"I enjoy passing time in my house. I'll get up, head out on the terrace, think about what to do, fool around oiling the floorboards or hanging pictures askew." Daniel Bruhl

The corridor from the kitchen to the hall was insulated

and  I ran some more boards

through the wood thicknesser which left them looking like this

Then it was just a matter of cutting them to size and fixing them to the battens - not as easy as it sounds in an area where the walls aren't straight and there aren't too many right angles

but eventually...

Tomorrow - the ceiling!

"I've been waiting for that bright sunshine to show up and shine in my back door someday" Luther Allison

The kitchen has changed a bit since we bought the place

but the inside of the back door has remained in its building site phase,

so today it was time to frame and board 

Job done! 

"“Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.” Margaret Atwood

It rained last night - quite a lot

but the good news is that this time it stayed outside; all of it! The roof I had stripped and reslated twice hadn't been the entry point for the leak, there was a small crack in the rendering which I spotted earlier this week. To quote Ambrose Bierce "Perseverance - a lowly virtue whereby mediocrity achieves inglorious success"

(UPDATE - NEXT DAY. FOLLOWING HEAVY RAIN MARGARET ATTWOOD IS PROVED RIGHT. WATER ALWAYS GOES WHERE IT WANTS TO GO. THIRD ATTEMPT AT SEALING THE ENTRY POINT SCHEDULED FOR WHEN IT EVENTUALLY STOPS RAINING)

"The road to ruin is always in good repair, and the travellers pay the expense of it." Josh Billings

The front windows in the kitchen were rotten and had to be replaced. The two at the back, although dilapidated, weren't beyond repair. I was especially fond of them since the bottom half of one had been blown out of its frame during a gale,

 hurled across the kitchen , and embedded vertically into a bag of cement. I felt this was an omen and it was this that they deserved a second chance. I made some replacement side struts 

and then rubbed down and painted the frame

The smaller one had a painted stone sill - probably used for keeping food cool on days of yore

It took six hours, two applications of Nitromors and the degradation of two scrapers and a wire brush to achieve this

After painting, this was the result

Next job, tiling the other window ledge.

"A delusion is something that people believe in despite a total lack of evidence." Richard Dawkins

I spent most of the day yesterday wiring the kitchen lights. This involved taking down some of the plasterboard, fitting three junction boxes, routing cable through voids (I discovered a leak in the roof - more of that later) putting in cables back to the junction box and multiple trips up and down a stepladder. At the end of my toils the kitchen looked exactly the same, the only visual evidence being the minute "spot the difference" between the light switches. So, today, I decided I needed to satisfy my thirst for photographic evidence of progress and set about the old pine unit which was in the house when we bought it.

Having already fitted a sink and taps, I sanded and waxed it

I also fitted a light underneath the wall cupboard

It's difficult to show the shine and depth of finish but if you want to see for yourself you'll have to pop round. In the afternoon I set up some scaffolding and went in search of that leak in the roof I mentioned earlier. I sealed what looked like it might be the cause but will have to wait and see when the next rain comes.

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be." Douglas Adams

The kitchen has been a strange room to work on. It's been protracted and "bitty" and so it has proved difficult to maintain momentum. The idea this month - I'm on Eigg for the whole of September - is to crack on with the little jobs which have been left or unfinished. There were two sections of floor which hadn't been done: underneath one of the radiators and just inside the back door. Both are now finished, with a slight delay caused by me disturbing one of the pipe joints which hadn't been fully tightened. After much head scratching and phone calls to the plumber, I managed to tighten the said joint with a pair of gas pliers. With the flooring complete I could move onto the skirting board, which I made with a table router

Next I tiled the cooker recess and yes I did tile all the bits you can't see when the cooker is in place.

Then I fitted a light, smoke alarm and extractor fan before putting the cooker back in place, (note the new dining chairs)

I then put matching tiles on the front window sills 

The last jobs are to finish the detail around the doors, paint the wall behind the dresser and sort out the access to the mezzanine. Onward and upward!

"The eagle has no fear of adversity. We need to be like the eagle and have a fearless spirit of a conqueror!" Joyce Meyer

This island we have chosen to live on is a stunningly beautiful and amazing place. While I'm there, I always try to remind myself how lucky we are. Sometimes I don't need too much reminding

"I take the invasion of my personal space very seriously." Kid Rock

Bloody bracken! We are reluctantly host to about three acres of pteridium polypodiopsida. Chris' new jungle buster seemed a way forward

till his tractor disappeared into a gulley

and Charlie's JCB was called for

"Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water." W. C. Fields

The concrete water tank started to leak so I decided to invest in a new 3000 litre plastic one. Shuggy excavated the site

et voila. 

The supply is from a small spring - just a trickle - but enough to keep the tank filled. The water is crystal clear but I'll probably get a UV filter 

"It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one." George Washington

   Sorry to anyone out there for not having kept up to date over the last few months. No excuses, just that apart from moving slowly forward with the project we have finally sold the house in Aberdeenshire and this has led to much to-ing and fro-ing across Scotland in cars, vans and trailers. 

Where to start!

The kitchen ceiling has been part taken down to make a mezzanine at the house end

I fitted a Belfast sink in the pine unit, plumbed in water and waste before fixing some old tiles we have been collecting

Then Brian came and fitted radiators in the kitchen

This meant the kitchen floor could be laid

 I used the old fireplace as a cooker surround, fitted some more old tiles and hung the new lights