Week 21 - Hughie and the Blocks

What a week. Suddenly it all seems so much more real!

It was lovely to have Gill and Chris here for a few days (my sister-in-law & husband) but they left us in a bit of a hectic state on Monday! Tom had just arrived with the telehandler (big tractor-like machine) with an attached pan mixer to make the concrete just as they were setting off! Keith was very preoccupied with the goings on so I headed down to the pier to say goodbye. They had brought bikes (their “luggage mules” - as Keith said in the blog last week) and obviously had to cycle them back to the ferry, so I used the car to transport their remaining luggage - a much lighter load after having left us with all their homegrown goodies! I also managed to quickly put a wash on at An Cridhe enroute to the pier - Yes.....I still have various dull domestic chores to do.

Meanwhile it was all go on the building site, and my concrete tamping skills had been much missed - what a whirlwind. By the end of the day the concrete pouring for the external walls was almost done. So much easier and quicker than the small mixer we had used for the shed foundations - we live and learn!

Whilst Gill and Chris were here we took time off to walk and explore the island with them. Keith covered the highlights last week, so I wont repeat, but here are a couple of photographic additions from me...

Lovely sea rocket plants seem to have sprouted up on various beaches - both pink and white flower varieties. They are so beautiful.

And also lots more grass balls were to be found on Crossapol beach, of all shapes and sizes. When the Edinburgh girls were on Coll a month or so ago, Sarah had found them too and had shown me them. I cant remember their name, but maybe she can remind me??

On Tuesday, Ben arrived with Tom at 8am - which is a bit earlier than we normally start work! Tom started building the wall and Ben and Keith dug out the internal foundations. (The internal foundations are a small and rather intricate set of footings inside the footprint of the house. Part of the reason for this is to support the weight of the thermal store which we intend to install. I'm sure Keith will be covering that in some detail in due course...

Here are the "internal footings" being progressed...

And this is them finished and ready for concreting...note the sand bags around the outside to stop the concrete from escaping...

It is nice to see the footprint of the house finally rising up out of the ground. To me the house plot still looks quite flat and the gradient levels are a mystery. Hughie however tells us that there is a significant slope and Tom's "machine" confirmed this! Hughie and the blocks - sounds more like a pop band name!

While Ben and Keith dug out the central footings, I worked on the remaining piece of external wall. We had left this as a bridge so we could get Digby (the digger) into the plot but now it was time to excavate. As luck would have it (not!) there was a great chasm between bedrock so I had to dig it out manually and remove all the soft earth from between the rocks. I dug and dug - another massively deep hole, but eventually reached the bottom! Yay! Then once the rock was cleaned, I refilled the hole with Type 1 and whacked it by hand with the sledge hammer. I was knackered!

Here is Keith in the hole I dug...

Over the weekend Keith and I worked on the forms and rebar and finally the remaining footings are ready for the concrete to be poured. We expect to finish all concreting by Wednedsay... Yay again!!

As you know I don’t ever write much on the technical side, and this week will be no different. So a quick summary of where we have got to - the block work is well under way. About 150 of the 900 blocks have been laid. Today we had Patrick, Sam, Tom and Cammy working on site.....OMG have I got enough food, plates, cutlery for lunch!! I think so! I have also baked 2 loaves of sourdough (actually one is just in the oven) and have various toppings for it! I am sure it will be enough.

In the Blog fashion corner, this cows beautiful hairdo has spurred me on to trying to book a haircut when we are on the mainland. I think it is time for me to have a proper style again, Keith's hairdressing skills aren't quite up to that!

However, my real excitement this week, and oh how times have changed....who’d have thought that I would be getting excited by DIY, is that my shed floor sealant and paint arrived. I cant wait to get going on that! True to my Dutch heritage our shed floor is going to be orange...

Weather wise, its been generally great but with a few much needed showers. Much as windless days are great for measuring string lines etc, they are horrendous for midgies and horseflies (clegs). But we can deal with these small issues.

What else have you been up to I hear you say???? Well Gill and Chris left us a jar of homegrown blackcurrants, so I made 2 pots of jam and an apple and black currant “healthy” crumble , for when our neighbour Mike came for supper. I also pulled up one of my potato plants whose leaves were looking a bit snail eaten, and got enough potatoes for a few suppers, even though some of them were pretty small!! Ill leave the rest of the crop a few more weeks before collecting!

Keith and I went to watch/participate in the island touch rugby tournament on Saturday. It is an annual event held on a beach about a mile away and there were about 150 islanders and vistors there. What a blast! Lots of islanders and visitors dotted around on picnic rugs drinking beers and Prosecco. A lovely social way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Only sorry that I don’t have any photos - we left our phones at home. But I do have some other arty farty pictures ...

So here’s to another good week, and hopefully at the end of it we will be ready for the arrival of the house kit! Still waiting for HebHomes to confirm the date, as the ‘pingdemic” seems to have affected the house suppliers too... When will all this Covid end?!

Happy week everyone xxxx