Chapelhill Steading

Yesterday the school was closed because the water got cut off and the toilets wouldn't flush. It was a bit of a downer because me and my friend Tori were all hyped up for a bit of a ladies day out. It meant we had to change our plans a bit... so instead of shopping and lunching we went and played on the park at Shin Falls.

We also went on a bit of a walk and looked at the trees. I am hoping to get an exhibition at Eden Court Theatre in August with this guy I (vaguely) know who makes furniture out of lumps of tree, so I thought something like this might be quite fitting. So, our walk in the icy sleet started me thinking about that...

I am hoping I might be able to do something quite nice with these... and think I will be spending quite a bit more time looking closely at trees.
Hey! We have also had a visitation from Stuarts olds. Bob got really busy with the wood working... and we've pretty much finished the stud walls all over the house now. I met a man who put us onto a sparky last week... and he's due to come and do the first fix on Saturday. And our plumber has recovered from his (potentially fatal) blood poisoning and is due to come and plumb us in tomorrow. So things on the building front are looking pretty good. We hope to start plasterboarding next week.

Sorry if you have been looking and waiting for any new news. We have been rather tied up with a very hectic social life as of late. I think our friends up here may have been feeling a bit sorry for us with the cold snap we've been suffering... so we have been spending lots of time being looked after by our lovely new friends up here in their warm houses. It has been really nice!
Other than that, we have been suffering a bit with the icy conditions. The water has frozen up a couple of times this week, and the washing machine has totally refused to work in the sub zero temperatures. We did get out for a bit of a walk the other day though... and tried to take in how beautiful it was even though we were feeling very cold!!

We have also been quite busy building the house. Stuart has mastered the stud wall building - and now theres just a bit of nail gunning to do and we'll be ready for the plasterboard. So, thats very exciting!
Here's a pic of the stud around the opening for the roof light down to the bathroom.

... and this is from below. You can see that we have to cut some of the flooring out, and also a bit of beam so as to create a really lovely open space.

... and today, everything started to melt so the washing machine could be put back on. And my new tumble drier turned up which has made me feel extremely happy!