"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!

"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)