This and that

After a week of quiet this is not an inspiring picture to herald my return! But I've been quiet

because of this, and now the stairwell is painted and it's hard in a photo, to make it look inspiring and interesting! It was white before and now it's white again but without the cracks and blemishes. As to the shower room lets just say

it's a work in progress. At least now, when it's finished, the water will run into the drain and not out under the door, or under the floor, or behind the walls - we hope, fingers crossed and all that.

The only excursion we had all week was to 'pop' back up the hill behind us. I left a lens cap up here on our last visit ....that's right I thought I'd go back and pick it up!  'Like looking for a lens cap in a peat bog' is similar I imagine,  to 'Like looking for a needle in a haystack'

Only the views are nicer

Will my lens cap end up petrified, or vitrified, buried in a peat bog to be discovered some thousand years hence? Well, I'd like to tell whoever finds it that they've got a bargain. It's £9.99 to buy a new one, which was what prompted me back up the hill to find it!

Every cloud has a silver lining. A distant An Teallach looked pretty impressive in the setting sun and the walk did us good! My lens cap is still up there on the hill behind us. I haven't quite given up hope of finding it!

Getting plastered

This isn't a job I enjoy! And I'm always going on about it, and because I'm so slow at it I always seem to be doing it! Taping and plastering. Most of the joints in the plaster board were taped and plastered but some of most of the corners got left so now we're going back  and finishing off  'properly!'  Only not so properly as I'm not very good at it, and after the morning spent in the stairwell on a platform on a ladder I frightened myself by looking in the mirror - and wondered

if Annie Lennox had been doing a spot of decorating when she had this taken.

And while on a messy note, in the afternoon my new bread maker arrived

It's ever so nice, if a little on the large side. We'll have to take turns to be in the kitchen! We shall make it a shelf  to stand on so I can get my work top back! And at around midnight after a somewhat plastery and floury day I produced my first loaf of bread

It tasted wonderful. I know this because I had to have a slice with butter. The ability to make fresh bread every day is not going to be very good for my diet. That's flour on the loaf, not plaster, though in truth there doesn't seem to be very much difference between the two - a small amount goes a long way!

A day off

Yesterday afternoon, we ran walked slowly up the hill behind our house.

 We took lots of rests on the way - to take photos I said, not because I needed to get my breath back.  We looked down on our neighbours, figuratively speaking that is

 There's a peace up in the hills, Not a tin of paint anywhere to be seen, nor a paintbrush, nor planks of wood flooring waiting to be laid nor even a shower room floor needing to be fixed - just silence and views. An incredible feeling of being in another world where house jobs are unimportant and can wait until tomorrow.

 Once there was a forest up here

 gnarled old tree roots, some thousand years old I've been told, litter the ground

Tree monsters frozen in time, some sad

others happier, enjoying the late afternoon sun

At the top we look over to the amazing An Teallach. Did I really get up there last spring! I did, and I really really want to go back and complete the walk we didn't finish. This is a mountain that truly is worth making the effort for - need to eat less and exercise  more

Snow still  stays  on the mountain tops

I should have put the wide angle lens on the camera, instead I took a lens I normally use for close up pictures. A reason to  come back, and all it takes is walking out of the front door and going upwards,  but first I must finish painting the stairwell!

The good and the bad

This is all you need

to do this!

We've known for a while the shower room wasn't right. The smell of wet plaster when taking a shower is an  indication all is not well on the water front! It has been a bit disheartening to take up tiles that were only laid two years ago!  but at least we've found the problem and while some of the plaster board is soggy it is 'fixable' We should have taken more care to ensure the join between the wall and floor was really watertight. I think so much was going on at the time we didn't oversee the work properly. Now we have got a waterproof membrane to put down before re-tiling. Fortunately it isn't a big area to repair. All will be well!

Helen Wonder Woman flew in for four and a half days of intensive 'house fixing.'  She's very good! She has done masses of painting and tiling and gardening and is such a good encourager when we get a bit down.  Is that Niels kneeling at her feet? No, I think he's trying to change the disc on the angle grinder and wonder where the key for it might have gone!

The good bit and the bad bit - I hope you can see which is which?

We did allow Helen time off for hard work and good behaviour. We went for a very tasty meal at the Ceilidh Place in Ullapool with a very tasty bottle of wine which we drank very quickly - or was it just me?!

The weather today has been sunny and 'spring like.' Helen is back home now. She would have enjoyed the sunshine with maybe just a spot of weeding!   It has been ideal walking weather and that's what we should have been doing.

but the next consignment of wood flooring has arrived and I need to think about painting the stairwell before we tackle the stairs and hall floor.

The birds sense a  change in the air. The birdsong has been glorious - surround sound. It lifts the spirit as nothing else can.

Round two

The job I don't enjoy! The job that only needs doing once I keep telling myself! Some of the joints in the plasterboard got overlooked and many of the internal corners didn't get taped and plastered in our speed to get moved into the house by Christmas 2008. Now, the laborious job of making good all the overlooked areas and finishing off.

 Helen gave me these. She's coming up today to do some tiling. These little scrapers  are excellent for filling holes,  cracks and plastering over corner tape.

The rain shower that does exactly what it says on the tin. No fancy settings just warm rain, or cold, should you feel so inclined!

This time next week this will be finished!

If I just stop playing with the camera and get on!
Off to the airport shortly to get Helen. We've bought her a brand new tile cutter which will make her happy!