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.

Winter 2013-14 - Frustrations!

The Cruel Sea

Several bookings were made with Calmac and various hotels over the winter to enable us to get to Eigg and actually start work on the house. Twice we were thwarted by rough seas and cancelled ferries. On another occasion we couldn't meet up in Dalwhinnie as planned because Do missed the last rail connection following a fatal incident on the line south of Edinburgh. Work commitments, ferry timetables and bad weather put paid to any hopes we had of making it before Easter 2014. We had to content ourselves with daydreaming and looking at the few photos we had.

Meanwhile I busied myself on ebay and other online stores perusing, considering and buying an arsenal of tools and equipment I'd always wanted... and now might end up actually using. Do lost herself in a world of decor and furnishings, frustrated at the amount of time it will take before she can action some amazing ideas she's had. 

October 2013

The Adventure Begins.

Funny how things turn out, some call it coincidence, some call it luck and others serendipity.We just happened to find ourselves in the right place at the right time.

It never came onto the open market and as far as we know nobody knew it was for sale. A friend alerted us, we contacted the vendor and the deal was done and dusted within a month! We became the proud, excited and slightly terrified owners of The Old Manse, Eigg. All three emotions are perhaps best explained by some photos we took on our first visit.

Our very first sighting

The view from an upstairs window

The back of the house

 Inside was a mess

but there were one or two treasures to be found

The magnificent Sgurr in the distance

With so much to do we didn't know where to start. It was going to be a DIY Coyle Construction project and an imperative was to make it wind and watertight. That would involve me going up to do extended work on the roof. However one slight problem was my fear of heights! So not wanting to fall at the first hurdle, I explored the option of hypnotherapy. Although a little sceptical, it was one of a very limited range of options and so I booked some sessions with a professional near to where we live in Aberdeen. My first homework was to climb up a ladder and see how I felt. It was remarkable and after just one more session I could climb the scaffolding we had bought and go onto the roof to repair some broken glass in the rooflights and actually enjoy the views.

The next obstacle was getting there during a stormy and wet winter; more of that in our next entry.