I will start with photos of the outside and apologise if this post is photo heavy. I have just been going through photos of the last three years and didn't realise just how many I have. In regard to the trees here. Well there are pretty much none at all except for a few plantations that I have seen the biggest of which is a 1000 acres and you can just see the edge of it from our house. I did read that the vikings cut all the trees down to stop them making boats here in years past but whether that is true or not I don't know. I think most trees struggle to grow here due to the sea air and the pretty much constant winds. Although we have had two dead calm days this last week a couple of weeks ago we had steady 50-60 mph winds with gusts of 70-80 mph. Gusting well over 100 mph is not uncommon during January storms and was one of the reasons we were keen to get the roof sorted on the house. Typically since it has been done last winter was the best they had had for years and so far this year only one moderate storm has hit.
My thumb is pretty good actually. Fortunately I only crushed the very end of it and I have only lost from the bottom of the nail up. I cant bend it properly but in all honesty I hardly notice it when working even though it constantly feels different and is uncomfortable when cold. Of course it would have been better to not have happened but after 30 years of working in heavy industry it could have been a lot worse.
This year we have managed our heating an awful lot better because in August 2016 Liz's mother moved up here and was living in the house. I never realised that she had the heating set to 'on' permanently and had a tendency to wander outside regardless of the weather and leaving the doors wide open. Of course when we were here full time from end of February the 'door open all the time' soon stopped and I finally realised the heating was always on. Liz's mother has bought her own place now and lives about half a mile away.
Now its set on timer for a couple of hours in the morning/lunchtime and a little longer in the evening. I do think it did the place good to have been heated so much though as its a totally different place to when we bought it. With walls nearly a metre thick it almost acts like a massive storage heater and even when the heating has been off most the day you can walk in from the outside which is currently -2 with wind chill apparently and its lovely and snug. The sooner I get the attic sorted the better though as it has to benefit it even further. Currently I have sealed the top floor off with plastic sheet (mainly for dust reasons originally) and also some celotex boarding and its surprising just how much of a difference that has made. With the staircase open from bottom to top it acted like a chimney and all the hot air went straight up.
Most people here seem to have oil tanks though I have seen one gas tank. I think that a lot of peat is burnt also as you see a lot cut in the summer and many piles around. We are thinking of getting a log/peat burner but that,s in the future and I must admit im not over keen as I know who will be responsible for it....say no more..
My thumb after the operation. I don't think you want to see the before one !
And the only photo I could find of it since
I thought I would include this photo because this is how we moved absolutely everything we owned over the course of a couple of years. Of course one trip in a proper removal vehicle would have done it much cheaper but with how everything happened it just was not viable. I looked at second hand trailers but the difference in price between a good second hand one and a new one was nothing. If they were cheap there was a reason. Usually brakes or similar needed attention which by the time you fixed it you were back up to not far off the price of a new one. There is still a few things left at my mothers place which I will collect hopefully sometime next year but literally everything we have was shifted in it. Including one of the sheds and my motorbike.
I ought to add here before I post more photos our decision to have the roof and walls done was because of what you see in the next photo. We had spent Christmas of 2015/16 here and the weather was not bad but was quite windy. You could hear the tiles rattling and due to the poor state of the roof we decided that we would regret it if we did not do something. We had two separate quotes one from a building company and the other from an individual who had been recommended to us by more than one person and it turned out had done repair work in the past to it. Without going into too much detail we were not at all enamoured with the building company because it was just negativity from the word go and Liz just did not like the chap and to be honest I was not overly impressed. The other chap said from the get go that the tiles had never been put on properly in the first place and that he had been many times doing repairs but it was just a never ending task. His quote turned out to be more than the other company but we decided to go with him due to his attitude and reputation. We certainly have not regretted it.
As you can see something was needing to be done.
On the ends some of the sarking needed replacing completely due to having been affected by the water that was getting in (I never took this photo)
There were three small velux windows in the roof. Two on the front and one at the back above the stairs. you can see the original size here where the gap is in the middle of the new framework. We decided to replace them with three larger ones and this was something I cocked up on actually because we had a velux fitted in our old house when we had the loft converted and it was one that would pivot in the middle and also hinge from the top. Now I cant remember if I specified that type in our loft conversion or it was what was provided. I suspect I asked for it but honestly cant remember. Well anyway we asked for three bigger ones to be fitted and one of the downsides of not being here while it was being done I never found out until it was finished that the ones we have here just pivot in the middle. It does not really matter because its not like we are going to stand looking out of them all the time but I was annoyed with myself for not checking. Hey Ho (I never took this photo)
Looking down the new front slope where the tiles were loose in first photo (I never took this photo)
Same new front slope looking the other way (I never took this photo)
This was just after they had started putting the scaffold up to start on the roof. You can see what the rendering looks like on the gable end that gets the worst of the weather. Also take note what the grass looks like. it had not been touched in several years and I honestly thought it was never going to be anything but a mess for years to come. Because we were hardly there it was a lost cause trying to do anything with it and although I had tried cutting it it just returned to how it was as soon as we left. You can also see the new oil tank in the background. This also was brought up in the trailer as my friend knew someone who gets them at a cheaper price than I could get them so it saved me quite a bit even with transporting it up.
Again you can see the gable here.
This I took when they were removing the old rendering from the gable end. It was literally coming off in big pieces and in a way made me feel better because it was obviously in desperate need to be done.
This I took the day before we had to catch the ferry back to the mainland and was the first step towards getting it all back on.
The roof was done in this photo but the front rendering was to be done. Again note the grass in this photo. The dog you can see is Willow. We had two Dobermans and a Terrier when these photos were taken. Sadly Willow who was only 5 and we expected to be loving her life here suddenly died due to an unknown tumor on her spleen just a few months later. Our Terrier who was nearly 18 we had put to sleep a couple of months later as he was tired and had had enough. He had an amazing life so no regrets but Willow we all still miss terribly and even writing this makes me sad. Sarge we still have and have another Doberman now who has just turned 1 and is as mad as a box of frogs.
To be continued....
