It's like thunder, it's like lightning - the way you love me is frightn'in

OK so I won't be needing them any time soon and maybe I ought to have waited, but the opportunity presented itself  and I just couldn't not take it...I'm talking floorboards. I've got 125sq metres of reclaimed floorboards at a bargain price from a lovely man called Anthony from Whiteheads Timber of Oldham. (0161 626 6488: 07927455919 if you're looking for reclaimed timber - he comes highly recommended.)

He met me in Edinburgh and we transferred them from his van to my trailer before I returned  to Aberdeen.They are immaculate, no nails, nail holes, carpet tacks; indeed they've never actually been walked on. They came from a hospital demolition in Liverpool, range from 6 to 15 ft long and are 7 inches wide. They had been bolted onto a concrete subfloor and then covered with a thick lino. The ends have been sawn off so I'm left with a complete and immaculate replacement downstairs floor which is just going to need the lightest of sandings and then fitting and sealing. I'm going to experiment with stain and/or varnish to find the most pleasing finish and then...I think there might be a bit of a wait before you see them in situ!!!

This is what 125 square metres looks like...about a ton and a half and floor to ceiling in a shipping container!!!

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you...

Well there were two major leaks in the roof that had caused a lot of internal damage, For example this small hole in the zinc flashing...

led to this!

and, over the years, two missing tiles meant this

One of the things I'd been dreading was to check how successful my hypnotherapy had been when it came to climbing to the top of the ridge on the main roof. I can theoretically begin to learn how to do any building skill but you can't learn how not to be scared witless at the prospect of challenging a great fear. I was feeling shaky at the top of the scaffolding and the roof ladder seemed to stretch ever upwards. I literally couldn't afford not to succeed so I took a deep breath and...

I DID IT!

Not only that but I completed my first proper repair to the roof...tiles off, sarking replaced and then slates trimmed, cut, shaped and perforated for the new copper nails

not bad for a beginner, you can't see the edges of the repair

so you can see I felt justifiably pleased with myself. No more demons and a job which now looks like it didn't need doing. We're well on the way to wind and watertight now, the next trip in September will be to see to the doors and fit the two new windows. 

Wet behind the ears

Well I thought it would just be a case of pumping out the dirty water and refilling the tank, how naive can you be. The sludge was about 10"" deep and needed to be shovelled out...and it was quite a big tank!

But after about eight hours the sludge was mostly gone

 and the water ran clear

I'm slowly beginning to realise that what seems like a simple task can take so much longer than you think it will. Connecting the tank to the house will have to wait till another time. There's a couple of important things to see to first, and a bit of an obstacle to overcome

Good things come in threes

Number one was hard to miss

It's not everyday you have the world's largest sail powered ship pass by your window.This was Wind Surf as it sailed majestically between Eigg and Arisaig.

Number two was easy to find if you knew where to look

In the mid left of this picture you can see a square concrete box. Whilst looking for the water supply, John told me that this holding tank was part of the system. A bit further up the field we found a larger box which was the main storage tank. Apparently it fills from a small spring and the only reason there's no water in the system is that it's sludged up and the pipes are blocked. So 100m of alcathene pipe and a few fittings plus the loan of JB's sludge pump should see water back at the Manse again.

Everyone knew where number three was, and now so do we.

The roof is covered with Ballachulish slate. The quarry is closed now and, although there would be a demand if it were to reopen, there are environmental reasons not to do so. The result is that the slates are very expensive...if you can find them. Well the good news is that we did find some, and the even better news is that they were not too expensive...they were FREE! Behind the old shop here are about seven builder's bags of slates which have been taken from other houses on the island and dumped/stored there. A quick check with the Trust that it was ok to sift through for good ones and 

BINGO...about 250 so far. Another visit should see us with enough to replace and missing and broken ones and give us a supply for repairs if required after any future storms. 

How do you eat an elephant?

...one bite at a time

Progress has been slower than I hoped recently. It just takes so long to take out, replace and putty new panes of glass into frames that are tired and weary.

However I'm getting towards the end and the frame repairs will keep me busy during the long winter evenings. I was however thwarted by a family of swallows who, having had years of nesting inside, were determined not to relinquish their association with the Manse and built a nest on a sheet of board that covers the bathroom window 

I guess I'll just have to wait till they're fledged...it's not like there's nothing else to be getting on with

Meanwhile Do has been busy perfecting her brush strokes and working on the two replacement dormer windows.

Working towards wind and watertight...first attempts at puttying and Flashbanding

It might not look very impressive but here are my first three panes fitted, puttied and curing. Only another 4 or 5 dozen to go!!!

and here is the first joint effort...Do chased out the old putty and I fitted the glass and applied

 the new, what a team!

We erected more scaffold to get access to the main roof 

so I could  take about 2 square metres of stinging nettles and an empty birds nest out, realign a few slates and cover with some Flashband.

New dormer windows have been ordered and hopefully will be ready for our next trip at the beginning of July. 

More temporary repairs to the kitchen roof

the view from which never fails to amaze and delight

The show is on the road, well at the end of a new one anyway

First sight of the new roadway that leads down to the house

round the side

and some excavation at the back.

The clearances...(no not those clearances... emptying the final few rooms)

Random discoveries and uncoverings

This 6ft square mahogany drop leaf dining table was a bonus and should look "at home" when it's been restored. (Memo to self: research French polishing evening classes)

The antique pine dresser that will form the heart of our kitchen and living space. 

Do carefully peeled off some wallpaper in one of the rooms to reveal the calling card from the decorators L M Quarrie and D M Millan of Tobermory - August 1909

Loft space in the east wing

Kitchen cleared and taking shape

Ex builders' merchant

Outside (no pics yet) Shuggy had to dismantle the scaffolding to clear round the house so jobs on the next visit will be; to re-erect scaffolding, more glazing and finally get to grips with fixing the holes in the roof. Watch this space

Getting on track

Shuggy - he's the man

Two weeks after returning to Aberdeen, we went back to the island  to continue with the room clearing, more glazing and to finalise arrangements with Shuggy.

The track project quickly grew arms and legs and became a landscaping, rubbish clearance and access exercise.These two pictures show what the track looked like the last time we saw it. It is now finished but as yet we haven't seen it!! It could be a case of either celebration or OMG major disappointment when I return for the Eigg buyout anniversary party in the middle of June. See future blog entries for pictures and you can decide for yourselves.

Easter 2014 pt2

Easter weekend saw us heading back to Eigg with more tools and some glazing materials. The plan was to mend the broken roof lights, take the boards down to let the light in and temporarily repair the broken windows. I had worked out the right place for a workshop and where I was going to keep materials securely. We were going to finish clearing all of the upstairs rooms and then I could start on the roof. As of April 20th, some of the rooms looked like this.

and the workshop

Phil came over for a few days and assembled the table saw 

and made a temporary repair on one of the windows

The boards came down from the upstairs windows, broken panes were removed and the house started to open its eyes and wake up.

We cleared the remaining upstairs rooms and with all of the woodwormed and unuseable/unrecyclable furniture and rubbish...

We'd met a guy working on the island who went by the name of Shuggy. He had a digger, we had an as yet not working dumper truck, and together we had a deal to put in a hardcore track down to the house. Not only that, but he brought his machine along and towed my trailer to the top of the hill so I was able to take it home on the return journey. We set off on a glorious Easter Sunday, calling in at Arisaig to see some old friends form Farnsfield who were holidaying on the west coast.

Easter 2014

At last!

The start of the Easter break saw our first of two trips. We set off in the early hours of Saturday morning complete with a trailer (over?)load of scaffolding and new tools. The first difficult moment was having to reverse onto the ferry with a 15ft trailer and an audience of impatient foot passengers also waiting to board. I'm quite proud of how it went, especially as no expletives were called for. There was, however, no repeat of this problem on our return as the trailer was quagmired at the bottom of a very slippery slope down to the house. Repeated attempts by Alex Boden, our friend and local farmer, failed to move it.

The deal for the house included a myriad of other materials and artefacts. Inside was like a mini builders yard

and there is still a shed full of fixtures, fittings and tools on Skye awaiting collection. Oh and somewhere on the island is a dumper truck that we own as well. In addition we had also become the proud owners of a 4 berth caravan that had, in its past, travelled across Eastern Europe but had laid empty and unattended for the last 12 years. We opened the door that first day with more than a little trepidation but were amazed at the condition we found it in. The cooker and fridge still worked, some of the electrics worked and it wasn't damp. After two pairs of marigolds and a bucket of elbow grease...

we had a comfortable place to sit, eat, plan and enjoy the view

So at the end of a busy day it was back to the bothy for a well earned dram 

enjoy the view

and a well earned rest

Day 2

Next day the focus was on the scaffolding. I had some relevant bits and an idea how they fitted together. We finally managed to erect it at the front and back of the west wing and on part of the front of the house.

Then the first big job inside was to empty all the rooms of the accumulated rubbish, debris and bird poo.

became

Time ran out and we had to leave the island to go back to Aberdeen for a few days...minus our trailer of course.