Well the scaffolding is away so we can begin to see what it looks like. Everyone is very cross as they liked the wee twinkling health and safety lights beside the road. Anyway before we filled in the gap where the poles went through I took a photo of the new view. Ignore the big post, imagine a bit of tree surgery, and we can see the bay! think we'll have to put a wild flower roof on the garage. With the gaps all filled and loads of insulation in the new room the house is noticably warmer - would be even warmer if the central heating was working!

Well, slightly thwarted by the weather , but not quite as badly as the rest of the world, with only two small snowfalls to date. Anyway last week, with strong Sandy's help, we got the first of the uprights in, as you can see. Exciting moment when the chock supporting it on the scaffolding was hurtled into the yard, but it seems quite happy on the new post. Got to get the other done this week somehow - the guys may come and remove the caffolding at any moment. Anyway, a dry day today and Sandy on hand, so should get it done. Then we'll get the big glass door in and it will be a bit lighter and a lot less draughty. In our central heatingless house, the new room is by far the warmest spot! All the heat from the stove goes straight there and of course it is so well insulated. All the people on Grand Designs who whitter away about having 'green' houses don't seem to realise that with modern building regs. you can't NOT have a green house.

Mike is busy inside in the mornings putting up partitions (cupboard and second bathroom at one end) and bits of wood to support plaster board.

This is one of the metal 'feet' we've been waiting for. The supports for the upper porch will slot into these, and because they're galvinised and off the ground hopefully they won't rot. Not in our time anyway. Frustrating week-end because we hoped to get it all done on Sunday and then of course it was one of these horrid snowy cold days, and NOTHING got done and Mike got cross. The support posts are very huge and heavy and I feel we need a little help from our friendly farmer, but himself will have none of it. So if you hear of me felled by an 8 x 8 don't say I didn't warn you. The new room with all it's insulation, despite having bits open to the sky, is about the warmest place in the house at the moment. Bodes well.

No photos today. But to keep you up to date, all the slating is now done (being extravagent and using all our super bought in slates rather than the thick old Ballahulish ones), and Mike is busy fixing guttering. We await the welder from the town who forgot he was supposed to be making wee feet to sit on the concrete that supports the pillars that hold up the roof that covers the porch that's part of the room that Mike's built. New telescope arrives on Saturday and the new decking will be a wonderful base for star gazing.

Mike discovers that our original floor joists, bought from Tayinloan, vary in depth by at least half an inch; we always wondered why our floors bounced up and down.

This is a hanging newel post - just in case you hadn't guessed. It will support the stairs - yes, we're going to have stairs and they are on the way. Top platform is now in place. Howard has been commissioned to create a flowing banister or some such , so deep discussions when we were in Inverness.

Ghastly weather but hopefully a better week-end so we can finish the slating and get ris of the scaffolding.

A slated roof is not that exciting - but it is to us! Got the back finished and it looks very smart. As you get nearer the top and run out of slates you need to use smaller and smaller ones with a tiny overlap so it does get pretty slow. But it's fun working up there - everyone peeps and the ladies are full of admiration of my wandering up and down the roof - but it's nothing compared to the Aonach Eigach!

Mikes now working on the leadwork for the porch on the front and then we can get on with that.
Despite fearful wind and rain recently it all seems very sound and watertight.

The new slates proved their worth, and last week-end we got about a third of the roof covered in no time at all. then we snuck off to Mull for three days - idyllic weather and the west coast at it's very best. I have so often climbed in October in wind and rain, and there we were panting up Ben More wishing we had our shorts on.

Now down to our own old slates which are not bad but need sorting, and get smaller and smaller so more overlap and more per row. Lousy day yesterday meant we didn't get this side finished as planned,but loads to do inside as well.

At the moment when we need wood for the fire Mike just goes into the attic and chops up some of the old roof!

Slates have arrived! This funny little pile cost £1,000. Well not exactly as a third of them are already up on the scaffolding.
Although we removed and sorted all the old slates, Mike decided to treat himself to some decent ones to get the bottom rows neatly started , and augment all the thick, broken, horrible ones.

Where to go for slates? the Carlisle Slate and Tile Company of course, which, fortunately, Mr McKerrals wood lorry drives past when they deliver wood to a mill down there. So a quick couple of phone calls, and there they were delivered to our door by the fish farm feed lorry (also Mr McKerrals!). We were advised to use recycled slates rather than brand new, but they are lovely Welsh slates (not knobbly Ballachulish ones), all beautifully sized and with holes drilled. What's more it looks like we won't need the usual huge overlap which means less work and they'll go further.

Good spell of weather coming up so off we go.

Now you can get an idea what it's going to look like with the two matching porches; the new one is kind of cantilevered over the scaffolding and will eventually have long supports down to the ground ( which was where the wisteria hiatus cropped up) At the weekend we got it all water tight and heavy rain since has resulted in NO LEAKS. So now Mike is desperately trying to fit in the stairs. Lots of cursing and knocking down more and more of existing walls.

I am AWAY behind with blogging. What with me and Ju rushing off to Cormwall to look at gardens, then me and Mike off to a wee trade fair in Glasgow, then me losing the password.

But as you see, we have scaffolding! Wonderful stuff - the stairway to heaven! And as a result great progress is being made - especially the long week-end I was away. Both sides of roof are insulated, boarded and waterproofed, and now it's time to order the slates. Inside we now have the room without any joists and things, and now Mike is finishing the framework of the upper porch.

When we were in Glasgow we saw a nice wee bungalow advertised; instead of saying 3 beds and 2 other rooms, it said - 6 flexible apartments. So that's what Mike's building. I did wonder

Slight desaster on Monday night when the easterly gale and driving rain revealed that the old and new don't quite meet! Water streaming down the lovely new chipboard on the house side squeezed it's way through our polythene and dripped all the way down the rafters into the bedroom. All night. So out with the old towels again , bed moving again, and Mr & Mrs Hurst not speaking by morning.Can't be sorted till the insulation arrives, but hopefully no more easterly gales.
Scaffolder is on his way! So we have been told. But it's trauma time for the wisteria

WE definitely have the makings of a room. This is the inside now - to the right you see the floor boards; most of the old sarking has been removed and this morning Mike put in a support for the lower beam that goes through the house and held up this sarking, then it can be removed. Putting up the very hefty cross beam to hold all this was quite an effort ( and involved taking out half the spare bedroom wall) . One more strong upright to hold the central beam, and then that too can be removed and we can wander around one side of our new room.

We still have the horrid mess of another bit of block wall to be removed, then hopefully all the really unpleasant bitties will be over.

No sign of Mr very busy scaffolder from Ardrishaig yet.

This was the tricky bit. It's the V where the porch emerges from the roof onto the decking, and only when it was in place could Mike get the boards on the front roof. Anyway , it's now done and most of the boards are on, and covered with polythene ( a hairy business last night in blustery showers). Then it's insulation, plywood, waterproofing and slates.

But sadly it's covered up the Sky aerial and we can't get BBC2 analogue, so I'm having to do without my daily fix of Newsnight.

Just for a change I thought I'd show you the picture we bought to go in the new room. Last week-end the studios in Mid-Argyll opened their doors, and we had a great tootle round looking for the right picture. This one is 'the life of a pizza' painted by a delightful young artist called Rob Walker
from Crinan Ferry who was clearly obsessed with food. It was a choice of that one, 'Pizza for two' or a bowl of mussels.

Work on the roof goes really well and the latest worry is how to get the jutting out roof that goes over the doors fitted in with the whole. It's a bit Catch 22 as it needs to sit on the boards, but the boards need to sit on it. Or something. Once that's done , then that side can be boarded.

I have one more coat to paint on 12 planks after my original 96. Cause for celebration.

Not that much to show, but we're making progress - I think ! Inside it's the stair area that's the tricky bit , with original roof supports being cut out, new ones being shoved in - always a scary business - and last night with a lot of effort , bits of sarking being removed, and whacking with lump hammers and jemmies we (we - I helped!) got two fairly critical joists in. This now means the final support for the roof can go up and the second side of roof can be covered.

Remember the 96 planks I had to chamfer and paint with two layers of fire-proofing? We're down to the last twelve. I did hear some really good programmes on Radio 4 while I was doing it. We tried to burn some of the cut-offs in our chiminier last week and I'm delighted to say they were very grudging to go , so I must have mixed the mixture right!

And hopefully the scaffolder will be along next week - safety is all! and if I'd been wearing a hard hat last night I wouldn't have stuck a nail from the roof in my head as I whizzed up a ladder.

Slowly, slowly the house is being eroded away. Remember that nice coat cupboard and Granny Campbell's beautiful hand sewn Art Nouveau curtain? Forget them. Now, instead, we're back to the original byre wall - I remember putting that yellow mark on it in 1975. That was when we discovered the building had no foundations so we decided to lower the whole place rather than raise the roof.

so now we're raising the roof!

The windows have arrived! Aren't they lovely. They are covered in tape and are actually black. Mike had an incredible job getting black ones - McLeods would make them in white and get a wee man in Inverary to paint them black, but we didn't think that was a geat idea. Then we got a quote from some people down south for thousands of pounds. In the end good old Jewson's came up trumps. The triangular ones go on the side wall, them there's a high one on the road side and one under the decking for our old bedroom.

This morning a pretty fraught morning; raining hard and the old familiar leaks springing up, and - having somehow found places to put all our coats, climbing boots , and kites - Mike very loudly demolished all the cupboard area at the end of the living room. Said he'd never been happy with it anyhow. That's where the stairs will be - well we'll need to be able to get up to this wonderful new room somehow and I'm not ready for a Stannah lift.

Well the roof is rising; sadly the most dramatic pictures which are of me single-handedly erecting the double beams, aren't available, as I am also the official photographer. But the photos below give an idea of progress.

A week-end of drinking and dancing with Judith and Howard (actually the Skipness Scottish Dance which is dry, and a visit to 94 year old Auntie Peggy in Lochranza) , so not much work was done. BUT, a great break through as Howard and Mike varnished and planed the big beams and Mike suddenly decided that we didn't need Mr McKerrals wood lorry or McFadyen's crane. The beams could be put together IN SITU.

And they were .

The doors arrived - all the way from Northern Ireland. Instead of sitting in splendid isolation on the back of Jewson's lorry, they'd have been far better to have floated them across.

These very fine doors will lead out from the new room onto the decking; we had originally hoped to have fancy ones that disappeared into the wall, but it's all to do with heights and things. These look just fine.

A real step forward last night when, with a little help from our friends, we got the first joist up and the supporting back wall. The delight was that it all slotted perfectly into place, so our care with the measurements certainly paid off. But you never know, so that's a great relief. Imagine if we'd got that top angle wrong!
With this joist up, Mike can complete his building of the gable end and it will soon be time to put up the incredibly heavy double joists - which will be a crane job.

In theory week-ends are great for getting on with things, but in practise they are a dead loss. The workshop's open until 2 on a Saturday (at least it's not 5 as it used to be) and at this time of year there are may be one or even two cottages to change over - which is amazingly time consuming, even with two of us. Three cheers for our marvellous Catherine who does the bulk of it.

So, Saturday saw us grab a few hours to put a new upright in the living room. I didn't think there was anything wrong with the old black cracked one, but Mike felt it needed replacing and made a very fine pole out of multiple slabs of timber. Replacing it was slightly hairy involving temporary struts, car jacks, and a very creaking roof which had not been shoogled like this for 35 years , but all is now solid.

Then, when the rain had stopped, it was time to build the first joist. Oh the tension! For a kick-off I can't read a rule which put us back a bit, then the engineers drawings were wrong, which put us back further. So lots of pencil marks later it was all hammered together and we hope to God the angle is right. This will go onto the workshop gable end, and will be the template for our grander interior double joists.

Well, needless to say Minnie had to get in on the act. She was worried that Ginny might still be down there (see below!)

More leaks!!! Preparing the beans (from the garden) yesterday - Matt & Elizabeth were strimming the hall car park, men were humping insulation into Hilda's house, Mike was working on the roof - so I just ignored a strange clattering noise. Pity. When I went into the bathroom, water was pouring through all the light fittings, and the floor was a paddling pool.

Mike had actually been trying to remove a lagoon which had somehow built up in the polythene on the roof - and failed miserably. Three cheers for loads of old towels and a tiled floor.

We had just bought a lovely new bedroom carpet for the old bedroom from the wandering carpet salesman, but very sensibly we hadn't got that down. Which is neither here nor there. He did say (because I nag him every time he comes) that he was looking at rolls and rolls of carpet in a Glasgow warehouse, saw this particular carpet, and thought of me. It's pink and mottled.

And this morning it was ' digging the foundations for the decking' day. Ginny decided to help. Good news is we lose a wee conifer but THE WISTERIA IS SAVED.

Onwards and upwards! With Sandy's help we got the first wall section in place. No, the wee holes are not going to be windows; this whole section will be wood clad but to the right wide glass doors will lead out to the decking. Today we hope to get a bit up on the back.

Wood, wood glorious wood - yes, we have so much wood that Jewson's are buying it back off us.

We have joists, and roof trusses and perlins and cladding.

These glorious looking chunks on the right are going to be the exposed beams in the ceiling, put up in pairs ( thanks Norman for that idea). I worried that Mikes little light looking walls were not going to be stong enough to hold them up but its all right - they will have their own supports. Whew.

Ghastly day yesterday - we had hoped to get a wall up but force 90 sweeping round the village Hall put paid to that. Hopefully today, with Sandy's help, (thank goodness, more strength) , we might get a wall up.

So we had in depth conversations about where to put the decking supports. My criteria for doing this job were to have the dosh in place (thanks Nationwide) and not to lose the wisteria. Looks like it's going to be touch and go with the latter. 10 years of nurturing!! I will fight for it.

When all this started we had to move into the spare bedroom, which seems to be slowly eroding round about us. First off the slates and insulation were taken off the roof which means you lie in bed and see the light glinting through the polythene in the gaps in the boards - a bit like camping. then it's VERY noisy - and who thought so much traffic went up and down at 5 in the morning. On top of that, for the first time in years they are logging behind the village so when a log lorry goes by it sounds as if a train is belting through the bedroom.

Well, we've survived all that, but last night it was, to put it mildly, 'wet and windy. And you've guessed. It seriously leaks. We knew it did a wee bit and tried to find the hole, but obviously unsuccessfully. So I woke this morning to the clatter of drips into the washing up bowl.

Mike is off to town to buy more polythene.

So while I merrily chamfer away to the sound of baby starlings cheeping in the roof ( the last brood all fell out and had to be rescued so here's hoping Mum has patched up the nest) Mike is building the walls. This is a wall. The theory is that they will be built in the shed, then erected around the existing building. The roof joists will then be hoisted into place with a little help from our friends (Mr McKerral's wood lorry) and then all my retarded planks will be whacked into place, covered with something waterproof, and the old roof will be removed.

That's the theory.

These are the first 12 of our 96 bits of wood for lining the roof. We've got it all nicely organised as we can do 12 at a time and somehow manage to lean them up against the roof. Managed to get one top coat, a chamfer and a bottom coat done yesterday. And listen to the Archers at the same time. What about Sid!

Well, thats the last of the dwangs! Not easy when you're 6'4" and the roof comes down to the floor.
Next job is building the walls which will be done in our new super shed at the end of the Village Hall.
Meanwhile my next task, having sorted the slates, is to fireproof 96 planks which will line the roof. Each has to be chamfered (chamfurred, shamferred, shamferd???) on 2 edges, then the stuff mixed to exact quantities, then given a second coat. and we reckon we can do 12 at a time. I'm in for the long haul.

Last night we were measuring dwangs

Floor joists on one side going in. There was huge trauma when the wall plate ( that horizontal bitty of wood) wouldn't line up with the holes in the concrete which it had to be fixed down to ( very secure in case of a force 10 off the Bay) but all is now well.

Work starts at 7a.m and goes on till 10, then 7 - 9 in the evening. And long may the dry weather last.

He's lowered the wall outside our old bedroom, we (WE - I helped!) made a nice concrete pad on it, and another wall plate goes in here. Then one on the far side and we can get the new floor joists in. Building already which is great. Meanwhile I slog away in my midge jacket sorting slates.

No, I bet you can't work out what he's doing either. But at the moment it's all to do with putting in wall plates to hold the floor joists. He did think this wall was load bearing and the roof would probably fall down, but what the heck

Below is the little old attic space; now imagine that it is going to be transformed into a new - slightly higher- room; and above, Mike is attempting to pull our bedroom completely to pieces

Well everyone, I bet you thought the loft extension was nothing more than pie in the sky and a figment of Mike's imagination. So did I.

However after struggling with the vagaries of all the planning rules and regulations ( thank goodness we didn't need a civil engineer when we built the house 35 years ago, he'd have hated when the roof took off 3 feet towards the road in a gale), and the sheer nastiness and humiliation of RBS who refused us a mini mortgage, we're off!! Took a whole Sunday morning to psych ourselves up to take the slates off , and the insulation under them (very messy ICI U-foam plus pumped in - weren't we ahead of our time), the thing has finally got started. Loads more photos and hopefully not much chat ahead.