-
Super impressive and looking great! Might need to get you up here with those woodworking skills! I know it’s the tiniest bit so far but love that wee knife
-
I know right?! Everything moves so slowly up here, I saw him about 2 months ago and he said he’d be over in a week or two for install once the field had dried out.. I imagine soon though as he has the turbine there and he’s not invoicing for it until after install and he’ll need the cash.
@wenzovic I know, was so chuffed he sent that, my partner has passed by on the water on the way out to the turbine they were commissioning but I’ve never seen it from there. Not yet, but we’ve got all the stuff to open up and reseal each unit. The guttering keeping a lot of water off them as well as the cladding holding them tighter seems to be working for just now.
We had some haar blow in the last few days, there’s pictures here from the same spot, one last night and one this morning.
Tape and fill is done, going to let it dry out a few days and start on a mist coat this weekend or start of next week. Hoping I can do that inside while they’re getting the cladding on and the workshop up.
-
Haha, brilliant! Reminded me of this
-
Since the previous photo I’ve made a few changes to this. Sold those wheels and just waiting on some Paul to mavics from @Wadi2
Replaced the longer stem with a shorter x4 and an inline post rather than the bendy one and got a long haul trucker fork for the front rather than the big block to increase tyre clearance there.
Going to be a little less silly and pop a 47t chainring or something on it and get rid of that 55t zen, always loved the look of it, just not quite what’s needed up here.
Main project for the summer will be a complete strip down, sand and paint again. Going to go with a pink to purple fade and try the black crackle over the top of it. Quite excited to try it all out.
-
Outside
-
Another bit of a photo dump, the taper is a really nice guy who’s subcontracting and doing a cracking job (both the builder and the joiner have said so in passing). He’s just got a little up high to finish off tomorrow then sanding down on Tuesday for me to get started painting next weekend. He was on the way out to a quick job on another island today and sent me a photo of the house from the water. The field across the road is packed with wee lambs right now.
Everything in the polytunnel is looking really good (we’ve been told to plant a month late up here, but that the length of day let’s the plants catch up). The kale and chard from the polytunnel last winter, as well as a few extra broccolis, have now gone in the planticru we built a couple summers ago to keep them sheltered from the wind. Finally got round to filling it with soil instead of just sitting things in tubs in it.
We’ve also got some nesting oystercatchers in the bottom of the field who are used to us and don’t get scared of us as long as we’re a decent distance away. The arctic terns have come back in the last week or so too. Not settling on the shore yet, but at least 4 or 5 of them around just now, fingers crossed!
-
Looks like we’ve paid a ton of money for our field to get muddier and nothing else, but there’s a soakaway and a wastewater treatment plant underneath there now, I promise!
The tape and fill is continuing and I’ve been doing a little more outside just getting a wood pile for all the offcuts sorted (that white bag is full of bits for the stove!) and maybe looking at getting a wee fence started for an outside garden bed or two. Thinking of placing it just up the hill above the pallets from the polytunnel to help shelter it a bit from winds off the shore. Problem is, that’s east, and I don’t want the fence to block the sun into the polytunnel in the morning, but it’ll definitely need some wind shelter built up around it to protect the plants within.. my plan is to run some strings at different heights first sunny day I get to try and work out how tall the fence can be and not cast shadows onto other stuff. I know the field has lots of space, but wanting to keep all the gardening in one area.
-
That’s the plasterer started yesterday and got a bunch of the seams taped. We’ve also had the soakaway dug and are just filling it back in. We had a horrible day of pouring rain to be timed with that, we’ve not had a day like that in ages. Fortunately, they got the digging done on Saturday and yesterday they got some of the rock laid on the bottom. I think today will be chipping this and running pipes to allow the water to disperse a little more evenly.
Also, we had a beautiful sunny day in the garden on Sunday, painting these who’ll probably live near the polytunnel somewhere.
-
Haha, well spotted!! Cheers for the heads up!
-
If I wasn’t skint right now.. beautiful Simoncini track frame with lovely tubing
-
The plasterer coming feels like a big deal, that’s what people with houses have done!
@Cazakstan thanks so much for doing the research, that’s super fucking interesting with the clouds, only officially registered in 2015!
-
This looks like so much fun, really interested in following this!
-
Plasterer still hasn’t shown up but another couple days drying out won’t hurt. Bit of a killer though as without a mains connection we need to keep a diesel generator running for the dehumidifiers and that’s not cheap, especially with the new white diesel rules coming in at the start of last month, cheers Rishi.. Green credentials are taking a bit of a hit with it going the whole time. The turbine is due soon, but they said two weeks about 8 weeks ago but think they wanted the ground to dry out a little more first.
Digger came today though and we got the first of the two stage wastewater treatment plant in the ground. Second tank and the start of the soakaway is the plan for tomorrow!
-
@owl @jontea Thanks so much, yeah the clouds were just amazing! Was between a period of good weather and high pressure then it was foggy, damp and quite still most of this weekend. Wonder if it was the transition between that did it?
Plasterer didn’t show up as had to finish a job in town but should be out tomorrow. The guy with the digger also had some cancellations so they should be out this week for digging the soakaways and burying the waste treatment plant.
Got it all tidied for the plasterer coming tomorrow. Feels big with so much cleared out!
-
Nice looking SLX Graham weigh without any bids yet, like those lugs
-
Another productive week, spent a bunch of time digging out docken roots at the start of the week, thankless task and seemingly never ending but think I made a bit of a dent.
We’ve got things starting to sprout in the polytunnel and the peas are starting to climb up the poles.
All the plasterboarding is finished in the house now, we’ve got some dehumidifiers in and the plasterer is showing up on Monday to get started with the tape and fill. We’ve put the front door on and I’ve done the first layer of wool in the loft to try and hold in the heat to help out with drying things up. I’m spending the weekend getting everything tidied up in the house and off the wall to get it ready for them coming in. I’ll get some proper interior photos tomorrow when that’s all done.
Battening showing up for the cement board cladding next week so more outside work can happen and a second joiner showing up in a couple of weeks to get the workshop frame up.
The field seems to be dried out enough for them to get the pole and the turbine up too so hoping that will happen soon.
Never seen clouds like these before either!
-
@Cazakstan Thanks very much! Yeah the height in there really seems to make a huge difference to how big it feels! @andyp An owl, I think that might be it. I can see me after we’ve moved in spending some time after some level of mind altering substances introducing myself to all our friends in the wood keeping us dry.
Haha, it’s really hard not to include more of her, she’s very photogenic! Here’s some more of her and one of the wood stove, very excited for it.
@Chak me too, think the skylights make a significant difference as we really only have one south facing window.
-
How the inside is looking
-
The cladding
-
Things have been busy so haven’t really had a chance to be on here for a while but lots has happened so there’s going to be a bit of a photo dump. Spent the last bit helping get all the plasterboard up which was really enjoyable (didn’t know how hands on I would be able to be on the build!) I’m not great with things that require precision and exact measurements so have left the joiner to it when the weather has been good enough for getting out back to do the cladding. The wood is so pretty and somehow we’ve ended up with a very trippy knotty face right next to the back door (I haven’t named them yet). When he’s been doing that I’ve been digging some more drainage in the field (was very satisfying to find that spot underground with so much water, and even more so digging out that wee plug when the trench below was ready!) We also got some veg started in the polytunnel and built a new wee planter from offcuts for the broccoli.
Our kitchen has shown up (earlier than we wanted it to be here but had to order before 2022 prices hit on April 1st). Instead of pallet wood for the kitchen cabinets I’m going to use offcuts from the larch cladding as the grains are fucking beautiful!
We’ve also secured and paid a deposit on our cooking wood stove for times of low production. The Scottish stockist of these is only getting two this summer so really glad that one will be on its way to us!
-
Got my ass kicked by covid for the last week so haven’t been on here much. Since I last posted I’ve finished working at the housing association and was just offered a part time position at the local mental health charity which I’ll be starting soon. Feels like a much better place to be, much more in line with the work I’ve always done, and will also help me take on the stress of the house build in a much more manageable way, I’m really happy with it. Will allow me 2 days on site and time the other 3 days to show up and answer any questions/reply to emails/organise deliveries.
@tallsam we’re really fortunate, the biggest predators we have are stoats and otters. Because of the amount of ground nesting seabirds up here there’s a stoat eradication scheme as well to help and protect bird numbers. We have big shore rats here, but unless there’s food scraps thrown out or ways into houses in the cold they generally stay down at the shore. I’d really love some ducks for down on the pond I’m going to build, we’ve got some mallards nesting down there this spring already.
That’s pretty much all the internal boarding done on the ceilings and just waiting for the walls in the central space. Because we’re doing limestone tiles we want to get the plastering done first so there’s not scaffolding and plaster all over the tiles after we just fit the floor. Going to be an expensive few weeks running a heater and dehumidifier off the diesel generator to get everything dried out for the plastering to start..
It’s by no means well made but put a raised planter in the polytunnel just using some offcuts from the woodpile. Like I say, not pretty or hugely well done, but will serve it’s purpose..
-
Any closer to paint choices??
-
@tallsam Here’s what we’re thinking so far, it may alter and evolve as things move forward, but it seems like a good use of the space
1&2 will be summer and winter paddocks for some sheep and will work out about an acre or so each. Number 2 will be the winter one as it’s a little more sheltered behind the other house and higher up too so should have less risk of standing water and getting boggy in the winter. We’ve had someone who keeps these sheep let us know we could probably keep some too. They’re called boreray sheep and are native to this area, they’re direct descendants of the “lost flock” that were taken off st kilda. They’re supposedly really low maintenance as sheep go so could be good to learn with originally. They shed their own wool and will just kind of manage on their own for the most part without us needing a huge amount of knowledge. We don’t intend to farm them as much as just let them live their lives out somewhere. This is all still to be made definite but it’s seeming likely.3 will be a couple polytunnels, some outside garden patches for potatoes and kale and the like, a decent compost spot and probably a wee garden tool shed in time too.
4 will hopefully be the converted shipping container for anyone visiting to stay (we’re thinking a wee solar panel/battery set up and a composting toilet). Around here we’re also thinking a wee space for chickens and things, although we’re still to properly decide about fowl with what seems to be rolling avian flu crises and needing space to keep them inside these days..
5 will hopefully be bunches of bushes and wildflowers and good things for pollinators and ground nesting birds.
6 is where all those drainage ditches are leading and I’d like to build the back side of a bowl there and have a pond for the birds to hang out at.
And we’ll probably have a wee bit of lawn at the back of the house at number 7 but not much.
Like I say, this is all hopeful, but I think it would work quite well.
-
The willows are properly budding on the fence line! Here’s the inside, and also our bedroom, aka screwfix
LFGSS
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
Me too, I liked the cream but just fancied a change. Haha, it’s as if I didn’t have any other projects to keep me busy.. figure this is the way to at least make something look different for cheap as can’t afford a new full project just now..
@Oddo yeah I love that bike, was considering copying it but think a fade under the crackle would be quite nice, will keep you updated with my failures haha.. going to find a throwaway bit of something to test it out on first.