Behind The Scenes: Episode 8 - Adapting
As winter has taken a hold of the glen we have been forced to slow down with our job list as travel has been more restricted due to the bouts of snow and ice. In fact for the last two months we have been in a constant cycle of rain, wind, snow and ice which has made life that little bit more challenging, especially in regard to getting building materials!
We had a particularly awful couple of days of rain that meant the back of the house flooding (a big shock when you live half way up a hill). It turned out that ditching above the house has been severely neglected over the years so in the torrential downpour of the storm all of the hill run off was trying to run down the hill through our house! James spent a couple of hours digging a temporary ditch to divert the water and we now have another job for the spring! You can watch that video here.
However, we have still managed to progress with the renovation and the house is really starting to take shape. The biggest achievement to date was the day we were finally able to light the rayburn in the kitchen. Taking on the job of plumbing the whole house ourselves was one of the craziest decisions we made. But we wanted to fit a now generally obsolete system for modern houses. Many plumbers wouldn't even know what we needed so we decided to do it ourselves.
The gamble paid off, as the stove, now running, heats our hot water and runs our central heating as well as offering us somewhere to cook from. No longer do we need an electric kettle or toaster either. As it relies on solid fuel we are also able to run it during a power cut. We can run a generator to power our water pump, which supplies the house with water from a nearby spring and then the rayburn will do the rest. Power cuts are not uncommon here, so it is one large step towards self-sufficiency.
There will be many more surprises to come, I am sure. However we are glad to be weathering the storm to the best of our abilities!
- Amy and James
