Happy Christmas!

Santa bought us a fantastic surprise present - our good old friend Martin who turned up early on Xmas morning having driven all the way from Northampton overnight! That is what you call good friendship! Here are a few photos of the house in its current state and Xmas day (and a picture of Holly all glammed up for The Three Chimneys staff Xmas party) ....

It's been a long time .....

Sorry for the long delay since our last post, it's been a very busy couple of months, well that's our excuse anyway! It's been a frustrating couple of months where we've encountered delays out of our control, but Simon is racing along again now. The first fix electrics are all done as is the plaster boarding. He's well on the way with the plastering now, with almost all of downstairs finished. Mark has been staying with us and he's been a great help to Simon doing all of the labouring etc. (and he's had to put up with a lot of p*** taking from Simon!). We've also had the groundworker back and have managed to get all of the drains pulled in and the landscaping has been done. It's all looking really good.

Holly has been busy socialising and I've been busy being a taxi service to her in between working! Myself and Holly went away for a week to stay near Edinburgh and left the boys to it. We had a lovely time and stayed in a gorgeous cottage with a bath and central heating - pure bliss! Unfortunately we came home to severe gales so we knew we were back in the caravan!

Anyway, enjoy the updated photos.

Family Visit

Simon's Mum and Sister, Angela, came to visit us in July for a long weekend and we had a lovely time. The weather was gorgeous and it was great to just spend some time together relaxing. We celebrated Simon's 40th with them and went out for a nice meal. Angela took some fantastic photos, a few of my favourites are shown above.

It's Finished (on the outside anyway!)

The outside is finally finished (been busy painting hence the long delay in updating the blog!). It took about 140 litres of paint which was fun. The end result was worth it though, and it looks great now.

The inside is coming on well also. The floors are all down and the stud petitions are stood up, so you can now see the shape of all the rooms. The waste pipes are also fitted for the bathrooms / kitchen, now it's on to the 1st fix electrics and plumbing.

Weather has been fantastic here for the majority of the time spent working on the outside, so we've been really lucky. Lots of midges though!

The Roof is Finished!!

Much to Simon's joy the roof is finally finished! All the slates are on and the chimneys have been rough casted and painted. The small roof on the utility room hasn't been done yet as the block work needs to be completed on the gable end before this can be done. It's been really hard work for Simon doing all of the labouring himself and laying the slates (about 5000 in total!) but he's happy with the end result.
He's now onto the block work and after just a couple of days he's already laid quite a lot as you can see from the picture. I've been trying to help by stacking his blocks out for him-finally something that I can help with although they are very heavy after a while!

Sunset

We've had a very hot week on Skye and tonight was another beautiful evening with the Loch looking like glass. This picture was taken from the caravan as the sun was setting on Dunvegan Castle on the opposite side of the Loch. It's staying light here until about 10.30 pm now which is great!

Holly & Eden

Holly holding her favourite chuck Eden.

Picnic on the Beach

We've had some lovely warm weather the past 2-3 weeks and last weekend we spent the day at Orbost beach and had a picnic on the rocks. It was very beautiful and the snow topped Cuillin mountains are shown in background of the photo.

Spring Lambs

There are lots of newly born lambs in the fields all around us now (as well as wandering dangerously on the roads!). This lamb is pictured sheltering under our trees and seems to have made its home on our land with its mother, as it's always around somewhere! Very cute.

Back to Work........

At the beginning of March I started working part-time at the plush restaurant 'The Three Chimneys', which is situated just down the lane from us. I'm working in the office/reception of 'The House Over-By', which is where the guests can stay over in 6 luxury suites. I'm really enjoying getting out to work a few days a week and they're a nice family to work for. Take a look at their website, there's a link at the bottom of the blog......

Our Girls Have Arrived!

Our 6 lovely hens arrived at their new home last weekend - Paxo, Clucky, Eden, Timmy, Beartrice & Mabel! They've settled really well and are already quite friendly and inquisitive. Eden seems to rule the roost-one of Holly's hens, now there's a surprise (she's pictured strutting her stuff)! We're keeping them in their run for a couple of weeks, but then we'll let them roam free during the daytime. Another couple of weeks and they should be laying us 6 fresh eggs a day!

House so far........

The dormers are all finished now and the lead work is complete. All ready for the slate to go on!

And then came the sun!

Well, the weather this week has been a bit different to the snow we had a couple of weeks ago! No rain or wind all week, just wall to wall sunshine. It's been like Spring, and as you can imagine, Simon has been very pleased as he's been able to get on with the build really well all week. The roof is ready for slating now, which he will begin next week once we've had our slate delivered.

First Snow!

We had our first snow on Skye last weekend. It all looked very beautiful, but it had all melted by Saturday evening, when the wind and rain returned!

The Timber Frame Kit is up....

The kit is now up! Taken the week before Xmas. To view a slideshow of the build progress to date click on the link at the top of the page.

Coral Beach

The coral beach on Loch Dunvegan.

Our luxurious new home!

New Neighbours....

One of our new neighbours chilling out down on Dunvegan loch!

Dunvegan Castle Grounds

Simon doing his 'David Bailey' taking a photo of a mushroom in the grounds of Dunvegan Castle! As you can see, the sun does sometimes shine on Skye.

Sunset

Sunset from our temporary home in Glendale back in August.

Gone Fishing

Holly catching more than her Dad fishing at Neist Point!