Well, at long last it's arrived! Everyone told us that sofa beds were horrendously heavy so we were a bit concerned about getting it onto the balcony - would we need Dougie and his tractor to come to our rescue? But of course we reckoned without our stalwart team of helpers , and Mike and Sandy popped it up no bother where it was hauled in by Cath and Cathy.
And you must admit it's rather good! Loads of wonderful reversible cushions gorgeous fabric, and thank goodness we are delighted and can now go on to decide on the rest of the colour scheme. Needless to say I messed up my only task , which was to be chief photographer when it was actully manhandled onto the balcony - the camera ran out of power. and no, I hadn't charged it up for about 3 months.

What's more, they refused to go through the whole thing again.

The bespoke sofa bed arrives next week. Will we like it? Hard to chose the covers from wee colour swatches, but whatever we'll just HAVE to like it! Anyway watch out for some dramatic pictures as it's hoisted up onto the balcony.

Well, at long last the great day has arrived - the stairs are in! Having lost a week-end collecting me from hospital, Mike spent Saturday routing and gluing and all sorts of things and then - with a huge amount of help from Dougie - the stairs were slotted in to place. Put together upstairs they had to be manouevered round corners and gently lowered down; turned out they were a wee bit tight -hence the crow bar - but now they fit perfectly. No screws at all, all careful fitting and a bit of glue. And I was able to christen them. Terrific.

Well, this old Robinia was hiding the view from the balcony so it had to come down. We don't like cutting down trees but it was getting very tatty looking anyway, and hardly had any leaves on last summer, so time to go. And what a difference it makes - the seagulls wheeling over Dougie's fields are amazing. I am trying to get a quote for wire wound the balcony but they haven't come back yet. but it will have to waith until the sofa bed is heaved up the outside.

Stair are well on the way and another week-end should see us able to discard the ladder. Which will help a lady who' going to be on crutches for the next 6 weeks!

God these stairs are difficult - really difficult. Imagine cutting a bit of wood to fit EXACTLY into this corner - and the rise has to be the perfect height etc etc. But we seem to be getting htere.

We are working slightly backwards in that we've ordered the sofa bed and actually bought two terrific wicker chairs (easy to haul out onto the balcony) last week. Sadly, having driven the lady batty and spending about 2 hours in the place chosing fabric, the sofa people then rang and said the fabric firm had gone bust! So now - cunningly - they say the only alternative is MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE. Must remember that ploy when people are chosing diamond rings. So a bit back to the drawing board on that one.
Leg op. on the 15th so hopefully stairs will be in and I'll be able to recuperate on the balcony. Ha! In light of the current weather pattern it will be behind firmly closed doors.

Aha! At last we know why the stairs aren't made - they're too difficult.

This is Mike trying to work out the bottom step. Pencil marks and rubbings out all over the floor, wee architectural books and screeds of paper.

BUT - the lintel is in and the bottom step has been cut. So - onwards and upwards. And we can still manage drinks on the balcony - G & t's up a ladder are no problem to us.

We have a balcony!!

Well, it's Friday afternoon and this is the best I can do with the new camera. It's right way up everywhere else and as Sandy has spent most of the day sorting glitches in the computer I daren't ask him again. So please look at the start of building the balcony sideways. If only I hadn't poured tea into my old camera when I was at Auntie Peggys.

Meanwhile my task is making dowels. He has decided to have natty little dowels sticking out of all the clinker built cladding so it's a bit like last year when I painted 96 planks. And I'm not very good at making dowels but after 100 or so I'm sure I'll have improved. But it will be superb having the balcony and now that night skies are getting black, it will be a wonderful spot for a bit of star gazing.

So, the outside is getting finished apace - though this awful unsettled summer doesn't help - nor do people chatting by the roadside. Mike just can't resist giving them a rundown on the whole build.

Inside we still wait for the electrician to pop in for another hour or two to complete the job, but otherwise we are almost ready to do a bit of decorating. But there still is the wee question of getting some stairs in! However balcony is the next outside job which will be really fantastic.

For those of you worrying about the wisteria, good news! It suddenly burst into leaf in the middle of July having survived its roots being encased in concrete, the coldest winter of all time, and THE GALE in May which wheeched the leaves off most of the trees in Carradale. Strangely it's been the trees with multi leafed leaves (whatever they are called) like rowan and elder which have been incredibly slow to come out this year. But all is well now and even our huge Robinia has deigned to produce leaves at last. I haven't had the heart to tell it that it's right in the viewing line from the new balcony and as it's a rather ugly and bare branched thing most of the year, it's for the chop. Hate to cut down trees.

Mike is working away at the wall boards (a clinker built house as Walter says ) but usually has to give up at the week-ends as so many people stop and chat.

At long last the wood for the outside has arrived and Mike is already up there whacking it onto the outside of the building. I bet you never thought it was going to end up looking like a cross between a fish shed and a log cabin. But it actually looks terrific so far and rather than the huge stone edifice originally planned will look much more interesting. Trials with the facing on the shed we built at the end of the village hall show that with drying out and a bit of weathering the wood just looks better and better.

We had hoped for Carradale trees but I'm afraid the nearest we could get was Loch Lomond trees - sustainable wood from the National Park. So lots of progress and while he is fitting the bits in place he might solve the problem of how to build the stairs.

We must thank all the many people on Sunday afternoon who stopped to give him advice.

A lot of time has been spent recently on getting our old bedroom back in use. It had to have a new ceiling, completely re-plastered, units fitted and then decorated in our rather eclectic style. Carpet which was bought from the travelling carpet salesman over a year ago has lain in the bothy and when hauled out had some rather nasty damp patches on it, but all in all it's terrific and lovely to be back in a room that never leaks!

Electrician came on Friday to finalise the wiring, and now at last the weather has perked up we can do more on the roof etc. STILL waiting for lapboard so we can get the outside finished.

Well, thank goodness for a lousy summer and wet week-ends! No bother working away inside and we really are getting on with things. All the plastering done, and a visit up to B & Q on Wednesday got all the lights so it's the electrician next week.

We ordered all the lights on line and were a bit deflated when it said at the end that you had to collect them! Great excuse for a day in Glasgow and made much better when they looked at us at the check-out and said'have you got your discount card?' So it was 10% off everything for being over 60. But depressing that we so obviously look ancient.

We are getting our old bedroom decorated and it's nearly done, so it will be great to move back and live in less of a guddle. Did I say I wanted it brown and dark with big swirly flowers? So its cream and white with wee red poppies. Guess who won that little battle. But B & Q came to our rescue there as they were the only place we could find with wall units that fitted and it will all look quite posh when it's done.

Let there be light! Yes, final windows added to the side facing the village hall, and they look terrific both from outside and in. And it makes it such a light bright room.

And here we see Mike plastering away. Loads of plastering to be done but we're trundling on with it. Our old bedroom finished, bits of the downstairs done and working away on the new room. Of course I have to mix the plaster! Not so bad when we use a whisk on the end of a drill, but last week that broke so it was all hand stirring and I'm ashamed to say I really suffered. Cogley hips don't like too much disruption! But new drill now in place.

Still waiting for larch so we can do the outside lap-boarding, then outside will be finished pretty well. And once final plastering is done downstairs, the actual stairs can be thought about.

And so it goes on

Not much news on the extension at the moment. We're working away trying to get our old bedroom back into use as I'm fed up with the chaos of everything piled into the spare room. But lots of plastering required, stripping wall paper etc. Managed to buy a selection of decorating materials in our favourite shop in the Gallowgate - it's brilliant! I wanted browns and huge patterns, as seems to be all the vogue. So we've ended with cream and red with virtually no pattern at all. It follows.

Still waiting for the wood for the outside lap-boarding.

And today Mike is spending hours fitting a tiny ceramic 'thing' into the wall in the new room. It was his birthdy present from a wonderful gallery in Ambleside and is a sort of box with a light in the back. You'll have to see it!

Dearie me, how time flies. a month on from my last entry and not much to show for it - though we did have an excellent trip in our narrow boat. Normally these canal holidays are not entirely stress free with locks and things and avoiding other boats. Not so on the Union Canal! No locks, no other boats, just waving to the millions of people on the tow path as we knock back the Loch Fyne Ale.

Anyway the wood for the outside lapboarding is ordered but they only have larch at the moment and we want something better, so it will come in due course. Meanwhile no balcony so we keep the big doors locked just in case. Lots of very finicky woodwork being done round the stairs. but of course no stairs yet - still the faithful ladder. And here is Mike working on our old bedroom ; fancy pinework round the window then some plastering to be done and then perhaps decorating? Would be nice to get out of the clutter of our temporary home in the spare room. Thought you'd like to see a picture of my elegant dog.

The master builder is wearing thin! Building from 7 till 10, then rushing into the workshop and polishing silver fascia strips for Rolls Royce - an incredibly demanding job requiring everything to be done under a 10 x lens - then cooking my tea; it's a hard life. But this is him relaxing with his friends, and we're off for a mini-cruise on the Forth Clyde canal which should be pretty stress free. The Falkirk wheel and 4 locks and that's it. We once did the Birmingham canal system which involved 96 locks, most of them ancient, which was really hard work, so hopefully this will be slightly more relaxing.

Now that the mornings are lighter and frost free, and occasionally even dry, Mike's able to get on with his nifty stonework. Much of the building will be lap board finished, but a bit of stonework ties it in nicely with the existing building - and very much impresses passers-by! Only about a foot can be done at a time as otherwise it all caves in; and of course he is sticking it together with cement whereas on Grand Designs they'd be using lime mortar or some such, and in the Andes they'd just leave gaping holes.

We get the stones from a quarry up in the hills where they are perfect chunky brick like efforts; it's always nice to get your own materials - even the lap boarding will be from Carradale trees though we're not chopping them down ourselves. When we revamped the original byre we got all the sand and gravel off the beach, so just continuing the tradition. Then I could carry a bag of cement; now I manage about four wee stones.

Inside is progressing - just dreary stuff like plaster boarding and finishing. We even have pipes in in case we want to put in a radiator, though we reckon it will be warm enough as it is. Unlike the rest of the house which still has no central heating since October; still, it is actually , finally, likely to be installed by tomorrow. Cross fingers.

So that's the current update.

There's no doubt it will be MUCH easier when we have a stair. At the moment it's up and down the ladder to the new room while Mike ponders the best way to make the stairs. Right from the start this has been a bit of a puzzle - we can hardly have a majestic curving staircase stretching into our tiny sitting room. Then on Grand Designs I saw a 'monocoque' (spelling?) staircase which just hung in the air with no apparent support, but that's been turned down. So it's going to be an open staircase against the wall with (hopefully) amazing bannisters made by Howard. Meanwhile anything would be better than a ladder.

Windows windows..
yes, we're getting some windows in. Teeny one under the big doors replaces our old bedroom window ; it's going to make the old bedroom rather dinky and snug , but as long as my abutilon which we've had in our bedroom window forever, fits, all will be well. the other windows are on the road side and are bathroom windows as the far end of the new room will be bathroom/ shower. Now the days are getting longer Mike will be able to grapple with the outside stonework and fascia boards. and a good day ahead of us today.

These are wires! Yes, the wiring is well on the way and at the moment it's plasterboarding which is a slow process as Mr Hurst is so pernickity. And he'll be plastering over it anyway.

When we were away we chose some cheap and cheerful B & Q units to fit up the old original bedroom which has been nearly obliterated during the building process. While Mike loves the spare room I don't as , apart from the leaks!, it requires gymnastics from me everynight as I crawl into bed. He has to sleep on the outside so he can get up in the night! And of course McUgly has to pile in as well.

I refuse to buy Ikea, but eventually he persuaded me to, at least, look at their range which I'm glad to say was totally dull, unsuitable, and the wrong size. Phew.

And this is them on the inside.

Been a bit behind recently what with holidays, Trade Fair etc. but the lighter mornings are helping and soon lighter evenings as well.

Got piles of stones yesterday for Mike to get cracking on the end outside wall which is half finished ( and leaking!) , but a lot of the work now is on the inside; next picture will be very exciting. The wiring!!!

Velux windows in at last; quite a fankle but we're delighted with the result. They look great inside as well and what was an very dark corner will now be light and bright and full of exotic plants.

Well, here we go again. Happy New Year to you all. Woke up this morning to frozen water - panic all round as we had no water for 4 days up to Christmas. However it soon came back.

Anyway, despite the rigours of the Christmas holiday, we have managed to get our fantastic glass door in which will open onto the 'balcony'. Then got cracking on putting 2 Velux windows in to a rather shapely bit of roof which will be above the stairs. Jewson's swore blind there wasn't a kit to join two windows together so Mike measured it all out to put them in seperately. Got the first one and flashing in, opened the second box of flashing and of course found it was a joining kit! So a bit of re-working required there and the moral is OPEN ALL THE BOXES FIRST . And never rely on Jewson's word.

Lovely bit of new roof over our bedroom joining old and new leaks like a sieve!

We soldier on.