Sunday, June 30, 2024

Stripping.

 Quieter day today. Jill was tired!

Jim popped back to finish off upstairs. It's good!


Next step ingos, pva and then paint.

Jill spent time stripping the rescued spindles. The brown paint is quite determined not to come off!


The new skirting got a first gloss and a wall got a touch up.


As Scotland are out, we decided to watch  the England match. Hmmmm.


We are limited to the PC as we have issues with out sky dish again.

The most interesting thing- was watching the cat trying to catch a fly!




Saturday, June 29, 2024

Its a sign!

 The new sign is finished and has gone outside. Hopefully this one will last a bit longer! We will see.



It needs a bit more jigging around to make it totally stable.

Jill went to the tip this morning to get rid of the old window. Came back with a car full of these


They will need to be stripped of the brown paint but will get used. The staff at the tip are used to Jill now and helped her fish them out. We don't like waste!

Jill has done some stripping and will see how they come us with a sand.

The ceiling downstairs had a skim touch up and sand ready for Jim to finish up. He did the bits Jill couldn't reach yesterday and put a skim coat upstairs. Looks like a really nice space now 

This afternoon, Jill put the small skirtings in that had been sized already. They look OK.


Need glossing a tidying up but they fit well.

Thursday, June 27, 2024

Lounge in sight .

 Jim was back today and he kindly got on with the taping and filling without bad words about Jill's start in it! Jill did some sanding too.


Considering what we started from....  




The upstairs room. Is coming on too.


Jill finally decided the hole in the ceiling where a pipe leaked was safe to seal. First attempt at free cutting a piece of plasterboard, went quite well.  Did get Jim to screw it in to make sure it was secure.


The sign made for the house didn't last very well so trying something new  first coat of roof paint to see if that does the trick.



Wednesday, June 26, 2024

Taping and filling

 We made some new friends yesterday. They went for a walk along the cliffs to Dale and then popped in for a coffee. Pat and Peter come to Shetland a lot on holiday. We had a lovely long chat and got on really well. Hope to see them again next visit.

It was a lovely day so the cats enjoyed time outside.


Jill has tried some corners with taping and filling. One had burst a bit so it got a bit of a trim, rescrewed and a filled ready to corner and plaster tomorrow as it wasnt quite dry today 


Jill is getting better at it!

The room has most joins now filled. It's of sanding tomorrow.

It was lovely light in the evening.


The digger has arrived. Not sure if our trench is getting dug tomorrow or Friday.

Jill did some painting. Not much of an artist but it was fun.





Monday, June 24, 2024

Indoor day

 Although the sun was shining there is still stuff to do indoors.

Jill had a go with the last few scraps of the original skirting boards. It went OK.


Robertson came out to look at our freezer and it's not repairable so we get a replacement. It was a graded one so we have had to put a bit in the pit to replace it but it's lot cheaper than buying a new one! They were a bit late arriving as they got caught up with the council deciding today was a good day to surface dress our road - after they had scraped the sheep poo of it!

In between cutting skirting, Jill also had a go at taping and filling while no one was watching. It's going ok for a first attempt on a good wall and it sanded down pretty well.


Sunday, June 23, 2024

Spots before the eyes

 Busy couple of days tidying up. The unused bits of plasterboard are out of the way and some materials stashed away in the barn.

The garden had a bit of a tidy consolidating the timber piles left over. Unfortunately, couldn't finish off as the lawn mower died and then a bit of metal  got firmly stuck  in the blade. Think the clutch has gone. Had to cut out the metal with a saw


Lovely day though.

Jill also spent  time regrouting the hall tiles, the white just looked grubby so it now matches the lobby grout.


In the new lounge there are lots and lots of screw hols to fill. You start see spots after a while.


There is going to be a lot of sanding over the next week.


Friday, June 21, 2024

Friday

 The usual run into town for appointments. A bit if shopping, although we still don't have a freezer, and dodging cruise ship folk wandering aimlessly in the road.

 We stopped at Melby on the way back but the car park was full so we didn't stay long. Jill couldn't get round her usual circuit. We have nothing against wild camping, it's great but they really need to watch where they put their tents. Totally blocking the coast path is beyond daft 


If they had a brain cell they'd be dangerous!

Because it was busy it was a bit quiet so we headed home for some work on the house.


Jill got straight onto grouting. We are really pleased with the result.




We headed out for the quiz and had a lovely evening as usual leaving the cats playing with the salmon pipe we got for the land drain.




Bentley looks a bit messy as he has decided he doesn't like his fur and has started pulling it out. We are not sure why but are working on it. Lots of things have been tried.

The moat is looking quite good there be crocodiles!


The sun set at about 10.45pm


And it actually got darker than expected as it was cloudy.


Thursday, June 20, 2024

Took us a while

 Well, we are certainly not experts and it took a while , but, all the tiles are down now. Rob did the cutting and Jill did the measuring and sticking.



Grouting comes tomorrow. 
Bit of a disaster yesterday as the freezer decided to kill itself and blew up. It vented all it's gas.  It had been a bit temperamental the day before but it's only 2 years old so thought the door might have got left open. Oh well, weird teas for the next few days! At least it's under warranty!
The electrician, Lewis, has been again and connected up the electrics for the old extension so we finally have sockets and switches live. Great job! Such a lovely chap too.

We were still putting tiles in at 7pm but decided to pop out for an hour. Melby was busy with gulls, waders and terns- mostly Common Terns 

























We also had some grouse on the way.



Still light here at 10.45pm. Happy Simmer dim everyone.

Checking up

 The storm earlier in the week was a bit worrying with the seal pups still on the beach in the cove. Had to wait for the snow to melt to mak...