Author Archives: nickjtj

We first saw the plot in September 2018 and today went to the local standing stones to see the sun rise – marking the end of our first year in Argyll. A skylark sang, the mist receded. We arrived early evening on Thursday 19 March 2020, a few days ahead of schedule as a nationalContinue reading “Where did it go?”

We took a walk down the track at Achaglachgach, a new walk for us, heading for the lochside rather than the fabled rhododendron walk (that’s another month and another story, but for me rhododendrons are as right as salmon farming – both a destructive environmental menace). From a shallow puddle on the track protruded aContinue reading “Life or Death in a Puddle or Naked into the Night”

Hoorah! A week earlier than planned the heating engineer is here fitting the air source heat pump and heating system. Yesterday all I knew I had to do in preparation was to cover the last stud wall with OSB and provide a good light, an hour or two’s work. I did that first thing thenContinue reading “A Bath and a Room Full of Pipes”

My focus on fitting the workshop’s window sills and reveals has kept me outdoors most of the week. The air cold but the sun glorious, until Wednesday when the grey stayed and the temperature stuck at five or six degrees. I wore thin gloves all day, removing them for delicate work then putting them backContinue reading “To The Very Special Bat Cave(s)…”

Tuesday’s shopping & hospital trip to Oban was postponed, thanks to NHS staff sickness and so on. I’m getting on with the house… The metal spiral ducting is nice and straightforward to work with. It all slots together, straight lengths (can be cut with jigsaw or angle grinder), 45 and 90 degree elbows and maleContinue reading “Plant in the Plant Room”

It feels as though it’s been a rather piddling week, an assortment of tasks swirling round in an eddy, nothing gaining any real momentum, but the hearing the first thrush singing and feeling the milder weather has kept spirits up. Upstairs a black soil pipe now connects to an unfixed toilet bowl, runs diagonally acrossContinue reading “A Thrush Sings”

Well that’s almost it for another week. There’s not a whole lot more to see but I feel I’m clearer about what’s going where. Further materials have been ordered and I’ve decided how I’m routing the mechanical ventilation and heat recovery ducts. Andrew is coming in a week to help hang the unit (the bracketContinue reading “Going, going, gone!”

The weekend has again provided an effective antidote to the week’s demands. In the raw dry cold we climbed back up to Dun Skeig and reclined on a thick bin-liner, looking out to the islands from the vitrified walls. The loch, 143 metres below, and immediate foreground appeared almost monochromatic with a rapid transition toContinue reading “No ducts, pipes or measurements.”

I feel a lack of momentum, as though things have almost ground to a halt and I can’t quite get them going again. It’s partly the time of year and the weather and partly that I’m grappling with several related things at once, so progress is less apparent. Looking at where we were a yearContinue reading “The week and the leak.”

I’m wrestling with stiff plastic water pipe, stiffer than the underfloor heating pipe; exacerbated by cold it’s reluctant to behave. I thought I bought the more compliant pipe (HEP2o) recommended by Pete (self build, Stroud) but clearly I didn’t. It came in a coil and is determined to stay that way, nostalgic pipe that needsContinue reading “First the snow, then the snowdrops”