life is what happens while you're making other plans

This last two months we have had endless small setbacks and a few larger ones. All this means we are at least six weeks adrift of our intended timescales. It is very difficult to keep motivated. As I started a new job a month ago and spent over 4 days last week on my two other part time jobs it has been even harder to stay focussed and stay on track. Self building does not run to conventional build timetables when you have to juggle various paid jobs, family and friends, daily life and the weather as well as suppliers, site problems and arthritis. So you get to the point where you just try to integrate the whole build process into your life and do not view it as a separate entity - as you can more easily compartmentalise paid work. So we will not get moved in till next summer - but maybe we will enjoy the whole process of building more rather than it becoming a chore. It is a marathon not a sprint and we are not on any penalty clause if we don't get it done by Friday (nor a sanity clause 'cos there isn't one!) Thankfully, with the help of GTL, who run the quarry on Gigha, we now have over 30 tonnes of concreting stone onsite and more to come this week. The 17 tonner did get in but made a real mess of the driveway, though nothing that can't be sorted - just extra work again. The digger has had new seals put in the dipper ram so is no longer losing oil. The big shed has an underlying waterproof membrane on, glass ready to go in to finish the windows, cladding to finish the doors and we do have site water. The Cabstar is going well, and the recent rain has meant that our wee shed roof is very green. Tim from SIPIT thinks we can get the kit up before November so all we have to do is crack on with the founds and try to get the back broken on this job by the end of September. The levels will be hard as we will have to step the footings but we do have the main levels done now too. Jayne is very good at getting levels to within 2mm or so. Yes, we will be weather dependent. Today it has really rained very hard but the forecast is better for a few days. The ground needed it anyway. We'll do some extra excavations and get the shuttering done during the week and concrete laid by the end of the week. The glass is half full.

magic rabbits

At Ardailly there are wild black rabbits. They are magic. Which is why we keep a good look out for them. There are just so many stories about the magic rabbits of Ardailly that you'll have to wait another time to hear them.

roundabout

Here is the excavation of both roundhouses taken from the wee hill above the plot. We have since dug out the corridor linking the two round houses and done all the levelling. The finished floor level is almost exactly where the concrete pad is for the 9m roundhouse. The distance taken off the architect's substructure plans between these centres is 15501mm. We have measured our centre points at 15500mm so that's not too bad.

road to nowhere

The Cabstar has been absent for over a week now getting a few repairs done and its shiny new MOT. Expensive and yet more timewasting. Just picked it up from Dumbarton - did you know David Byrne was born in Dumbarton and spent his early years there? Well, its a good two hours from here but the nearest Nissan garage.

On the way back we stopped overnight with Jayne's sister and extended family who had rented a holiday cottage near Ardrishaig and then headed home. There is an excellent fish place (no pun intended) in Tarbert where perchance we met up with Joe and Hannah. After making our purchase of fresh scallops and as it was Joe's birthday we ended up at KIlberry having a most excellent lunch before bombing back to Campbeltown - 50 odd miles just in time to stack up the truck with 30 x 50mm insulation boards and catch the last ferry home. The road to Kilberry is single track and one of the most beautiful in Scotland. We looked at a plot out there a few years ago. It is just about as far on with the build as we are at Ardailly. They found several metres of peat and have had a massive problem bogging down excavators which has delayed them enormously. So that was a narrow escape as our plot is altogether in a better position though still pretty tough logistically.

water water everywhere

Today our main's water supply was connected. Just like our major stone delivery we have had another delay due to crossed lines in Scottish Water. The main is 62mm and our 300m of feeder water main is 32mm. The header reservoir is about 30m above our plot on the west side of Creag Bhan. Yet for some strange reason it seems like we are getting less than a bar of water pressure. We had hoped for 2 bar to power the unvented hot water tanks and the showers. Might have to have a rethink.

rocks and hard places

As we have had no stone we have been busy on side tasks. Now we have finished redigging the footings for the 12m roundhouse. Our excavations had revealed a wide range of beach deposits from boulders up to 900mm across and pebbles about 50mm across, some sandy bits but all coarse beach deposits and easily dug- until we exposed the dreaded dyke. It is solid dolerite, very very hard, probably about 25 million years old and crosses our founds just where we don't want it. Managed to reduce it by half by bashing away with the 3ft bucket but the rest is a genuinely immovable object. Now that is the downside. The upside is that it is over 450mm from finished floor level and over 600mm from our original ground level. This means we can put a step in the footings and still comply with the Building Regs. though it will be a total pain to do.

stone free

We try to plan ahead. We put in an order for 100 tonnes of Gigha's finest 20mm to dust which we have been using for concreting in mid July for delivery about now. We are pretty much ready to start placing footings. Now the pan mixer is here we are stockpiling enough for 60 cubes of concrete for footings and floors. It should have been delivered by now but alas the quarry is bare - no stone left. Without going into the vast complexity of reasons why 800 tonnes of stone is no longer there it has left us in a real quandary. We wanted to source materials as closely as possible to keep the carbon footprint down as well as keep our business local and avoid paying the very very expensive transport costs from the mainland. Apart from the cost implications we will lose at least four weeks now - we have to get prices from various mainland suppliers as well as organise delivery. Don't know if we can get 17 tonners on to the site. The tractor we want to use with the pan mixer will be needed for silage just as the stone gets delivered so that'll be another week lost. Expect to be concreting footings

by the end of the month if we are lucky.

still raining still dreaming

Saturday afternoon and I pulled a muscle in my back which got worse overnight. I was lifting a tiny bit of wood and tweaked it when I turned. As a result of this Jayne was somewhat reluctant for me to go on the shed roof yesterday to place a layer of pondliner to waterproof it - not the single sheet for the turf roof but just to seal it off as a lot of water has been running through into the shed and we need to dry it out. It was sunny yesterday - the first completely dry day for a couple of weeks so the OSB panels were totally dry and just right to place the waterproof membrane.

On our way to the plot we stopped at Tracy's to pick up diesel for the JCB and after loading it I went into the house to see Jayne and Tracy sipping away at some pretty well chilled white wine. Three hours later we left definitely too shaky to climb on to roofs.

So we did it today instead and got heavily midged. Back still a little stiff so Jayne was right anyway. Connected up the water main to a stand pipe for concreting water - just need Scottish Water to pull their finger out and link us to the main.

We have encountered a lot of delays this last week and this is the most recent.

We have had 200% of average July rainfall this last month and it has seriously held us up as we want to get moving with the foundations. It is really bad for momentum to have so much stop go too.