Easter Day visit

We went to the Wood with Ursula today. There is now a front door, which was locked; but we cunningly found the key. The door is very solid and Scandinavian; but it seems to be made of metal, and I thought it was going to be wood.

Easter Day visit

All the walls now seem to be in place, and the Ames taping has started. We are beginning to get a feel for the rooms. The sitting room is very high and its window is rather overpowering. There seems to be acres of space in there, enough for about three sofas and two pianos. The wood stove has been installed and the stainless steel chimney pipe is in. The electricity wires are still in mysterious places, such as behind where the sliding door to the utility room will be; but we are sure all will be well in due course. Ronnie the Stair God has not yet made the stairs. For the stiff, using the ladder is a bit scary. We can see where the storage places under the eaves have been put in. Sadly, the insides of those places have not been finished off, which rather bothers me. What is the point of little cupboards that just lead into nasty little places that are impossible to keep clean, surrounded by insulation? On the positive side, though, the clothes hanging places between the main bedroom and the bathroom are nice and big, and the linen cupboard is huge. The downstairs windowsills are there but they are odd banal little things and I can't believe they are what were intended. So there are several things to take up with Mary.

The access track is firm, but it needs some tidying up. Some of the devastation is settling down a bit, though the main embankments are still frightful.

A Useful Place

We didn't manage a trip to the wood with Esther, as the Flying Refrigerator had a pain in its little inside; but here is a plan of the utility room. I have asked for a single sink bowl, and drainage by way of grooves in the bench top. I still don't know what the kitchen itself will look like.

We hope to have some more interesting pictures than this next week, if the forecasted bad weather does not prevent our trip to Runival for the Easter weekend.

We Have Been Upstairs

We went to the Wood on 1st March, and the photographs show what we found: blockwork on the walls; the larch cladding started on the extension; electric wires all over the place; some downstairs walls; the fireplace wall; the first stage of ceiling throughout the ground floor; the first stage of flooring all over upstairs; the insulation in the walls downstairs and in some of the roof upstairs.

Some photos from Cecilia:

Visit on 1 March 2008

From Livy

The Wood March 08

There was a young joiner working on the inside of the roof, with his brother helping. I am embarrassed that I didn't ask their names (must find out from Alistair); but he was very engaging and charmingly ready to explain anything we asked about. He seemed very competent and he spoke with some awe of Ronnie who will soon be making the staircase - another Invergarry man whose expertise at stairs is legendary, and whose own new house is just opposite the Post office.

We opened the upstairs windows and looked out at the views, which are pretty nice. The upstairs spare loo has a window that will take up almost all of its ceiling, which will be interesting. I can imagine sitting there with the light off on a clear night, watching the stars.

The Nibe's ducting is sensibly running along the north side of the eaves, but there is still space in the south eaves for concealed storage, which still has to be sorted out.

One thing we need to sort out, as those who bother to read photograph captions will have noticed, is what to call the two main sides of the house. Naturally, I think, the side facing the road is the back - one would not want to have the main front facing the road. And so, of course, the front door is at the back. Well, that is an unimportant detail. But the logicians in the family want consistency.

We walked around in the wood a little, beginning the process of finding paths and sitting rocks. It was very wet and rather cold, and nothing much was growing yet.

The next trip may be when Esther is staying, if she can bear it.