Shelves!

Weekend three and it's about time I got those shelves made...

No. 1 priority, CDs and DVDs! Time to turn the alcove behind the TV into entertainment central! With plenty of space left over to house the exercise bike...

I already owned various CD and DVD storage units which were on long term loan to the parent. And although there was the option to call in that long term loan, it just wouldn't have fitted the space, and there was SO much unutilised wall space that it made sense to build purpose made shelves...

So far, out of all the shelving I'm putting up, the wood for the CD and DVD shelves is the only wood I've actually had to go out and buy and the total cost came to about £30. Not too bad...

The bodach drilling holes in my wall

Is it straight? The bodach making it look like he's the only one doing any work ahem!...

The planks weren't a hundred percent dìreach, so I had to fix them down with small brackets. Decided on this method rather than glue and clamps as I figured it would be easier to take the shelves with me is I ever move... The amusement of the day was the one bracket bracket, that the bodach fixed to the top shelf cos I could quite reach, was totally squint! My response to his efforts were a glaring look and "Hmmm..." Still, at least the actual shelves are straight and now full of CDs and DVDs!

I have since found more DVDs and although I did make a big pile for the car booty, I'm definitely going to need another shelf...

Next it's the alcove under the stairs for all my junk... All made from left over wood, or FREE wood! Always good for the pocket... Again all purpose built for the contents I desire to store.

First shelf goes in, Perfect!

All done! Just need to put the curtain back up now and we'll be sorted!

I still have a wee bit of shelving left to do in the living room, where my books will be housed, but it's made such a difference getting these done. Finally feels like I can function normally, in my living room at least...

The chimney also got swept this weekend so I was able to light the fire for the first time. It was fantastic! This also meant I finally had hot water and no longer had to boil the kettle to wash the dishes! :)

I also got my log store sorted! It's actually meant to be a shoes rack, but has never been used for that purpose... I originally used it in the old house for books as it fitted the space perfectly, but that use is now obsolete and so it becomes a log store!

It's Purple Time!

Time to paint the rest of the walls in the living room purple!

This didn't take anywhere near as long as the white paint did. two coats and we were done! But I did have to tape off all the skirting and ceiling first which I thought would take forever, but again, was done in no time at all.

Purple spot disease: One of the side effects of painting with rollers... Should have taken my jewellery off before I started, but at least it was a water based paint...

Finished!

With everything moved round the right way I can finally sit back and enjoy! Well, almost... I still have to put shelves and pictures up... And yes, the curtains. I think it's time we replaced those black bags...

Fuel!

For those of you who are friends with me on Facebook, you'll be used to seeing a thousand one pictures of firewood being/having been created and may be wondering what's going to happen to it all...

Well, we had the van for the whole weekend, so Sunday way spent shifting the firewood! We had a lot to shift, and as it's heavy work and the bodach is getting on a bit, I had my friend Janni help me and the bodach's job was to stack at the other end...

But first there was the dilema of how to store it all as I no longer had an abundance of out houses to choose from... I had managed to get my hands on some old pallets for free and we set about building the stick shed!...

Stage 1: floor and walls!

Off to the old house we go to start loading... First stop, shed number two with all the unseasoned wood:

This is just one wall, there was more on the other side...

All in all it took 3 and a bit van loads to empty this shed...

Janni and wheelbarrow with the last of Shed 2's wood. Looks really heavy!

Meanwhile, back at the new house, the bodach is busy stacking...

We then filled the van up with as much seasoned wood from Shed No. 1 as we possibly could and headed back to the new house:

Girl power all the way! Who needs men!...

We didn't manage to shift it all, but as the old house is on my way home from work, I decided I would just have to load the car every day until I was done... 

At the end of the day...

Of course it snowed mid week before I got the chance to put the roof on...

The next day and we have a roof!. Not actually attached or felted yet, but the rounds do a good job of keeping it on...

All of the wood for the stick shed, apart from the roof, was free! :) All of the fire wood was free too! Just a lot of hard work!...

A week later and we have more wood shifted and everything gets neatly stacked!

But we have to keep the rain out of course!

I'll have to get some more pallets and build another stick shed, but there's no hurry...

Van hire time!

So, time to shift all my furniture that's been waiting for a home from the parents' house in Inverness over to Skye...

I had accumulated so much furniture over the years that when it came to kitting out my new home, I didn't actually have to buy very much. Infact, I even had to sell off some furniture as I had too much...

Anyway... I got on the train to Inverness after work on the Friday and spent Friday evening in my bedroom being a lot more brutal than I had ever been in previous clear outs and had my had at one end with a box for recycling and my mum at the other end with a black bag. My dad made at least five trips down stairs to the blue bin... And we managed to fill two black bags. There was also a big pile of stuff set aside for the car boot sale at the end of the month. So all in all I got rid of a lot of stuff!

Saturday morning, time to pick up the van and load! Fortunately it was just the right size for my mattress...

We had to leave 3 of the four dining chairs behind as there just wasn't enough room...

Time for a tea break, and in my case breakfast, and off we go! I did most of the driving, and informed my dad that we would NOT be stopping for a coffee as it was less than two hours away and we had to unload the van and pick up the sofa from another house at 2:30... I would have driven all the way, but my car was in Kyle, mainland side of the Skye bridge, and had to pick it up on the way back. We don't have trains on Skye...

We got everything shifted and I now get to sleep in a real bed in my proper bedroom, even though I haven't decorated it yet... I opened the curtains after my first nights sleep in MY ROOM and dried my hair to this view. Not too shabby at all!...

The decoration continues

So, as you can imagine, painting walls white when they've been a darker colour takes a bit of time... And you need to find something to occupy yourself with whilst you're waiting on the different layers to dry. So time to start painting the MDF shelves for the book shelves...

Multi-functioning stool

I was also getting fed up of everyone being able to see into the living room at night when I was painting. Not that a huge number of people pass my window, but their eyes would automatically be drawn to the light... So out came the black bags and the sellotape!

And eventually, four coats later... It's beginning to look like a living room! Just add pictures... Note the tele is out!

I think the dij has found it's new home, propped up against the fire place.

I just need to wait until tomorrow before I can start painting the rest of the walls. The test pots just don't stretch far enough...

The other half of the living room to be.

The master bedroom to be, currently being used as the sewing room.

Amongst other things, whilst I was waiting on the paint to dry, I thought I'd better do a bit of organising in the utility room as it was a bit of a bùrach and I hadn't yet put the washing machine or tumble dryer in. There was a problem though, where to put my shoe rack for the many shoes that I own? Ideally under the counter, but it was just a smigen too tall... So out comes the saw to lop the ends off the legs. Now it fits no problem, sorted!

Will need to shift the shed felt and concrete out of the way before I install the white goods...

My Temporary Bedroom

So, as I am busy decorating and I don't yet have all my furniture, i.e. my bed, I'm sleeping in the spare room on a camp bed with all my stuff that doesn't have a place yet.

Mother's first curtain job was for the spare bedroom. The previous curtain was ugly, annoying and let in far too light... The new curtain was created from one half of a pair of black tab top curtains with a very pretty Indian single bed throw stitched onto it. The colours compliment the room very well and is just the right width for the window. A blackout blind was also very promptly put up! Yes I'm the person that will gaffa tape over any annoying little lights on extension cables, chargers etc and put a draft excluder at the bottom of the door to block out any additional light... In fact I remember covering my windows in my halls of residence at uni with black bags because the curtains were so thin and you weren't allowed to make any modifications...

The pile of stuff in the corner is a very interesting feature. At first is was a tad difficult finding things, like the suitcase full of my most commonly used shoes which was nicely hidden in the back corner underneath EVERYTHING else, but that has now been rectified and only things that I won't need/can live without for the next couple of weeks live in the deepest darkest depths of the pile...

Where or where are my shoes?...

Clothes was also going to be another issue as the small bag I'd packed for the first weekend clearly wasn't going to last... Bigger items are still easily accessibly from the big pink bag which actually fits a good 2 thirds of my clothes, but what about the rest? Living out of a suitcase at the best of times is annoying, but when you have to do it in your own home, even for a short space of time... Something had to be done! So out came one of the shelf units and the drawer tidies and my temporary wardrobe was created!

No more endless hours searching for a pair of socks...

And as for the bed, not too shabby either. Even got a wee table and lamp in there, and the double feather duvet and pillows are a must! :)

Isn't it wonderful! ...

Just for something different I thought I'd tell you all about the things I no longer have to deal with...

The rent in my last house was really cheap, but there was a reason for this... Don't get me wrong, I loved living there! Very quiet, peaceful, private, great views etc etc, and you could say that the rest was worth putting up with because of its location. Then again, there comes a time...

The old taigh, December 2010

Since moving I have experienced many advantages in the new house, mainly because it's been generally well maintained and it's not as old as the croft house.

• I have a shower! :) Baths are great, but they make you late for work as it's very hard to have a quick bath!... I also don't have to wait for the hot water to heat up first as it's an electric shower...
• I have mobile signal! I no longer live in a mobile black spot. In fact, \I couldn't even tune my radio...
• I have a fitted kitchen with proper flooring suitable for kitchens! Every single room in the old house was carpeted, kitchen and bathroom included...
• This is one from the Bodach. The kitchen cupboards don't make a noise when you open them... 
• I no longer have to put up with a fridge that freezes all my fresh vegetables! Which means I can actually but things like lettuce and cucumber and not have to try and eat it all within 24hrs... Also, I can use the whole fridge and not be concerned about frozen orange juice of cans of coke... (just to note, this was all with the temperature right down and after the electrician replacing the thermostat.) Basically it was a rubbish fridge...
• I actually have a heating system! :) All I had in the old house was the very very small open fire and plug in heaters. So when you came home at night in the winter it was just as cold inside as it was out...
• I no longer live in a damp house! Keeping your clothes smelling fresh is one thing, drying clothes when weather doesn't allow you to do so outside (most of the time) is another... There was also the incident last winter when we had a particularly damp winter and I was away for two weeks, which meant no heating during that period. When I came back, Skippy (my second fiddle, so named as she was found at the Inverness recycling centre) had come apart at the seams and her finger board had come unstuck... Luckly one of my violin repairer friends came to the rescue and brought her back to life :)
• I have to stand on something a good 3ft off the ground before I can touch the ceiling. Basically the ceilings are all of normal height...
• My oven is of a normal size i.e. I can finally use that pizza tray my mum gave me two and a half years ago... The other oven, although very good I have to say, was small...
• Nobody else's stuff but mine in this house! :) A two bedroom house with 6 beds and 7 mattress is just wrong... And why would I want the book shelves to be full of someone else's books?... And that's not the half of it! Over furnished and full of someone else's junk!
• I will miss the tree, but at least I won't be taking half of them in with me every time I walk into the house. As a rule I hoovered once a week, over wise I'd be hoovering 4 times a day and life is way too short for that sort of behaviour...
• The house doesn't smell funny... This was mostly because of the damp...

All in all there are lots of improvements, but I will miss Duisdale Beag and all it's charms...

Day 2

The decorating begins! :)

I had two helpers on day two, one by the name of Father and the other by the name of Mother.

Mother was on oven cleaning and curtain making duty for the weekend. However, the previous owner clearly didn't believe in keeping the oven clean as it was pretty manky... So rank in fact that Mother didn't get anywhere near the curtains that day... But it's nice and clean now :)

Scrubbing away

Sparkles! :)

Myself and father were on decorating duty. First thing's first, get that nasty dado rail removed!

Note the lovely wall paper underneath the paint...

We also had to remove the door from the cupboard, as this was to be my new book shelf, mask off the lovely fireplace and take down the curtains and curtain pole.

West Highland Free Press vs The Inverness Courier

We spent an awful long time prepping the walls! mainly because we were dealing with painted over wallpaper which had in places come undone at the seams... We tried wall paper paste and boarder adhesive, non of which worked of course... I eventually decided that these areas had to be cut out with a stanley knife and filled in with polly filler. This worked a treat! :) So at the end of day 2 we eventually managed to get one coat of paint on...

The Bodach finishing off the bits I couldn't reach...

The Big Day!

So the night before the big day there I was loading the car with the bare essentials for the big move. Bearing in mind it was about 8pm at the tail end of February in Scotland. So, yes, I was doing this in the dark...

The rest of the evening was spent trying to conjure up more vessels to put things into as I had run out of boxes. The best of which had to be my largest stainless steel mixing bowl, which I used to transport 6 large pasta bowls and 4 soup bowls. The laundry basket became a giant shoe box and the largest of my ikea drawer organisers were used for little bits and pieces.

Of course I was far too excited to go to bed at a normal hour, so 2am it was...

The big day arrived and I got the phone call at 9:30 to say the sale was complete and I could collect my keys anytime I pleased! :) They also informed me that their offices closed at 5pm. As if I was going to wait that long!...

An hour later I had my keys! :) First things first, walk round the house with a big irremovable grin on my face! :) Next, measure up various spaces for shelving and phone the bodach to tell him what size the bits of wood need to be...

I then had to unpack the car...

The parents arrived late afternoon with a car full of pre cut shelves, my temporary bed, the dinning table minus the chairs and a few other bits and pieces. This included an unexpected guest, Pink Panther, who has spent the last 20 plus years in Inverness. Actually, he might not be that old. I can't remember when he arrived on the scene...

Note the plaque with Taigh Eilidh on it! :) This was a lovely present from my dear old friend Heather made by a guy from her local township of Farr near Inverness. She gave it to me for my birthday at the end of January, before I even had a mortgage let alone a house! So she was clearly very optimistic!... I should point out at this stage, when I say old, I mean in length of time I've known her rather than physical age. She is after all a year younger than me and I've a fair bit to go before I can be classed as a Cailleach (old woman)...

Anyway, it was soon evening and time to head back to the other house to meet a couple of friends and loads some cars. By the time we'd finished we had 4 cars packed full and it was dark... As they had not yet been to the new house, there was a convoy... Unpacking at the other end was a lot quicker, in fact less than half an hour I think...

Once unpacked (the cars that is...) it was time to order Indian! :) Six of us sitting round the table, on various items mostly not meant to be sat on, in the living room surrounded by boxes. A deoch (drink) was in hand as well of course...

All in all a great day! :)