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.