Festive DIY.

This is the one we have been putting off. About 10 years ago the old oil boiler chuffed a cloud of soot up the cellar stairs which rolled on a ball of warmth to the top of the house and settled in the lightwell. We gave it a clean 5 years ago and put the slight dinge it left behind down to authentic and atmospheric Edwardian patina. The problem was that from the back door the corridors connect the laundry room to the kitchen to the front hall, then go up a flight of stairs and from the housekeepers room at the end to the door to the front landing and gallery, and then up again to the attic door through a huge square lightwell that is 2 stories high. There is probably the same surface area in those non-rooms as there is in a 2 bedroom house. Plus lots of pictures (all with little moustache swags of cobwebs behind them), mirrors, and all the little holes from previous pictures and mirrors.

So me and mum took it on (partly for want of something to do indoors in what is always a quiet stretch mid December) and after a marathon 2 days the difference it has made is extraordinary, the backstairs is now so clean and smart I don't want to put any of the pictures back up.

Christmas and New Year.

Due to a change of plans on our part we now have both Christmas and New Year available at Inshriach House, advertised at the reduced price of £3500 per week but seeing as it it getting late in the day you could find us open to a sensible offer. Seeing as The Times had us as one of the 20 best places for Hogmanay last week you could be getting yourself a bargain.

Especially as the ski area has opened today and the view from the kitchen window this morning looks a lot like this.

George Clarke's Amazing Spaces.

And in late breaking news I'm told that the episode of George Clarke's Amazing Spaces that features the Beermoth is going to be showing on the 20th November at 8pm on channel 4. Or catch it in your own time on 4OD.

Next years buildings.

There are moves afoot to choose next year's building project. Our friend Hannah is drawing up plans to convert the steading, build a barn / studio, convert the squash court and to build a new / reconstituted Victorian bothy in the farm. One of them will emerge as the favourite, the precise combination of disposable funds, long term benefit, helpful friends and available materials being the deciders.

Anyone who fancies coming round here on a rainy afternoon and helping me pull nails out of this acreage of oak parquet would be very welcome. It came out of Cafe Mambos (under new management and being refitted) and it looks like there might be just enough to do the ground floor of a squash court....

And if anyone is in the market for an MGBGT we seem to have a surfeit.

The other bothy project.

There has been a years break on sorting out the other buildings at Inshriach. This one, known as the bothy has at various times been the estate laundry, the workshops, ski sheds and assorted gun and chimney brush cupboard, then it became a summer house, occasional music studio and a house again, by which point, externally at least, it was in a bit of a state. The back half of the building was painted with modern vinyl paint and on the front the limewash was worn thin in the places you wanted it thick and caked up in the mouldings and the details. Harry and I did a good go at taking the paint off the back half this time last year, at the same time removing all the smashed up gutters from this and the two adjoining sheds. The gutters got painted and now the rentals are quiet for the winter it's time to get back on it and sand and scrape the rest of the building. I dont recommend sanding whole buildings, least of all ones with fiddly battens all over them, but after 4 days solid it's finally making progress. The picture above shows the back half mid sand and the picture below is the front after the first coat of lime paint (a few more of those to come), and with some of the gutters finally back up.

Mr and Mrs Calmac.

Huge Congratulations to Calum and Rhiannon on their wedding last weekend. Not everybody can lay their hands on The Horndog Brass band, most (sorry - all) of the Banana Sessions, a fine wee ceilidh and such a lovely bunch of folks.

This great picture is by Ingrid Mur who also took a lot of brilliant photos at the various Insider festivals.

The wedding yurt.

Its been all hands on deck today to put up the 42ft yurt we are using for Calum and Rhiannon's wedding. Its the 4th time we have used it, it's always absolutely spectacular (especially now with the autumn colours around) and if you want to use it get in touch with Paul at Red Kite yurts (for he is a lovely chap).