Winter is here...

Well, where to start? Probably firstly with an apology for the radio silence over the past few weeks… I don’t have an excuse - the truth is we just haven’t felt like writing anything. The news has not been good and, for the first time since we move here in March, the stress and the winter has taken a bit of a toll on us. That isn’t to say we are completely downhearted, in fact we are on good form and really enjoying the island life but the house build has proved challenging to say the least.

When the install team first arrived at the end of September to erect the house, we thought it might take a couple of weeks and we’d be wind/watertight by mid October. We would then put the steel roof sheets on and install the Velux windows (oddly a task not within the scope of the kit supplier) and hey presto - we could then take a mainland break (maybe go to France) and avoid spending the whole winter in the caravan. But… here we are, almost Christmas and loads still to do. We have half a roof but no windows or doors. Half a roof is arguably worse than no roof at all - especially if there is a big Northerly gale that could rip into the open side. Fingers crossed (well, everything crossed) that the rest of the roof goes up before that happens...

Our biggest challenge has been the wind but there are many other gremlins. High winds prevent us from lifting the huge roof panels safely and we have had gale after gale rolling in since September. There has only been a handful of calm days and they have come largely at weekends or times when the installers are not available. They are due back on the 10th of January so fingers crossed we can get the job finished soon after that.

The installers did come back a fortnight ago but only for 3 days. Gary came back and Chris and Elliott replaced Adan and Ruairidh. They arrived on the Monday ferry and left on the Thursday one. There is no Friday ferry in the winter and if they stayed until Saturday, they would loose a chunk of their weekend. It is obviously not very efficient having them here for such a short time but we do understand. Christmas is a crazy busy time for everyone and coming to Coll to work is a big ask in normal times. That said, it is still very frustrating for us - being left with half a house until the 10th of January when the weather may also not be suitable to progress. Our frustration is compounded by the fact that last week the weather was really good!

The other thing that compounded progress when they last came was that the telehandler, on it’s way up to site on the morning of their arrival, decided to break down! It is still stuck half way up the road between the plot and the village and still not fixed. Thankfully we managed to borrow Brian’s machine (thanks Brian!) and collected that from the far side of the island but this was not a full solution for roof panel lifting as it has a much shorter reach than the big one. The guys however devised a clever method of lifting the panels with Brian’s machine and did complete one side of the roof.

They also put new waterproof membrane on the part of the roof they had managed to erect but unfortunately it only lasted one Coll night. In the morning it was in tatters. We then had to brave the elements (and the vertigo) to go onto the roof to screw more temporary battens on. We managed to save about 2/3rds of the paper before it tore itself to pieces.

And after our repairs...

Anyway enough roof chat… I sense a general “glazing over” … what else have we been up to? Well we have installed the sewage treatment system although we haven’t connected it to the house drains yet. We will wait for the telehandler to finish driving over the ground before we do that so we don’t risk damaging the pipes.

After a bit more research (!) we have now decided to concrete the tanks in place so they cannot “pop” out of the ground. This is an interesting phenomenon and one I never want to have to deal with! When the water table is very high in the soil, underground tanks that are not secured can basically “float” up and out!! This is an example of what can go wrong…

This is our system with wooden shuttering ready for the concrete. We will use the earth excavated from the fire pond to build up the ground to the level of the top of the tanks.

The rest of the time has been spent repairing and improving the grounds around the site and moving panels to better locations for the installers and making sure everything is battened down and covered as much as possible.

We have also put all the windows into the garage. We originally thought they would be outside for just a few days but time has been rolling on. We have spent ages covering them (and recovering them after each gale) and strapping them down. Eventually we decided that it would be safer to bite the bullet and try to move them inside. This was an interesting job as some of them weigh 300kgs so creative assistance from Digby was needed!

They are now safely in here…

There are other gremlins with the build but I’ve decided not to report on them for now as the installers have committed to resolution so we are looking at it as "WIP" rather than problems.

Storm "Arwen", which people here would describe as relatively normal hebridean weather, did concern us. It wasnt really the wind speed (70mph) but more the direction, as it was coming right off the sea onto the side of the caravan. All caravans on Coll, unless they are in exceptionally sheltered spots, do succumb to wind eventually and we decided we would rather not be inside one if that time had come. So, we gratefully accepted the offer from our neighbours to have a dinner and sleep over with them. The caravan was fine in the morning except some of Julia's cosmetics which had been shaken off the shelf. The only Arwen casualty was some scattered wood piles, an internal plywood section pulled away from it's joists in the house and the caravan solar panel was disconnected - an easy fix!

There were some casualties on the wildlife front though. We found several dead seal pups on the beach and an unusual fish - a North Atlantic Trigger fish...

The season for seal pupping does seem to coincide with the storm season and I assume they are injured trying to get out of the huge seas. Daisy, our neighbour's dog is weighing up her next move... will the telling off be worth it?! ...

In November, we had a lovely surprise with a visit from daughter Tillie for a few days. She decided to take a break between her jobs and made the long journey from London to Coll. As it was pointed out to us before by her big sister, she could have got to Sidney faster than Coll. She flew to Glasgow, trained to Oban, stayed the night in Oban and took the early morning ferry over. The weather was kind to her and we had a few lovely beech walks, a meal in the hotel and a boozy night at Cliad. She also managed to have a go in Digby…

We have now left the island for Christmas and are enjoying normal domestic comforts which we used to take for granted. After living in a caravan with no services for 10 months, it is great to appreciate simple things. I’m planning my first bath since February tonight... Ahh! (For the avoidance of doubt we have been showering regularly though!!)

We wish you all a very happy Christmas and hope to see as many of you as possible in 2022.

All the best,

K&Jxx