything I've done has been to the best of my ability - and if it's not perfect then at least it's my not perfect.

I've just completed a three week stint and am reflecting on how much has been achieved. I've cut joists, insulation and floorboards before laying the hall floor

I've measured cut and fitted a plasterboard ceiling

remembering to install the wiring for a light

re framed, moved and rehung the front door

added a wall, made a door frame and hung a door to make a utility room

cut out two panels from an old door and glazed it using beading I routed in the workshop

and plumbed in the dishwasher

I ran out of time to take pictures of the finished, painted hall and of the developments outside including in the war on bracken; more of that next time

"There's some bells you can't unring" Ken Cuccinelli

(I like the quote but, being a pedant, I feel obliged to correct it - "There are some bells..." sad, I know)

Although the building has an obvious religious connection I decided to scale down the plans for the front doorbell. 

I was thrilled when I found this on ebay

As I recall, bought on three different occasions the total for the parts was £29 - bargain! Lets hope the pulleys and wire cost less than £196.

The reason there's a question mark on my front door is just in case I forget my address" Leslie Nielsen

Next was the porch. After clearing the detrius, the next job was framing

It was time consuming because nothing was level and the timbers were like a 3D jigsaw without a picture to follow

Then the insulation. Again it was painstaking - carefully measuring to make sure each piece fitted its frame snugly

and finally the plasterboard

Next time I'll finish the ceiling and skim so it'll be ready to paint. Just the wiring to fix for a light

and a bell! We rescued an old bell, a brass pull and bits of mechanism from an architectural salvage in Edinburgh. I need some pulleys and wire - but more of that next time

"But first, the news: The House of Commons was sealed off today after police chased an escaped lunatic through the front door during Prime Minister's question time. A spokesman at Scotland Yard said it was like looking for a needle in a haystack." Ronnie Barker

 It had been September 2017 when I originally bought the doorsets from Holyrood Salvage in Edinburgh. I phoned from Eigg and asked the owner if he could check for the missing piece of architrave (there's nothing like a longshot!). Unsurprisingly both he and his assistant had found nothing amid the piles of reclaimed doors and panels. He apologised and said probably the best option was to look through the stock again to find something very similar with the idea that it could be subtly remodelled to match the existing. We looked through the stock together. He found a close approximation, I found

the actual piece which had come adrift from the original bundle. To say I was like a pig in muck is an understatement - more like a sounder of wild boars in the Amazon floodplain. 

So it's a couple of weeks visiting student teachers and then back to the Manse at the beginning of April

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." Carl Sagan

Has it really been 6 months since the last entry? So much has happened away from Eigg but that doesn't mean that nothing has happened on the project. I've been trogging back and forth whenever the weather has permitted and much has been achieved. Lack of activity on the blog hasn't been helped by the mislaying of my camera - it's somewhere in Scotland securely stored in a packing case.! (The photos in this update are from my phone.) I'm just going to go room by room and put up some pictures. First, carrying on from where I left off in the corridor

So it's just the shutters and the dado rail to fit in here now.

The snug

"Fences and walls can be effective and even soothing, at least for those who build them." Richard Engel

The large space in the entrance needed dividing to make a dining room. One of the long beams wasn't looking too good and was only sitting on the wall by a couple of inches. I thought it best to build a block wall to support it along half of its length.

We bought some architectural salvage in Edinburgh and thought it would look grand above the entrance to the dining room

When I checked the surround for inside the dining room there was a piece of architrave missing so it's back to Holyrood Salvage at the weekend to see if it can be sourced.

"Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence." Hal Borland

I applied for a grant from the Woodland Trust last year to plant some trees. They arrived a couple of weeks ago and needed planting promptly. Greg fenced the plot and over a couple of days, with some help from Owen and Larayne, I dug and staked 550 mixed native species trees

Now it's war on bracken!