Bother

Rushing at things I guess.... I carry a note book about these days and before I set off for town I spend part of the prior evening going through the notes I have made and making sure I have listed all the tasks that need to be done while in town (laundry, fresh water tanks filled, empty the camp toilet in the approved facility, ...etc) and all the items I need to invest in.  Investments usually amount to expenditure on food at a supermarket and expenditure at the builders' merchants.

This week I splashed out and bought (even though not on my list) a new pair of work boots. I can wear them for tidy-ish and promote them to work when the current work boots retire.

It says a lot about the fashion circles I move in these days when clean steel-toe-capped work boots are my social outings attire.

Also on the list was copper coloured spouting/guttering - same thing different names depending on your culture. It's plastic really but looks realistic enough. The other options were black, black, black, or white. I didn't know there were so many shades of black.  Insulation was on the list along with timber oil for the weather boards, putty for the windows, a scrubbing brush... and various small items.

Recently I have wondered whether I did the right thing. I swapped theatre outings in London, cycling in the South Downs, and lovely friendships for living in a caravan in an isolated (albeit beautiful) place grubbing gorse and building projects.  The friendships are developing here too - people are what makes any place; more than theatre and more nice restaurants and cafes than one could ever hope to sample from.

While at the builders merchants I ventured into their gardens and landscaping department to dream about planting feijoas

With 10 varieties to choose from I decided research was necessary before purchase and rushing through the paint department in my retreat (en route to the trade area for insulation) I grabbed a 5 lite tin of oil for the outside of the cabin.

Rain halted play the rest of that day. The next day I sanded filler and put primer on the wooden floor and started the insulation on Friday.

That got finished early on Saturday and I cracked open the tin of oil and set to on the outside.

The oil did look a bit dense but I'd been using boiled linseed oil on something a few weeks ago; it's dark and dries to a sort of wet wood look finish so I ignored the frightening effect it was having on my honey coloured red cedar weatherboards and ploughed on. Soon it became obvious this didn't dry down to a lighter effect and I inspected the tin more closely. Bother and damn - I had picked up a tin with stain in it rather than the natural oil I had been given to understand was this product.

I felt physically sick. Really sick. I've ruined our beautiful red cedar.

The front looks warm, the stain looks really artificial - it's that artificial look I dislike. I love wood and like it to look REAL.

It looks like a cheap fence and I went to bed without a meal. I couldn't eat and didn't sleep well either. Act in haste repent at leisure. Too much rushing at stuff - not enough "measure twice cut once" (actually I do just that on the build side but didn't double check that oil before I started slapping it around).

Two people complimented the colour today. I don't like it any more now than I did yesterday but I will wait at least a week before considering chemically stripping it (big job). Maybe it will grow on me, or the idea of the work involved in stripping it will teach me to live with the mistake.

One couple who live in a wooden house came by to compliment the colour. Their house has a VERY dark stain (previous owner) which they hate and are slowly stripping away. He assured me the weather here would deal with this colour very quickly and a few months from now I will be wondering what all the fuss was about. He also said this sunny side of the building will need twice as many coats as the opposite side. Well any future coats it gets will be au naturale, sans couleur, plain, unstained,  and hopefully this mess really will fade in time.

It looks slightly better, or less frightful, in monochrome

Today, a bit more build work up high under the porch roof, some sealant above the windows to stand-in until I modify and install the window flashing (more and very heavy rain is forecast for Wednesday) - undercoat over the primer on the floor, and some sanding of windowsills. I need to plane a smidge off the bottom of most of the windows as they swelled in the last rain and don't close properly (hence the plastic cover on one that leaked).

Throughout Scully has supervised, even on days when her family is at home.  She has worked out that I'll take her for a walk in the early morning before the sun comes above the hill and warms our bay, so comes over to walk and lie on the porch until someone whistles her back home.

Bro rang this evening. He harvested about 20kg /50lb of feijoas and was drying some and stewing others up for the freezer - for me - did I want sugar in them?

Wow thanks 🥰 - and "no thanks" to the sugar.