It was difficult to get motivated in January. After a chilly bright start to the year, short days were made to feel even shorter by seemingly endless cloud and rain. It didn’t help that the jobs that needed doing were not ones I was looking forward to tackling.
2025 definitely didn’t turn out as planned for a number of reasons, good and bad, but our freedom fund had a great year with no active tinkering whatsoever. One of my greatest fears when finally taking the plunge and quitting the 9-5 was large falls in the market in the first few years that we …
Despite having moved into our cottage in SW Scotland in 2023, we hadn’t yet spent a Christmas here. Much to the disappointment of certain family members, we decided to have a quiet one at home this year. When an old school friend asked if she could come and stay for a few days while her …
A lot of rain means no shortage of rainbows, and apart from a brief cold spell, there was a lot of rain in November! The update is very late this month, despite starting it on time. We seem to be juggling lots of minor things and I’d forgotten how much time walking a dog takes …
October started with a long anticipated trip and proceeded in stop start fashion when it came to completing the energy efficiency work. I am finally starting to catch my breath and feel a little more in control of what is going on around me. At the time of writing we are still sleeping in the …
The 1st September brought 6 vans full of 9 contractors to start work on our energy efficiency improvements. By day 2 we were up to 8 vans, and I have no idea how many people. The cacophony of SDS drills, impact drivers and slamming van doors was a bit overwhelming. You couldn’t go anywhere without …
A very tardy update this month, as September has turned out to be very eventful (in a good way), but more about that next month – or in a couple of weeks. August started in fairly unremarkable fashion. I carried on with the cement stripping and re-pointing the gable end of the house, we spent …
July was the first whole month we have spent at home in a long time, and it showed in the amount we managed to get done on the house. The bees returned from their holiday to the field beans, and it has been lovely watching them on their favourite blooms in the garden when I’ve …
June started in very positive fashion, with the stonemason we had been waiting on for months finally being available to repair the cracked linted in the newly revealed large fireplace. We finally got the in line extractor installed in the ceiling above the shower room and changed the aged halogen lights for LED spots and …
May was improbably warm and dry in SW Scotland. The weather was glorious, but drought is perilous for those (like us) with private water supplies. A daily hike down to the well became the norm once the burn (stream) past our house stopped flowing. Just the circumstances you want for when your in-laws are about …
Finding Enough 